New Jersey

The Catholic bishops of New Jersey are making it clear to their flocks what the Church’s teaching is on marriage in hopes of enabling them to promote and support marriage and families.

In a letter that the bishops asked priests to read or distribute this past weekend, the ministers addressed the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage, explained why the Church cares about the state’s definition of marriage, and tackled common questions presented by those in support of gay marriage.

“As Catholics, we must not stand by in silence in the face of the many challenges that threaten marriage and, in turn, children and the public good. We must not shirk from our responsibility,” the bishops asserted. more >>

Like most pastors, the Rev. Arthur Suggs had prepared a Palm Sunday sermon for this past Sabbath day.

But the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Binghamton, N.Y., had to scrap the sermon after an angry gunman killed 13 people at a nearby immigrant aid center on Friday before killing himself.

Instead, Suggs used the pulpit Sunday to comfort a mourning community, to encourage his congregation to embrace those affected, and to decry a culture that he said has become desensitized to violence. more >>

For nearly a decade, born-again Christian Neil Clark Warren has been working to pair up men and women to help create lasting marriages.

After 35 years practicing as a clinical psychologist and counseling thousands of married couples, Dr. Warren had observed that, in many cases, marriages that endured were composed of compatible people, while marriages that deteriorated often did so because the differences between the individuals became harder to resolve over time.

With the help of a research professor at the University of Southern California, Warren set out to identify the characteristics between spouses that were consistently associated with the most successful relationships. more >>

An eighth grader at a New Jersey middle school was sent home Friday after he dressed up as Jesus Christ for Halloween.

Alex Woinski, 13, wore a white robe, red sash, sandals, fake beard, and crown of thorns on his head after receiving encouragement from his friends, who said he looked like Jesus with his shoulder-length hair.

When Alex arrived at West Brook Middle School in Paramus, however, officials told him he could only keep the costume on if he removed the beard and the crown of thorns. more >>

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Just about every segment of the medical community is piling on the pharmaceutical industry these days, accusing drugmakers of deceiving the public, manipulating doctors and putting profits before patients.

Recent articles and editorials in major medical journals blast the industry. Medical schools, teaching hospitals and physician groups are changing rules to limit the influence of pharmaceutical sales reps. And three top editors of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine last month publicly sided against the drug industry in a U.S. Supreme Court case over whether patients harmed by government-approved medicines may still sue in state courts.

As more voices have called for change, new guidelines for how drugmakers and doctors should interact are coming from both industries, and doctors say some abuses of the past have ended. But the industries' dealings remain fraught with potential conflict because the sectors depend on each other so much — medicine on drugmakers' research dollars and drugmakers on the credibility researchers give them. more >>

In the midst of election frenzy, a group of diverse Christian leaders gathered this week for an unprecedented conference that called for rethinking the role of faith in public life.

The Envision ‘08 conference gathered hundreds of evangelical, mainline Protestants, Pentecostals, and Christians of diverse racial backgrounds at Princeton University on June 8-10 to map out the future of Christian engagement in politics in the next century.

Prominent Christian leaders that spoke at the conference included Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, and popular author and innovative Christian thinker Brian McLaren, among others. more >>