The openly gay son of a conservative Republican Congressman has stated that he benefitted from undergoing the controversial practice of reparative therapy as a teenager.

Matt R. Salmon, son of Ariz. Rep. Matt Salmon, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that his taking of "ex-gay" conversation therapy helped him be more comfortable around other men.

"Looking back, I don't regret it. The goal was to become straight, and it turns out what I took away from it was an increased confidence," said Salmon, who entered therapy at age 18. more >>

If you ever wondered how much of an impact the Christian faith of Dr. Hannah Gay, the University of Mississippi Medical Center pediatrician whose treatment "functionally cured" a baby girl born with an HIV infection, has had on her work, you don't have to anymore. Her faith is "everything," she says.

The former Baptist missionary who spent years living with her husband in Ethiopia in the 1980s opened up about her faith to the Baptist Press in a recent interview and she explained that her Christian faith defines her life.

"My faith affects everything I do. It defines who I am," she said. "It is actually everything I do and that includes my medical career. And certainly it's the love of Christ that I'm passing on to these children [patients]. It's not anything from myself; it comes from my faith." more >>

Pope Francis has made comments on the Shroud of Turin, the much-discussed and analyzed burial cloth that some believe shows the face of Jesus Christ, saying that it "speaks to the heart," though he stopped short of declaring the piece an official relic.

"This image, impressed upon the cloth, speaks to our heart," the Roman Catholic Church leader said in an Italian TV Easter Saturday special.

"This disfigured face resembles all those faces of men and women marred by a life which does not respect their dignity, by war and violence which afflict the weakest … And yet, at the same time, the face in the shroud conveys a great peace; this tortured body expresses a sovereign majesty," he added. more >>

As the world hears about the latest evidence that the Shroud of Turin may have been the burial cloth of Jesus, some have expressed uncertainty about the latest claim.

Giulio Fanti, a professor from the University of Padua, and Saverio Gaeta, an Italian journalist, have recently published a book arguing that the shroud did indeed exist during the time frame of the life of Jesus.

Dan Porter, who oversees a news blog about the shroud, told The Christian Post that from what he knew the research was based on "new methods that have not been peer-reviewed yet for publication in a reputable and ethical scientific journal." more >>

As the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week in two cases involving gay marriage, some "friend of the court" briefs are asking the court to consider social science studies that supposedly confirm there is no difference in the well-being of children raised by gay couples and children raised by a mother and a father. Those studies, though, may be deeply flawed in their methodology and the conclusions drawn from their data.

"I think ... that there's substance to the point that sociological information is new. We have five years of information to weigh against 2,000 years of history or more," Justice Anthony Kennedy said during Tuesday's oral arguments for the case questioning the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which denied same-sex couples the right to marry.

Kennedy could have been thinking about an amicus brief filed by Professor's Leon Kass and Harvey Mansfield. There is no scientific basis to make any conclusions about what gay marriage would do for children raised by gay parents or do for society at large, Kass and Mansfield argued. They, therefore, urged the justices to rule based upon the law, not science. more >>

Just over a month ago, physicians at Weill Cornell Medical College and biomedical engineers at Cornell University announced in New York that with the help of living cells, they had successfully created an exact copy of the human ear that looks and behaves like the natural one.

In three years, according to a release from the University, doctors are hoping they can try the first human implant of their bioengineered ear in a bid to help thousands of children born each year with a congenital ear deformity.

Current solutions, according to doctors, are built from materials with a Styrofoam-like quality or the rib of a young patient. "This surgical option is very challenging and painful for children, and the ears rarely look totally natural or perform well," notes Dr. Jason Spector, director of the Laboratory for Bioregenerative Medicine and Surgery (LBMS) at Weill Cornell, in the release. And he is not alone in seeking more seamless, less painful solutions to repairing the human body. more >>