Read more

He claimed during a radio interview in North Dakota last week that his father, President Donald Trump, "literally saved Christianity." Read more

Stone told his story about re-committing himself as a Christian at a Nashville church on Aug. 30,

Much of Stone's testimony amounted to a campaign speech for President Donald Trump and a recounting of his own persecution by federal authorities which led his conviction in November 2019.

"I was unfairly persecuted by a politically motivated prosecutor during that period," Stone said. "I prayed to God to deliver me from persecutors during that period. I was reborn as a Christian.

"I was raised a Catholic and admit I fell away ... Now I want to talk about it because no matter what your problem is, God can deliver you too." Read more

In San Francisco de la Paz, a valley outpost ringed by lush hills in the lawless "Wild East" of Honduras, about the only business that's booming is home construction — fueled by American dollars sent home each month from migrants living in the U.S. Remittances from former villagers helped Carlos scratch out a living, but with every dab of mortar he splashed on vacant homes, he longed to join their owners.

Making $13 a day as a construction worker, he could barely afford to take care of his wife and daughter, let alone help his parents buy medicine for a range of ailments including diabetes, high blood pressure and thyroid disease.

Plus, the street violence that has ravaged Honduras hit too close to home a few years ago, when a cousin was murdered by suspected drug traffickers.

So last year, Carlos, 25, did what most Hondurans do when it's time to get out: He approached one of the three local smugglers who operate in rural San Francisco de la Paz, which has a population of about 20,000.

The smuggler gave him a price: $7,000 to cross the Rio Grande and seek asylum — but only if he took his little girl and they surrendered to the U.S. Border Patrol on the other side.

Otherwise it would cost $10,000 to traverse Mexico and then evade a gantlet of law enforcement at the border and the interior checkpoints beyond.

Carlos' wife, Claudia, pushed back.

She feared sending their only daughter, Heyli, who was 6 at the time, on a nearly 1,700-mile journey in uncertain conditions.

She'd heard grisly stories of migrants suffocating in 18-wheelers or getting assaulted on the long trek through Mexico.

Why couldn't Carlos go by himself?

"I told [the smuggler] many times, ‘Better alone,'" Claudia recalls.

"But he said, ‘No, it will be easier, better with the girl.'"

And cheaper.

The decision was wrenching.

Leaving would break up their tiny family and require them to go deep into debt.

But Carlos and Claudia always dreamed of an easier life for Heyli, away from the grinding poverty of Honduras. So the deal was struck.

Thousands of Central Americans are making the same calculation every month.

Despite the Trump Administration's "zero-tolerance" policy designed to deter illegal border crossing, the apprehension of "family units" on the U.S.-Mexico border has skyrocketed to record levels in recent months, according to the Border Patrol.

In the past five months, Border Patrol agents were apprehending family units at a rate 338 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier.

Unlike the attention-grabbing caravans that have been making their way to Tijuana, the movements of migrants who hire smugglers — and most migrants do — are not tracked by media outlets or in President Donald Trump's Twitter feed.

Like Carlos and Heyli, they slip through Mexico with smugglers, known as coyotes, who bribe cartels and corrupt cops and immigration agents along the way. (Carlos is a pseudonym; the rest of his family members are referred to in this story by their real first names.)

The money that desperate people are willing to scrape together to come to the U.S. has turned humans into cash cows.

According to a 2018 U.N. report, the migrant-smuggling industry was worth $5.7 billion to $7 billion worldwide in 2016.

Since the U.S. remains the top destination for migrants, the North American market is the crown jewel of the global smuggling trade. Continue reading

• Image: Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune/TIME
• This story is part of a collaboration between TIME and The Texas Tribune to track the family separation crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

To watch a documentary about Carlos and Heyli's journey through the migrant-smuggling industry, watch it here.

As General Allenby's troops marched through Bab al-Khalil, launching a century of settler colonialism across Palestine, prime minister David Lloyd George heralded the city's capture as "a Christmas present for the British people".

In a few months' time, we mark another such anniversary: 70 years since the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, the catastrophic destruction of the Palestinian polity; the violent dispossession of most of its people with their forced conversion into disenfranchised refugees; the colonial occupation, annexation and control of their land; and the imposition of martial law over those who managed to remain.

The current US president's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel bookends a century of such events: from the Balfour declaration in November 1917 to the partition plan of 1947; from the Nakba of 1948 to the Naksa of 1967 - with its annexation of Jerusalem, the occupation of the rest of Palestine, further mass expulsions of Palestinians including from East and West Jerusalem, and the invaders' razing of entire ancient neighbourhoods in the city.

Donald Trump's declaration could easily be read as one more outrage in his growing collection of chaotic and destructive policies, this one perhaps designed to distract from his more prosaic, personal problems with the law.

It is viewed as the act of a volatile superpower haplessly endorsing illegal military conquest and consolidating the "acquisition of territory by force" (a practice prohibited and rejected by the UN and the basic tenets of international law). And it is seen alongside a long list of domestic and international blunders.

However, this analysis obscures what happens each day in occupied Palestine, and hides what will surely happen next - unless governments, parliaments, institutions, unions and, most of all, citizens take measures to actively resist it. Continue reading

• Karma Nabulsi is fellow in politics at St Edmund Hall, and teaches at Oxford University.

The next day, reports surfaced that Trump had been denying that it is his voice on the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, in which he made vulgar comments about women.

But when the tape was made public last year, he acknowledged it was him. Both can't be true.

Meanwhile, within a week, The Washington Post revealed that an activist organization had paid a woman to lie about being impregnated by Senate candidate Roy Moore when she was a teenager.

The story was an attempt to expose media bias on the part of the Post if they had run with the false story, but the paper instead revealed the truth: that the abuse and pregnancy did not happen and the woman worked for an organization with the ironic name Veritas, Latin for "truth."

These recent three examples raise the question: Is lying wrong? Is it still — as Catholics would say — a sin?

Absolutely, say theologians and ethicists. As parents throughout history have pointed out, just because everybody's doing it, doesn't make it right.

The Catholic ethical tradition is clear that lying is morally wrong, and actually maintains that it is wrong in all situations, although some ethicists see some distinctions.

But all agree that the consequences of lying are especially serious when done by leaders of social institutions, such as government, media or even churches.

"Lying destroys trust between people by corroding communication," said Lisa Fullam, professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in California.

Widespread lying — or perhaps widespread knowledge about lying, thanks to new media technology — can lead to cynicism, in which people assume that everyone is untruthful for their own self-interest, Fullam said.

This is not only sinful, but has dangerous implications for a democracy, where confidence in the honesty of leaders is critical and truthful knowledge is necessary for citizenship, Fullam said. Continue reading

• Heidi Schlumpf is National Catholic Reporter's national correspondent, based in Chicago.

It's a foolishly high-stakes challenge in which two drivers risking death, drive on a collision course towards each other until one of the drivers chooses to swerve away.

Since neither driver wants to be called "chicken," meaning coward, they both push the decision to swerve away to the last possible moment, each hoping that the other driver will be the one to back down and swerve away.

This is a very dangerous game - a game now being played between North Korea and the United States.

But in this game of chicken the high-stakes of two possible deaths increases to hundreds of thousands of probable deaths. And if it goes nuclear, the stakes rise to millions dead.

During the course of this year North Korea has launched over 20 missiles - some flying over Japan - and according to seismic readings may have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. And if not already, it is getting close to being able to hit the U.S. with one or more nuclear armed missiles.

For its part, the U.S. has deployed in the Pacific three aircraft carrier strike groups. This armada of warships carrying attack aircraft and cruise missiles is capable of launching a massive preemptive attack upon North Korea.

Now add to this perilous saber rattling, highly insulting verbal attacks from President Trump on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission," and the counter insults from Kim Jong-un that Trump is a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard," and we have before us a nuclear-armed war game of chicken.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Un grow up! This is no time to act like macho, self-centered adolescents. Think of the carnage that will result if you continue on this collision course.

Policy analyst for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, James McKeon, told me that the U.S. and North Korea need to have "talks about talks," that is, conversations with no preconditions, in order to set the stage for formal negotiations.

McKeon added that "No preconditions diplomacy is the only viable option. If the Cold War proved anything it is that talking to adversaries is not appeasement, it is smart policy that helped avoid nuclear war."

A clear example here of difficult, serious and successful diplomacy took place between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missiles Crisis - 55 years ago - when calmer heads prevailed in avoiding nuclear war (see: http://bit.ly/2z7JpRV).

President Trump during his U.N. speech threatened to "totally destroy North Korea" (see: http://cnb.cx/2ypyGFy). This runs completely against Catholic social teaching.

The world's Catholic bishops at the Second Vatican Council solemnly declared: "Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation" (see: http://bit.ly/1lmUu1K).

Like the world's bishops of Vatican II, today's bishops, and every single disciple of the nonviolent Jesus, should condemn this dangerous violent brinkmanship - before it's too late!

Let us never forget that we are called to follow not the god of war, but the Prince of Peace.

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings about Catholic social teaching. His keynote address, "Advancing the Kingdom of God in the 21st Century," has been well received by diocesan and parish gatherings from Santa Clara, Calif. to Baltimore, Md. Tony can be reached at tmag@zoominternet.net

"The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in unity with Pope Francis, strongly supports environmental stewardship and has called consistently for 'our own country to curtail carbon emissions,'" said Bishop Frank J Dewane of Florida.

"This Executive Order places a number of environmental protections in jeopardy and moves the U.S. away from a national carbon standard, all without adopting a sufficient plan for ensuring proper care for people and creation," he added.

Dewane said the US is "unlikely to meet its domestic and international mitigation goals."

Fr Joe Ryan (Chair) and Barbara Kentish (Fieldworker) of the Westminster Justice and Peace Commission echo Dewane's comments.

Speaking on behalf of the Commission, they say Trump's environment plans cut across all the attempts Pope Francis and the Catholic Church have been making to find a new way of caring for creation.

Sources

• Independent Catholic News
• Independent Catholic News
• Image: Catholic Herald

Last week, his administration rescinded former guidelines allowing transgender students to use the public school bathrooms of their choice.

And evangelical leaders report having direct access to the Oval Office. For all his clear foibles, Trump seems to be heeding concerns that drew much white evangelical and Catholic support during the 2016 election.

So it's an interesting time for conservative Christians — traditional Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Protestants — to consider withdrawing from American public life.

And yet in the coming weeks and months, expect to hear a lot about the Benedict Option. It's a provocative vision for Christians outlined in a new book by Rod Dreher, who has explored it for the past decade on his lively American Conservative blog.

To Dreher, Trump's presidency has only given conservative Christians "a bit more time to prepare for the inevitable."

He predicts for traditional Christians loss of jobs, influence, First Amendment protections and goodwill among neighbors and co-workers. Even under Trump, says Dreher, the future is very dark.

The Benedict Option derives its name from a 6th-century monk who left the crumbling Roman Empire to form a separate community of prayer and worship. Benedict of Nursia founded monasteries and a well-known "Rule" to govern Christian life together.

By many accounts, Benedictine monasteries seeded the growth of a new civilization to blossom throughout Western Europe after Rome's fall.

In his book for a mainstream publisher (Penguin's Sentinel), Dreher insists that conservative Christians today should likewise withdraw from the crumbling American empire to preserve the faith, lest it be choked out by secularism, individualism and LGBT activism. Continue reading

• Katelyn Beaty is editor at large at Christianity Today magazine and author of "A Woman's Place: A Christian Vision for Your Calling in the Office, the Home, and the World" (Simon & Schuster).

Nevertheless, enough people of faith were willing to take a chance on the Republican candidate and the party's platform to help swing an electoral-college victory. Now, as the nation moves into what at present feels like an equally contentious transition process, Catholics who voted for Trump are hoping their trust was well-placed.

For reasons unique to this campaign and this president-elect, there is not a lot of certainty at this point what policies will be in place in the new administration. Campaign promises are campaign promises, of course, and no candidate signs a solemn oath to fulfill each and every one of them.

For President-elect Trump, the usual autumn prognostications are more difficult to make than usual, both because of his personal penchant for not signalling policy decisions too far in advance and because his campaign-trail positions have changed many times, occasionally contradicting those of his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican party leadership, and even Trump himself.

What then, can Catholics — both those who supported the Trump-Pence team and those who did not — look for from a Trump administration when it comes to key issues of public policy?

Here Aleteia presents an overview of these issues drawn from a summary of key social doctrine by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (passages reproduced in italics) with notes on what we know so far and what we can and should watch for. Continue reading

Sources

• Aleteia article by John Burger and Joanne McPortland
• Image: New York Post

Yesterday, in New Zealand's parliament, was supposed to be one of those times.

My Green party colleagues and I were asked to support a government motion to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election. These types of motions are fairly commonplace in our parliament. They are token gestures of support and diplomacy - convenient ways to express our best wishes to political leaders in faraway places. They usually pass with little fanfare.

Yesterday was no different in that the motion passed - but this time, there were 14 objections. From us. For me, and many others, this was not a time for business as usual.

Donald Trump will almost certainly never hear about what I said in parliament yesterday or, for that matter, give a flying toss. In that sense, our position may seem futile.

However, it is unconscionable that the Green party of Aotearoa New Zealand - which has a proud record of promoting tolerance, inclusiveness and peace - would send our best wishes to a man who has spouted misogynistic, racist, xenophobic and climate change-denying views.

As the Republican candidate in the US presidential election, Trump already had a significant platform; soon, as president, he will have the biggest megaphone in the world.

So no, I don't believe this is a time to be diplomatic or polite. If others wish to defend the actions of a sexual predator, they are welcome to. I won't, and neither will my colleagues.

To be clear, I am not questioning the legitimacy of this result, or the rights of the American people to democratically elect the president of their choice. It's also worth pointing out, as many others have, that more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Trump.

To any Americans reading this who are frustrated by a political system that does not necessarily reward the candidate with the most votes, I can empathise. New Zealand also had an issue with disproportionate political representation under a first-past-the-post electoral system, before we changed to a proportional system in 1996. Continue reading

• Metiria Turei is a New Zealand member of parliament and the co-leader of the Green party of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Donald Trump is now the president-elect of the United States and like it or not, we're all on board for what promises to be a bumpy ride.

But while much could be said (and certainly is) about the dire global consequences of the election, I've decided that in the spirit of making the most of what you have, the result is a wonderful opportunity to focus on just how developed we are in New Zealand compared with the so-called "leader" of the developed world: America.

So here, fellow Kiwis, are some great reasons to be really, really, REALLY happy this week.

1. We're not building a wall.
As a coastal nation geographically distant from other countries, New Zealand has never faced problems with border hopping.

But despite this we have a "say hello" rather than "wave goodbye" immigration policy and a proud tradition of opening up our borders to those in need. This year 70,000 new migrants have been welcomed, mostly from India, China, the Philippines, UK and South Africa.

2. We don't ban people because of their religion.
Provided he's true to his word (which, fortunately, is not at all guaranteed), President Trump will shortly begin banning all Muslims from entering his dominion and monitor those already there.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand we've had an almost 30 per cent increase in the number of people affiliating with the Muslim religion since 2006 - almost 75 per cent of those made up of people born outside New Zealand. Assalamu alaikum, y'all! Continue reading

• Eva Bradley is Hawke's Bay Today Weekend columnist

For the past 70 years the Al Smith Dinner has raised money for children in honor of the honorable Catholic politician Al Smith.

Smith was elected the Governor of New York four times and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928.

Smith's unlikely climb to the White House was crushed by a combination of bad timing (Herbert Hoover, the Republican, rode a wave of seeming prosperity to victory) and the simple fact that America was unready to choose a Catholic.

The 1928 campaign was marked by poisonous anti-Catholicism across much of the country, as Smith was battered by contempt for Catholics and charges of being in the thrall of the popes.

Virtually every moment of the 2016 presidential election has been turned into a bitter and depressing political struggle.

Some hoped that the long history of the Al Smith Dinners might induce both candidates to avoid the kind of scorched earth politics they have embraced now for the whole campaign.

That aspiration was largely dashed by both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in their speeches on Thursday night. Read more

I was pretty upset about that tape, but not because I am a prude or even that I am shocked that men talk like that.

When Billy Bush says "will you give him a hug" while holding back giggles, I remembered all the times that I was the girl who was the butt of jokes between boys and men.

I was upset that a man running for president would talk like this, but come on, it's Trump, I wasn't shocked.

He's been on Howard Stern talking about all kinds of sexual escapades, I heard them way before he was ever a household name because he is gonna make America so great again.

I heard the tape on the way to confession on Friday.

It was my wedding anniversary and my husband wanted to start our celebration with a clean slate by going to confession together. As we drove there I saw the story breaking and listened to the video.

I was flabbergasted and so was my husband.

I was so sure that this was it, Catholics would all see what they had been supporting this entire time and it would be over for Trump.

I had all faith that Catholic men would not stand for this kind of complete disregard for the dignity of women.

We went to confession, ran one last errand and then went to our favorite dive bar to have a few drinks before leaving town.

I have an issue with drinking when the memories of my trauma come up.

I can't do anything when that happens but sit at home look at a picture of Jesus on the cross and pray for the flashbacks to go away while my dog lays next to me to keep me safe.

I have done this a million times and if I even sense for a second that I am in anyway reliving what happened to me, I do not drink.

I didn't think that what Trump said would bring up any of it for me because I am Catholic now.

I have an army of Catholic men who are ready to protect me and other women.

My brothers in Christ will keep me from ever being the victim of another man's objectification. Maybe not all of them, but the ones that I know are pro-life do. Or so I thought. Continue reading

• Leticia Ochoa Adams is a writer, blogger, student, mother of 4, step-mom of 3 and grandmother of 2.

It started when Trump responded to the Khans' appearance on Thursday (July 28) at the Democratic National Convention.

During that appearance, Humayun Khan's mother, Ghazala Khan, stood beside her husband silently as he criticized Trump. In an interview with ABC News, the Republican presidential nominee suggested that Ghazala Khan was not permitted to speak, presumably because of her religion.

"If you look at his wife, she was standing there," said Trump. "She had nothing to say. … Maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."

Khan said she declined to speak because she was emotional over the loss of her son, who died in 2004 in Iraq.

"Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart," she wrote in The Washington Post. "Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could?"

Now, Muslim women around the country — lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers, activists, artists, mothers and students — are using the trending hashtag #CanYouHearUsNow on social media to address Trump's comments, as well as the popular notion that Islam oppresses women.

"I'm running a trauma center, making life saving split second decisions. Make no mistake — my voice is heard," Los Angeles-based doctor Almaas Shaikh tweeted.

"I became a journalist to pursue transparency to clarify misrepresentations. Misrepresentations that (you) shamelessly create," NPR's Noor Wazwaz told Trump on Twitter.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has pushed the campaign as well, calling on Muslim women to join the Twitter storm by "sharing the various ways they speak out every day."

"As the leader of America's largest Muslim civil rights organization, I urge Donald Trump to apologize for his shameful remarks disparaging a Muslim Gold Star family and for his repeated use and promotion of anti-Muslim stereotypes," CAIR board chair Roula Allouch said in a statement. "Just as Donald Trump must apologize for his un-American remarks, Republican Party leaders must finally repudiate their candidate's divisive rhetoric." Continue reading

• Image: @malkadee33

But unlike Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in the recent past, such as Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush, who were comfortable discussing their religious beliefs, the major party nominees in 2016 have shown an uneasiness when asked about spiritual matters.

Trump, a Presbyterian, and Clinton, a Methodist, have also at times run afoul of their respective denominations for things they have said on the campaign trail and for their positions on issues such as abortion, immigration and same-sex "marriage."

Clinton, who formally accepted her party's nomination at last month's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, rarely talks about her faith on the campaign trail.

But occasionally, Clinton, the former first lady, U.S. senator from New York and U.S. secretary of state, offers a glimpse into her spiritual life.

Asked about her faith at a Democratic town-hall event a week before the Iowa caucuses in January, Clinton delivered a rather impassioned reply,where she drew from the Bible and reflected on the Sermon on the Mount.

Said Clinton, "I am a person of faith. I am a Christian. I am a Methodist. I have been raised Methodist.

"I feel very grateful for the instructions and support I received starting in my family, but through my church; and I think that any of us who are Christian have a constantly constant conversation in our own heads about what we are called to do and how we are asked to do it, and I think it is absolutely appropriate for people to have very strong convictions and, also, though, to discuss those with other people of faith.

"Because different experiences can lead to different conclusions about what is consonant with our faith and how best to exercise it." Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Register, article by Register correspondent Brian Fraga from Fall River, Massachusetts.
• Image: Christianity Today