December 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Don’t like it? Change it. That’s the approach to Scriptural translation taken by the creators of a new gay-friendly Bible.

“You can’t choose your sexuality, but you can choose Jesus. Now you can choose a Bible, too,” say the creators of the Bible, emblazoned with a rainbow cross, which was launched at the end of November.

The editors explain in a statement that they took each of the eight Bible verses traditionally used to argue that homosexuality is sinful, and edited them “in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible.”

For instance, in the first letter to Timothy, where St. Paul refers to “them that defile themselves with mankind,” the new Bible simply excises the word “mankind.”

This new translation, the editors say, will “resolve interpretive ambiguity in the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality.”

Other than the eight verses in question, the Bible uses the King James translation verbatim. The “Queen James” title is based upon a theory that King James, the British king who commissioned the famous translation of the Bible, was bisexual.

Click “like” if you want to defend true marriage.

But while the “homophobic” passages have been altered, the editors say that “the Bible is still filled with inequality and even contradiction that we have not addressed. No Bible is perfect, including this one.”

The homosexual news outlet Pink News has identified Reverend J. Pearson of San Francisco’s Holy Innocents Episcopal church as the mastermind behind the rainbow-themed Bible.

Pearson, however, is far from the first to translate the Bible in such a way as to whitewash its prohibition of certain sins, or to otherwise modernize Holy Writ.

A Bible translation praised by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in 2004 had been “updated” in various ways, including a passage in which St. Paul urged his followers to have a “regular partner.” Thomas Jefferson famously compiled a condensed New Testament that excluded any mention of miracles or supernatural events, including Jesus’ resurrection.

Rumors about a gay-friendly Bible had circulated back in 2010, when the Dead Serious News website ran an article claiming that a new Bible translation would soon be released. Some mistook the satirical news piece for fact, prompting Snopes to weigh in and declare the rumor false. 

But with the publication of the Queen James Bible, it seems reality has caught up with satire.

March 31, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – EWTN founder Mother Angelica has been a major inspiration to John-Henry Westen and I since we founded LifeSite in 1997. Her example of always telling it like it is as an act of charity to her viewers and her method of just going ahead and doing what she felt God wanted her to do, regardless of criticisms or lack of funds, both made eminent sense to us.

She showed us what we wanted to do, and just had to do, for the pro-life, pro-family world. So very few media were telling the public uncomfortable or politically incorrect truths and among the religious media and many pro-life and pro-family organizations there was too much caution and concern about not rocking the boat or being too "rigid".

Mother was real, she had street smarts, and we have always tried to be real instead of serving our own or other unworthy agendas. We have also just gone ahead and done what we have felt inspired to do, no matter how outrageous it seemed to others, trusting in providence for our needs. 

The video that we posted a few days ago of Mother bluntly calling out the blasphemy of the portrayal of Christ on the Cross by a woman during World Youth day in Denver, Colorado, is something that every Catholic and any other Christian today needs to watch. Mother made it very plain that the liberal laity, religious, bishops and cardinals were trying to destroy the Church and that it should not be tolerated. We must not be afraid to speak up. In fact, she made it plain that we have a serious duty to God to do so.

As far as I am concerned that video shows the type of religious and clergy urgently needed today to save the Church from its ongoing self-destruction by negligence, faithlessness, cowardice, worldiness, corruption and pride.

Mother Angelica is gone, but her legacy lives on, thanks especially to all the television footage we have been viewing these past few days showing the totally up front, street-smart, funny and holy evangelist without any airs that Mother Angelica was.

Steve Skojec of the praiseworthy blog One Peter 5, and another follower and admirer of Mother Angelica, wrote an article yesterday about the need to continue to pray for Mother, which anyone who knew her is what she surely would have wanted. They could see her in their minds wagging her finger at anyone who dared to presume she was already in Heaven, as tends to be the norm in today's progressive Catholicism.

The best thing we can do for her right now, as Skojec emphasizes, it to pray for Mother’s soul, even while knowing that she was among the holier persons we have ever known in this life.

Here is Steve Skojec’s article, reprinted with permission:

We Must Pray for the Dead, Even the Holy

By Steve Skojec On March 30, 2016

Yesterday, I wrote a tribute to Mother Angelica, a woman whose life and work was defined by her willingness to say what God wants us to hear, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. In fact, as she herself once said, “Those who tell the Truth love you. Those who tell you what you want to hear love themselves.”

She also said, “It’s your obligation to speak the truth, and everyone can either take it or leave it. But truth must be in us. We live in such a poverty of truth today.”

When it came to the way we live our faith, she admonished, “If you’re not a thorn in somebody’s side, you aren’t doing Christianity right.”

As for what drove her? “I’m not afraid to fail…I’m scared to death of dying and having the Lord say to me, ‘Angelica, this is what you might have done had you trusted more.”

You see, Mother Angelica was, by every conceivable measure, a deeply pious and holy woman. A woman who knew the value of suffering offered up to God. But as my old professor, Dr. Regis Martin (who appears frequently on Mother’s own network) used to say, “The real saints are the last people in the neighborhood to know that.”

This is because true holiness places us face to face with the frailty of our humanity. Our sinful, fallen nature. When compared the the ultimate perfection of God, our sins are scarlet, our faults stand out in grand contrast.

St. Catherine of Genoa, a 15th-century mystic who was given the experience of Purgatory during her life and is considered the “theologian of Purgatory,” explains what happens when we come into contact with God’s perfections after death:

“The greatest suffering of the souls in purgatory, it seems to me, is the awareness that something in them displeases God, that they have deliberately gone against His great goodness … I can also see … that the divine essence is so pure and light-filled — much more than we can imagine — that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand hells than appear thus before the divine presence.” Hence “the soul … aware that the impediment it faces cannot be removed in any other way, hurls itself into Purgatory …. That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments so it can be lifted up to God.”

(As cited in the book, Hungry Souls: Supernatural Visits, Messages, and Warnings from Purgatory, p. 41)

Mother Angelica died with the last rites of the Church and an apostolic pardon. She lived a holy life doing God’s work. She voluntarily embraced suffering that could be offered up as a sacrifice to God. If anyone has a chance at a straight shot to heaven, it’s her.

But we must not presume. We do not know what God knows about her. We are not privy to the hidden recesses of her soul. This is why praying for the living and the dead are spiritual works of mercy. We are duty-bound to pray for souls that pass from this life, that their sufferings in Purgatory (if any) will be lessened. Most of us will go there. Some for quite a long time. We all need to pray for each other, and I’ve often joked that I will come down and haunt my family members and friends if they forget to do so!

I know for a fact that Mother would want our prayers, and would tell us that even if she made it, those graces might be applied to the Holy Souls in purgatory who are not yet done being purified.

If someone tells you Mother is in heaven before the Church’s process of canonization (which I fully expect will begin on her behalf) is done, do not listen to them. If you loved Mother in this life, pray for her in the next. Know that your prayers will never go to waste.

Particularly when it comes to the death of someone who is well-loved, we are told before the body is cold that they are “in a better place.” It may be true, but we just don’t know. This is what we want to hear, not what’s best for them. Remember, “Those who tell the Truth love you. Those who tell you what you want to hear love themselves.”

Pray for Mother Angelica, and all the souls of the faithful departed. May they rest in peace.

This article by Steve Skojec was re-published with permission from One Peter 5.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 31, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – The 2016 election is a referendum on abortion, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton said last night.

The 2016 election “is about whether abortion is legal, and whether women make our own health choices,” she said on CNN.

Asked about Donald Trump's comments that the law should penalize women who have an abortion, she replied, “It's very clear that Donald Trump wants to repeal that fundamental right [to abortion], just like all the other Republican candidates.”

Trump opposes abortion except in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.

“That is absolutely unacceptable,” she said. “It is outrageous.”

Clinton has said that abortion could be restricted only “at the very end of the third trimester” and, as a U.S. senator, she voted against the partial birth abortion ban.

This election, she has called for a repeal of the Hyde Amendment, signed by President Jimmy Carter, which prevents U.S. taxpayers from funding abortion in most cases. Her position aligns with the Democratic Party platform, which officially calls for taxpayer-funded abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

“The choice is really clear,” she said. “The Republicans all line up together.”

Ohio Governor John Kasich shares Trump's position on abortion, while Senator Ted Cruz says he would oppose aborting babies who were conceived in rape or incest.

Clinton has said numerous times that the direction of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance in this election, both with the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the advanced age of several other justices.

“I think it's a real reminder of the stakes in this election,” Clinton said. 

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 31, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – All Republican presidential candidates secretly want to prosecute women who have abortions, Hillary Clinton has said.

“Now maybe they aren’t quite as open about it as Donald Trump was earlier today, but they all have the same position,” she told CNN's Anderson Cooper last night. “If you make abortion a crime — you make it illegal — then you make women and doctors criminals.”

Her statements came after the GOP presidential frontrunner responded to aggressive questioning from Chris Matthews over whether he believed abortion should be illegal. Trump ultimately said that it should, and agreed that women who procure an abortion should face “some form of punishment” under the law.

Following his MSNBC interview, Clinton tweeted:

Remember: If you make abortion a crime, you make women who seek abortions criminals. You put one in three women at risk.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 30, 2016

His campaign later put out a statement saying that “the doctor...would be held legally responsible, not the woman. The woman is a victim in this case, as is the life in her womb." Trump's spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, told CNN that the initial comment was “complete misspeak during a conversation over a hypothetical concept.”

The idea that post-abortive women deserve punishment outraged many pro-life leaders, who emphasize that the mother is the second victim in an abortion. Americans United for Life highlighted that it was not common for states to prosecute women for having an abortion before Roe v. Wade.

Trump's answer caused even those who are close to his campaign a few moments pause. Governor Mike Huckabee, who has not endorsed but frequently defended Donald Trump, said the Hardball comment “was a terrible answer.”

“Even in his answer he was fumbling around, trying to figure out what to say," he said.

Dr. Ben Carson and Gov. Chris Christie, both of whom have endorsed Trump for president, defended his campaign for ultimately setting the record straight.

Some believe the billionaire's habit of shooting from the hip may cost him the 2016 presidential race. “This election is Trump's to lose,” said Kristin Tate, a political columnist and author. “He polls very well with men but needs to gain ground with women and young people – many of whom are scared by Trump due to what they see in the media.”

“His recent comments about abortion will be especially harmful to Trump if he wins the GOP nomination and needs to run against Hillary Clinton,” she said. “Trump will be perceived as insensitive and out of touch if he keeps up this rhetoric.”

But Gov. Huckabee says Wednesday's rhetorical misfire will not seriously hurt Trump in November. “If you talk to people in line at the grocery story and you talk to people at a restaurant, and you go up and down the streets, they are not talking about the little nuances of what a candidate says,” Gov. Huckabee said on this morning's “Morning Joe” program on MSNBC. “I thought all those issues through and I was ready for every one of the questions you are talking about – but today I’m sitting in a chair as an unemployed ex-candidate talking to you about a guy who didn’t think them through who is the frontrunner.”

But the fact that he is now the leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination means that Mr. Trump must coalesce the party around himself by learning the pro-life movement's authentic views of children and mothers, according to social conservatives.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said that the initial misstatement indicates that Mr. Trump “should spend more time with pro-life conservatives to gain a better appreciation of what their goals and objectives really are."