You've probably seen this by now:

The image is all over Facebook and Pinterest, since evidently lots of folks think it makes a great point about the problems with abstinence education and the pro-life viewpoint. I'll leave it to Mindy Goorchenko to point out the flaws in the analogy and offer a far better one. What I want to discuss is how very much it reveals about the pro-choice position, and the death-obsessed mentality that fuels it.

Let's take a look at the caption immediately below the little boy. It reads:

And if you do, by chance, find yourself struggling with drowning, then no life-saving or otherwise procedure or act should be allowed to be...READ MORE

Is it just me or has there been a resurgence in awareness of Natural Family Planning this year? Maybe my perspective is different from others', but it seems to me that more and more Catholics are aware of what the Church actually teaches about human sexuality and openness to life. Friends who work as family planning instructors and who staff pro-life medical clinics say that they're seeing a surge of interest in NFP lately. This year also saw the launch of some great new sites like 1Flesh and IUseNFP which pitch NFP as an alternative to artificial contraception, and which have gained a surprising amount of traction in a short amount of time.

Could it be that even the wider culture is...READ MORE

I've mentioned before that we've seen an uptick in the "Are you done yet?" questions ever since our fifth child was born last year. In our part of the country it's not unusual to have three or even four children, and you can safely be considered normal as long as you stay within that range. But there seems to be a consensus that five is getting into crazy territory, and now people need to know more urgently than ever if this will be it for us.

There are a lot of reasons why people seem nervous on our behalf about the prospect of future children. Some worry about us being able to pay for college. Others worry about us being able to pay for groceries. Yet others wonder how we could...READ MORE

I recently had the pleasure of getting to know Lori Mazzurana, the marketing consultant for the John Paul II Life Center here in Austin. As part of a conversation discussing the many benefits of NaPro Technology for treating infertility, Lori mentioned that she was interested in this technology because she got married when she was over 40 and hoped to have a family. I had a great discussion with her about her experience being single longer than she'd hoped to be, as well as the benefits of marrying later in life. When my single friends caught wind of this they wanted to hear all of her insights, so I suggested that we do an interview for me to post (one of the many dangers of starting up...READ MORE

On April 30 of this year, tech journalist Paul Miller made a bold move: He announced that he's going offline for an entire year. He's forsaking all Internet-related activity, and even went so far as to give up his smartphone! He detailed everything he plans to give up by saying:

"Internet use" includes web browsing from any device, asking anyone to web browse for me, surfing the internet over someone's shoulder, and enjoying entertainment streams like Netflix, even if started by someone else. I won't sync my devices over the internet, download software (even operating systems), use internet-verified DRM, or anything like that. I won't manage my bank accounts over the internet, and...READ MORE

Yesterday I made my weekly hike to the mailbox, and found a review copy of Verily magazine waiting for me. To be honest, I planned to put off reading it for a while. I had a few other publications waiting for perusal for review, and I'm not much of a magazine person these days anyway. But I pulled the magazine out of the envelope and flipped through a couple of pages on the walk home from the mailbox, and, long story short, I ended up sitting down and devouring the issue, only reluctantly tearing myself away when it was well past time to start dinner.

Now, you might suspect that I'm just saying that to be nice. You might think that I'm so desperate to finally see a women's magazine...READ MORE

Greetings from Dallas! I'm here at the Catholic New Media Conference along with tons of great folks involved in Catholic new media. The whole place is abuzz with excitement and ideas about the future of new media, and as I walk around I keep thinking the limitless possibilities that are on the horizon thanks to all our modern forms of communication. I believe that all Catholic media, including traditional forms like television and radio, are indispensable to the New Evangelization. But the new media (which I'm using as a lump term to include blogging, social media, and all other types of online networked content) has three specific characteristics that differentiate it from other kids of...READ MORE