By Christy Barritt

Global Warming Skeptics and Believers Equally as Smart

A new survey has shown that those skeptical about climate change are just as intelligent as those who aren’t.

This was the result of a new study from the journal Nature Climate Change. The study asked 1,540 Americans science questions like, “Electrons are smaller than atoms—true or false?” and “How long does it take the earth to go around the sun? One day, one month, or one year?” and “Lasers work by focusing sound waves—true or false?”

The results showed that respondents who are less worried about global warming got 57 percent of the questions correct, while 56 percent of those fully on board with the theory answered correctly.

The paper was funded by the National Science Foundation and was not intended to validate or disprove climate change.

JCPenney® Ads Feature Homosexual Couples

In celebration of both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, retailer JCPenney released ads in their catalogs featuring homosexual couples.

The Father’s Day ad in their June catalog stated that the father in the picture was a “swim coach, tent maker, best friend, bike fixer, and hug giver—all rolled into one. Or two.” The picture was of two men playing with a little boy and girl and further read, “Real-life dads, Todd Koch and Cooper Smith, with their children, Claire and Mason.”

The company’s May catalog featured a similar ad with two women.

The LGBT community welcomed the ads with open arms and encouraged supporters to welcome the ads with open pocketbooks at the retailer.

But conservatives pushed back, encouraging people to boycott the company and even send back their catalogs until the chain stopped promoting homosexuality.

Illinois Still Funding Giant Cross Repair

An atheist sued the state of Illinois for granting state funds to repair a large cross, and lost.

The Bald Knob Cross of Peace stands at 111 feet at Alto Pass and is a major tourist attraction in the area.

Robert Sherman challenged the state-funded $20,000 sent to Friends of the Cross to repair the structure, saying it violated the rules of separation of church and state. A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit.

According to a three-judge panel, the Illinois Legislature did not directly allocate the funds to Friends of the Cross. The money instead came from a $5 million “pork-barrel” fund for individual legislators.

The Bald Knob Cross of Peace was erected in 1963 and went through a major restoration in 2012. The structure overlooks the Shawnee National Forest.

Military Chaplain Presides over Lesbian “Marriage”

A chaplain at Fort Polk in Louisiana performed what’s being called a “commitment ceremony” for two women in May.

Louisiana doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act prevents same-sex weddings or other ceremonies from being performed in any state that does not recognize such unions.

A spokesman from the military base told the Associated Press that “everyone at the base chapel understood it was not a marriage ceremony,” but many family advocate groups are up in arms, saying that the event was clearly a “marriage-like ceremony.”

Rep. John Fleming said the ceremony should have never happened.

“A same-sex marriage-like ceremony should not have occurred at Fort Polk, especially since the people of Louisiana have made it abundantly clear that our state does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions,” he said in a statement, later blaming the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” for having “made incidents like this inevitable.”

Christy Barritt is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and speaker living in Chesapeake, Virginia. She and her husband Scott have two sons. 
www.christybarritt.com