Today on Kresta - August 17, 2009

Talking about the "things that matter most" on August 17
Live from the Iowa State Fair with KWKY - Catholic Radio for the Heart of Iowa

3:00 – Kresta Comments

3:20 – Muslim Teen Who Converted to Christianity Says Family Threatened to Kill Her
An Ohio teenager says she ran away from home to Florida because her family threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity. Rifqa Bary, 17, testified last week at a custody hearing in Orlando that she'd recently changed religions and is worried her relatives will do something drastic. “They have to kill me because I'm a Christian. It's an honor (issue)," the girl said. Such threats are common, even in the United States, her attorney, Rosa Gonzalez, said. Rifqa, a non-citizen whose parents are from Sri Lanka, has for several weeks been staying with an Orlando couple who are pastors of a new Christian church there. She met them on a Facebook prayer group. Her father denied his daughter's allegations, saying he never threatened to kill his daughter because she rejected Islam. We talk with Bridgitte Gabriel about this case and honor killings.

3:40 – Gitmo Prisoners in MI?
A team of government officials has visited a prison in the northern state of Michigan which could host some detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The visit was part of efforts to find a place where some of the remaining 229 detainees can be housed together, at a site that would include a maximum security prison, a holding center for those waiting release to another country, and rooms where legal proceedings can be held. The prison in Standish, Michigan, is expected to close soon due to insufficient numbers of prisoners, which would spell financial doom for an area already in the grips of high unemployment. Keeping it open could save 300 jobs. We talk with Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy.

4:00 – Kresta Comments

4:20 – Woodstock Turns 40 – The Politically Incorrect Guide to the 60’s
Get ready to break on through to the other side as critically-acclaimed playwright and journalist Jonathan Leaf reveals the politically incorrect truth about one of the most controversial decades in history--the 1960s. Life was more "square" than "groovy" and Dean Martin was topping the Billboard charts--not Jimmy Hendrix. In this blast from the past, Leaf exposes the lies and busts the myths propagated by the liberal establishment. He proves the anti-Vietnam War sentiment and free love slogans that supposedly "defined" the decade were just a small part of the leftist counter culture. The mainstream culture was more politically incorrect. He joins us.

4:40 – The Pedagogy of God: Source and Model of Catechesis
Amicitia Catechistica is an association of institutions involved in the formation of catechists, begun by the Notre Dame de Vie (France), Franciscan University (Steubenville, Ohio) and Maryvale Institute (Birmingham, UK) with the support and encouragement of Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, Editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The group just held their third International Conference on Catechetics, and Ken Ogorek, Director of Catechesis in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis was there. He joins us.

5:00 – Kresta Comments

5:20 – The Theology of the Laity
When many people think of the Catholic Church, they think of the Pope, Bishops and priests. But 99% of the Catholic Church is the laity. Has the Church become more open to the Laity since the Second Vatican Council? What “new” way of treating the Laity opened with the Council? How did the Council explain the stance of Laity in the Church? What did John Paul II contribute to the understanding of the Laity? What is Pope Benedict saying to the Laity? Fr. Bevil Bramwell is here to discuss the theology of the laity.