Free Republic

The problem is this: academics and lawyers don’t agree on what ‘sexual orientation’ actually is. The term is infamously ambiguous. Assembly Bill 2943 is a malicious and terribly ill-conceived piece of legislation, and it has a very real chance of becoming law. The bill establishes that “sexual orientation change efforts are an unlawful practice under California’s” legal code. Senate Bill 1172, passed in 2012, outlaws such help for any minor.Summit Ministries, a widely respected national organization teaching a Christian worldview to students, has decided to cancel its summer classes in California. Why? Simply because Summit teaches the same sexual ethic...

Santa Clara County, Calif., officials have banned a 20-year employee from making “less than positive” remarks about Obamacare, because they can cause stress for listening co-workers. The county made the stunning move when Norina Mooney was chatting with a co-worker about the Affordable Care Act, according to the Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing the woman. The organization has asked for a response by next week to its letter raising several issues with Lorie McKeown in the Santa Clara County Department of Child Support Services, where Mooney works. Pacific Justice said Mooney was further informed that her comment had caused...

There is nothing more pernicious than the illusion of liberty surviving, or even flourishing, alongside growing government power. It doesn’t work that way, not once you get past the transition from anarchy to lawful government. Personal liberty does not exist in a state of anarchy, because individuals can be defrauded, robbed, and killed at will by lone predators and organized gangs. Some degree of government power must clearly be exercised to secure liberty. But when a government the size of America’s federal system grows larger, it occurs only at the expense of liberty, and the contraction of the private sector....

It’s one week until Aug. 28, the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He wrote part of it under a huge oak tree in front of the house in Virginia that now houses the Gloucester Institute, headed by Kay Coles James, a conservative African-American leader (see “The cavalry is not coming,” from the Feb. 23 issue of WORLD Magazine). Earlier this year, in front of students at Patrick Henry College, James told me about the house, her institute, and its programs for young African-American men and women, one of which has a Sept. 13...

An online radio host is sounding the alarm over a brand-new law he claims grants the federal government massive new powers to saturate Americans with domestic propaganda at U.S. taxpayer expense. “This law allows the federal government to have sweeping power to push television, radio, newspaper and social-media propaganda onto the U.S. public,” warns Michael Evans of America’s Voice Now. “It removes protection for Americans from the ideological diarrhea that will pour forth from this administration like ejected vomit.” Evans is referring to the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.,...

Rosaria Butterfield was a tenured professor at Syracuse University, until God used her desire to write a book on the religious right, and the friendship of a biblically orthodox pastor, to draw her to Christ. She became a voracious Bible reader, gradually saw that her new beliefs required her to upend her former life, and has now described what happened in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. I interviewed her on Jan. 11 in front of students at Patrick Henry College. By Feb. 20 about 30,000 people had viewed the interview on YouTube. Here are edited excerpts.  Let’s start...

Vice President Biden suggested Wednesday that the White House could take unilateral action on gun control, as he kicked off a round of meetings aimed at finding ways to curb gun violence. The vice president met Wednesday with gun-safety and victims groups, saying he is "determined" to take "urgent action" to address gun violence. "This is not an exercise in photo opportunities or just getting to ask you all what your opinions are. We are vitally interested in what you have to say," Biden said. The White House has sought to avoid prejudging what Biden's recommendations would be. But the...

John Schneider, the one-time star of TV sensation “The Dukes of Hazzard,” can be seen in theaters now in a film that “Bo Duke” says is timed perfectly for Father’s Day. As WND reported, Schneider plays the estranged dad of a struggling teen in “Hardflip,” an edgy, skateboarding movie featuring some of the sports’ biggest stars, openly proclaiming their faith in Jesus Christ. In an exclusive interview, Schneider, a self-proclaimed Christian and father of three, told WND the story of why the script for “Hardflip” is so relevant to dads. “I started doing movies where I played fathers, with ‘Night...

A new study that claims opposition to homosexuality means a person probably is a closet homosexual is nothing more than a rehash of propaganda used in the 1970s, according to a former liberal who now warns of the “gay” agenda. “This is so old-hat, they were saying this in the 1970s when I was a liberal progressive. This was standard indoctrination talking points about homosexuality even back then,” said Linda Harvey, founder of Mission America. “This has been around for 40 years and they are now bringing it back around.”

<p>Arpaio’s team of volunteer professional law enforcement officers and attorneys concluded after a six-month investigation that there is probable cause that forgery and fraud were committed in the process through which Obama released a “Certificate of Live Birth” image at the White House last year.</p>

They raise chickens. They grow vegetables. They knit. Now a new generation of urban parents is even teaching their own kids. In the beginning, your kids need you—a lot. They’re attached to your hip, all the time. It might be a month. It might be five years. Then suddenly you are expected to send them off to school for seven hours a day, where they’ll have to cope with life in ways they never had to before. You no longer control what they learn, or how, or with whom. Unless you decide, like an emerging population of parents in cities...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Last night in his State of the Union address President Obama called on all states to raise their school compulsory attendance age to 18, unnecessarily adding to bureaucratic requirements for homeschoolers. Homeschool advocates at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) are dedicated to protecting the educational relationship between parents and their children. Parents—not the federal government and certainly not the president—are the ones who should decide how children are educated and when they’re ready to graduate from high school. But President Obama presumptively spoke on behalf of parents and the states: “So tonight, I am proposing that every...

Without any reputable evidence, the entertainment culture, uneducated media, and sexual activists have seduced today's teenagers, in particular, to believe that people are born homosexual. However, science has found no biological basis for homosexuality, bisexuality, or transsexuality. Study after study has found the “LGBT” lifestyle to be unhealthy, with the highest rate of sexually-transmitted diseases, and higher cancer rates and earlier deaths. While all people are worthy and valuable, the fact is people are not "born this way," as a popular song insists.On this page you will find: 1. The facts on homosexuality2. Resources to overcome homosexual behavior and gender...

I realize God doesn't always respond with miracles, but this was a miracle healing and we praise God for it. My 41-year-old cousin was dying of liver failure April 21. Her liver was disintegrating. The doctors were treating her as terminal and said her chances of survival didn't exist short of a miracle. Her time frame for survival was hours to possibly weeks, they couldn't really say. Last Monday, April 25, my cousin had to be restrained as she tried to pull a tube out of her nose which was supplying meds to her stomach. It was too uncomfortable and...

Numerous service members, veterans and concerned citizens have written WND to express their fury about the repeal of the military's ban on open homosexuality. We encourage readers, especially those on active duty, to let us know what you think about allowing open homosexuality in the military and how you plan to respond to the new policy. Following are excerpts from selected letters arranged by topic:

President Obama's choice to monitor school safety once boasted that he introduced homosexual advocacy into the school system in Massachusetts by manipulating the message presented to lawmakers. The revelations about Kevin Jennings, who was named assistant deputy secretary for the office of Safe & Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, come just as several of Obama's "czars" have come under scrutiny for their actions, opinions and affiliations. Environmental adviser Van Jones resigned last weekend after revelations of his links to communism and his advocacy for the movement that contends the U.S. government conspired to allow or cause...

WASHINGTON – The eBay birth certificate saga continues. A seller claiming to have a certified copy of Barack Obama's birth certificate issued in a Mombasa, Kenya, hospital in 1961 is back up on eBay telling her story. Six previous times the posts have been removed. Even when the seller offered only autographed pictures of those allegedly responsible for securing the document, the posts have been removed. The seller now insists a YouTube video will be produced, presumably including images of the document. Then, the seller says, the full story will be given to WND. "So now eBay removes my listing...

The founder of the homosexual activist group GLSEN, which promotes homosexual clubs in high schools, middle schools and grade schools and is the driving force behind the annual "Day of Silence" celebration of homosexuality in many districts, has been handed a federal appointment where he will be responsible for overseeing "safety" in the nation's public schools. ... The appointment of Kevin Jennings was posted – with little fanfare – on a government list of federal jobs recently. He was named by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to be the Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Office of Safe Schools. ... "In...

[Full Title: Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Will Increase Prevalence of Homosexuality: Research Provides Significant Evidence] An accumulation of research from around the world finds that societies which endorse homosexual behavior increase the prevalence of homosexuality in those societies. The legalization of same-sex marriage--which is being considered by voters in several U.S. states--is the ultimate in societal endorsement and will result in more individuals living a homosexual lifestyle. Extensive research from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and the United States reveals that homosexuality is primarily environmentally induced. Specifically, social and/or family factors, as well as permissive environments which affirm homosexuality, play major environmental roles...

Editor's note: Michael Glatze is a former homosexual-rights activist who "came out" of that lifestyle via two WND columns, "How a 'gay rights' leader became straight" and "Confessions of a former 'gay rights' leader." As I watch 100,000 people pile together shouting, "Gay, Straight, Black, White: Marriage is a Civil Right," begging to be allowed by law to participate in a life of homosexual behavior, I am impressed by how desensitized we have come as a society.