Free Republic

...We live in a precarious time in the United States of America. Many citizens are concerned about efforts to infringe upon the rights delineated in the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. As a constitutional lawyer who spent much of my career defending the fundamental Rights to Life and Religious Freedom, I share their concern. However, one of those Rights is found in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which reads "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."......

With the Presidential election in the United States upon us the allegations of "single issue politics" are again being leveled against anyone who condemns procured, legal abortion as immoral and evil. ...We even find people within the Church again attempting to fold the crime of procured abortion into a misguided interpretation of Catholic Social Teaching which pushes a false moral equivalence... Catholic Christians should not vote for any candidate who denies that the fundamental Right to Life must be recognized and protected in the civil law ...voting carries with it its own moral obligation. Not voting can have the effect...

... The decision by A&E Network to suspend Phil Robertson, the Patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family, was nothing but a political response to a strong bullying tactic by GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation). They took exception to a freewheeling interview which Phil Robertson gave to GQ magazine in which, among many other topics, he shared his evangelical protestant beliefs that homosexual acts are sinful. Like most sincere, faithful Christians - protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox - Phil Robertson attempted to make an important distinction. He explained that, although he respected all human persons - including those who self...

...The Bizarro World comes to mind as I watch the erosion of the moral foundation of freedom in the United States of America. I grew up believing that the United States of America, with its Christian roots, emphasis on a Natural Moral Law and recognition of inalienable rights which come from God, was a beacon for all Nations. In particular, for those Nations which had succumbed to the lies of atheistic Marxism. That included Russia, once the greatest proponent of atheistic communism. I still hope this is the case. However, we have clearly lost our moral compass as a Nation....

Duck Dynasty is one of our favorite television programs. Obviously, we are not alone. Duck Dynasty has been a ratings success for the A&E television network. It averages 14 million viewers an episode. The question the main stream media should really be asking is - why? Maybe, just maybe, if they paid attention, they might learn something about this wonderful Nation and the longing in the human hearts of real, regular folks. Perhaps if political observers paid attention, they might actually recognize a growing resistance movement... I am tired of the agendas of the Cultural Revolution winding their way into...

...Duck Dynasty is one of our favorite television programs. Obviously, we are not alone. Duck Dynasty has been a ratings success for the A&E television network. It averages 14 million viewers an episode. The question the main stream media should really be asking is - why? Maybe, just maybe, if they paid attention, they might learn something about this wonderful Nation and the longing in the human hearts of real, regular folks. Perhaps if political observers paid attention, they might actually recognize a growing resistance movement... I am tired of the agendas of the Cultural Revolution winding their way into...

I stayed up as late as I could - as late as I had to - to confirm what I had suspected for some time - President Barack Obama was reelected to another four year term of office. I slept surprisingly well. Not because I am not worried about the future of Nation and the freedom of the Church under the coming second Obama term. I am deeply worried. But because I knew I had done everything that I could to ensure a different result and that the future is in the hands of a loving God. ...There are serious...

Hempstead was hot as the two Presidential contenders engaged in verbal fisticuffs from the moment the bell rang. The second presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney was a verbal slugfest. Those who predicted that the Town Hall format would not lend itself to such an aggressive and bombastic brawl were wrong. The real question is whether this second debate actually helped many in the purported target audience, the undecided voters, make up their mind in what is clearly one of the most important presidential contests in American history. Candy Crowley of CNN's "State of the Union"...

Thursday evening's debate between the vice presidential candidates was historic... Never before have both vice presidential candidates professed membership in the Catholic Church and claimed with pride the name Catholic as an accurate description of their Christian faith. Yes, both Ryan and Biden profess the Catholic faith. However, there is a certain irony in the timing of their debate. On the day when Pope Benedict XVI commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council - and presided over the opening of the Year of Faith - the two Catholic participants in this political debate show the stark contrast right...

The Catholic supporters of President Obama have started making phone calls to solicit support for their candidate. OK, that's fine -- calls to prospective voters are part of every campaign season. But you won't believe what is being said about Obama, at least from the call received by a Catholic woman who happens to be the chair of her parish pro-life committee. Did you know that Obama did not support abortion, and did you know that Planned Parenthood didn't either? Well, that's what Catholics are being told on the phone by representatives of the President's campaign. ...A poll just released...

..." I am a Catholic, not because anyone has ordered me to accept a creed, but because of the grace and truth revealed in my faith - and that's how we all feel about the faiths we hold... " "...Ladies and gentlemen, you would be hard pressed to find another group in America that does more to serve the health of women and their babies than the Catholic Church and Catholic Charities. And now, suddenly, we have Obamacare bureaucrats presuming to dictate how they will do it... ..."We're all in this together" - it has a nice ring. For everyone...

Some on the political "right" promote a version of libertarianism which is anti-government and places the individual at the foundation of an understanding of freedom. This is at odds with the insights summarized in the Catechism. Often they paraphrase the American founders to imply that the existence of government itself is the problem. ...If you listen to some on the political "left", they seem to want to federalize everything. They think that our obligation in solidarity always means establishing more federal government programs. They are wrong. They have forgotten the role of mediating institutions and their vital role in governing...

On this Labor Day weekend we take a break from our "jobs" to honor work and workers. It is a unique secular holiday with profound Christian potential. Most of us will have a day off during which we will gather for late summer cookouts and celebrations. It is a time that we get to sleep in a bit later than usual and relax from what is so often a frenzied pace in our contemporary pattern of life. For many parents, Labor Day weekend marks a transition from the hectic pace of the summer to the new hectic pace of the...

The shortened Republican convention ended and the general election campaign of the Romney/Ryan Ticket was launched. The final evening was intended to "humanize" Mitt Romney against a sea of attacks from his opponents attempting to turn him into a caricature of the manacled Monopoly man who cares more for money than he does for the poor. Those attacks have been waged with reckless abandon, attempting to paint Romney as a new Ebenezer Scrooge, from the Dickens Christmas Carol - before Scrooges other worldly encounter. We are all to supposed to believe that he is an uncaring "vulture capitalist" who -...

Paul Ryan gave an acceptance speech which ...upped the ante. It lectrified the convention and established him as a force for the future... It... sent shock waves into the Obama-Biden Camp. Anyone who watched that well delivered speech - and witnessed this man's capacity to articulate his positions clearly, compellingly and cogently - while inspiring his listeners and drawing such rounds of appaluse- will, along with me, welcome the upcoming Vice Presidential debate between he and Vice President Joe Biden. This so called "wonk" is also a formidable political weapon. This debate will be one for the history books! Ryan's...

...Platform is clear: "Faithful to the 'self-evident' truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children." ... opponents of the fundamental Human Right to Life of our youngest neighbors in the first home of the human race control much of the media. So, this heroic action by the Republican Platform Committee is reported in...

I attended the Norfolk, Virginia Rally where Mitt Romney introduced Paul Ryan as his running mate... I suggested that some would quickly attempt to spin the positions of this good man as inconsistent with Catholic Social teaching. ...By Monday the effort had begun. Hecklers at the Iowa State Fair demanded that Paul Ryan "stop the war on the poor". The same phrase hecklers used on April 26, 2012 when the Congressman gave an address at Georgetown University. At Georgetown he said "there are some Catholics who for a long time have thought they had a monopoly of sorts. not exactly...

I just returned from the Romney/Ryan campaign event in Norfolk, Virginia. My first experience was complete surprise! The crowd was massive, enthusiastic and hopeful. I don't know what I expected - but what I experienced far exceeded those expectations...As my readers know, I supported the candidacy of a friend whom I still believe would be a great President, Rick Santorum. However, when he withdrew from the race, I made clear in my writing that I would do everything I can to keep the current president from winning reelection. That is because I believe that President Obama is the most Anti-Life...

...I write this article as a private citizen. I still have a right to speak out on such matters, thank God. And this website had enough foresight to organize itself as a "for profit" business. It has avoided the growing hostility toward Christians who speak out. What I am about to say will make some waves; I hope so. Though said almost every four years, this actually IS, in my opinion, the most important presidential election in my lifetime. What is at stake is the very idea of this Nation and the values upon which it was founded. On Wednesday,...

... Ordinary Americans went to Chick-Fil-A restaurants around the Nation because they had had enough. Enough of the threats to freedom and the bullying of people like the owners of that restaurant chain, precisely because they had the courage to voice their convictions in the public square. Because they defended marriage as what it is, they were literally threatened, not only by the strident cultural revolutionaries who seek to enforce a new cultural order upon us all, but by Mayors of major cities who were willing to enforce that new cultural order at the expense of true freedom. We see...