Free Republic

French Catholics criticised a constitutional court judgment denying local officials the right to opt out of conducting same-sex marriages. Antoine Renard, president of France’s National Federation of Catholic Family Associations, charged that the court was operating under political pressure in issuing its decision. “This ruling could have dramatic consequences for religious freedom both here and abroad,” he said. “It also suggests the French Constitution is old-fashioned and needs verification.” Renard’s comments came as representatives of 20,000 French mayors prepared a series of appeals against the court’s judgment on October 18 that, in effect, rejected calls for a conscience clause to...

Once more we learn of military personnel being punished for causing homosexuals in the military to feel bad. From Fox News: An Army chaplain’s assistant said she was accused of creating a “hostile and antagonistic” environment after she posted a message on her personal Facebook page calling homosexuality a sin. The soldier, who asked not to be identified, said her commander ordered her to either remove the Facebook message or face a reduction in rank and pay. “I haven’t taken it down and I won’t take it down,” she told Fox News. “It is frustrating that people are trying to...

There are many liberals who lead thoroughly decent lives. And there are conservatives who do not. But that is not the whole issue. There is something about liberalism that is not nearly as true about conservatism. The further left one goes, the more one finds that the ideology provides moral cover for a life that is not moral. While many people left of center lead fine personal lives, many do not. And left-wing ideals enable a person to do that much more than conservative ideals do. There is an easy way to demonstrate this. If a married — or even...

Episcopal Church gays and lesbians are weighing a resolution to be put forward at the next General Convention making it illegal for straight white males to be admitted to the priesthood. LA Bishop Mary Glasspool, an avowed lesbian and one of many lesbians and gays supporting the "no white males resolution", crafted her resolution after hearing a straight white male preaching a sermon condemning homosexual behavior last month. "I was shocked, stunned, blown away and mortified. I have never heard such homophobia coming from a pulpit. That was my moment to say enough is enough. "This comes down to a...

The first openly gay man in a major American team sport may turn out to be former Middle Tennessee State kicker Alan Gendreau, who hopes to get a shot at the NFL this year. And, if he’s successful, that could translate into millions of dollars in endorsements and speaking engagements, experts say. Whether it’s the Sun Belt Conference’s leading scorer or someone else, the athlete who makes sports history by coming out will likely be sought after by companies that want to appeal to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, whose annual buying power last year was estimated at...

Carla Hale, a teacher in Clintonville, Ohio, was fired just days after an anonymous parent informed the school that her partner's name had appeared in her mother's obituary. Update- April 24, Hale's grievance has been denied.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has reaffirmed the Vatican's criticism of a body that represents U.S. nuns which the Church said was tainted by "radical" feminism, dashing hopes he might take a softer stand with the sisters. Francis's predecessor, Benedict, decreed that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), a group that represents more than 80 percent of the 57,000 Catholic nuns in the United States, must change its ways, a ruling which the Vatican said on Monday still applied. Last year, a Vatican report said the LCWR had "serious doctrinal problems" and promoted "radical feminist themes incompatible with...

Citing the recent controversy over his comments on same-sex marriage, neurosurgeon and rising conservative star Dr. Benjamin Carson has voluntarily stepped down as commencement speaker at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The Baltimore Sun reported that Carson, who heads the department of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, informed medical school Dean Paul B. Rothman in a letter that he didn't want to "distract from the celebratory nature of the day." "Given all the national media surrounding my statements as to my belief in traditional marriage, I believe it would be in the best interest of the students for...

Dr. Ben Carson on Friday apologized to Johns Hopkins University for “poorly chosen” comments he made last week in which he seemed to compare gay relationships to pedophilia and bestiality. The pediatric neurosurgeon’s message to the Hopkins community came after a top university official issued a statement calling Carson’s words “offensive” and saying he would meet with students who want Carson removed as commencement speaker.

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson apologized Friday for comments he made about gay marriage on Sean Hannity’s TV show earlier this week. “I think in terms of what was said on Sean Hannity’s show, that was taken completely out of context and completely misunderstood in terms of what I was trying to say,” Carson told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “As a Christian, I have a duty to love all people and that includes people who have other sexual orientations, and I certainly do, and never had any intention of offending anyone… If anyone was offended, I apologize to you.” The John Hopkins doctor...

One student recently decried the fact that universities are participating in the degradation of their students with the continued focus on sex.Now, it being reported that a church in now helping fund the sexual scholarship at one school: The University of Tennessee’s controversial and explicit sex week plans were in jeopardy after campus leaders recently announced they were pulling about $11,000 in funding for the event, so a church near the campus has decided to raise money for the cause.WATE reports: Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church is located just down the street from UT’s campus, and during their services Sunday...

With that said and meant, this shift is altogether unsurprising. The new mark of being culturally acceptable is affirming homosexuality as virtuous (not merely okay, but virtuous, even exemplary). This is the litmus test. I don’t think many of us expected that it would so quickly fill this role, but it has. The mark of being a progressive, kind, socially courageous person today is simply this: affirming same-sex marriage. There are other cardinal virtues of a contemporary au courant identity, but this is the lodestar, the one that hangs one’s personal moon. This shows us that the cultural middle is...

'Love Wins' Author Rob Bell Supports Gay Marriage CBNNews.com Tuesday, March 19, 2013 Rob Bell, the former "rock star" pastor of Michigan's Mars Hill Bible Church, has come out in support of same-sex marriage. Speaking during a forum at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral Monday, Bell said the ship of traditional marriage "has sailed." "Yes, I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it's a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man," he said. "I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people...

Appearing on Monday's NBC Today as part of the Today's Professionals panel discussion, the network's chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman urged the Catholic Church to abandon its opposition to contraception: "Here's one thing I really would implore the Catholic Church to do on a global issue.... poverty without birth control begets more poverty....So this is a chance to take the humility and the poverty and say now we're really going to talk about this in a civilized way and move it forward." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump] Advertising executive Donny Deutsch chimed in: "Well...

Many times in my ministry, a conversation with abortion clinic staffers that began with talking about the spiritual needs of patients ends on a far more personal note…. An office manager told a colleague of mine that she braces herself every time she checks the mail, wondering how many hate letters she’ll come across, and wants a sacred community to turn to for support. One clinic counselor said she misses the rituals and music of her faith community, and often thinks about trying to find a church, but worries about being judged or shunned when small talk leads to questions...

NEW ORLEANS -- San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver created quite the ruckus this week when he intimated that anyone with a homosexual predilection would not be welcome on his team. Now, he's doing everything he can to get past that. According to his publicist, Theodore Palmer, Culliver will be working with "The Trevor Project," an organization that provides crisis and suicide intervention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. "He's so passionate about youth and people being comfortable with who they are and accepted by all," Palmer said in a phone interview with the Associated Press on Saturday. "He's...

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday set the stage for a massive showdown between the federal government of the United States and American Christians who believe the government has no right to force them to act against their faith by mandating that they buy, provide or facilitate health-care coverage that includes sterilizations, contraception, or abortion-inducing drugs. HHS released a new proposed regulation under the Obamacare law that the department presented as an accommodation to religious “organizations” that object to providing sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in their health care plans. However, the proposal does not...

WASHINGTON — When Mark Takano ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice in the early 1990s, his opponents tried to smear him as a “homosexual liberal” and a “nutzoid.” One of them even had pink fliers printed that asked, “A Congressman for Riverside ... Or San Francisco?” When he ran again last year, he won by almost 20 points. “Flash forward 18 years,” Mr. Takano said recently, “and the very macho building tradesmen are behind me. I’m getting pictures with them in their hard hats.” For decades, the words “gay” and “Congress” were usually seen together only in stories of scandal and...

President Obama began his Inauguration Day by attending worship services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in the Nation’s Capital along with his wife Michelle and their daughters Sasha and Malia. It was a rare church appearance for the First Family. During, during their first four years residing in the White House, they found time for the Lord not even half as many times as they managed to get away for family vacays. After services yesterday at St. Johns, during which the president stood to receive a blessing from Bishop Vashti McKenzie, the First Family’s next stop was the U.S. Capitol,...