Free Republic

In America, 43 of the 50 U.S. states confer some type of civil or criminal immunity on parents who injure their children by withholding medical care on religious grounds. If your child has diabetes or a severe infection, and you pray for her instead of giving her insulin or antibiotics, she’ll probably die, but you’re largely off the legal hook. But that immunity doesn’t apply if you injure your child by withholding medical care for nonreligious reasons; for that, you can be prosecuted for neglect, abuse, or even manslaughter. This privileging of religion is dangerous to children—and has killed many...

A neighbor says he heard the cries of a 9-month-old boy who authorities believe later starved after his mother died of an apparent overdose inside their Pittsburgh-area apartment. William Gonzalez tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ( http://bit.ly/1BdYU7k ) he heard the cries of little Casey Kessler when he went in and out of the apartment building in Millvale but didn't think much of it at the time. Gonzalez says he feels horrible.

It has been called “The History-Making Gay Kiss,” as “The Fosters” TV show, which airs during prime time on the ABC Family network, featured the “Youngest Same-Sex TV Kiss Ever.” Yes, on a so-called “family friendly” network, two 13-year-old boys locked lips, and gay activists and their allies are celebrating the moment. GLAAD, formally known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, stated that, “ABC Family's 'The Fosters' breaks new ground with Jude and Connor kiss.” (For those who are not familiar with the show, Jude is raised by two lesbians, his adoptive parents.) Gabe Bergado, writing for the...

On Wednesday, perpetually controversial conservative Ben Carson told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that being gay is “absolutely” a choice. I agree, kind of. Last week I wrote an essay for the Washington Post in which I talked about wanting my daughter to be gay—implicitly and explicitly challenging the idea long advanced by gay rights advocates that being gay is not a choice. I’m not saying being gay necessarily is a conscious choice for many queer folks today, but I am saying it should be able to be a choice—and one that is “equally desirable to being straight.” In other words, for...

Openly gay political commentator Sally Kohn says, in a new essay for The Washington Post, that she hopes her daughter is gay too, despite already being attracted to boys. Kohn, a well-known political commentator on networks like CNN and Fox News, says that like all parents who want their children to follow in their footsteps, she also has hoped that her daughter would turn out to be gay. Despite those wishes, however, Kohn says she’s already starting to notice that her six-year-old daughter is most likely straight and that leaves her a bit disappointed. “I live in the liberal bubble...

The child arrived at a Florida school Friday with bruises all over. But it was the T-shirt the child was wearing that gave it away. “I currently have all F’s in all of my classes. I am not aloud to have a boyfriend no time soon,” the shirt read. “So back off before I get another good woopin like I got last night.” That attempt at public shaming led to the arrest Friday of Melany Joyce Alexander, 31, who was charged with child abuse. She posted a $2,500 bond a day later. “She beat the child with a belt, and...

A 37-year-old gay mom is set to spark controversy after she said she'd be disappointed if her daughter grew up straight. Sally Kohn a political commentator who has appeared on CNN and MSNBC, describes herself as living in the 'liberal bubble of Park Slope, Brooklyn, where 'yuppies' want their kids to be happy. She said: 'I'm gay. And I want my kid to be gay, too.'

Pope Francis recently proclaimed that it is okay for parents to spank their children if their dignity is respected. That lamentable statement is as naive as it is injurious. Especially at a time when our beleaguered world has been experiencing countless outrageous forms of violence, his regrettable words do little to quell such tragic acts and may even add fuel to the fire. Our world has more than enough hitting. Why anyone, however well intentioned, would wish to do anything to increase it defies reason. Regarding spanking (however one may choose to define it), Edward Lee Thorndike, the Columbia University...

On February 9th, Florida’s Yulee High School brought the hammer down on a student who offended some of his fellow classmates. The student was reprimanded for his actions after reading the morning announcements over the school’s intercom. Why? Upon finishing the announcements, the student added, ‘God Bless America.’ Two atheist students took offense to the statement. A school spokesperson for the Nassau County School District said that the student had gone off script and was being reprimanded: “It wasn’t part of the scripted morning announcements,” district spokesperson Sharyl Wood said. “The principal took the appropriate steps in speaking with the student...

A father in Seminole County, Florida, is raising concerns after he discovered a lesson on Islam in his son’s 10th-grade history textbook, a book that is also used by school districts across the state. In an interview with WFTV, the father, Ron Wagner, read from his son’s history book: “There is no god, but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God.” Wagner also claimed that students were told to “recite this prayer as the first Pillar of Islam, off of the board at the teacher’s instruction.” Wager said he’s not a religious man, but making such a heavily religious lesson “mandatory...

Authorities say they enlisted help from the aunt's co-worker, who lured the child into his pickup after he got off a school bus Monday. Authorities said the man told the boy he wouldn't "see his mommy again," and that he'd be "nailed to the wall of a shed," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. He showed the boy a handgun in an effort to make him stop crying, authorities said. The man tied the child's hands and feet with plastic bags and blindfolded him with a jacket, the sheriff's office said, before he drove the boy to his Troy home. Authorities...

A “mommy blogger” accused of killing her 5-year-old son by poisoning him with lethal doses of salt — and documenting his demise online — was a monster who “seemed to relish in the attention and sympathy she got from having a sick little boy,” prosecutors charged Tuesday. Lacey Spears burst into tears as her murder trial got under way in Westchester County Court in White Plains and prosecutors accused of her being a “calculated child killer” in little Garnett-Paul’s 2014 death.

GUSTINE, Texas — A group of students at an elementary school in Texas were apparently asked to lower their pants for a poop inspection on Monday. School educators told two dozen students they were regularly finding feces on the gym floor. The students were then separated into groups of boys and girls and ordered to “pull down their pants” so administrators could “check if they could find anything.”

California Teacher Allegedly Arranged Beach Trip For Sex With Students (Pics in URL) By AMY HUBBARD AND EMILY ALPERT REYES Two female Southern California teachers had sex with male high school students during an overnight beach camping trip that one of the teachers orchestrated, authorities say. Melody Lippert, 38, and Michelle Ghirelli, 30, are set to be arraigned in Orange County on Wednesday. A student Ghirelli is accused of having sex with was under 18 years old, while Lippert allegedly had sex with a student who was 18, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

As the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals considers whether to strike down laws in three states banning same-sex “marriage,” four adult children of homosexual parents have filed court briefings arguing that government-sanctioned homosexual unions could lead to disaster for thousands of kids.Katy Faust, Dawn Stefanowicz, B.N. Klein, and Robert Oscar Lopez, who were all raised by homosexual parents, each submitted briefs to the 5th Circuit opposing the legalization of same-sex “marriage.”  Recounting childhood memories of households made deeply dysfunctional by their parents’ sexual appetites and the radical subculture that went along with their “gay” identities, all four argued that redefining...

***Update***: The man in the video appears to be Pastor Eric Dammann of Bible Baptist Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. I’ve sent him an email requesting more information about why he punched a child. (Via Christian Nightmares and @StickyPkls) … In this clip from a sermon, a Christian pastor explains how he walked up to a smart-aleck kid who wasn’t “taking the Lord serious”… and punched him in the chest. Because that’s how you’re supposed to win converts for Jesus. VIDEO ON LINK

Two Northern California women accused of chaining up their 8-year-old adopted daughter to prevent her from getting food will face trial on more than a dozen child abuse-related counts. The Monterey County Herald reported Thursday that 33-year-old Eraca Dawn Craig and 44-year-old Christian Jessica DeAnda each face charges including child abuse, child endangerment, false imprisonment and torture.

Middle School Kids Taken To Hear Louis Farrakhan Call For Violence Against The 'Crackers' "We want some of this earth or we’ll tear this goddamn country up!” 1.2.2015 News Jeff Dunetz An administrator at Booker T. Washington Middle School in Baltimore, MD, took forty young teenage students as young as eleven-years-old to the 2nd Annual Black United Summit International (BUSI) conference where they heard bigoted purveyor of hatred Louis Farrakhan reference "white people as “crackers” and a call for “retaliation” for the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson." According to Danette Clark, ​who wrote about the conference for the Education...

Hollywood recently unveiled yet another of many feature films for the holiday season, this one the ambitious World War II era character study, Unbroken. It was directed by Angelina Jolie, and while I haven’t seen it yet, the topic looks fascinating. When it came time for the red carpet activities, though, Jolie’s family had to step in for her and do a quick turn for the cameras. Here’s one photo from the event, featuring husband Brad Pitt and several of their children.That’s a handsome group of fellows, isn’t it? But if you look a bit closer there’s a bit of...

In Britain, these long-suppressed rivers of cultural rot are finally beginning to make headlines in the media, after decades of spreading under cover of media censorship. Pedophile rings have been publicly exposed at the very top of the BBC -- George Orwell’s infamous Ministry of Truth, which only broadcast lies. Recently a ring of 22 pedophiles was exposed in Parliament, with headline allegations of murders of some child victims. In cities like Rotherham, Pakistani gangs victimized thousands of children. Pakistanis criminals were invariably labeled “Asians” in the press during this time of witch hunts. But the word “Asian” never seemed...