Free Republic

WASHINGTON — A 17-year-old transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note that religious therapists had tried to convert her back to being a boy. In response, President Obama this week will call for an end to such psychiatric therapies aimed at “repairing” gay, lesbian and transgender youth, White House officials said. His decision on the sensitive issue is the latest example of his continuing embrace of gay rights. In a statement to be posted on Wednesday evening...

This is the era in which we are all being drafted in the Culture War. It doesn’t matter if you’re secular or religious, political or apolitical, frat boys or geeks, hipsters or bros. Nobody gets to be neutral or sit on the sidelines, because we’ll all be expected to make our obeisance to the latest politically correct opinion handed down to us by a Twitter mob. By now, we know the basic ingredients of a typical skirmish in Culture War 4.0. It goes something like this: a) a leftist claque starts loudly pushing the “correct” Culture War position onto b)...

The battles in Arkansas and Indiana over two bogus “religious freedom” bills, that were thinly disguised vehicles for anti-LGBT discrimination, exposed a major rift within the Republican Party. It came down to Big Bible vs. Big Business – and the concerns of social conservatives were swiftly dropped like a bad stock. (* “Big Bible” does not mean ALL Christians. Just the intolerant ones who reject separation of church and state and have shamelessly built a lucrative industry distorting the Bible to justify discrimination) With major corporations like Wal-Mart and Apple loudly condemning these bills, Republican lawmakers quickly retreated. Amended bills...

A feminist magazine has declared that men who like breasts are sexist. In an article titled, “So You’re a ‘Breasts Man’? Here Are 3 Reasons That Could Be Sexist,” Jenika McCrayer explains why men who are sexually attracted to women with breasts are misogynists. McCrayer explains that “under a patriarchal system… we’re taught to believe that the female body exists solely for a man’s sexual pleasure and entertainment.” She then explains several reasons why liking breasts is a bad thing. First, “It Dangerously Conflates Attraction and Fetishization.” She explains, “breasts are not solely for aesthetic or sexual purposes. They have...

If you went looking for the Apostle Paul an aeon ago, you might expect to find him mumbling platitudes in a dusty monastery, fumbling beads in some inane act of farcical devotion, locked for all time in a dingy prayer closet lit only by the nimbus of sainthood; or maybe, having assumed a vow of poverty, laboring in “full time Christian service,” whatever that means—in practical obscurity. If this is your idea of Pauline Christianity, you are profoundly wrong, and are among the majority of those who claim the nearly meaningless appellation of “Christian.” It is fashionable among those who...

After reading yesterday’s AT article "Teaching Racial Hatred" by David Deming, professor of arts and sciences at the University of Oklahoma, I realized something that had not occurred to me earlier about the goal of teaching college kids about white privilege. Many people believe that white privilege is a tool that is used to make white Americans feel guilty about their success by claiming that the mere fact that they were born with white skin gave them an upper hand in life (especially white heterosexual males). Once made to feel guilty, the white individuals soon begin to hate themselves for...

That photo is me about ten years ago, standing in the ruins of a land where people rejected the rule of law in favor of the rule of force. I think a lot about my year-long deployment to Kosovo these days. I think a lot about people today who, for short term political points, cavalierly disregard the rules, laws and norms that made America what it is. I think a lot about how liberals, especially those who boo God, should pray to Him that those rules, laws and norms are restored. I am most certainly not smiling – I am...

Here it is, the first television ad of the 2016 presidential campaign, courtesy of the first official presidential candidate, Ted Cruz. No beating around the bush here—we get a mention of Jesus in the very first sentence:(VIDEO-AT-LINK) "Were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the house. God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation. Over and over again when we faced impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge. This is our fight, and that is why I'm...

How are wars won? To win a war you don’t need to kill every soldier on the other side. What you need to do is destroy the other army as an organized force. You destroy the ability of the officers to command and the morale of the men. You destroy their perception of the worth of their side and of their own self-worth. All wars are culture wars. To win you must destroy the values of the other side. (That is one reason why we’re losing to Islam no matter how many times we beat them on the battlefield.) You...

If you have been following mass media over the past few days, you will have learned from an economist at the U.S. Department of Labor that defenders of religious freedom are “Nazis.” Take a moment to ponder that assertion. Roll it around in your head for a while. You’ll be hearing a lot more fighting words as we enter the next phase of Christian life in America. Sample the hate that has been spewed at the state of Indiana in the past week, and faithful Christians in recent years, by gay activists and their allies. We are “bigots,” “Neanderthals” and...

Wednesday, April 01, 2015 This Culture War We're In Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog How are wars won? To win a war you don't need to kill every soldier on the other side. What you need to do is destroy the other army as an organized force. You destroy the ability of the officers to command and the morale of the men. You destroy their perception of the worth of their side and of their own self-worth. All wars are culture wars. To win you must destroy the values of the other side. (That is one...

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Wednesday that he does not plan to sign the version of the religious freedom bill that currently sits on his desk and called on the state legislature to make changes before sending it back to him. Hutchinson, who called the issue "divisive" and cited his own son as an example of someone urging him to veto the bill, made the announcement during a Little Rock press conference Wednesday morning. The Arkansas House on Tuesday approved a religious freedom measure that mirrors the one Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law in Indiana -- sparking outrage...

A throng of likely Republican presidential contenders came to the defense Monday of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s signing of the state’s religious-freedom law, signaling a sharp contrast with Democrats on an issue that could extend into the 2016 race.

At Starbucks’ annual shareholder’s meeting in Seattle on Wednesday a shareholder complained to Billionaire CEO, Schultz about the fact that Starbucks has lost customers because of its support of gay marriage. Starbucks supported Washington’s state’s referendum backing gay marriage last year and in response the National Organization for Marriage started a boycott of the company. Tom Stobhar, founder of Corporate Morality Action Center, complained about the company’s support of gay marriage, citing that the company’s support for gay marriage has resulted in boycotts against the company that have cost Starbucks a considerable amount of business. “In the first full quarter...

Acceptance of gay marriage has long been a matter of when, rather than if -- in large part thanks to younger generations being overwhelmingly in favor.But just how quickly are views of homosexuality changing from generation to generation? A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute has some insights.The poll tested how millennials (ages 18 to 34) view various sexual behaviors, including homosexuality. And about equal numbers say homosexuality is morally wrong (38 percent) and morally acceptable (42 percent). Another 13 percent say it depends on the situation, while 7 percent declined to answer.What's most interesting, though, is when...

Gay activists and corporate leaders assailed a new Indiana allows that extends legal protections to religious business owners and individuals and vowed to boycott the state, according to CNBC. The law, signed by Pence on Thursday, allows businesses to use an owner's faith as a reason to refuse service to customers, including same-sex married couples. The law risks setting off a business chill in the state, with money-making conferences and major corporations threatening to pull out. Big corporations were among the loudest critics. Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins, the world's largest diesel engine maker, opposed the new law in strong terms. "Cummins believes...

GenCon, the world’s biggest convention for tabletop gaming and a massive moneymaking machine for the State of Indiana, has responded to a bill that legalizes discrimination against LGBT customers by threatening to leave the state—and take their $50 million-a-year convention elsewhere. This isn’t because GenCon is run by political progressives or “social justice warriors” trying to make a difference. It really, really isn’t. If GenCon leaves Indianapolis it’ll be for the same reason it came to Indianapolis and abandoned its original home of Wisconsin, the home state of founder of D&D Gary Gygax (peace be upon him). Because it makes...

Adam Stinnett looks up to his older stepbrother – a soldier in the U.S. Army. So when it came time to get a haircut, the seven-year-old told his mother he wanted a basic military-style cut. And that’s exactly what he got – high and tight – just like his stepbrother. Adam got his haircut on March 8. On March 9, his mother got a letter from the principal of Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee. It seems they were not all that thrilled with the second grader’s new hairdo. The principal told Amy Stinnett that her son’s haircut...

Irving, Texas Mayor Beth Van Duyne has doubled down in the face of criticism and has vowed to fight against Sharia Law “with every fiber” of her being. Van Duyne is facing criticism from both left wing groups and the muslim community after the city council passed HB 562 which forbids the use of foreign law and confirms the supremacy of U.S. laws.In response, CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) now demands an apology from Van Duyne citing that HB 562 is a direct attack on the religion of Islam. Via Conservative Tribune According to WND, Van Duyne has sworn to “fight with...

The highest ranking woman in the Anglican communion has said climate denial is a “blind” and immoral position which rejects God’s gift of knowledge. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church and one of the most powerful women in Christianity, said that climate change was a moral imperative akin to that of the civil rights movement. She said it was already a threat to the livelihoods and survival of people in the developing world.