Free Republic

Last week, as radical Islamists slaughtered 148 Christian students at a Kenyan university, America’s faithful celebrated Easter and Passover in tranquility, demonstrating why religious liberty is not the eccentric uncle in the human-rights family — it’s the matriarch. Yet with demonic evil spanning the globe, and religion a life-and-death matter, punishment for defending one’s faith is now acceptable in America. Our “live and let live” ethic is increasingly imperiled. Witness the firestorm after Indiana became the 20th state to enact its version of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In our morally upside-down world, we accommodate the nuclear ambitions of...

Lawmakers want to further protect immigrants The same California legislators who helped get undocumented residents drivers licenses unveiled a package Tuesday of 10 bills that would also provide them with subsidized health care and other benefits, including protection from fraud and discrimination. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, said the flurry of bills “unequivocally state California’s commitment to immigrants.” During a news conference in Sacramento, de León and others switched between English and Spanish to tout the proposed laws they said mark a “historic moment” for the state. One proposal was floated last year: a bill by...

Bake me a cake, or go to jail! Sadly, that is the new message from "inclusive" America. If you don't want to cater, photograph, preside over, sell pizza at, sell flowers to or otherwise participate in a gay wedding, you will be punished. If you don't want your business to pay for a kind of birth control that you consider murder, you will pay fines until your business is bankrupt. Personally, I think both birth control and homosexuality are just fine, and gay marriage is as valid as straight marriage. But forcing everyone to act as if they think that...

Before we begin, allow me to clear up one common misconception for those of you who aren’t regular readers of the site and just followed a link here because of the awful, offensive title. Most of you in the latter category always seem to assume that I’m opposed to gay marriage because I have no problem with – and actually support – the RFRA laws currently under discussion. If you take a moment to check with our commenters you will be quickly disabused of this notion, as they will immediately tell you I’m one of those big ole’ RINOs...

If the crowds clamoring about legalized discrimination in Indiana this week, calling for boycotts of the state, want to see what real prejudice looks like, they should take a look at the laws on the books in a city few of them would ever consider denouncing: New York City. That’s where real discrimination can be found, and it’s a great example of why religious Americans need stronger legal protections along the lines of Indiana’s. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a federal appeals-court decision that upheld a New York City policy that prohibits worship services in public-school...

No one, I think, would ever have denied that Maurice Bessinger was a man of faith. And he wasn’t particularly a “still, small voice” man either; he wanted everybody in earshot to know that slavery had been God’s will, that desegregation was Satan’s work, and the federal government was the Antichrist. God wanted only whites to eat at Bessinger’s six Piggie Park barbecue joints; so His servant Maurice took that fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1968 decided that his religious freedom argument was “patently frivolous.” Until the day he died, however, Bessinger insisted that...

The Left is apoplectic – again – over a new piece of statutory law in Indiana that does nothing more than protect long-standing religious freedoms. To liberals, however, “religious freedom” is not a First Amendment right to be protected, but rather code for bigotry, racism, homophobia, smacking kittens and eating fried foods.

Last week The Ryersonian reported on an incident that involved two first-year journalism students who were turned away from an event organized by Racialized Students' Collective because they are white. Since then there has been a lot of commentary on the piece and a lot of debate -- a lot of the criticism is valid. There are two sides to the story: 1) the media has a right to attend public events and report on matters that are in the public interest. The student media needs to cover initiatives that are happening on campus so that we draw attention to...

link only: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/03/16/google-code-2040-tech-diversity-nation/70302194/

A community is rallying around an Ohio couple who says they were denied wedding services because of their sexual orientation. Jenn Moffitt and her partner Jerra Kincely were on the hunt in February for a wedding videographer. She sent an email asking video production business "Next Door Stories" in Bexley, Ohio, if it would cater to a same-sex couple. She was shocked by the response. "Unfortunately at this time I do not offer services for same-sex weddings," the owner of business wrote in an email Moffitt shared with CNN.

When Cal Poly Sal Luis Obispo hosts its annual Open House this April, during which campus clubs typically greet and recruit prospective visiting students, one longtime mainstay at the university will be conspicuously absent: Cru. The Christian club will not be allowed to set up a table and pass out fliers, or meet and greet guests. It’s the same at Chico State, where Cru will not be allowed to showcase itself during the school’s annual fall recruitment drive. They’ve also been forbidden from hanging up posters in freshman dorms. Gone are the days when Christian student clubs at Cal Poly...

A report in the LA Times revealed that blacks and Hispanics get bonus SAT points at elite universities based on their race. Asian students however are penalized 50 points due to their race.

A former student representative at George Mason University was removed from his position after tweeting about “illegals” receiving in-state college tuition which was perceived as offensive by some students. Storm Paglia assumed the position of undersecretary for university dining services last May and on Feb. 13 tweeted his disapproval of the Virginia Senate and House allowing “illegals” to have “in state tuition with an easier process than if I were to apply.” “And the next time someone tells me the word ILLEGAL is inappropriate please enlighten me on how they haven’t broken our country’s laws,” Paglia continued in a separate...

The National Association of African-American Owned Media alleges that Sharpton and other advocates have been bought off. Even though the FCC hasn't yet ruled on the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, one group has already filed a lawsuit claiming at least $20 billion in damages from the way the two giants allegedly discriminate against black-owned media. The complaint, filed in California on Friday, comes from the National Association of African-American Owned Media, which also filed a similar suit against AT&T and DirecTV in December. This time, the plaintiff is not only targeting both Comcast and TWC on...

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY JEH JOHNSON: We in the administration and the government should give voice to the plight of Muslims living in this country and the discrimination that they face.

In the name of anti-discrimination, the City Council of Charlotte, North Carolina is poised to discriminate against people of conservative moral values, also imposing the struggles of a tiny minority on every man, woman, and child who lives or works in Charlotte or might happen to visit the city. It’s wake up time, Charlotte! It’s not too late to make a change. According to an in-depth review by a team of lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a new bill, which the City Council will vote on after a public meeting on Monday, February 23rd, “does not contain adequate safeguards...

I just got a couple of job inquiries, where having an H1-B visa is a must. Is there a way to report these jokers to the appropriate agency?

Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, could be dragged into a messy legal battle after a Muslim family demanded that a “non-believer” who was buried next to their relation be exhumed for religious reasons. The unnamed Muslim family raised objections after an 89-year-old Roman Catholic man was buried in a plot adjacent to their relation. Shadrack Smith was buried in the multi-denominational Lychgate Lane Cemetery in Burbage, Leicestershire, following his funeral on Jan 30. Mr Smith had lived in an official gipsy camp in nearby Aston Firs for more than 20 years, and in excess of 400 relations and friends attended...

This is so expected.  First, the “gay pride” flag was flown over the U.S. Embassy in Madrid.  Then it was Israel’s turn to hoist the rainbow ensign over the embassy in Tel Aviv.  Now, Secretary of State John Kerry will appoint an LGBT special envoy. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said US Secretary of State John Kerry would “soon” make the appointment. “It will be an openly gay foreign service officer. We don’t have a finalized name yet. But we will announce soon,” Harf said. Resume qualifications for this position:  be openly gay.  It’s not like there’s any discrimination going...

Today's lead editorial in The New York Times came out in strong support of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed for firing the city's Fire Chief, Kelvin Cochran. Cochran, as you may know was fired recently for having “antigay views.” Christian author and professor, Denny Burk, took issue with the NYT editorial on his blog, arguing that if the Atlanta Fire Chief’s termination isn’t a religious liberty case, then nothing is. Extensive details about this curious case of termination are easy to find elsewhere. For instance, see this Christianheadlines.com article, click the related links throughout this post, and view Chief Cochran’s own...