Free Republic

In the Texas senator's bid for the White House, his father and wife are the tip of the spear. To one degree or another, every candidate running for president has enlisted their family in their effort. But none have gone so far as Ted Cruz, whose surging campaign has placed his wife Heidi and father Rafael at the tip of the spear, leading fundraising and organizing efforts as if they were paid staffers.Neither has a formal title, but as the Texas senator continues to roll out endorsements and assemble a growing network of supporters in the early states and across...

Thanksgiving is an outward act of inner gratitude. This holiday is more than pumpkins, turkeys, and commercially hyped Black Fridays. Thanking God for our blessings, giving selflessly and generously, and loving one another is at the heart of this day, which should be a daily occurrence. Being thankful is not always a natural response. People rescued from brokenness tend to have a better perspective on gratitude. I'm daily reminded of being saved from abortion. I was conceived in rape, yet given the incredible opportunity, through adoption, to love and be loved. Today, as an adoptive father, I have the awesome...

While a few members of my extended family celebrate Thanksgiving as a prelude to the sales that follow Thanksgiving, I think of it as the day before the turkey leftovers. To me, there is nothing better than a leftover turkey sandwich with mayonnaise, spicy mustard, icebox lettuce and tomato. We know the first American Thanksgiving story. Almost 400 years ago, the pilgrims and Indians came together to share their harvest. Since then, Thanksgiving has become a day of family gatherings, feasting and football. While growing up in Carrollton, Georgia, I looked forward to Thanksgiving weekend, when our small town put...

Alpha 2, The World's First Humanoid Robot for the Family. Intelligent, Interactive and Expandable!

SALT LAKE CITY - Riding on the bright, efficient light rail through the downtown, a visitor can feel the vibes of a shifting urban environment, plus some spectacular mountains. It's a little like cruising the wide, clean streets of Disneyland, except that instead of Goofy and Mickey, you might spot a few homeless people here and there. Founded in 1847 by Brigham Young and other Mormon pioneers, the city feels safer than most, and the clean-cut Mormon influence is substantial. But the city has not been immune from the cultural decline of families and resultant government dependency. Utah's capital (pop....

The disturbing evidence about the health of white middle-aged American working class, discovered and publicized this week by Nobel prize winner Angus Deaton and his wife Anne Case, is not tied to just one trend in the culture, policies, or economic factors at work within the United States. It is not the fault of one party or movement, but has multiple root causes. But it is something we all ought to be concerned about, both for the future fiscal and policy burden it represents, and for the broader lesson it tells us about how America is changing. The numbers clearly...

Is a homosexual agenda unduly influencing the outcome of the Synod on the family? It’s a question that needs to be raised because snippets gleaned from the Vatican in recent years seem to point in this direction... ...If this article has put the jigsaw together properly we must surmise that the sex abuse crisis is not over for the Church. The secular and Catholic media’s failure to report it accurately, and an over focus on paedophilia not homosexuality meant that sexually active gay men hiding behind dog collars remain free to betray their vows as priests. Having avoided exposure so...

Last week, I gave my personal endorsement of Ted Cruz for President of the United States, and he asked if I would describe why I have done so. (I'd like to note that this is my personal endorsement only, not a ministry endorsement.)We are blessed in this election cycle with multiple candidates whose campaign positions are conservative and value based. For that, I am thankful. But to me there are a few areas that set Senator Ted Cruz apart, and I am honored that he asked for my endorsement:He is a Christian. Being a Christian is not a requirement for...

A report released by the American Enterprise Institute’s Institute for Family Studies showed that strong families have a direct impact on the economy in the states where they live and work and that married parents raising children are better predictors of economic mobility, child poverty and median family income than other demographics such as race or education. “Higher levels of marriage, and especially higher levels of married-parent families, are strongly associated with more economic growth, more economic mobility, less child poverty and higher median family income at the state level in the United States,” the report stated. Using data from...

Throughout history, and the world over, the union of one man and one woman is the foundation of every social institution. Strong and healthy marriages lead to strong and healthy families. Strong and healthy families lead to strong and healthy communities. Strong and healthy communities lead to strong and healthy churches, schools, businesses, governments, and so on. What’s more, marriage is “the Crown of Creation.” It is the priority relationship within the family, with all other relationships being subordinate, and functioning subject, to it. After our relationship with our Creator, the most important relationship in the universe is the relationship...

White House officials pushed to ban conversion therapy for LGBT youths, pointing to new findings that debunk the therapy. A ban on the conversion therapy for minors was introduced in Congress on Thursday, following a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "The science rebukes this so-called practice and so do we," White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett told reporters on a call Thursday. The report from the administration includes a consensus from an expert panel held by the American Psychological Association earlier this summer.The panel found that variations in "sexual orientation and gender identity are normal,...

When the Census Bureau recently released its 2014 data on household income in the United States, the numbers once again pointed to a basic trend that this nation's liberal political and cultural elite has no interest in publicizing. Married people with children generally do better financially than other Americans. As previously noted in this column, this was true in 2013. We now know it remained true in 2014. The overall median household income in the United States in 2014 was $53,657. Female householders in a nonfamily household had a median income of $26,673, according to the Census Bureau's Table HINC-01....

There’s a Way to Stop Mass Shootings, and You Won’t Like It.That’s right. You’re not going to like it because it’s going to require you to do something personally, as opposed to shouting for the government, or anyone to “do something!”You ready? Here it is:“Notice those around you who seem isolated, and engage them.”If every one of us did this we’d have a culture that was deeply committed to ensuring no one was left lonely. And make no mistake, as I’ve written before loneliness is what causes these shooters to lash out. People with solid connections to other people don’t indiscriminately...

Short and sweet. If you have an hour and a half and want to watch something incredibly disturbing, go out on netflix or solarmovies.com and watch an excellently-done documentary, "Divorce Corp". We all see the articles posted here periodically about the atrocities and oxymorons of "family court". This shows just how bad things really are in family court in America, and both men (usually men) and women too, can be royally screwed by this system. Family court is a money racket for the judges, the lawyers, and the often-demanded to be hired "experts". Sobering enough to make you not want...

Rorate Caeli has released a translation of a remarkable interview, originally published in 2008, with Cardinal Carlo Caffara of Bologna. In it, he references correspondence he had with Sister Lucia, the principle visionary of Our Lady at Fatima: Q. There is a prophecy by Sister Lucia dos Santos, of Fatima, which concerns “the final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan”. The battlefield is the family. Life and the family. We know that you were given charge by John Paul II to plan and establish the Pontifical Institute for the Studies on Marriage and the Family.

Editor's Note: The following column is satire.To the limited extent they actually do, have you ever wondered how so-called “progressives” think? The progressive mind – let’s call it, “Progressy” – collectively hovers, like the Hindenburg, in that fantastical realm, that manmade utopia in waiting, that “fundamentally transformed” world that might only be, if … Hitler got it mostly wrong, Stalin, somewhat right, and Mao, with his “Great Leap Forward,” warmer still. Marx and Engels were red-hot-close, but, they, too, missed the mark, if only by an inch. Today’s hipper, gentler, more progressivish progressives are confident that, if we’d only give...

Faced with the crisis in marriage and the family, answers can only come from the certitudes of the faith. This was affirmed by Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, President emeritus of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, when he intervened at the Meeting Marriage and the Family. Between Praxis and Dogma in the Church, organized by the Lepanto Foundation and the Association “Famiglia Domani” which took place on the 10th of October in Rome at the ‘Sala S. Pio X, Via dell’Ospedale’. Among those participating were Monsignor Antonio Livi, Professor Roberto de Mattei and Professor Giovanni Turco. There...

Last week cardinals and bishops attending the Ordinary Synod on the Family separated into thirteen small groups to discuss the first part of the Instrumentum Laboris and propose amendments to the document. The reports of their work, made public yesterday, reveal a striking failure to protect the family from the serious threats contained within the first part of this heterodox preparatory document. It is important to note that these reports are not the only documents that will be submitted to the commission that will write the final report of the synod (if such a report is written). The small groups...

Contemporary African-American music—especially rap and hip-hop—has become synonymous with and notorious for its suggestive and explicit lyrics. Women are often portrayed as sex toys, violence is glorified, denunciations of law enforcement are routine, and middle-class upbringings go unacknowledged, lest they undermine the artists’ street credentials. The huge commercial success of casually sexual, scatological, and even nihilistic music feeds an impression that black music has always exhibited such qualities—a cultural narrative dating back at least as far as the advent of Elvis Presley, who, it was said, sexualized popular music by incorporating “Negro” influences. In his classic book Black Music, the...

Thursday evening at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue in Atlanta, Vice President Joe Biden said he is considering running for president but added that “the most relevant factor” is if he and his family have enough “emotional energy” after the recent death of his son Beau Biden.