Free Republic

Many of you are aware that there is an Extraordinary Synod planned in Rome on the family.   There is surely no hiding the fact that the family is in real crisis, at least in the modern Western World, if not throughout many other parts as well. We do well to ponder the reasons and roots of this crisis, and develop strategies to begin to address the many problems.At the recent Bishops Conference Meeting here in America, Cardinal Sean O’Malley made some remarks that I would like to draw upon, even as I make some remarks of my own. Basing...

We’ve talked a good deal about the decline of marriage on this blog over the years. And our discussion must continue as the Synod on the family is planned in Rome.In my short 25 years as a priest I have experienced a major drop off in marriages. In my early years, I had about thirty weddings a year; now, about five or six. In this urban parish in which I have ministered for the larger part of 20 years, a beautiful and picturesque setting for a matrimonial sacrament, we used to have to turn couples away who were not members....

Have you ever heard the expression, “Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?” It appears that some women on college campuses have become “cows” as women sell themselves short, allowing casual sexual “hooking up” to dominate their relationships with male students.

Noting the comeback campaigns of Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner in New York, feminist author Hanna Rosin wonders why “50 years into the sexual revolution” women politicians lag so far behind men in the sex-scandal tally. She notes biological and evolutionary explanations only to reject them in favor of the idea that women are just too unused to power to abuse it in that way. She’s cheered, though, by surveys showing that younger women are cheating on their spouses almost as much as men, and confidently looks forward to the not-too-distant day when we’ll “find ourselves willing to look past...

<p>Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff from Los Angeles County, Calif., was arrested in London, England, earlier this week for preaching on abstaining from sexual immorality, both heterosexual and homosexual, in downtown Wimbledon. He was found to be in violation of Public Order Act Section 5, for "using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult," Miano said in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday. Preaching from 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12, Miano spoke about sexual sins for 25 minutes before being cut off by Metropolitan Police officers who said that although preaching in itself is not an offense, the specific part of the Bible he was preaching from was interpreted as homophobic by the woman who called to complain.</p>

On Monday, the Madras High Court weighed in on a spousal support case and inadvertently provoked a debate over what exactly defines a relationship between a man and a woman. The court had heard an appeal from a woman who was seeking financial support from the father of her two children and live-in partner of five years. A lower court had previously ordered the man to pay child support but ruled that because the woman was not his legal wife, he did not need to pay her anything. In overturning the lower court’s ruling, Madras High Court Judge C.S. Karnan...

NBA star Dwight Howard is expecting his fifth baby, reported Black Media Scoop on April 23. Sources say that Howard already has four children with four different women, although he has remained quite mum on the baby situation, trying instead to focus attention on his NBA basketball career with the LA Lakers. The news that Howard is expecting yet another child surprises some fans, as he has long professed his Christian faith, pledging to "raise the name of God within the league and throughout the world." This leaves some fans wondering whether multiple children from different mothers runs contrary to...

<p>On a drizzly evening in Tampa in 2006, 23-year-old Holly Jacobs was enjoying a typical date night with Ryan Seay, her boyfriend of a few short months. As the time to head home approached, he walked her to her car and reluctantly kissed her goodbye. She clung dreamily to the sweater Mr. Seay had given her earlier in the evening, when she’d said she was cold. As her car pulled out of Mr. Seay’s driveway, she noticed it: a little heart that he had traced in the raindrops collected on her rear windshield.</p>

Boston College officials threaten to take disciplinary action against Boston College Students for Sexual Health (BCSSH), a group of students who have been distributing condoms out of dorm rooms to other students. The group is not recognized by the university. “We go through almost 2,000 condoms every semester for students that need them. It is very much an important need here,” said Lizzie Jekanowski, who runs BCSSH. But now Boston College is threatening to punish the students if they don’t stop giving out condoms because it goes against Catholic values and traditions. “Our position is that we’re a Catholic university...

A proposal to repeal the crime of adultery from Colorado’s books has been signed into law. The legislation that Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Friday removes what Democratic bill sponsors say is an outdated 19-century statute. The bill also would repeal the rarely-used law of contributing to “sexual immorality” by providing a place, such as a hotel room, for unmarried people to have sex.

Every human institution and society has its own list of sins and virtues that contradict the law of God. With the rise of the Millennial generation in evangelical churches, a vice is creeping up into the realms of acceptance, indifference, or at least resignation: fornication (i.e. extramarital sex or unchaste living). A few decades ago, this was one of the main issues that evangelicals hammered in their social witness. The skeptical news cycle and entertainment industry mocked this often; they saw pleas for chastity as a laughable result of pietistic sexual repression and no small bit of hypocrisy. Theological leaders...

British MP George Galloway has created controversy in the UK for comments made about rape during a British radio broadcast. Galloway was discussing the sexual allegations against WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange in an episode of his "Good Night" podcast published on August 18th. The New Statesman has transcribed the controversial comments: Let's take woman A. Woman A met Julian Assange, invited him back to her flat [apartment], gave him dinner, went to bed with him, had consensual sex with him. Claims that she woke up to him having sex with her again. This is something which can happen, you know....

As we go about our lives, there is something happening around us that is not deemed “newsworthy” or “important” by many people. It’s toxic, troubling, and traumatic. It’s happening on college campuses. It’s happening next door to you. It’s the white elephant in the room that everybody notices, but does not want to address for countless reasons. It’s what our generation praises and feels empowered by, but refuses to let their parents know about. And shockingly enough, it’s happening at conservative conferences thanks to people who do not practice what they preach. So what is it? It’s the hookup culture....

It's another slogan that passes for thought among the thinking-averse: "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality...." The rest of the sentence remains unspoken for fear that laughter might break out. "Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality; therefore He approves of it." First of all, that's what's known as an "argument from silence;" a logical fallacy. By this rule Jesus would be made to endorse rape, cannibalism and lots of other nasty stuff. Secondly, we cannot know whether Jesus, in His brief earthly ministry, ever mentioned homosexual sin specifically (see John 21:25), so the claim can't be substantiated. But the slogan...

Saudi religious police HQ targeted by sex maniacs Tried to create a sex video right in front of the police headquarter signboard By  Staff Published Sunday, November 27, 2011 Three Saudi men parked their car close to the headquarters of the Gulf Kingdom’s feared religious police late night, got out and started having sex with a woman accompanying them just in front of the massive police signboard. They were filming themselves with the aim publicising the shot to defame the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the Muslim nation....

A Long Island man was stunned to find out that his 4-year-old twins weren’t an accidental pregnancy at all — his desperate girlfriend secretly stashed away his sperm and used it for an in-vitro procedure, he charges in a lawsuit. Elmont resident Joseph Pressil, 36, wasn’t planning on having children with Anetria Burnett, with whom he was in a relationship for six months in 2007, he said. So she took matters into her own hands, he told The Post, in order to remain in his Texas house and make a legal bid for half of his possessions. -snip- The real...

After introducing its first openly gay character in September 2010, Archie Comics continues to lead the pack with the mainstream comic book world’s first same-sex marriage. Kevin Keller will marry his military sweetheart, Clay, in an upcoming issue of Life with Archie. The character is also set to star in a pioneering solo title starting this February. An interracial same-sex marriage between two soldiers in an Archie comic? The times are no longer a-changin’, they are a-changed.

“First base, second base, third base, home run,” Al Vernacchio ticked off the classic baseball terms for sex acts. His goal was to prompt the students in Sexuality and Society — an elective for seniors at the private Friends’ Central School on Philadelphia’s affluent Main Line — to examine the assumptions buried in the venerable metaphor. “Give me some more,” urged the fast-talking 47-year-old, who teaches 9th- and 12th-grade English as well as human sexuality. Arrayed before Vernacchio was a circle of small desks occupied by 22 teenagers, six male and the rest female — a blur of sweatshirts and...

This is no nursery rhyme but rather the cast of characters lining up to appear at the 2012 Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly meeting in Pittsburgh. ACT I: An assault on marriageThe chameleon:  This character will attempt to lead commissioners to see marriage differently than the Church has historically defined it. Separating marriage from the Biblical narrative of creation and the Biblical witness of Jesus' affirmation between one man and one woman, the assembly will be asked to see a "new normal" that is inclusive of gay marriage. Presented plainly, the redefinition of marriage will arrive at the assembly through...