Free Republic

Pope Francis has approved a measure that will allow Roman Catholic priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples, under the condition that the blessing is not considered akin to marriage and while still labeling such relationships sinful. In a Declaration titled “Fiducia Supplicans” that was issued Monday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith provided “a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective.” “It is precisely in this context that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their...

Bethany may renew their federal contracts by deciding to abandon Christianity in foster-care placements. But in the bigger picture, more abandoned children will run the streetsOn March 1, Bethany Christian Services sent shock waves through the adoption and foster care community with its landmark decision to place children with same-sex parents. There staring out from the pages of The New York Times stood the imposing figure of Chris Palusky, president of this historic Christian agency rooted in the Dutch Reformed world of Grand Rapids, Michigan.The news of surrender hit hard. Bethany, the ten-ton gorilla of adoption and foster care, and...

Catholic Charities of Buffalo will no longer provide foster care and adoption services to new clients because a New York state law would force it to violate Catholic teachings on homosexuality and marriage. The organization, which serves people of need across Western New York, announced Thursday that it has become the latest Catholic Charities branch to halt adoption and foster services because of conflicts with state and local LGBT discrimination protections. The entity will continue to serve its existing foster families but will not accept new applications until its contract with Erie County Department of Social Services expires in March...

The end. First it was wedding cakes. If two homosexuals wanted to get “married,” you would not have the option of declining to assist in their celebration. You will bake the cake and you will decorate it to celebrate gay marriage, no matter what your Bible says, religious fanatics. Now Christians have to do their matchmaking too - at least the Christians who don’t think it’s worth the trouble to defend the First Amendment, which apparently includes the people who run ChristianMingle.com:

The dirty little secret about gay marriage: Most gay couples are not monogamous. We have come to accept lately, partly thanks to Liza Mundy’s excellent recent cover story in the Atlantic and partly because we desperately need something to make the drooping institution of heterosexual marriage seem vibrant again, that gay marriage has something to teach us, that gay couples provide a model for marriages that are more egalitarian and less burdened by the old gender roles that are weighing marriage down these days. But the thorny part of the gay marriage experiment is sex, and more precisely, monogamous sex....

Bucking the trend of states that have caved on religious liberty due to fear of reprisals from gay activists, Michigan passed a law Thursday offering protections to religious adoption agencies from being forced to place children in the homes of same-sex couples. The law had broad support in the Republican controlled legislature and was signed on Thursday by Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican. Snyder has voiced opposition to a broader religious liberty bill statewide that mirrors the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed by former President Bill Clinton. RFRA protections, once non-controversial and bipartisan now face the ire of gay...

Rubio: ‘I’m done’ if immigration bill includes gay couple amendment The Ticket By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 27 mins ago Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a co-author and key proponent of the Senate immigration bill, said he will revoke his support if an amendment is added that allows gay unauthorized immigrants to claim foreign same-sex partners as family. "If this bill has something in it that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I'm done," Rubio said Thursday during an interview on the Andrea Tantaros Show. "I'm off it, and I've...

Accomplice to Kabuki! “The most serious threat to bipartisan immigration reform,” writes Politico‘s Carrie Budoff Brown, “doesn’t involve border security or guest workers or even the path to citizenship. It’s about gay rights.” Budoff’s scenario–which she says worries the “Gang of 8″ backing the bill–is that Dems will add “an amendment during the bill markup next week allowing gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners for green cards.” As a result, Republicans may bail on the amnesty legislation. ”[T}he coalition that helped put it together will fall apart.” This seems like complete nonsense. The gay equality issue isn’t going to...

Gov. Schwarzenegger has three days left to decide whether to give a landmark tax victory to gay rights activists -- the right to file as married couples -- but stick them with a tax-filing headache. The bill, which is among a stack of bills that will become law unless vetoed by Saturday, would require California's 75,000 registered domestic partners to file their state tax returns as if they were legally married -- even though they'd still have to submit single returns to Uncle Sam. --snip-- ``This is hugely symbolic,'' said Jean Johnston, a tax attorney with Johnston/Childress in San Francisco....

Helena, Mont. A divided Montana Supreme Court declared yesterday that the state constitution's guarantee of equal protection extends to gays, and ruled that the state university system must offer same-sex couples the same health benefits available to heterosexual ones. In a 4-3 decision, the justices struck down the university's policy of denying benefits to employees' gay partners. The high court said the policy violates the Montana Constitution's guarantee of equal protection because unmarried heterosexual partners could receive the benefit by signing a common-law marriage affidavit, while unmarried gay partners could not. The ruling, which reversed a 2002 lower-court decision, did...

<p>Gay partners would enjoy many of the rights and responsibilities of marriage under hotly contested legislation approved Wednesday by the California Assembly.</p> <p>The vote represents a major coup for gay-rights activists who have battled for years to increase recognition for more than 18,000 homosexual couples registered with the state as domestic partners.</p>