Free Republic

www.catholicnewsagency.com EU commission strikes down British religious freedom exemptions from anti-discrimination law London, England, Nov 26, 2009 / 01:06 pm (CNA).- The European Union has compelled the British government to remove religious freedom exemptions from an anti-discrimination bill. The move will forbid church bodies from declining to employ homosexual staff. The National Secular Society had argued that the exemptions went further than was permitted under an EU directive and created “illegal discrimination against homosexuals,” the Observer reports.The EU commission agreed, ruling that the exemptions are “broader than that permitted by the directive.”The British government must now redraft anti-discrimination laws....

Adam Lambert Furor Spreads to Gay Community REUTERS November 25, 2009 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert on Wednesday admitted he got carried away during his racy American Music Awards performance, as furor over his singing and dancing stoked a wider controversy in the U.S. gay community. More than 14 million people watched the gay, glam rocker close the live AMA telecast on Sunday with a performance that included Lambert kissing a male keyboard player and pushing the head of another performer into his crotch. Complaints poured in to the ABC TV network that aired the show,...

Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis said Tuesday he seeks to represent all his city, and not just a faction -- despite a controversial Bay Area newspaper column quoting him on his beliefs about homosexuality. The New York Times column in its Bay Area section raised concerns over evangelical influence on Vallejo's politics. "They're committing sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven," Davis was quoted as saying about gays. "But you don't hate the person. You hate the sin they commit." In a prepared statement Tuesday, Davis apologized to anyone whom he had offended and said his words "were...

New Jersey voters are split on whether to legalize gay marriage, but more people now oppose it than support it, a poll found on Wednesday. The Quinnipiac University survey found 49 percent of voters oppose a law allowing same-sex couples to marry, while 46 percent support such legislation, reversing an April poll that found 49 percent supported it and 43 percent opposed it. "When we asked about gay marriage in April, it won narrow approval. Now that it seems closer to a legislative vote, it loses narrowly with the public," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute....

Does Adam Lambert creep you out? He seems to be front page news these days, primarily due to a racy performace at Sunday's American Music Awards where he kissed a member of his band - a male member of his band - most likely as a publicity stunt in order to garner attention and provide an additional platform from which to speak. Since then, Adam Lambert's face and a still photo of that taboo moment have been plastered on headlines all over the internet. As a result, no one surfing the internet is safe from his Tammy Faye features and...

The truth hurts a lot, it seems. Especially at the Massachusetts State House. The intense hostility in the Massachusetts Legislature against the pro-family position on homosexuality in the schools was evident at the State House on Monday, November 16. A MassResistance panel was there to testify for bill H145 which would eliminate the despised Massachusetts Commission for Gay Lesbian and Transgender Youth. But unfortunately they weren't allowed to finish. At that public hearing before the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, Committee Chairman Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton) abruptly cut off Brian Camenker from completing his testimony. Khan...

The Commonwealth convenes for a summit this week amid growing furor over a proposed law that would impose life imprisonment on homosexuals in Uganda, whose President is chairing the gathering. The law, proceeding through Uganda's Parliament and supported by some of its top leaders, would imprison anyone who knows of the existence of a gay or lesbian and fails to inform the police within 24 hours. It requires the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as any sexual act between gays or lesbians in which one person has the HIV virus. The controversy is growing because Ugandan President Yoweri...

FILE- Archbishop of Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl walks with United States Chief Justice John Roberts after the Red Mass at Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. (AP photo) (CNSNews.com) – A longtime Washington, D.C., liberal Internet activist has founded a Web site that he says will collect accounts of homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood--accounts he will use to “encourage� them to change their views on homosexual marriage and other issues. “Outing� the priests--publicly revealing their homosexuality--is “not off the table,� Phil Attey, founder of the Web site ChurchOuting.com, told CNSNews.com. The site will also collect information on straight...

Ban Lifted For Green-Card Applicants With HIV A two-decade-old rule kept those with the virus out of the U.S. Now such immigrants will be able to visit the country and apply for legal status. By Anna Gorman November 25, 2009 A stamp in Heidemarie Kremer's passport reveals her health status as HIV-positive. Because of the disease, Kremer -- a native of Germany -- has been barred from becoming a legal resident of the United States. She and her two children are fighting possible deportation, and their plans for the future are on hold. But that soon may change. This month,...

I have never understood the Sarah Palin attraction. Sorry. I just don’t I am a die-hard conservative, but Sarah Palin does not do it for me. Never did. When she was first announced as John McCain’s running mate, I cringed, but then reluctantly understood. This was a political “Hail Mary” pass for the McCain campaign. Honestly, what could the poor man do from where he stood in the polls and in the modern American environment in which he was nominated? Answer: apparently little, aside from dumbing himself down to the political environment of the times—i.e., try to match the idiocy...

The New York State Catholic Conference reports that homosexual-rights activists received a setback by state Court of Appeals rulings last week. According to the New York State Catholic Conference, the New York State Court of Appeals did rule in favor of the plaintiffs in Godfry v. Spano and Lewis v. NYS Department of Civil Service regarding the state’s recognition of same-sex “marriages” from other states. However, the Catholic Conference’s director of communications, Dennis Poust, characterized it as a defeat for the plaintiffs. Basically, the ruling said that the state civil service could give all the rights of married (heterosexual) couples...

Supporters of a proposed New Jersey law that would allow men to “marry� men and women to “marry� women were gung-ho going into November’s election. Prospects looked good in the state legislature, and Gov. Jon Corzine had promised to sign the “marriage equality� bill whether he was reelected or not. Everyone expected to see the Garden State’s civil union law supplanted by a same-sex “marriage� bill by year’s end, and even after Corzine lost to Republican challenger Chris Christie Nov. 3, people still assumed the bill would get the signature of the lame-duck governor. But when legislators returned to Trenton...

First on TVNewser: American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert won't be appearing on "Good Morning America" tomorrow. TVNewser has learned ABC News canceled the concert after Lambert's sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards Sunday night. Lambert led men on leashes, dragged a woman by her foot, and smashed a man's head into his crotch, all while singing his new single "For Your Entertainment." ABC, which aired the awards show, received about 1,500 phone calls from people complaining about the performance, a number ABC calls "moderate." An ABC News spokesperson tells TVNewser, "given his controversial live performance on the AMAs...

A record number of University of North Texas students to vote in a student government election cast online ballots in a referendum last week, defeating the possibility of same-sex couples running for homecoming court in 2010. While most Student Government Association elections have garnered 4 percent or less of the student body vote, 13.5 percent, or 4,895 of the 36,206 students enrolled at UNT, cast ballots in the referendum. The measure was defeated by a wide margin, 58 percent against to 42 percent in favor. In the 2008 referendum to add a $10 fee for a new stadium to replace...

Teen Sex Magazine to Stay on Shelves at Iowa Library Sunday, November 22, 2009 AMES, Iowa — A teen sex magazine will stay on the shelves at the Ames Public Library despite a petition signed by more than 100 parents objecting to the publication. The Ames Library Board voted 6-1 to support library Director Art Weeks' recommendation to keep the magazine Sex, Ect., in the teen section. The magazine is written by and for teens under the oversight of Answer, a national sexuality organization at Rutgers University. It addresses teen sexuality issues, substance abuse and eating disorders.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is set for a stoush with the ACT Government over territory laws allowing same-sex civil union ceremonies. Mr Rudd has told caucus that although informal discussions had been held with ACT Government, no decision had been made yet about whether to veto the laws. But ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said the Federal Government had already demanded the laws be reworked, and had indicated a willingness to intervene. Mr Stanhope met with federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland yesterday to discuss the new legislation. "They are prepared to intervene to overturn the recent amendments to the civil union...

Lutherans to Observe World AIDS Day Dec. 1 WASHINGTON (ELCA) -- Every nine and a half minutes a person in the United States becomes infected with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta. Globally, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates the number of people infected with the virus is 33 million. On the weekend before or after World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are invited to participate in a worship service, event or advocacy activity, and to remember and demonstrate support for people living with and...

A Republican political hopeful interested in serving as governor of Massachusetts announced Monday he has chosen Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay state legislator, to be his running mate in the 2010 gubernatorial election. "Want you to be the first to know: I've chosen State Senator Richard Tisei as my running mate," Republican Charles Baker wrote on his Twitter account. "Excited about this team." In the photo at left, Baker stands to the left of Tisei outside the civic center in Wakefield, Mass. Baker is the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and a former adviser to two Republican...

Robert N. DeBenedictis -- the businessman who since at least 1974 has been behind many of New York City's private clubs used by gay men as sex venues -- had a verdict returned against him by a California jury in a class action lawsuit involving his role at Global Vision Products, Inc. which until recently marketed and sold the hair loss remedy Avacor as reported by The Complex Litigator. * * * For decades DeBenedictis has been involved in the gay bar and nightclub industry in New York City including ownership interests in the Wall Street Sauna, the East Side...

"American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert's vocals weren't top-notch at last night's American Music Awards, but nobody really noticed. How could they, given his over-the-top and in-your-face sexual choreography. Lambert's act during the show, aired on ABC, featured male dancers on leashes, an open-mouth kiss between Lambert and his male keyboardist, and simulated oral sex, both male-on-male and female-on-male. Naturally, boundary-pushing Hollywood hailed Lambert's performance. "As a TV viewer, I thought Lambert's performance was a gas, a delight, a blast of brash vulgarity in the midst of ordinary vulgarity," wrote Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker.

Adam Lambert, the American Idol star, outraged viewers of the American Music Awards with an X-rated performance in which he simulated oral sex with a male dancer. Lambert set out to shock with a risque routine which also saw him kissing a male band mate and walking two men in bondage gear across the stage on dog leads. He was singing his new release, For Your Entertainment. After the performance, his first since American Idol, Lambert said: "I'm hoping people were entertained. For those who weren't, maybe I'm not your cup of tea." If the show was to be censored...

Homosexual behavior has been successfully marketed as a "rights" issue. For instance, if you dare to oppose homosexual marriage, even though the vast majority of Americans do and have demonstrated in referendum after referendum, those in the public eye run the risk of vilification and ostracism for articulating such positions. On Friday, more than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration reaffirming their opposition to homosexual marriage on the basis of protecting religious freedom. While I agree that government's granting of special "rights" based on aberrant sexual behavior is a religious...

A story in The Washington Post’s Metro section last week was actually very positive. Those who read the profile on Bishop Harry Jackson got a full picture of the devoted marriage champion who has fought long and hard to save the institution in the District of Columbia. But the Post’s headline writers gave away their extreme bias in the way they introduced the story: “Seeking to put asunder.” And there’s the rub. To the editors of the Post, it is Harry Jackson who is trying to separate—put asunder—those who have been joined together. In framing the issue thus, of course,...

The boy, known as Georgie Smith, has wanted to be a girl since he was a toddler. He said: "I'm old enough to know what I want. What I want is to be a girl." His mother Carole, 41, has criticised the NHS for preventing treatment until Georgie reaches puberty – meaning that his hormones will give him a manly appearance. She wants him to be given hormone blockers now. She told The Sun: "With his puberty suspended, he wouldn't grow to six foot or have big hands." The mother-of-three said that her son wanted to be a girl from...

Blogger Amanda Hess of the Washington City Paper suggests a new story for The Washington Post on the gay left waging war on the Catholic Church over the city council's imposition of "gay marriage" rules without a referendum: A new Web site hopes to use the oldest trick in the book to combat the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage: A good, old-fashioned forced outing! At ChurchOuting.org, you’re invited to scroll through a list of every Achbishop, Bishop, and Reverend in the Archdiocese of Washington, zero in on one you know is gay, and then submit your “detailed account of...

A formidable coalition of 150 Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical leaders are calling on Christians in a new manifesto to reject secular authority – and even engage in civil disobedience – if laws force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other ideas that betray their religious beliefs. On Friday, these leaders released a 4,700-word document – called the "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience." The document was signed by leaders ranging from evangelical leader Chuck Colson to two of the leading Catholic prelates in the U.S., Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New...

One of the leaders of the nation’s influential Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) tells Newsmax that President Obama is “very dangerous” in his economic policies and his foreign policy is causing “severe damage” to U.S. standing in the world. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and author of the book “The Divided State of America: What Liberals and Conservatives Are Missing In The God And Country Shouting Match”, told Newsmax.TV that the cultural war is heating up. Christians must remember that God is not partisan. “And on many of the most important issues...

Hurt by the recession and decisions by some Lutheran congregations to withhold their support, the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America acted last Sunday to reduce its budget by 10 percent and eliminate more than 40 full-time positions. Many Lutheran congregations, including some in Rowan County, have redirected their mission support to the ELCA in protest of the national organization's recent vote to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy. In October, about 450 Lutherans met at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Rowan County to discuss the ELCA's change in ministry policies. Those assembled approved a resolution to form...

OTTAWA — A lesbian soldier who deserted the U.S. army won a key court victory Friday when a judge ordered the refugee board to reconsider her failed asylum claim and take into account compelling evidence that she was persecuted and that her sexual orientation could mean stiffer punishment for going AWOL. Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny's order for the board to consider a gay U.S. soldier as a credible refugee candidate is believed to be a first, said a spokesman for the U.S. military. "I have never heard of anybody attempting to do that before," said army spokesman Lt.-Col....

Conservatives shouldn’t just allow same-sex marriage. They should insist on it. The conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks made that argument in a 2003 column, and the liberal Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. recalled his words when he was in Providence on Nov. 8 to speak at the Central Congregational Church. Brooks’ argument is worth revisiting now that Governor Carcieri, a conservative Republican and Catholic who opposes same-sex marriage, has vetoed a bill that would give domestic partners the right to claim the bodies of — and make funeral arrangements for — their loved ones. The bill passed...

Last June, District Attorney David Capeless of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, announced that he was dropping all charges against 44-year-old Bernard Baran, a man who has spent half his life behind bars on child molestation charges that the state no longer has the confidence to retry. Baran was convicted in January 1985 of molesting six children at a pre-kindergarten day care facility in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was released on bond in 2006 after an appeals court determined that his trial attorney had been incompetent and that the prosecution may have withheld key exculpatory evidence. Baran says that during his jail term...

When I was in 6th grade I got in trouble for cussing.  In an effort to clean up my language, I asked my teacher what the worst thing was you could call someone.  "Repulsive," he replied. I have always remembered that word, but have used it sparingly.  What I am about to report is, indeed, repulsive.  Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, released a statement yesterday morning -- "Gay Activists Bully DC Priests."  The instrument being used to bully is a Web site, ChurchOuting.org, which encourages people to report any priest, gay or straight, who may be "romantically involved," but...

A lesbian soldier who deserted the U.S. army won a key court victory Friday when a judge ordered the refugee board to reconsider her failed asylum claim and take into account compelling evidence that she was persecuted and that her sexual orientation could mean stiffer punishment for going AWOL. Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny's order for the board to consider a gay U.S. soldier as a credible refugee candidate is believed to be a first, said a spokesman for the U.S. military. "I have never heard of anybody attempting to do that before," said army spokesman Lt.-Col. Christopher Garver....

More than 150 leaders across a spectrum of conservative Christianity on Friday released a 4,700-word document vowing civil disobedience if they are forced to take part in "anti-life acts" or bless gay marriages. Called the "Manhattan Declaration," the six-page, single-spaced document was drafted by Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson, an evangelical, and Princeton University professor Robert P. George, a Roman Catholic, and included a bevy of Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox bishops, archbishops and cardinals as signatories along with dozens of clergy and laity. Archbishop of Washington Donald W. Wuerl is one of the signatories. "Throughout the centuries, Christianity has taught...

GAY ACTIVISTS BULLY D.C. PRIESTS November 20, 2009Catholic League president Bill Donohue addresses a serious issue involving gay activists in the District of Columbia:A new homosexual website, ChurchOuting.org, is intent on publicly disclosing who the gay priests are in the Archdiocese of Washington. The goal of this outing is to intimidate gay priests, as well as heterosexual priests who may be “romantically involved,” into voicing objections to the Catholic Church’s opposition to gay marriage. This initiative is the work of Phil Attey, self-described as “Liberal-Gay-Ardent Obama Supporter”; he was active in the Obama Pride Metro-DC campaign. According to one...

Ah the good old days. Do you remember when right was right and wrong was wrong? I sure do but it was a long time ago.

I want to watch a sci-fi show, not a gay make out on tv.

Proposal packed with 17 new levies. Senate Democrats' health care bill would create a new marriage penalty by imposing a tax on individuals who make $200,000 annually but hitting married couples making just $50,000 more. That's one of 17 new taxes imposed by the bill, which also creates a levy on elective plastic surgery - some call it "botax" - and places a 40 percent excise tax on those who have generous health care plans. "If you have insurance, you get taxed. If you don't have insurance, you get taxed. If you need a life-saving medical device, you get taxed....

Minneapolis, Minn., Nov 20, 2009 / 03:54 am (CNA).- Following the decision of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to allow sexually active homosexual clergy, an objecting Lutheran group has begun to form a new church body for those Lutherans who want to “remain faithful to the Orthodox Christianity of the last 2,000 years.”Lutheran CORE leaders on Wednesday said their working group would immediately begin drafting a constitution and taking other steps to form the new denomination. They hope to launch the denomination by next August.Rev. Paull Spring, a retired Pennsylvania ELCA bishop and chairman of Lutheran CORE said...

The radical homosexuals are gearing up to push through the "Employment Non-Discrimiation Act" (ENDA).Here's the email the "Human Rights Campaign" is sending out to their supporters: ------------------------Dear xxxxxxxxx, Members of Congress need to hear from you today! We need 57 calls to Reps in support of an inclusive ENDA. Will you take 45 seconds to make one of them?   Then click here to report your call. The House Education and Labor Committee is getting ready to move ENDA soon, but you may have heard that the committee vote has been pushed back a few weeks. It's more important than...

Lutherans Concerned / North America (LC/NA) responded with sadness to yesterday's announcement proposing a new church body to be formed by and for former ELCA members and congregations opposing the full inclusion of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the church. In August 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, by a 2/3 majority, passed a social statement on sexuality. The statement, "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust" described as faithful four positions on beliefs within the denomination on the inclusion of people in same-gender relationships. The four positions ranged from the view that same-gender...

Citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to civil disobedience, 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples. “We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence,” it says. The manifesto, to be released on Friday at the National Press Club in Washington, is an...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The chief federal appeals court judge in San Francisco bluntly ordered the Obama administration Thursday to stop resisting his finding that the wife of a lesbian court employee was entitled to government insurance coverage. The federal agency that oversees benefits for government employees "shall cease at once its interference with the jurisdiction of this tribunal," Judge Alex Kozinski said in response to the Office of Personnel Management's rejection of his earlier ruling in the case. He told the agency to let Karen Golinski, a staff attorney at the court's headquarters in San Francisco, enroll her wife, Amy...

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. -- Romans 5:1-2a November 19, 2009 Sisters and brothers in Christ of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, I greet you with the words of the apostle Paul to the Romans: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand" (Romans 5:1-2a). Where does the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

Hosanna! Lutheran, the Lakeville mega-church that made headlines this month with its pending decision to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, isn’t alone. Community of Hope in Rosemount, which was launched in 2002 by four local congregations, ended its ELCA affiliation on Nov. 1. According to the St. Paul Area Synod of the ELCA, those were the only of its churches to pull out as of Nov. 12. But the action that preceded the defections – the ELCA’s August decision to allow ordination of gay clergy people living in committed relationships – continues to stir debate. “Our church is...

Horrified by the deadly shooting at a Tel Aviv gay and lesbian center in August, Robert Goldstein felt compelled to do something.A Jew helping his fellow Jews?Don’t be fooled by his name. Goldstein serves as pastor of St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco. His church recently donated $2,000 to the Jerusalem Open House, one of Israel’s leading LGBT organizations. He says a similar donation to the Israel Gay Youth Organization, the target of the attack, will follow.The impetus for the gifts came after Goldstein, 65, and some of his congregants visited Israel on a 2008 tour sponsored by the...

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl Washington D.C., Nov 18, 2009 / 06:32 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Washington’s announcement that services would have to be cut if the District of Columbia City Council recognizes same-sex “marriage” without religious exemptions was not a “threat” or “ultimatum” but a simple recognition of the policy’s consequences, the Archbishop of Washington said in an opinion essay in the Washington Post.Without strong religious freedom protections, the proposed legislation would force the Church to choose between expressing Christ’s love in service to others and defending the nature of marriage, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl wrote in his...

ELCA Council Approves Charter, Hears Secretary's Report, Elects Leaders 09-263-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) approved a charter for a comprehensive study of the ELCA and its future mission. A task force will conduct the study with the goal of bringing a report with recommendations to the 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Orlando. The council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. It met here Nov. 13-15. The project, "Living into the Future Together: Renewing the Ecology of the Evangelical...

TAMPA -- Men who live as women, women living as men, clergy members, mothers and grandparents packed the Tampa City Council chambers Thursday to debate a new ordinance that would protect transgender people from discrimination. Some argued that it was good for business and simply right to approve the law. Others spoke of religion and contended that the rule would give a stamp of approval to sexual deviants. Donna Kuntz read Bible passages about God abandoning people who do "shameful things," and said sexual predators are probably celebrating. "They can have access to whichever gender of children they choose," she...

Chaz Bono: Sex Change Is His ‘Best Decision’ 40-year-old says ‘This is who I am. I need to finally be who I am’ Jeff Chiu / AP file Chaz Bono said in the interview with “Good Morning America” that he always felt like a boy growing up and came out as a lesbian 11 years ago. Now he's undergone gender-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy. Nov. 19, 2009 NEW YORK - Chaz Bono said beginning the sex-change process to turn him from a woman to a man is "the best decision I've ever made." The 40-year-old writer, activist and reality-TV star,...