Free Republic

AUGUSTA, Maine — A high school guidance counselor who appeared in a television ad opposing gay marriage is reportedly the target of an effort to rescind his state license, according to campaign officials. Don Mendell of Nokomis Regional High School in Newport was featured in an ad by Stand for Marriage Maine in support of Question 1, which seeks to overturn a new state law allowing same-sex couples to wed. Now, a guidance counselor from another school has filed a complaint with state regulators requesting that Mendell’s license to practice social work in Maine be revoked because of his statements...

President Obama has signed into law the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Actually, he signed into law the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act tacked onto which was the hate-crimes legislation. Sen. Harry Reid, our brave Democratic majority leader, slipped the hate-crimes bill into the defense authorization bill to avoid having to have our senators consider the controversial hate-crimes legislation on its own. It's for good reason that our Democratic legislators wanted to hide under a rock while passing this terrible piece of legislation. It may help them with the far-left wing of their party. But weakening and damaging our country is...

The newly signed “Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act,” merely federalizes the unequal distribution of justice that has existed at the local level for years. As such laws work, if your group lacks political and media influence you can expect to be convicted of crimes you did not commit and receive longer sentences for those you did. Consider the case of the bill’s namesake, Matthew Shepard. As the media told and retold the story, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, two “homophobic” desperados, killed the helpless gay Wyoming University student in a fit of “gay panic.” Although...

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has announced election of The Reverend Bernice King, the youngest daughter of The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. (the organization's founder), as its eighth president. The announcement has raised concern among the LGBT community and its supporters. Bernice King has been vocal against marriage equality and has stoked the homophobic fires when she said, "I know in my sanctified soul that he (Dr. King) did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage."

Wanda Sykes was once offered what many comics would call the fantasy job—her own nighttime talk show—but she turned it down. Between stand-up gigs, movie roles, and her part on The New Adventures of Old Christine, she was already keeping a lot of balls in the air. So what's this thing called The Wanda Sykes Show that's debuting this week? A talk show, of course. Sykes says that she changed her mind after the watershed with which we've credited just about everything short of gravity: the election of Barack Obama. "With what's going on politically, I just felt it would...

(In August the churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America adopted proposals to make it possible for Lutherans in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships to serve as ELCA associates in ministry, clergy, deaconesses and diaconal ministers.) In the wake of the ELCA assembly vote to allow gay and lesbian people to serve in the clergy or other leadership positions, the denomination's Presiding Bishop, the Rev. Mark Hanson, has told his bishops and laity to expect some congregations to leave. Whether ELCA congregations will defect in large numbers to more conservative Lutheran denominations remains to be seen. However,...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will lift a 1987 ban on foreigners with AIDS entering the country. "We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat," Obama said Friday. Obama said an order lifting the restriction will be issued Monday and take effect after 60 days. Poll on page!

Athletes have heard the ugly words on practice fields for most of their lives. They hear them in the streets and at neighborhood hangouts. But when Chiefs running back Larry Johnson used an antigay slur on his Twitter account and in the locker room this week, he struck a nerve that makes professional sports leagues wince. The NFL, like other pro sports leagues, is perceived as homophobic. Of the more than 20,000 athletes who have played in the NFL, less than a handful have identified themselves as gay — David Kopay was the first in 1975, followed by Roy...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year. The order will be finalized on Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the Bush administration. The U.S. has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status. "If we want to be the global leader in combatting HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it," Obama said at the White House before signing a bill to extend the Ryan White HIV/AIDS...

The US is to end its 22-year ban on people with HIV entering the country, President Barack Obama has confirmed. Mr Obama made the announcement as he extended funding for an act that provides HIV/Aids related health care. "If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/Aids, we need to act like it," Mr Obama said. The US is one of only about a dozen countries barring entry on HIV status. The ban is expected to be lifted at the beginning of 2010. 'End the stigma' Mr Obama confirmed the move as he signed the Ryan White HIV/Aids...

States that allow gay marriage can't force the federal government to provide benefits to those couples, the Obama administration argued Friday in court papers in a lawsuit by Massachusetts. The Justice Department is at odds with Massachusetts - the first state to allow gay marriage - over a 1996 federal law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Massachusetts sued in July, saying that law is discriminatory and deprives gay couples in the state of some federal spousal benefits. The Obama administration agrees the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is discriminatory and wants it repealed,...

Silence of the Lambs - - Part 5,432 Speak of Sin; Land in Jail Welcome to Post Christian America thelstcrusade.org A Christian evangelist who was once arrested, incarcerated, and charged under Pennsylvania's hate crimes law says the federal hate crimes bill that has been signed into law by President Obama is the most dangerous laws in the history of the United States. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed into law yesterday, creates additional penalties for violent crimes motivated by the victim's "actual or perceived" gender, "gender identity," sexual orientation, or disability....

President Obama called the 22-year ban on travel and immigration by HIV-positive individuals a decision "rooted in fear rather than fact" and announced the end of the rule-making process overturning the ban. The president signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 at the White House Friday and also spoke of the new rules, which have been under development more more than a year. "We are finishing the job," the president said. The regulations are the final procedural step in ending the ban, and will be published Monday in the Federal Register, to be followed by the standard...

The focus of Pope Benedict’s reign has been to draw sharp boundaries that strictly define what it means to be a Catholic, what it means to be a priest, and how the Church should reconfigure itself in order to exile members who are not true believers. For Benedict, the church must be an orthodox community, which means that it will be a smaller community. But as we have seen in the Vatican’s unsure handling of the controversy around Bishop Richard Williamson, the global trends that the Pope wants to resist are going to pose serious challenges to a more orthodox...

WPGA severing ties with ABC networkBy Mike Stucka WPGA is dropping its affiliation with the ABC network, leaving the local FOX affiliate to add ABC to a new channel, a WPGA official said today. Lowell Register, president of WPGA, said the changes will come at midnight Jan. 1, when his station becomes independent. Viewers will still see syndicated favorites such as Martha Stewart, but they won’t see ABC programming such as “Good Morning America” and its primetime lineup, Register said. Register said he’s been having more disagreements with ABC over its programming, though he declined to give specific examples. He...

Photo credit Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2009 - President Barack Obama today signed the fiscal 2010 National Defense Authorization Act during a ceremony at the White House. Obama hailed the act, which contains $680.2 billion in military budget authority, as transformational legislation that targets wasteful defense spending. The president was accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, congressional leaders and other senior officials, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "There's still more waste we need to cut; there's still more fights that...

Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own. But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies. Opponents argue that it is wrong to meddle with the building blocks of life and warn that the advances taking place...

Despite an economy languishing in high unemployment and low consumer confidence, more American companies are jumping on the bandwagon to provide support for homosexual and transgender employees. More than 300 firms have now received perfect 100 percent scores in this fall's Corporate Equality Index, produced annually by the Human Rights Campaign which ranks businesses on their "treatment" of employees who have chosen homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender lifestyles. The list, which saw a 20 percent increase this year in the number of perfect scores, includes newcomers such as theater giant AMC Entertainment, Costco, Delta Air Lines, Food Lion and General...

The latest challenge to Prop 8 could be show on television. Ted Olson and David Boies, are suing saying Prop 8 is unconstitutional. The judge has reportedly 'hinted' that he may allow cameras..

Recently at a town hall meeting, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass) was in rare form. He normally is snide and arrogant, but that day he was downright abusive. He will no doubt say he was being reactionary, cashing in on the convenient excuse that apparently every town hall grouping is full of nothing but angry mobs carrying torches and pitchforks. He asked someone what planet they were from when they asked him questions about the health care bill. He was not only condescending, he was utterly full of contempt for the audience. I saw the video clips, and I think he...

James David Manning speaks about gays in the military . This is the video that got him banned from Youtube for " hate speech " . Judge for yourself .

ELCA NEWS SERVICE October 29, 2009 Some ELCA Congregations Vote to Leave or Redirect Funds, Find It's Not Easy 09-241-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Throughout the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), leaders and members have responded in a variety of ways to changes in the church's ministry polices, a decision made by voting members of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. Some members agreed with the decision. Some were opposed. Some weren't sure how to react. Since the assembly, some ELCA congregations have taken votes to leave the denomination or redirect funds away from the ELCA. Leaders and members in a few...

Though his channel remains public, Pastor James David Manning has been restricted from posting new material on YouTube for “hate speech”, simply for stating his religious views. I warned you this was coming. In some parts of Europe, you can now be arrested for simply stating what the Bible says about homosexuality. Though it hasn’t come to that yet in America, you better believe it is coming soon, friends. With the passage of the new “hate crimes” bill, this opens up the door for an all out assault on religion and free speech.

While CBS and NBC ignored yesterday’s expansion of the federal definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation, ABC’s Charlie Gibson reported it, explaining that the amendment was “named for Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming college student killed 11 years ago because he was gay.” It’s true that the amendment, attached to a defense spending bill, was named for Shepard but Gibson ignored his own network’s investigation of the Shepard case that revealed sexual orientation was not the sole motive behind his murder. ABC’s “20/20” investigation in 2004 found that drugs fueled Shepard’s brutal murder, not homophobia, as is widely believed....

IFI E-Alert:: Marriage Rally and Lobby Day -- Oct. 29th 10/20/2009 8:10:00 AM By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute Approximately eight hundred Illinois citizens from around the state joined IFI & other Christian leaders in Springfield last year to rally, pray, and lobby for natural marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children. Click HERE to download a flyer to distribute at church and in your community. Join IFI and Illinois families from around the state to take a stand for protecting marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children! Plan...

Two churches in Little Falls are learning just how polarizing the topic of gay clergy can be among its members. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's decision to allow homosexuals in monogamous relationships to serve as church leaders even resulted in one Little Falls pastor's resignation. The Rev. Nate Bjorge's last day as lead pastor at First Lutheran Church in Little Falls is Friday. On Oct. 11 the church held a congregation-wide vote on whether the church should remain in the ELCA or join Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, another Lutheran body. The church voted to stay in the...

We've pointed out that former Act Up member Kevin Jennings, along with homosexual activist David LaFontaine, were the two powers behind the hideous Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, as well as the Massachusetts law banning discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation" in the Massachusetts public schools. Jennings worked closely with LaFontaine, so must have been on the same wave length regarding goals and strategies. Jennings was still living in the Boston area at the time of two notorious incidents involving LaFontaine: LaFontaine was arrested on July 31, 1990 for "disturbing a public assembly" at the Massachusetts State...

Kevin Jennings surely must have known that the publisher of his first three books, Alyson Publications, published pro-pedophilia and pornographic works. He said he was "sought out" by Alyson. In the Acknowledgements of his first book, Becoming Visible (1994), he wrote: Writing this part of the book has caused me more anxiety than any other. It simply is not possible to express my gratitude to the many people who have helped make this book possible ... With apologies to anyone omitted, here we go! The obvious place to begin is with Alyson Publications. First, Sasha Alyson had the vision to...

What a great strategy. Set up a phony organization that collects millions of dollars by labeling any effective voices dissenting from the far-left agenda as a "hate group". Lump the legitimate conservative organizations in with true hate groups (neo-Nazis, Fred Phelps -- assuming they're even "real" and not SPLC or Anti-Defamation League creations). Voila`: another bludgeon to hit us with. That's all the Southern Poverty Law Center is. An empty shell filled with useful idiots, giving ammo to those who wish to bring this country down. The Left has used this smear tactic against us. Their latest target is Lou...

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Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:Last Friday on the Washington Post blog, “On Faith,” English atheist Richard Dawkins said the Catholic Church was “surely up there among the leaders” as “the greatest force for evil in the world.” He labeled the Eucharist a “cannibal feast,” adding that “possession of testicles is an essential qualification to perform the rite.” He also blamed the Church for sending missionaries “out to tell deliberate lies to AIDS-weakened Africans” regarding condoms. The Church’s outreach to Anglicans, he said, makes it “a common pimp,” noting that those who convert “will be joining an institution...

Though his channel remains public, Pastor James David Manning has been restricted from posting new material on YouTube for “hate speech”, simply for stating his religious views. With the passage of the new “hate crimes” bill, this opens up the door for an all out assault on religion and free speech. I’ve reported several times over the last week that the most popular YouTube channel dedicated to Michael Savage has been repeatedly banned from YouTube over the last few days. Who will be next? YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV3Mjp4sfm0 My Thoughts: http://www.joeseales.com/?p=64 Thanks

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, a milestone that activists compared to the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation empowering blacks. The new law adds acts of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to the list of federal hate crimes. Gay rights activists voiced hope that the Obama administration would advance more issues, including legislation to bar workplace discrimination, allow military service and recognize same-sex marriages. Congress passed the hate crimes protections as an unlikely amendment to this year's Defense Authorization Act. Obama, speaking at an emotional...

Attention all you legal geniuses. Here's a quick quiz.

A "hate crimes" bill opponents claim will be used to crack down on Christian speech, even the reading of the Bible, was signed into law today by President Obama. The Senate approved the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act by a vote of 68-29 on Oct. 22 after Democrats strategically attached it to a "must-pass" $680 billion defense appropriations plan. Most Republicans, although normally strong supporters of the U.S. military, opposed the bill because it hands out federal money to states and local governments in pursuit of "preventing" hate crimes. The bill creates federal protections and...

President Barack Obama today signed and celebrated hate crime legislation that extends protection to people based on sexual orientation, sealing a long-fought victory to gay advocates. The president spoke of a nation becoming a place where "we're all free to live and love as we see fit." The new law expands federal hate crimes to include those committed against people because of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It also loosens limits on when federal law enforcement can intervene and prosecute crimes, amounting to the biggest expansion of the civil-rights era law in decades. "No one in America should...

Finally, after two weeks of Andrew Sullivan enthusing over Obama on the weekend panel gabfest, The Chris Matthews Show, to the point that Matthews called it a “romance,” Matthews finally popped the question: MATTHEWS: Are you still a man of the right? Mr. SULLIVAN: I think of myself as a conservative, yes. And I think actually, at this point, Obama represents more conservatism than the Southern populism of the GOP. Say WHAT? Apparently, a “conservative” is whatever Andrew Sullivan is. He just can’t bring himself semantically to express what he has done romantically—admit that his love for Obama has caused...

The "hate crimes" bill approved recently by Congress could be a problem for broadcasters -- most importantly, Christian broadcasters -- now that it has been signed into law. President Barack Obama has signed into law a measure that adds to the list of federal hate crimes attacks on people based on their sexual orientation. Congress approved the legislation last week as part of the $680-billion FY 2010 Defense Authorization bill. Appended to the hate crimes amendment was a statement ensuring that a religious leader or any other person cannot be prosecuted on the bases if his or her speech, beliefs,...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson issued his second apology in the past yearTuesday and was told to stay away from the team while the NFL and the Chiefs complete their investigation into his use of a gay slur.. his references to the media in this week's controversial "tweets" to his fans. As Johnson was releasing his apology, a national gay rights advocacy organization called on the league and the team to take disciplinary action against the two-time Pro Bowler. The latest chapter in Johnson's stormy career began Sunday night when he questioned coach Todd...

(CNN) -- If you were to judge the success rate of monogamy by the sex lives of public figures, perhaps couples should change their marriage vows to say, "Till a tempting new partner do us part." Talk-show host David Letterman recently joined former presidential candidate John Edwards, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer on a long list of politicians and entertainers (think Jude Law) who have admitted having sex outside their marriage or committed relationship. But do they just illustrate the realities of modern life? In the age of hookups, friends with benefits and...

Does HIV mean certain death? In the quarter century since the world was introduced to the idea that a new sexually transmitted virus was the cause of Aids, HIV has been generally regarded as one of the biggest killers of our time. HIV/Aids has not been the mass disease in Britain that people were led to believe in the 1980s, but the death toll from immune deficiency diseases ascribed to HIV in Africa has been staggering. The scale of death there is an ongoing tragedy that tests the moral resolve of the rich world. How much do we care? Enough...

CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama’s safe schools czar wrote a foreword to a book in 1999 that called for elementary school children to explore their sexual identities, for teachers to incorporate homosexual themes in grades K-5, for discarding a “hetero-normative” approach to education and for “acknowledging children as sexual beings.” Kevin Jennings, now the assistant deputy secretary for education who heads the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, began the foreword to Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling (Rowan & Littlefield Publishers) by writing about the Columbine school shooting in Colorado and comparing it to the...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The White House said Tuesday that President Barack Obama would approve the Defense Department's $680 billion budget for fiscal 2010, which includes funding to increase military personnel and support the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill also includes the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also known as the Matthew Shepard bill, a Wyoming teen murdered in 1998 because he was a homosexual. The act provides additional support for local law enforcement and prosecutors to try violent crimes that are motivated by the victim's religion, color, gender, or sexual orientation. Obama will sign the 2010 National...

IFI E-Alert:: Marriage Rally and Lobby Day -- Oct. 29th 10/20/2009 8:10:00 AM By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute Approximately eight hundred Illinois citizens from around the state joined IFI & other Christian leaders in Springfield last year to rally, pray, and lobby for natural marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children. Click HERE to download a flyer to distribute at church and in your community. Join IFI and Illinois families from around the state to take a stand for protecting marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children! Plan...

Mr. Holder and Miss Schmaler, however, are not the only powerful Obama administration officials who want to redefine one of our society's central institutions. Cass Sunstein, Mr. Obama's powerful "regulatory czar," is equally out of touch. In a new edition of his book "Nudge," coauthored with Richard Thaler, the authors call marriage an "anachronism" and its benefits "surprisingly low." The book goes on to complain that marriage, "produce* unnecessary polarization. ... the most obvious difficulty is that religious organizations insist that they should be permitted to define marriage as they like, while same-sex couples insist that they should be able...

In America we are a century and a half away from the "Know-Nothing Party", a secret political society that fulminated against the Catholic Church and Irish immigrants. (Asked about its composition, members would say, "I know nothing;" hence, the moniker.) Formed in public as The American Party, the party's hateful, nativist politics took a long time to expunge from our shores. But we now have an Englishman, Richard Dawkins--one of society's "Brites" according to his fellow-Darwinist, Daniel Dennett--in a screed against the Catholic Church that proclaims the same frothing bigotry exemplified by the Know-Nothings. This and Dawkins' various other attacks...

Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson just issued an apology for hurling a gay slur at reporters yesterday -- but it was too late ... the team has already sidelined him from team activities. Here's Johnson's apology: First of all, I want to apologize to the fans of the Kansas City Chiefs and the rest of the NFL, Commissioner Goodell, the Chiefs organization, Coach Todd Haley, his staff, and my teammates for the words I used yesterday" "I regret my actions. The words were used by me in frustration, and they were not appropriate. I did not intend to...

While organizing our filing system, I ran across my adoption papers. My mother gave them to me a couple of years ago for my own records. The cost of my adoption was a 300.00 donation to Catholic Charities in Chicago, I was six days old. I am blessed to be in the family, in which I was placed. My mother tells me there were lots of rules to comply with. The agency wanted to make sure I had a stable and secure home. In reality, no one can predict how a family will one day turn out. Ours certainly had...

One of the most conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday his more liberal colleagues are trying to manufacture new constitutional rights that were never intended by the drafters. “The fight is about the Supreme Court inventing new rights nobody ever thought existed,” Justice Antonin Scalia said in an appearance at the University of Arizona College of Law. “Right to abortion?” he asked. “Come on. Nobody thought it violated anything in the Constitution for 200 years. It was criminal.” The same, said Scalia, is true of homosexual sodomy. Yet the nation’s high court has struck down state laws...