Free Republic

Events of recent memory have left my head spinning in disbelief—“Caitlyn,” same-sex so-called “marriage,” three women “marrying” in South America, and, yes, “gay Catholics” and “chaste gay couples.” With me, you may wonder how all this has emerged in a short few decades of social upheaval. I may have an answer: Society has constructed an unreal cultural landscape in which things that are not sexuality are passed off as sexuality. Even a majority of Catholics are, perhaps unwittingly, swallowing this unreality, hook, line, and sinker.The fabric of this false landscape is language—language that frames everyone and everything in a...

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah 5:20 From the LGBT Out Magazine: This is the first time a sitting president has been photographed for the cover of an LGBT title, a historic moment in itself, and a statement on how much his administration has done to advance a singularly volatile issue that tarnished the reputations of both President Clinton and President Bush. It might have tarnished this president, too, but for his late-hour conversion in 2012, which...

Why do Catholics in America support homosexuality proportionately more than the general population? Two reasons: lack of authentic Catholic teaching regarding homosexuality, and the Church omitted one of the clearest Bible verses on homosexuality from the lectionary. One of the very unfortunate results of the New Lectionary is that verses that might be deemed offensive have been omitted from our liturgical celebrations. (I've written about how three "offensive" Psalms were removed from the Liturgy of the Hours after 1971 here.) Verses against Homosexuality Omitted from Current LectionaryAn example of the silence of offensive passages is from the readings of last...

The truth of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality is so far removed from the mainstream media’s debates over same-sex “marriage” it is nearly impossible to achieve an accurate reading of the Synod’s final document (Relazione Finale) without an in depth understanding of the Church’s teaching in this regard... ...However, all of that language is missing from the Synod’s final document. The war over language in the Synod hall was all about getting rid of clear language condemning homosexuality and other sins, and the liberals have achieved their goal in the final document. Gone are references to even the sinfulness of...

http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2015/10/23/why-cant-two-gay-brothers-marry-n2070299/page/full One of the strongest arguments against consensual adult incest is that incestuous unions could result in children with genetic defects, but since that concern wouldn’t apply to same-sex couples, an Irish political leader has argued that gay cousins should be allowed to “marry.” And that only begs the next obvious question: Why not gay brothers or gay sisters? As reported in the Irish Times, Independent Senator David Norris, himself gay, “has said that gay cousins should be allowed to marry each other following the same-sex marriage referendum.” “It would not take a feather out of me if two cousins...

http://www.gopusa.com/freshink/2015/10/23/a-few-transgender-students-tie-school-districts-in-knots-over-locker-rooms/?subscriber=1 Across America, public schools are faced with a challenge almost unheard of a generation ago: dealing with a student population that isn't sorted neatly into boys and girls. A small but growing number of students and their families are demanding that schools make accommodations for transgender youths, who were born with the body parts of one gender but identify with the other. Which bathrooms should they use? Should they play for the boys sports teams or the girls? Where should they change clothes and shower after gym class or athletic events? Palatine-based Township High School District 211 is prepared...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Asking for accommodations for religious freedom on marriage is not enough and is likely to fail, says Southern Evangelical Seminary professor Frank Turek. At the Southern Evangelical Seminary's annual National Conference on Christian Apologetics, Turek hosted a panel discussion on marriage titled "What Do We Do Now?" in which he asserted that Christians and supporters of traditional marriage have to make broader arguments about its benefits to society and family. "We can't let it all just be about religious liberty, because if we don't make the arguments that we are arguing for the good of all society...

Can someone really be “born” gay? Is there a “gay gene”? Does biology equal destiny?Clearly, the controversy over this issue is huge in our culture. While pro-gay activists and their allies want us to believe people are “born gay” and that sexual orientation is an unchangeable characteristic like race or eye color, a closer examination of the scientific evidence reveals that the “nature vs. nurture” debate over homosexuality is far from settled. At best, the evidence for a genetic and/or biological basis to homosexual orientation is inconclusive. In fact, since the early 1990s, numerous studies attempting to establish a genetic...

A century ago these times were imagined and they are now here. How do we live as Christians in such times? My mother-in-law is ninety-five years old. She has lived through several wars and numerous other cataclysmic events in her life. Nothing has her more perplexed, shocked, and almost emotionally stunned as the culture wars that have been waged and have changed our world. I see her sitting in church when I am visiting her, obviously wondering why all of her past memories have been lost in the present format of worship. She is not at home either in...

....Today at 3pm, we will be joined by Dr. Rosaria Butterfield to discuss sexuality, our culture’s objection to biblical morality, and what it looks like for Christians to speak the truth in love. Dr. Butterfield is a pastor’s wife, mother, homeschool teacher, and author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and Openness Unhindered.

 A substantial number of those ensnared in "The Gay Lifestyle" were sexually abused as children.  In The Syndemic of STDs and AIDS among MSM, sympathetic author Dale O'Leary, author of One Man, One Woman: A Catholic's Guide to Defending Marriage, mourns the fact of the high incidence of childhood sexual abuse against those who later end up in a homosexual lifestyle. Childhood Sexual Abuse and Other Adverse Events  MSM are more likely to have been victims of childhood sexual abuse. Stall and associates note that a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has been linked to increase risk of HIV infection....

One would think that after the Roseburg, Oregon, shooting in which a deranged Christophobe brutally murdered nine people for being Christians, liberals would curb their Christophobic hate — at least for a little while. One would be wrong, however, as some have continued their descent into weapons-grade stupid. On Friday, CNN contributor Sally Kohn proved once again that liberalism is an ideology of anti-Christian rage and hate with a maddening tweet comparing U.S. Christians to members of the Muslim Brotherhood:

Report says Obama's Justice Department requires Christians to verbally affirm homosexuality regardless of beliefs. A brochure emailed to Department of Justice employees requiring them to verbally affirm homosexuality regardless of their personal beliefs has sparked accusations of religious intolerance and viewpoint discrimination, Todd Starnes reported at Fox News Tuesday. "The brochure was created as a resource from DOJ Pride, an association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of the DOJ," Starnes wrote. According to Starnes, Liberty Counsel, a law firm that specializes in religious liberty, is representing an unidentified female DOJ worker who received the brochure, called “LGBT Inclusion...

A new study claims to have located nine parts of the male genetic code that indicate whether a person is heterosexual or homosexual. However, the study's authors also say that there is some evidence that environment plays a role in a man's sexual orientation by altering the activity of certain genes.

The definition of a serial killer is, “A person who murders three or more people, usually due to abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant break (a “cooling off period”) between them.” Serial killers may be overwhelmingly male and most likely to be either black or white, but is there a connection for these men between their tendencies and their sexual behavior? Most serial killers are seeking out a thrill. But from where does their blood lust stem? Radford University keeps a database of statistics surrounding serial killers; age, race,...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An experienced archaeologist who has spent a decade searching for the ancient ruins of Sodom is now confident that his team has located the ill-fated biblical city and evidence of its sudden destruction. Dr. Steven Collins is a distinguished professor of Archaeology at Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque and is also dean of the school’s College of Archaeology & Biblical History. In addition to writing dozens of scholarly books and journal articles, Collins frequently visits the Middle East, where he participates in ongoing archaeological research. Since 2005, Collins has led excavations in the southern Jordan Valley in...

On Saturday evening, as hundreds of bishops convened in Rome for a major church assembly on family issues, former Vatican priest Krzysztof Charamsa headed a mile across town to a different gathering: the founding meeting of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, a group of 13 organizations advocating for inclusion of gays in the church. Charamsa had lost his job just before, when he was fired from his position in the Vatican’s doctrine office after announcing that he was gay and introducing reporters to his boyfriend. “I want the Church and my community to know who I am: a gay...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Kim Davis' lawyer stood onstage in a Washington D.C. hotel and pointed to a photo on the screen. It showed 100,000 people packed into a Peruvian soccer stadium, Mat Staver told the crowd, all there to pray for the Kentucky clerk battling against gay marriage. The crowd erupted. It wasn't true.

They’re Nigeria’s unlikely saviors – most being white, in their 50s and 60s and combat veterans of the former South African apartheid regime. But, tainted resumes notwithstanding, they’ve been getting the job done in northern Nigeria, hitting the Islamist terror group Boko Haram hard enough to send the jihadists into retreat, liberating dozens of villages and freeing hundreds of women and girls held as slaves and “bush wives” during a six-year-long reign of terror, reported London Telegraph. Boko Haram recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. In recent years, Boko Haram has slaughtered entire...

Moldova. Orthodox Christians are protesting against the law prohibiting all forms of discrimination    The passage of Moldova’s anti-discrimination law was one of the requirements laid down by the European Union for the visa liberalization with the EU (visa-free travel of Moldovan citizens within the EU). From the outset, the discussion of this law in the Moldovan Parliament was marked by members of the public expressing mass, stormy protest, as they associated it with the legalization of same-sex “marriage” and the adoption of children by homosexuals. Nevertheless, on May 25, 2012, the law was passed and on December 26...