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Two Christian bakers who refused to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding have been ordered to pay $135,000 in damages by July 13 or else the state of Oregon could place a lien on their home. Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, were punished by the state's Bureau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) for unlawfully discriminating against a same-sex couple. The Kleins, who are devout evangelical Christians, argued that baking the cake would be a violation of their religious beliefs. The BOLI ruling ordered the mom-and-pop bakers to pay $135,000 to the lesbian couple....

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) met with billionaire hedge-fund manager Dan Loeb on Wednesday, Business Insider has learned. Walker was seeking Loeb's key financial support ahead of his all-but-certain presidential campaign, but he didn't get it. According to sources close to the situation, the sticking point was Loeb's support of same-sex marriage. Last month, Walker called the Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide a "grave mistake." He also called for a constitutional amendment to reverse the decision. “As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the...

Unfortunately, Nebraskans now have a spineless fedgov boot licking coward for a governor (Pete Ricketts - R) Compare this straight-to-the point language to the vague, effeminate Modernist BS we get today - both from the Vatican and from those in our various levels of government (Responses to each excerpted paragraph are bracketed by asterisks ***commentary***) Civil Disobedience and Sedition SPAIENTIAE CHRISTIANAE – On Christians as Citizens. Pope Leo XIII, January 1890 Encyclical From paragraph 2: ... if, in administering public affairs, it [government] is wont to put God aside, and show no solicitude for the upholding of moral law, it...

Russia's ruling political party has designed a “heterosexual flag” to honor traditional family values, the Izvestia newspaper reported Wednesday. Copies of the flag, which feature the outlines of a man and a woman holding hands with three children, were shown to Izvestia by Andrei Lisovenko, deputy head of the United Russia branch in Moscow. The flags also come printed with the Russian-language hashtag “A Real Family.” According to Lisovenko, the flag will have its official unveiling at Moscow's Sokolniki park later Wednesday, where hundreds of people will gather for a United Russia rally in honor of the Day of Family,...

The case of Obergefell v. Hodges, which ended June 26 with the United States Supreme Court ruling 5-4 to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, is headed for the big screen.

Schizophrenic states like Oregon must desist from passing laws and ordinances that counter their own Constitution, nullifying it and instituting anarchy in its place. SCOTUS should also get this message It’s no surprise that a lowly state bureaucrat believes he can wield more power than the Oregon and United States Constitutions combined. Given the recent Supreme Court opinions that illegally upheld anti-(not just un-)Constitutional actions by government, these actions of a state employee only seem natural. Administrative punishments, like those levied against Christian bakery owners in Oregon, are becoming commonplace. However, they are not acceptable. The question becomes rhetorical as...

“I don’t have any verse and scripture” to back that up, he allows, but he’s got a good feeling about it. And why not? “Jesus” is really just a stand-in in this question for morality writ large, right? If you support SSM you think the practice is moral (I should hope), and if you’re a Christian who believes something is moral, almost by definition you need to believe Jesus thinks so too. There’s nothing doctrinal about this, by Carter’s own admission. It’s just “I feel strongly this is right, ergo God must as well.”

At first glance, it sounds nice to say we should “get government out of the marriage business.” Marriage, as far as the state is concerned, would be merely a private relationship contract, with no reference to the lasting features of natural marriage between a man and woman, and its connection to the bearing and raising of children. Many libertarians, including Rand Paul, and now even some conservatives, claim that this will solve the same-sex marriage controversy. Few understand the logical implications of their argument. There are at least seven reasons why “marriage privatization,” if really achieved, would profoundly harm citizens...

Judges cease performing marriages Winfrey, Jackson say they don’t want local court ‘tarnished by being caught up in the dissention’ Following what some call a controversial and others say is a historic ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on same-sex marriage, Laclede County Associate Court judges have announced that they will no longer perform marriages. “In light of the divisive impact of the recent United States Supreme Court decision on our society relative to the issue of marriage, we elect to not allow the integrity and respect of your local court to be tarnished by being caught up in the...

The Supreme Court’s bizarre decision to impose same-sex “marriage” on all the States is the making of history by the breaking of history. It is to make something that humanity has never sanctioned and has always shunned not only legal but compulsory. Until a few short years ago, the very thought that marriage was anything other than the union of a man and a woman would have been impossible because the very thought would have been unthinkable. The Supreme Court has, therefore, divorced itself from the collective experience of humanity as manifested in the continuum of moral norms that are...

Pastor Ty Wyss - a teaching/witness on homosexuality

Like many people at the Supreme Court last month, I was deeply moved by the historic ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges recognizing the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry. At such a transcendent moment, it is difficult to do anything but celebrate the triumph of what Justice Anthony Kennedy called the “dignity” and “profound hopes and aspirations” of the many loving couples who had been denied the recognition of marriage. But Kennedy’s moving language was more than just aspirational thoughts on dignity. He found a right to marriage based not on the status of the couples as homosexuals but...

The Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage across the country is the end of the legal discussion on the topic, at least for now. It isn’t, however, the end of the discussion on marriage. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion rests on four principles, which according to him “demonstrate that the reasons marriage is fundamental under the Constitution apply with equal force to same-sex couples.” His first and third principles raise some intriguing possibilities, and his fourth principle opens the floodgates to a world of fun. The first premise of this Court’s relevant precedents is that the right to personal choice...

“To learn who rules over you, find out whom you are not allowed to criticize.” — Voltaire If you’re wondering what Americans can do as our ruling class sets about enforcing its redefinition of marriage, start by looking back at what it did to the citizens of Indiana when their legislature raised the possibility that someone might object to joining in celebrations of homosexual marriage. Support for homosexual unions was incidental to the insistence of the likeminded folks atop society’s commanding heights on punishing Indiana. What incurs their ire has less to do with any substantive matter than with the...

In what could be a first for a global fast food outlet, Burger King is making a bold proclamation in support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community with the launch of a specially packaged burger. The "Be Your Way" project was created at a Burger King franchise in San Francisco, where a limited edition "Proud Whopper" sandwich was added to the menu to coincide with the city's annual pride festivities. According to press materials, guests who ordered the "Proud Whopper" found that the sandwich was the same as a classic Whooper, but came wrapped in a rainbow-colored...

I am not involved in the same sex marriage debate. I want both sides of that contentious issue to agree with me on human exceptionalism–and the best way to be heard by all is to keep my big trap shut on domestic relations jurisprudence. But I was struck by the clarion defense of equal and intrinsic human dignity issued by Justice Clarence Thomas in his Obergefell v Hodges dissent.  The heart of his opinion begins by quoting the immortal “all men are created equal” phrase from the Declaration of Independence. He then proceeds to apply that crucial insight from the American founding.  From...

Same-sex “marriage” advocates will heartily celebrate July 4 this year, thrilled with the possibilities in the New America they’re creating in their own image. They will be especially grateful to Anthony Kennedy and the four liberal justices who gave them gay “marriage” by assuming unto themselves what Thomas Jefferson two-and-a-half centuries ago called “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” That sublime understanding in that Declaration has been superseded by a subversive understanding declared by the likes of Justice Kennedy.Kennedy’s swing vote making gay “marriage” a constitutional right recognized in all 50 states is one of the most...

George Takei unleashed a racist rant against Clarence Thomas, sneering that the Supreme Court justice is a "clown in blackface." The Star Trek actor on Monday fumed, "[Thomas] is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court. He gets me that angry. He doesn't belong there." Talking to a local Fox affiliate in Phoenix, Takei snarled that the second African American on the Supreme Court is unqualified: "This man does not belong on the Supreme Court. He is an embarrassment. He is a disgrace to America."

Via the Free Beacon, I think it was Dan McLaughlin of Red State who tweeted after last week’s SSM decision was released, “Now the contest begins to see who’ll be the angriest winner.” His point was that, for a movement that’s been unstoppable culturally over the past 10 years, there’s a curiously strong impulse towards nastiness in some lefties’ reaction to each new victory. With this remark from George Takei, I think it’s safe to say the contest is now over. Takei’s overreacting to a point Thomas made in response to Kennedy’s idea that state recognition of gay marriage is...

... Findings from PRRI's American Values Atlas, which draws on 40,000 interviews among a random sample of Americans, provides the most in-depth portrait to date of attitudes on same-sex marriage by religious affiliation. ... All Americans [percentages]... Strongly Favor 25 Favor 29 Oppose 18 Strongly Oppose 20 White Evangelical Protestant [Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Church of Christ]... Strongly Favor 10 Favor 18 Oppose 27 Strongly Oppose 39 White Mainline Protestant [Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Church of Christ]... Strongly Favor 28 Favor 34 Oppose 16 Strongly Oppose 14 ...