Free Republic

Work started on Thursday for the installation of the world’s largest folding umbrella in the northern courtyard of the Grand Mosque in Makkah. This is the first of the eight high-tech giant umbrellas and 54 small ones to be installed in the Grand Mosque in the coming six months. Being manufactured in Germany, each canopy will consist of a giant clock, screens of guidelines for worshippers, air-conditioners, and surveillance cameras. Each umbrella will have a height of 45 meters and weigh 16 tons. It will give shade to an area of 2,400 square meters when open. Some 25 engineers, specialist...

On Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court rejected the US Supreme Court's marriage opinion and basically told them to take a hike in favor of following the Alabama Constitution and Alabama law. On March 4, 2016, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered that all probate judges cease and desist in issuing marriage licenses to sodomies. The court issued its 170-page ruling in favor of Petition for Mandamus by Liberty Counsel. Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel said, "The ruling last year by the Alabama Supreme Court was historic, and is one of the most researched and well-reasoned opinions on marriage...

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Missouri state court has ruled in favor of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, upholding its right to fire an employee who publicly contracted a so-called gay marriage, as it opposes Church teaching. Before being hired by the diocese as director of social ministries at St. Francis Xavier Parish in 2013, Colleen Simon informed the director of religious education she was a lesbian and was told then that would not bar her from being employed there. But when an article in the Kansas City Star's 816 Magazine broke the story of her so-called marriage to...

When uttered by a man, the words “will you marry me” serve to signal a tradition that is both widely accepted and ages old. Having the same spoken by a woman however — except in a leap year like 2016, when an old Irish tradition of having the woman ask is known to emerge — are still surprisingly rare. Legend has it that “The Ladies’ Privilege,” as it was known then, originated in the fifth century, with an Irish nun later known as St. Brigid. Through her intervention it was decided that on Feb. 29, women would be given the...

Minor Muslim girls in the UK as young as 11 are being forced to marry men living abroad via the internet notwithstanding a ban on forced marriage in the country. Imams in the UK and abroad have been conducting ceremonies using Skype -- so girls can be married remotely before "being put on a plane and consummating the marriage at the earliest opportunity", according to Freedom, a charity. The marriage is often conducted with the promise of a visa to the UK for their new husband, it said.

For all the talk about immigrants refusing to embrace American ways — a defining controversy of this GOP presidential race — the evidence has been scant. The National Academies of Sciences deflated most of the myths in a definitive report last year. Today’s immigrants are more educated and better English speakers than their predecessors, and they are far less likely to commit a crime compared to the native-born. They are quickly becoming part of American communities.

This Valentine's Day I wanted to dive deeper than the box of chocolates. I asked some of my favorite couples, who have been married from a range of less than a year to 30-plus years, a few questions about marriage. Read these when you have a chance to soak them in ... some really good words I will be trying to bring to fruition in my own life!What is one way you work on keeping your marriage strong?"Marriage is about choosing love whether or not you feel it. Feelings are temperamental, but the decision to choose love every day...

In a stunning reversal, Donald Trump said that he will strengthen the rights of the LGBT community and bring people together. His new stance comes just days after he said that as president, he would “strongly consider” overturning Obergefell vs Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that found that same-sex couples have a legal and constitutional right to marry. “I’m a lesbian, we’ve had some great progress for the gay and lesbian community,” NECN reporter Sue O’Connell told Trump. When President Trump is in office, can we look for more forward motion on equality for gays and lesbians?” Here is Trump’s...

Donald Trump Says He Wants Supreme Court To Overturn Same-Sex Marriage Donald Trump told Fox News he isn't happy with the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage and would nominate justices to overturn it. By Ethan Weston | January 31, 2016 Donald Trump says he isn't a fan of the way the Supreme Court ruled on same-sex marriage. "I would have much preferred that they ruled at a state level and let the states make those rulings themselves," Trump told Fox News. Trump told Fox News's Chris Wallace he would consider appointing judges to the Supreme Court that would be...

As Churchill inspires us, we must fight the tyrannical menace that is the modern homosexual agenda, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. We must fight strong to the end, we must fight for the churches, we must fight for the chapels, and we must fight for the children. We shall fight in the media, we shall fight in the legislatures, and we shall fight in the courts. And if necessary, as Dr. Martin Luther King inspires us, we must go to jail.

The wife of an American pastor who was imprisoned for nearly four years in Iran filed court documents to legally separate from him the same day he returned home to Idaho, court records show. Saeed Abedini was one of four Americans released in Iran under a negotiated prisoner exchange on Jan. 16. The U.S. agreed to free seven Iranians as part of the agreement.

The BBC reports that in a document allegedly written by the Department of Religious Affairs of the East African country, polygamy for Eritreans is no longer a matter of choice. By law, the men are now required to marry at least two wives, or face life imprisonment with hard labour. Similarly, women who attempt to prevent their husbands from exercising the law would spend the rest of their lives in jail. According to the document, which has been circulating over the internet, the government of Eritrea, which is currently facing a shortage of male population following the civil war with...

A family made famous by the reality show "Sister Wives" is calling on a Utah appeals court to uphold a ruling that essentially decriminalized polygamy, saying the state's historic ban on the practice raises constitutional issues about freedom of religion, association, and privacy rights of consenting adults. Kody Brown and his four wives - Meri, Jangle, Christine and Robyn - who began appearing on the TLC reality show in 2010, filed suit against the state of Utah challenging the state's ban.

Men don't just fear the responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood, they fear the way these institutions have been corrupted and assaulted by our laws, courts, Christian leaders and entertainment, and even attacked by Walsh himself. Marriage has been legally and socially replaced by a new family model. While some men only fear taking on responsibility, wise men rightly are weary of the evil of this new form of family.

Late Have I Loved You -- On the Delay of Marriage in Our Culture and the Flawed Notions That Underlie It Msgr. Charles Pope-- January 11, 2016 -- In football, if the offense takes more than thirty seconds between plays, they are penalized for "delay of game." The result is lost yardage; they are now farther away from the goal line. The delay thus brings loss; progress toward the goal is hindered; victory becomes less likely, not more. I'm sure the offense would always like a little more time in the huddle in order to ensure that everyone knows...

Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court on Wednesday issued an order that the state’s probate judges, the only ones in the state who are allowed to issue marriage licenses, are to follow the state's Sanctity of Marriage Amendment and the state's Marriage Protection Act until the full state Supreme Court rules on the issue. In other words, stop granting marriage licenses to same-sex duos, even though that was the intent of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision last summer. "Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court that Alabama...

Finding love is hard. Making love deepen and last is even harder. If reality TV is any indication, love has gone off the rails in America. Contrary to so much of what women read about modern romance, the men on FYI’s reality show “Married at First Sight” are eager to commit. It’s the women who are either ambivalent or outright negative. They say they want love and marriage, but it’s not clear they are all relationship-ready. And I suspect feminism is part of the problem.

The year 2015 was a landmark one for same-sex couples in America—the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land, and even before the decision, some 390,000 gay couples had already gotten hitched in states like Massachusetts and New York. The Washington Post projected that number would increase nationwide to 500,000 by the end of the year. What makes these newly married couples unique is more than their gender. Surveys indicate that a high percentage of same-sex relationships—particularly among queer men—are non-monogamous, and often even after marriage.

The notion of “making a good match,” a staple of the writings of Jane Austen and Henry James, continues in contemporary romance novels. At the same time, income inequality commands increasing attention from economists. Lately we’ve been learning just how much these two topics are tied together. These days, an investment banker may marry another investment banker rather than a high school sweetheart, or a lawyer will marry another lawyer, or a prestigious client, rather than a secretary. Whether measured in terms of income or education, there are more so-called power couples today than in the past, one manifestation of...

The Rev. Canon Mpho Tutu, the daughter of former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, tied the knot this week with Professor Marceline van Furth in the Netherlands. According to Netherlands broadcaster Jeanette Chabalala of News24, the couple reportedly married in a private ceremony held in Oegstgeest in the Netherlands. The couple is set to celebrate their wedding in Cape Town in May. Tutu is currently the executive director of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, while Furth is a professor in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Vrije University in Amsterdam, and holds the Desmond Tutu Chair in Medicine at...