Free Republic

Aaron Sweeney is a youth minister in Illinois. I can’t remember the last time my town’s been in the national news—in fact, maybe there hasn’t really been another time. I guess that’s why what’s going on now has taken so many of us by surprise. I’m the youth minister at a church in Erie, Illinois—a town of about 1,500 people that represents a mixture of local business owners, farmers, teachers and factory workers and others. We’ve never experienced anything like this—where for the last several weeks our town has been the target of a national pressure campaign launched by gay...

<p>An article written by Steve Doughty and published in the Daily Mail in the UK on June 19. The article reports on a research by Professor Patrick Pullicino that found that approximately 29% of all deaths in the UK are prematurely ended by use of the Liverpool Pathway, a plan that defines a patient as futile and then withdraws all treatment and care, including hydration and nutrition.</p>

J.C. Penney has lost its way--and in the process, its profits! "Is J.C. Penney trying to become GayC Penney?" ABC News is asking--and so are customers. In the last several months, the company once known for its Christian roots has undergone a radical transformation. It started last year, when J.C. Penney hired Ellen DeGeneres, a vocal proponent of same-sex "marriage," as its spokesperson. The choice drew fire from several people who thought DeGeneres was a departure from the store's longstanding values. When organizations like American Family Association's One Million Moms complained, J.C. Penney's new president, Michael Francis, stubbornly dug in...

Tony Nicklinson is 58 and paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke in 2005. He is seeking legal permission for a doctor actively to end his life. A Channel 4 Dispatches programme this week, ‘Let our dad die’, put Tony’s case with powerful emotion but it did not tell us that most people with locked-in syndrome do not actually think like this man. No one can help but be sympathetic to Tony Nicklinson, but cases like his are extremely rare and hard cases make bad law. The overwhelming majority of people with severe disability - even with ‘locked-in...

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indespensible supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness -- these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. ... [L]et us with caution indulge the opposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of...

Lutherans Concerned/North America Becomes ReconcilingWorks It's a new day and we have a new name!! For decades we've worked among Lutherans for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the life of the church. In 2009, a major milestone was achieved when the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to allow ministers in lifelong, same-gender relationships to serve in the church. In 2011, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada established policies that permit the legal marriage or blessing of same-gender couples and that sexual orientation is not an impediment to ordination. But, the work for...

Irony of Ironies. Known as the chief prophetess for the accelerating gay craze for marital rights, and against the "epidemic" of gay bullying, Lady Gaga has been a prime motivator for the Gaying of America, which seems to have even extended into the U.S Armed Forces under Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who recently had the Pentagon, of all places, celebrate Gay Pride Week. How about a Christian Humility week, Mr. Secretary, where the once staunch man-and-wife matrimony proponent, Barack Obama, can demote anyone in the military who still believes that gayness is against God's law? I'm sure the...

Parents could tell something was wrong with the children when they came home from school. They were quiet and withdrawn, embarrassed, and didn’t want to talk about what had happened. When Curtis and Jean Pannkuk began questioning their young daughter, they discovered that her elementary school principal had instructed her that day in how to perform oral and anal sex. The traumatizing instruction was delivered as a part of state approved sex education that was orchestrated, developed, pushed, and policed by Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, SIECUS, and a host of other agencies. Though parents in the small town of...

RALEIGH, North Carolina, June 20, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As part of their nationwide campaign to raise awareness about the disturbing practice of sex-selection in America’s abortion facilities, Live Action released new footage today from two North Carolina facilities. The undercover sting shows counselors from Planned Parenthood Chapel Hill and A Woman’s Choice of Raleigh, a National Abortion Federation affiliate, booking abortion appointments for a woman even after she made it clear she would only do it if they confirmed the unborn child was a girl. “We’re not here to judge people, we’re here to present them with their options and...

NHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds, a senior consultant claimed yesterday. Professor Patrick Pullicino said doctors had turned the use of a controversial ‘death pathway’ into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly. He claimed there was often a lack of clear evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway, a method of looking after terminally ill patients that is used in hospitals across the country. It is designed to come into force when doctors believe it is impossible for a patient to...

Being A Polygamist Most of us frown upon the idea of polygamy, but it's considered an acceptable lifestyle in many other places around the world. For instance in Africa, children are considered to be symbolic of wealth, so polygamy is an appealing lifestyle because of how quickly it allows families to grow. Being Or Using A Prostitute Prostitution has some terrible connotations in America, but in places like Germany, it's just like any other respectable profession. For instance, if you are unemployed for a year and refuse to take an available job (like being a prostitute), the government reserves the...

Switzerland, which already permits suicide purveyors to make a lot of money out of suicide tourism, is now bringing self termination into nursing homes and hospitals. From the Swiss Info story: Vaud is set to become the first Swiss canton to introduce a law explicitly regulating assisted suicide. On Sunday, 62 per cent of people in the French-speaking canton voted in favour of a proposal obliging nursing homes and hospitals to accept the practice. The plan was put forward by the cantonal parliament and when the new law comes into force, doctors in nursing homes and hospitals must respect the...

A group of Obama Fool-Aid drinkers heckle kids singing a patriotic song in New York City.

Another Komen affiliate is sending thousands of dollars to the nation’s biggest abortion business following the national controversy over Komen’s initial decision, and subsequent reversal, to deny Planned Parenthood funding.The North Jersey affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced Friday that Planned Parenthood is among the recipients of more than $1.2 million in total grants to 18 local organizations. A news report reveals the Komen chapter had given a $20,000 grant to the local Planned Parenthood abortion business last year and chose to renew the grant this year. Komen North Jersey spokeswoman Kathi Edelson Wolder said Friday the...

LONDON, June 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of the top peer review journals in the medical field has formally adopted a stand in favor of legalized euthanasia, telling British doctors’ associations that they must adopt a “neutral” stand and never oppose efforts to liberalize the law. In its latest edition three articles, including one formal editorial and two op-eds, lash out against the opposition to euthanasia or assisted suicide among medical professional bodies, saying it is a matter to be decided by the public. Two of the leading figures in the campaign to legalize euthanasia were given space for emotional...

Hey ya'll come to Lansing, there'll be plenty of vaginas.This whole controversy disgusts me, but hey, it's part of the reason why I'm not a Democrat. The false narrative that the media is running with on the vagina controversy in Lansing is basically what the Democrats say it's about. According to female Democrats, women are being censored on the House floor for daring to say the word vagina. So, in order to really really get those evil male Republicans to pay, the women plan to talk about taking mirrors to view the female genitalia, how the hair feels, orgasms, and...

Retailers are going mainstream with ad campaigns aimed at gay customers in an effort to get their merchandise into more consumer closets. “Retailers, particularly fashion retailers, always like to be ahead of the curve,” said local retail analyst Chris Boring of Boulevard Strategies. “In 2012, supporting gay rights and accepting gays is pretty mainstream.” In one high-profile move, J.C. Penney is running an ad for Father’s Day featuring a gay Texas couple and their two children. A month ago, the retailer had an ad for Mother’s Day showing a lesbian couple with their children. The iconic retailer also has tapped...

The Advocate had an online question earlier in the week, “What do you do when your kid has two moms – and no dad – and the teacher decides everyone will be making Father’s Day cards?” Here’s part of how “Mr. Manners” answered the question: Fortunately, many school districts have reacted to changing circumstances by modernizing this little ritual (along with its counterpart, Mother’s Day), either by changing its name to “Parent’s Day” or simply by letting the kids make a card for any relative, teacher, or role model….You might also want to have a private talk with your son...

. The mission of the Manhattan Institute is to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility. The Single-Mom Catastrophe June 03, 2012 By Kay S. Hymowitz The demise of two-parent families in the U.S. has been an economic catastrophe for society. The single-mother revolution shouldn’t need much introduction. It started in the 1960s when the nation began to sever the historical connection between marriage and childbearing and to turn single motherhood and the fatherless family into a viable, even welcome, arrangement for children and for society. The reasons for the shift were many, including...

Move over, tiger moms. Dads can play an even more significant role in the development of happy, well-adjusted children than do mothers, a new study indicates. Just in time for Father's Day, findings from a large-scale review of research shed light on how parental acceptance and rejection can affect the personalities of progeny well into adulthood. "In our 50 years of research in every continent but Antarctica, we have found that nothing has as strong and consistent an effect on personality development as does being rejected by a parent—especially by a father—in childhood," said study co-author Ronald Rohner, director of...

The issue of euthanasia in Canada is no longer simmering on a back burner. After the Supreme Court of British Columbia found yesterday that Criminal Code provisions which prohibit doctors from helping their patients commit suicide are unconstitutional, it is on a full, rolling boil. In the landmark decision, Justice Lynn Smith set down that if suicide is legal, preventing handicapped persons from taking their lives must be discriminatory.  Judge Smith gave Canada's Parliament a year to draft a law permitting assisted suicide. In the meantime she granted the principal plaintiff in the case, Gloria Taylor, an exemption. This makes...

The Medical Establishment continues to try and misdirect the conversation on the pending threat of “death panels” under Obamacare.  They pretend it is about “end of life discussions.”  But even though Sarah Palin mistakenly made that allusion when she first coined the term, she quickly corrected her mistake–as we noted here. “Death panels” really refer to the threat of health care rationing and centralized cost/benefit bureaucracies deciding that efficacious treatments will not be covered based on quality of life invidious discrimination–as occurs already in the UK, Canada, and Oregon’s Medicaid rationing law.But they keep pretending. Latest example: In the Annals of...

Majority Floor Leader Jim Stamas (R-Midland) gaveled Brown out of order on Wednesday afternoon after she told her colleagues, “I’m flattered you’re all so concerned about my vagina, but no means no.”

What would it be like to starve to death in silence? Can you imagine dying of thirst, but not being able to ask for a glass of water? Student and aspiring filmmaker Adam Hardy, 22, puts his viewers in the shoes of a woman in just that situation.Based on the true story of Terri Schiavo and others like her, Hungry reminds us of the discrimination that people with disabilities face and the sanctity of all human life. Since Live Action is a youth-led movement dedicated to building a culture of life, we love sharing what other young people are doing to communicate life-affirming...

President Barack Obama will host a reception at the White House to observe Gay Pride Month on Friday. In a proclamation earlier this month, the president stressed that his administration has worked to “level the playing field for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.” Obama’s recent declaration of support for gay marriage was celebrated as a key endorsement among gay rights groups. After the reception, the first family leaves for Chicago, where they will spend the night.

Two new peer-reviewed studies show that family structure matters and children do best when reared by their married biological mother and father. The widely circulated claim that parents engaged in same-sex relationships do just as well as other parents at raising children—a claim widely known today as the “no differences� thesis—is not settled science. Two new peer-reviewed studies released this week by the academic journal Social Science Research challenge the claim that there are no differences in outcomes between children raised by parents who have same-sex relationships and those raised by their biological mother and father in intact, stable marriages.In...

Two peer-reviewed articles published Sunday in a scholarly journal cast doubt on a core assumption used to advance same-sex marriage. A number of studies and articles have suggested that research shows no difference in outcomes between children whose parents have same-sex relationships and their peers raised by heterosexual parents. For example, the American Psychological Association (APA) stated in 2005 that “Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.” Yesterday the academic journal Social Science Research published a detailed methodological review of the research...

A British ethics committee has recommended going forward with creating human embryos with 3 genetic parents. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent body that considers issues in biotechnology and medicine, has found the genetic engineering technique is ethical and should move forward even though the technique is currently against the law in the United Kingdom.Why would doctors want to engineer an embryo with the genetic material from 3 people? Because, it will “prevent” the inheritance of mitochondrial disease. Not all of our DNA that we inherit is in the nuclei of the egg and sperm that join at fertilization....

A disturbing story is making its way out of a small community in Washington State, where residents are outraged over a school lesson that was delivered to fifth-grade children. During a sex education class led by the Onalaska Elementary School principal, graphic descriptions of oral and anal sex were purportedly delivered. According to Fox News’ Todd Starnes, the 11-year-old students were being given a lesson on HIV-AIDS. However, the lesson took a bizarre turn when a student reportedly asked about other forms of sexual activity. At that point, the principal then delved into subjects many would deem too advanced for...

What should be done with elderly Americans when they become very seriously ill? Should we try to save their lives or should we just let them die? Unfortunately, there is a growing consensus among the "intellectual elite" that most elderly people are not going to have a high enough "quality of life" to justify the expense of costly life saving procedures. This philosophy is now being promoted very heavily through mainstream news outlets, in our television shows and in big Hollywood movies. The elite are attempting to convince us that killing off our sick grandparents is cool and trendy. We...

A change in the law to allow doctors to help mentally competent adults to end their lives is 'almost inevitable', Dr Fiona Godlee said, and the medical profession should not oppose it. A survey of GPs found almost two thirds were in favour of the British Medical Association and the Royal Colleges adopting a neutral stance to the issue. Assisted dying is due to be debated at the BMA conference at the end of the month. Dr Godlee said the debate on assisted dying is similar to that of abortion reform in the 1960s when the main medical professional bodies...

June 25, 2012 is the 50th anniversary of the Engel v. Vitale Supreme Court decision which banned prayer in public schools. Minister David Barton has accurately observed that in the years following that landmark 1962 decision, social pathologies increased amongst America’s public school students including promiscuity, pregnancy, abortion, depression, suicide and drug abuse. The daily experience of prayer to a Supreme Being offered a moment of thanks and acknowledgement for the many blessings bestowed on our great nation and reminded our children that there was something greater in the universe than mere material satisfactions. Yet, it should be acknowledged that...

Pressuring women to have an abortion is not limited to sexual abusers, manipulative husbands, and outraged relatives. One young professional is complaining that her co-workers are continually badgering her to abort her wanted unborn child, because it will interfere with her career. Slate magazine’s weekly “Dear Prudence” feature showcases advice columnist Emily Yoffe in a video segment entitled “Abortion Advocates on the Job.” The writer is a working woman in her late 20s who said she unexpectedly became pregnant a few years before she and her husband intended. The couple is happily keeping the baby. That did not make other...

This is a disgrace: Peter Singer has won Australia’s highest civic award. From the Princeton press release: Peter Singer, the Decamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, has been awarded Australia’s highest civic honor. He was appointed Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia “for eminent service to philosophy and bioethics as a leader of public debate and communicator of ideas in the areas of global poverty, animal welfare and the human condition.”Singer is best known for advocating the ethical propriety of infanticide. But that isn’t nearly the limit of...

Right-to-die activists hope more countries will allow assisted suicide or euthanasia in coming years as the world population ages, but opponents are determined to stop them, a dispute that flared ahead of competing conferences in Switzerland. "We have seen over the last 20 years a general migration of positivity towards this being a just cause," Ted Goodwin, the American president of the World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies, told a news conference in Zürich on Tuesday. … Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, if performed by a non-physician who has no direct interest in the death. Euthanasia, or...

Hello, My name is Chase! New, hot, & ready to forfill [sic] all of your wildest dreams. Weighing 115 and standing at 5’4” with the complete package to take you to ecstacy [sic] ! ! ! In call starting at $80. Out call starting at $100. Poster's age: 19. That’s an actual sex ad posted today in the Seattle listings of Backpage.com, a website that boasts a 70 percent market share of the nation’s prostitution ads according to AIM Group, the leading research and consulting service for the classifieds industry. The owners of Backpage.com, Village Voice Media, are determined to...

ONALASKA, Wash. - You can tell Onalaska is old fashioned just by looking. "We're in the country, we're small town, we like it that way,” said parent Kadra Gilliland. But something at the elementary school last week has folks in this quiet town making noise. "What gives this woman the right to come down here and go above our authority, is the way I look at it,” said parent Curt Pannkuk. "I was one pissed off cowboy," said parent James Gilliland. These parents are upset about a sex education class for the fifth graders last week. "She learned oral sex...

BATON ROUGE -- Doctors will be barred from performing abortions 20 weeks after conception under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Bobby Jindal.Senate Bill 766 by Senate President John Alario, R-Westwego, prohibits all abortions after 20 weeks, about 22 weeks on the typical 40-week gestational calendar. The previous state law prohibited the procedure after the fetus was viable.Alario's bill, which goes into effect Aug. 1, carries fines and imprisonment for any physician that performs an abortion after the cut-off. The bill does allow for abortions performed to protect the life of the pregnant woman.The bill joins two other...

Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, a candidate for U.S. Senate, defended sex-selective abortions and criticized Senate Republicans for opposing abortions instigated because the fetus is a girl. "To many cultures, particularly the Asian culture, this presented the prospect of a doctor grilling an Asian woman for example," Hirono, a Japanese immigrant, said at the Netroots Nation convention. Hirono made clear that she did not oppose sex-selective abortions. "How can we criminalize a decision that should be up to the woman and her doctor?" she asked. Hirono also maintained that "there really is a war on women in Congress." Although President Obama...

OTTAWA, Ontario, June 11, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Muslims of a traditional bent hope that a lack of funding will force Planned Parenthood Ottawa to cut a program aimed at teaching their Muslim teenage daughters a version of “sexual health” that they say is contrary to their “faith-based values and family values.” “Information and education is always good, but when it comes with a clear message of promoting a certain lifestyle which may be in conflict with both the faith-based values and family values [of Muslims] then I have an issue with it,” Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social...

Comfort is such a nice word. It’s so easy to live in comfort and never take a chance. Never get in there and try to make a difference. We could live our lives in the comfort zone, never standing up for what is right, never speaking out against what we believe is wrong. But how can we just live our lives like everything is okay while every day, thousands of children are murdered? It’s time for us to get out of the comfort zone and stand up against abortion! It is wrong to distance ourselves from what’s happening in abortion...

It may come as a surprise to some of her fans, but Carrie Underwood has announced her support for gay marriage. The devoutly Christian "Jesus, Take the Wheel" country singer spoke out to The Independent on why she believes marriage should be legal for all. "As a married person myself, I don't know what it's like to be told I can't marry somebody I love, and want to marry," Underwood, 29, explained. "I can't imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love."...

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which reports on how well governments respect and protect children's human rights, is alarmed at the prevalence of the hatches – usually outside a hospital – which allow unwanted newborns to be left in boxes with an alarm or bell to summon a carer. Their proponents draw on the language of the pro-life lobby and claim the baby boxes "protect a child's right to life" and have saved "hundreds of newborns". There are differing opinions on this key social issue across Europe. In France and Holland women have the right to...

Every year he has been in office President Obama has made it a point to cozy up to America’s tiny homosexual activist minority by officially recognizing June as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.” This year, of course, was no exception. Having just come out officially in favor of legalizing same-sex “marriage,” the President followed up on June 1 by issuing this year’s proclamation setting aside the entire month to commemorate the valuable contributions that gays, lesbians, transvestites, and an odds-and-ends assortment of sexually- and gender-confused individuals have made to American society. “The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT)...

A New York principle has sparked fury among parents, students and teachers after banning a patriotic song from being sung at graduation. Kindergartners at PS 90, the Edna Cohen School in Coney Island will not be allowed to sing ‘God Bless the USA’ at their moving-up ceremony because principle Greta Hawkins has decided it is inappropriate. The lyrics, she says could ‘offend other cultures’ and are ‘too grown-up’ for five-year-olds. Controversially, Hawkins is allowing alternatives including ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber, with flirty lyrics such as: ‘Are we an item? Girl, quit playing.’ In past years the kids would sing the...

In two short minutes, you can find out even more things than you’ve heard before about what’s wrong with ObamaCare. (And this doesn’t even cover it all, folks.) We knew it was bad – we knew it was really bad – but did we know it was this bad? I mean, seriously, $100-a-day fines for each employee? If this isn’t an extreme violation of personal, constitutional, and conscience rights, I don’t know what is. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at all the things that can hide in a nearly 1,000 page law, with even more pages of regulations implementing...

Who’s calling the shots over at the Girl Scouts? And where’s the organization headed?The questions matter for two reasons. First, it’s cookie season. Any day now some cute little girls wearing green sashes and bright smiles will knock on your door and sweetly seek support for their projects, badges, and activities. Do you write the check or not? (Forget your craving for Thin Mints. Think rationally!) Should you support the Girl Scouts? Second, the Girl Scouts organization (GSUSA) is in trouble again. In recent weeks, they’ve drawn scrutiny for promoting biased resources (the left-wing Media Matters) and pressuring an employee...

A former Bangor Area High School teacher who had sex with a 17-year-old student was sent to prison for five months Friday by a Northampton County judge who said he expected her to be unhappy with his sentence. But then Rachel L. Farrell, 26, surprised Judge Emil Giordano, who had just heard her defense attorney arguing for probation.

Just how did the right to an abortion appear in the Constitution? It’s found in the Fifth Amendment, which reads in relevant part, “No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” And the Fourteenth Amendment: “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” You see it there, right?...

Students at New York City’s Stuyvesant High are unhappy with a dress code that bans girls from wearing Daisy Dukes and tank tops to school along with other such inappropriate clothing. To protest the restriction on their supposed right to wear as little as possible to school, the girls held a so-called “Slutty Wednesday” demonstration this week. They complained that Stuyvesant’s dress code is unfair, particularly to well-endowed girls. Lucy Greider, a Stuyvesant freshman, told the New York Post she’s been sent to the principal’s office 10 times this school year for showing off too much cleavage, midriff or shoulder....