Free Republic

Many issues are involved in the present debate over the acceptance of homosexuality. While there are those in the field of genetics who say homosexuality is biologically determined, there are also those in the field of religion who say the practice of homosexuality is always wrong. . . . There are many studies that have been conducted but none of them prove the practice of homosexuality is biologically determined. In fact, human behavior, sexual or otherwise, has little to do with genetics. A rational person will realize that we live in a world where we have a choice as to...

It has been coming for some time, but the top voices in bioethics–by which I mean those who inhabit the top floors of the ivory tower–are almost all blatant eugenicists.  That sure is from whence the first eugenics came from–and the pattern is repeating itself.  First, anti human exceptionalism cultural poison spouted from the top universities.  Then, money from rich private foundations to fuel the advocacy: Philanthropists fueled the first eugenics, just as the secretive Ira W. DeCamp Foundation paid to bring Peter Singer to his academic chair at Princeton. And then, move the cancer from the academic press and symposia into the popular culture. Everything...

This week, one of the leading pro-life groups for Catholics made the decision to put its imprimatur on the presidential ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, saying it is the right vote for pro-lifers. On the heels of Romney’s picking a pro-life running mate in Rep. Paul Ryan, Brian Burch of Catholic Vote told his supporters, “Mitt Romney made his choice. Today we are making ours.” “CatholicVote.org is proud to announce that we are enthusiastically endorsing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in the 2012 presidential race,” Burch said. “The decision to endorse Romney for President was made after Governor...

August 17, 2012 7:47 AM Russian female punk band Pussy Riot found guilty of hooliganism over Putin protest at church site Updated at 8:53 a.m. ET (CBS/AP) MOSCOW - A Russian judge found three members of the provocative punk band Pussy Riot guilty of hooliganism on Friday, in one of the most closely watched cases in recent Russian history. The judge said the three band members committed hooliganism driven by religious hatred and offending religious believers. The three were arrested in March after a guerrilla performance in Moscow's main cathedral in February calling for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia...

Scientists may be one step closer to a birth control pill for men. A drug dubbed JQ1 swiftly stunted sperm production in male mice, a new study found. And like the female birth control pill, its fertility-fighting effects on were completely reversible. "We have only observed full recovery of fertility in treated males," the researchers from Baylor College of Medicine wrote in their study, published today in the journal Cell. "We envision that our discoveries can be completely translated to men, providing a novel and efficacious strategy for a male contraceptive." …

Culture Challenge of the Week: Movies "Selling" Sex to Children Can you name the last five movies your teenage son or daughter has watched with friends? How strong was the sexual content in those movies? And does it really matter? New research suggests that it does. The study, conducted by Dr. Ross O'Hara and soon to be published in the journal Psychological Science, found that promiscuity on-screen promotes promiscuity in real life. "Adolescents who are exposed to more sexual content in movies start having sex at younger ages, have more sexual partners," and engage in riskier sexual activities says Dr....

Moscow's top court has upheld a ban on gay pride marches in the Russian capital for the next 100 years. Earlier Russia's best-known gay rights campaigner, Nikolay Alexeyev, had gone to court hoping to overturn the city council's ban on gay parades. He had asked for the right to stage such parades for the next 100 years. He also opposes St Petersburg's ban on spreading "homosexual propaganda". The European Court of Human Rights has told Russia to pay him damages. On Friday he said he would go back to the European Court in Strasbourg to push for a recognition that...

Rep. Kerry Gauthier, D-Duluth, won't face charges for having oral sex with a minor at the Thompson Hill rest stop near Duluth, but at the least he's revealed himself to be a dishonest person, lying to the 17-year-old about his age and to police about what exactly happened in the woods that night. . . Gauthier, 56, was then a bit more forthcoming, telling the officer that he met the boy through an ad he posted on Craigslist. In the ad, Gauthier characterized himself as a 43-year-old looking for man-on-man sex with "no strings attached." His ad received a...

Benjamin Brink/The Oregonian St. Luke Catholic Church in Woodburn, where the Rev. Angel Armando Perez is the parish priest. It was close to midnight Sunday when Woodburn resident James Curths saw the 12-year-old boy running down the street toward him. Curths said the child, panting and out of breath, begged for help, telling him a man was chasing him. Moments later, a man rounded the corner wearing only underwear. He stood a short distance away, trying to wave the boy over as Curths and his sister-in-law prepared to drive the boy to relatives. "He was staring at us," said Heather...

Dust off those resumes, the Los Angeles City Council may soon be looking for a condom cop. Earlier this year the council appointed a committee to study how a newly minted law requiring the use of condoms on some adult film sets could be enforced. After several meetings between police, representatives of the porn industry and other committee members, the city’s administrative officer issued a 47-page report Wednesday. Among its recommendations: contracting with a licensed medical professional who would conduct periodic inspections of film productions to make sure condoms are used. Other proposals include establishing a fee, the amount to...

“Membership of the species Homo sapiens is not enough to confer a right to life.” To the ears of us ordinary people, it sounds like the ravings of some fringe group of European neo-fascists or Communists, but the man who made that statement in a Scottish newspaper today is perhaps the most acclaimed and respected ethical philosopher alive, toasted by liberal academic and political elites around the world. Philosopher and Bioethicist Peter Singer defended abortion in an op-ed in the Scotsman today. “Opponents will respond that abortion is, by its very nature, unsafe – for the fetus,” he wrote. “They...

Nine Days that Changed the World is a book about Pope John Paul II’s nine-day trip to Poland in 1979. The Pope’s pilgrimage laid the groundwork for the revolution of conscience that eventually brought down the Communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe. Thus those nine days really did change the world. Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day could very well be the One Day that changes our world this year. During Pope John Paul’s first trip to his homeland after being elected Pope, he did not assemble an army. He did not set up a network of spies. He did not give rabble-rousing speeches....

ATLANTA, August 15, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - The full story of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood will be told next month, when former employee Karen Handel releases her new book for Simon & Schuster. Planned Bullyhood, The Truth Behind the Headlines about the Planned Parenthood Funding Battle with Susan G. Komen for the Cure will be available on September 11. Earlier this year Komen announced it was cutting off funding from Planned Parenthood because of a new policy not to fund organizations under investigation by the government, and because Planned Parenthood does not...

(LifeSiteNews.com) – You are born with an XY or an XX chromosome, primary characteristics that will objectively develop one genotype: male or female. But now you can choose whether to be male, female, or something else—and when the American Psychiatric Association releases their new manual, it will be perfectly normal. In May 2013, the APA will publish the DSM-5, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. A significant change will be the reclassification of Gender Identity Disorder to “Gender Dysphoria.” “Dysphoria” is a word meaning “emotional distress.” Proponents of the change believe it is a...

An experiment five years ago suggested that babies are equipped with an innate moral compass, which drives them to choose good individuals over the bad in a wooden puppet show. But new research casts doubt on those findings, demonstrating that a baby's apparent preference for what's right might just reflect a fondness for bouncy things. The researchers who conducted the original study stand by their results and interpretations, pointing to some discrepancies in the new study. In the original study, conducted by Yale researchers in 2007, groups of 6-month-olds and 10-month-olds watched a puppet show with neutral wooden figures, where...

Which do teens do first: oralsex or sexual intercourse? Do teens use oral sex to delay first intercourse? New CDC data put numbers onhow manyyoungAmericans in their teens and early 20s have oral sex with opposite-sex partners -- and when they do it. The numbers come from 6,346 in-depth, computer-assisted interviews with 15- to 24-year-olds conducted from July 2007 to June 2010 as part of the National Survey of Family Growth.

MINNEAPOLIS — Human Life Alliance (HLA) recently released “Street Magazine,” a publication that is “designed to engage mothers right outside abortion facilities.” “We designed it to be easily tucked into a purse or pocket, helping young women hide it from Planned Parenthood deathscorts,” said Jo Tolck, executive director of HLA, in a recent issue of the group’s “Action News” publication. “Our hope is this new tool will help sidewalk counselors engage more young women considering abortion.” Some 100,000 copies of the mag- azine were printed for this first edition. HLA plans to publish again in the fall or early in...

“Grace is not your average Lutheran church,” so says the ELCA’s Grace Lutheran Church in a Houston, TX. I say that isn't necessarily so. I believe Grace Lutheran gives us a picture of what many ELCA churches ARE like and what most ELCA churches will be. And it’s time that all the Midwest ELCA churches, rural ELCA churches, head-in-the-sand churches and members everywhere understand what the ELCA has become. Let me tell you about Grace Lutheran. Their church website recommends giving kids a children’s book about homosexual marriage. The book is called Donovan’s Big Day. One of Grace Lutheran's church...

The suspected shooter in the Family Research Council office earlier today is reported as having been a volunteer at a Washington, D.C. based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered center, according to a report by Fox News online. Early Fox News reported on Special Report that the suspected gunman was stopped and had his gun taken away from him, after injuring one person, by a security guard at the office. The report said he shot one person in the arm and after the security guard took his gun away, he plead to the guard, saying “Don't shoot me, it was not...

If there is one thing that anti-choice activists do that makes me see red, it is when they parade out their poster children: men, women and children who were "targeted for abortion". They tell us "these people would not be alive today if abortion had been legal or if their mothers had made a different choice". [....] The narrative that anti-choice crusaders are telling is powerful, moving, and best of all it has a happy ending. It makes the woman who carries to term a hero, and for narrative purposes it hides her maternal failing. We cannot argue against heroic,...