Free Republic

Our founders saw religion as the most powerful civilizing institution which could provide and sustain that moral base upon which our republic could be successfully built and without which, it would ultimately collapse like the Greeks before them. Consequently, they believed it to be imperative to encourage and support religion and did not see any 1st Amendment problem with governmental support of religion. Rather than depending upon external legal constraints and force to maintain order and peace, they had to rely upon individual self-restraint and self-control. But they realized that it is only reasonable to expect people to act that...

Notes of a Course of Lectures on Vattel's Law of Nations (1891) Author: James Houston Gilmore , Emer de Vattel Publisher: J. Blakey] Year: 1891 Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT Language: English Digitizing sponsor: Google Book contributor: University of Virginia Collection: americana http://www.archive.org/details/notesacourselec00vattgoog ___________________________________________________________________ The law of nations; or, Principles of the law of nature, applied to the conduct and affairs of nations and sovereigns. From the French of Monsieur de Vattel ... From the new ed. (1855) Author: Vattel, Emer de, 1714-1767; Chitty, Joseph, 1776-1841, ed; Ingraham, Edward D. (Edward Duncan), 1793-1854, ed Subject: International law; War (International law) Publisher:...

A Collection of Papers, which Passed Between the Late Learned Mr. Leibnitz ... (1717) Author: Samuel Clarke , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Publisher: printed for James Knapton Year: 1717 Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT Language: English Digitizing sponsor: Google Book contributor: Oxford University Collection: europeanlibraries Notes: A gentleman of the University of Cambridge = John Bulkeley http://www.archive.org/details/acollectionpape00leibgoog

America's news media have enormous opinion-shaping power. Therefore it's vital for Catholics to understand how the media work, and especially how they work on us. As part of a White House press strategy to create good will before the president met with Pope Benedict XVI on July 10, President Obama met with a variety of Catholic journalists and editors. His goal was a sensible one: to favorably influence American Catholic opinion through their Catholic publications. One of the more curious questions President Obama got came from a Catholic editor who asked if the president was ready to "write off" America's...

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” – The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 These are powerful and truthful words; words that officially launched a war; words that birthed a nation. These words, written by...

The relations among nature, reason, and revelation are mysterious for both Protestants and Catholics. Consider John Paul II's remark that “the primary and definitive source for studying the intimate nature of the human being is the Most Holy Trinity.” Read carelessly, this might seem to imply the utter futility of philosophizing about the constitution of the human person; nothing would be left but ­theology. Not so, for revelation shines at least five different kinds of light on nature. First is the light of precept: God commands or forbids something that the mind itself can recognize as right or wrong. Certain...

By applying positivism instead of natural law, 19th century courts burdened American racial history to this day. When Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that "all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," he could not have meant then what we understand these words to mean today. When the framers of the government wrote in the Constitution that "No person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and that the Constitution is "the supreme...

Pope Benedict XVI strongly reaffirmed the position of the Catholic Church that there is a Natural Law and that this Natural Law can be known by all men and women through the exercise of reason. He affirmed that this Natural Law has also made known to all men and women the existence of fundamental human rights which are binding upon all Nations and for all time: “The Church has always affirmed that fundamental rights, above and beyond the different ways in which they are formulated and the different degrees of importance they may have in various cultural contexts, are to...

(Note: David MacDonald is a Christian singer/artist who recently revealed that prior to his conversion he had been heavily involved in the gay lifestyle. Read his testimony here: www.GayTestimony.com) I hate to quote statistics, but Canada's largest gay paper XTRA recently reported that, "A group of six Canadian queers is taking on homophobia in Canada's healthcare system by filing a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission." Gens Hellquist, one of the complainants, is the executive director of the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition. She explained at length her concerns about the health status of homosexual men and women in Canada,...

Cardinal Bertone says 'God is source and guarantor of all rights' Madrid, Feb 7, 2009 / 12:04 am (CNA).- The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said this week, “When the Magisterium of the Church speaks about human rights she does not forget to base them on God, the source and guarantor of all rights, nor does she forget to root them in the natural law.” During a speech marking the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the offices of the Bishops’ Conference of Spain in Madrid, the cardinal recalled, “The source of rights is...

(At the link, click again for video or MP3.) -- For centuries, the idea that human beings have an inherent sense of right and wrong has intrigued political and religious thinkers. The notion of a “natural� moral law has been a key driver of much Christian political thought in the west. It has helped shape the development of religious freedom and the concept of rights, and its influence on America’s Founding Fathers was fundamental. In today’s post-modern society, however, the concept often prompts confusion and controversy. Even critics who might accept the reality of a moral law in theory wonder...

The church has always emphasized human rights, he continued, because “they are a universal given, since they form part of the very nature of humanity.” It is the natural law, which is “inscribed by the Creator in human consciousness,”

Pope Benedict asserted that natural law is "the authentic guarantee" of freedom and the defense against "any form of ideological manipulation..."

Updated 11/7/08 I have been bombarded lately with requests to revisit the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendments “subject to the jurisdiction thereof� language. Some desire confirmation whether the language simply implies temporary obedience to laws, while others want to confirm whether it requires something more direct and substantial. I’ll spare the reader a lengthy treatise by making this short and to the point. Perhaps the first most important thing to understand about national birthright is that there was no written national birthright rule until the year 1866. One will look in vain to find any national law on the subject...

Why are so many in conservative media so wilfully ignorant regarding the most significant challenge(s) to Barack Obama's status as a presidential candidate?  The question keeps getting asked and perhaps there are numerous answers.  Here are the answers right out of the horse's mouth, from one conservative pundit. I'll post below a running email conversation I've had with a conservative talk radio host, since I let him know about the "Ron Polarik, PhD." allegations about the Obama BC and about Leo Donofrio.  He is a local broadcaster, somewhere in the United States.  I'll call him "Chip Program." It is astounding...

We at American Vision are hearing rumblings from a number of people in the Christian community that Christians are being told not to engage the culture with a distinctly biblical approach to social and political issues. So what standard is a Christian to follow when evaluating the moral boundaries of society? Some Christians will claim that we aren’t to bother with what goes on in the world. Let the world go to the devil. Others claim that it’s just not the church’s calling. Abortion may be bad, but it’s not our job to say so to anyone outside the church....

According to "Devilstower", a blogger on the DailyKos website, human rights are more important than national security. She explains, “Even if it was sure to be lost in a terrorist attack today, my life is not worth the Constitution. The life of my child is not worth the Constitution.” This same blogger believes that presidents Bush, Roosevelt, and Lincoln set aside their duty to uphold the Constitution in exchange for the illusion of security. “Devilstower” seems to have missed the whole idea behind instituting a Constitution, which is that government is instituted to protect the peoples’ right to life, liberty...

A recent AP news report has concluded, after compiling the results of numerous studies over the years, that there is a strong and disturbing link between severe child abuse and non-traditional family environments. In the article' words: "[Scholars and caseworkers] note an ever increasing share of America's children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures."  Examples of "nontraditional family structures" include: o  Children living in homes with unrelated adults (these children are "50 times more likely to die inflicted injuries as children living with biological parents"); and...

Vatican City, Oct 5, 2007 / 09:42 am (CNA).- This morning Pope Benedict XVI spoke with great force about how the study of natural law guarantees freedom and guards the dignity of all people. He also pointed out that contrary to the modern perception, majorities are not always right, but rather, that the natural law should prevail over pluralities as the measure of what is best for the common good. Speaking to Cardinal William Levada and the rest of the members of the International Theological Commission, who just completed their annual meeting, Benedict XVI pointed out the importance of their...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 4, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Catholic bishop who made national headlines yesterday with comments saying he would deny communion to pro-abortion Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has gone further. Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis says the nation's Catholic bishops should establish guidelines for a national policy.Burke expressed his views in an essay that appeared in Periodica De Re Canonica, published by the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.The Catholic leader says parish priests should ensure that everyone takes communion in a worthy manner, with no one taking it if they have publicly stood against the...

Young Pastor's Powerful Sermon Encourages Parishioners to Take Part in Life Chain By Steve Jalsevac MANOTICK, Ontario, October 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Sunday, Sept. 23, a week before Canada's Life Chain Sunday, Fr. Geoff Kerslake gave what was seen as a powerful sermon encouraging his parishioners to take part in the local Life Chain the following Sunday. Fr. Geoff is the young pastor of St. Leonard's parish in Manotick, Ontario, located on the fringe of Canada's capital city of Ottawa. Fr. Geoff's sermon so encouraged one couple who heard it that they had the text re-printed in the bulletin...

VATICAN, October 5, 2007 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - By denying the existence of natural law, secularism is undermining the very foundations of democratic society, Pope Benedict XVI argued in an October 5 private audience with members of the International Theological Commission. Disregard for natural law, the Holy Father said, has caused "a crisis for human-- even more for Christian-- civilization." In response to that crisis, he continued, Church leaders should mobilize "both lay people and followers of religions other than Christianity" to reclaim a common moral tradition. The International Theological Commission had gathered in Rome this week to discuss a forthcoming document...

Canadian Catholic Priest/Politician Says He Supports Abortion on TV Show Also publicly supports homosexuality; local bishop still refuses to discipline priest By Marie-Christine Houle and John-Henry Westen MONTREAL, October 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Father Raymond Gravel, the Quebec priest turned federal politician, has once again brought scandal to the Catholic Church by publicly voicing his stand in favour of abortion. On a French-language television show, Gravel was presented as a Catholic priest and Bloc Québécois MP (Member of Parliament) for Repentigny debating an Imam. In an article published in Le Soleil, reporter Richard Therrien reports that the conversation between Gravel...

A Poem Fit for Our Times – ‘Me and My Friends’ Special to LifeSiteNews.com by Dr. John B. Shea, October 3, 2007 'Me and My Friends' For me and my friends To follow the trends Is simply a matter of choice Autonomy rules That all but poor fools Speak loud and speak clear with one voice Some talk of abortion With warning and caution But science has shown very well That it's safe and its normal That it's healthy and moral And that it sends no one to hell Some say that to toke Or to drink or to smoke...

Toronto Catholic School Board Bows to Secularism Commentary on inclusion of "sexual orientation" in Board's Workplace Harassment policy By Fr. Alphonse de Valk, editor Catholic Insight magazineFrom Oct. 2007 edition of Catholic Insight TORONTO, October 4, 2007 (catholicinsight.com) - Just before Catholic Insight went to press with its September edition, on August 15 we learned that in May 2007, the Toronto District Catholic School Board (TCDSB), in its document Workplace Harassment, had moved to prohibit all teachers and staff from complaining or objecting to "same-sex partner status." It turns out that two other unacceptable prohibitions had previously been imposed already;...

Archbishop Burke: Bishops Must Discipline Pro-Abortion Catholic Politicians Calls his brother bishops to task - “To remain silent is to permit serious confusion regarding a fundamental truth of the moral law" By Hilary White ST. LOUIS, September 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Writing in the latest edition of the Canon Law journal, Periodica De Re Canonica, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, bishop of St. Louis, Missouri, has called his brother bishops to task for their silence on the problem of Catholic politicians who support abortion, euthanasia, cloning, embryo research, the homosexual political agenda or other legislation “contrary to the natural moral law.” Burke’s lengthy...

ARLINGTON, Virginia, August 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, Chairman of the bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, identified the worship of a “a modern-day false idol,” as the greatest modern threat to the unborn. Rigali spoke at the annual conference of directors of diocesan pro-life offices in Arlington, Virginia, on August 2. Reflecting the work of pro-life writers warning against the infiltration of utilitarian “Bioethics” in the medical field, Rigali identified an “idolatrous gospel of total autonomy, sheer utility and false mercy,” as the philosophy pushing new attacks on human life. “Those who have blind faith in...

In a March 12 interview with the Chicago Tribune, General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made this statement: “I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.”1 Liberal Media Turn the Statement into a National Debate A media upoar ensued against the general, the first Marine to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. One would think the distinguished and highly decorated...

New Prospects for the Application of the Natural Moral Law 1) Difficulty with question I have been asked to speak today about new prospects for the application of the natural moral law. I have some difficulty with this question as it was proposed to me. ... This common intellectual basis, certainly in the Western world, is more and more difficult to attain as vociferous nihilist and skeptic pressure groups refuse to accept any binding statements about moral truth, supposedly in the name of tolerance. The contemporary increasingly extensive social interaction is raising many new moral problems, and these certainly can...

Marriage Likely To Help Depression Depressed People May Need More Intimacy POSTED: 12:36 pm EDT August 18, 2006 CLEVELAND -- If you want help beating depression and want to find more happiness, get married. An Ohio State University study indicates that getting married enhances mental health, especially among depressed individuals. Researchers measured symptoms of the blues, such as an inability to sleep or persistent sadness, in more than 3,000 people before and after marriage.If you want help beating depression and want to find more happiness, get married. An Ohio State University study indicates that getting married enhances mental health, especially...

VATICAN, January 30, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an address to the leaders of the Christian Associations of Italian Workers Friday, Pope Benedict XVI warned, "As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism." Benedict was in fact making his own the statement first uttered by his predecessor John Paul II, who made the statement in 2000. (see coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2000/feb/00022501.html ) Benedict XVI highlighted how, in our time, science and technology "present huge possibilities for improving everyone's lives," but warned that "the misguided use of such power can provoke grave and irreparable threats to the...

HOLLAND - Pastor Thomas J. Crouse is looking for a few good heterosexual men. Crouse, pastor of Holland Congregational Church, is not running a dating service. He is sponsoring a "Mr. Heterosexual" contest, where contestants will tear Oprah magazines, play "Name that Potato Chip" blindfolded, discuss the best use of duct tape and display a talent. All for $100 and a "Mr. Heterosexual" trophy. The event will also feature an appearance by a man who once lived what Crouse calls "the homosexual lifestyle" but has been "freed through Jesus Christ." "If someone's a homosexual and struggling with homosexuality, then Jesus...

The Vatican decried a culture of sex that is fueling the AIDS crisis and said Tuesday that keeping sexual activity exclusive to marriage was the best way to prevent the virus from spreading.The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care issued a message for World AIDS Day, which is marked every Dec. 1.In it, the Vatican said sexual transmission remains the most important pathway of infection — even more than by mother to child and blood transfusions."This is greatly fostered by a kind of pansexual culture that devalues sexuality, reducing it to mere pleasure without any further meaning," it said."Radical...

Dennis Prager recently argued that the Left values equality more than it hates evil. He is absolutely right. But I can go Dennis Prager one better: the Left hates sex. Not sexual activity, mind you. No, the Left is hyper-active sexually. I mean something much deeper: the Left is war with the fact that we are sexual beings. Let me explain. The Left can not accept that we are born as either male or female. You might expect me to say that the Left hates gender. But to say that is to accept their terms for the debate. Gender is...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A leading Hindu hard-liner has angered women and Muslims by pressing Hindus to have as many children as they can to avoid being swamped by Muslims. K.S. Sudarshan, who heads the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party which led India until last year, said a higher Hindu birth rate was vital to check a "population imbalance". "Whenever new people come to me for blessings, I tell them: 'Not less than three (children)'. The more you can, the better," he said at a function broadcast on television recently. Women's groups in...

Preserving Marriage: The Union of One Man and One Woman The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised Marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament. — Catechism of the Catholic Church Maryland law acknowledges that marriage is the union of one man and one...

good or evil: who decides?Dr. Raymond DeSouza Who decides what is good or evil? The state? Society? The individual? Join Dr. Raymond De Souza as he teaches about the Natural Law and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.Contact:Dr. Raymond De Souza http://saintgabriel.com.au PO Box 111 Western Australia 6058 Telephone:[61] 08 9202 1300  Back to Series List

Guilty of selective use of evidence and sloppy moral reasoning, LA Times staff writers conclude that Congressman Tom DeLay is a hypocrite, and that Terri Schiavo must dieLast Sunday (March 27), Los Angeles Times' staff writers Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek, wrote an article entitled, "DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads," in which they told the story of the passing of Rep. Tom DeLay's (R-Texas) father in 1988. In this piece, Roche and Howe attempted to draw a parallel between the elder DeLay's family's choice to discontinue extraordinary life-sustaining measures, and Terry Schiavo's case. A quote from the piece...

I've yet to hear one liberal enunciate in the Terri Schiavo case the principle that moral law supersedes man's law. But whether they defer to reason or to revelation , I've heard scores of conservatives articulate the a priori truth in this case – which is: Notwithstanding my own belief in the right to die, the only authority that has jurisdiction over Terri Schiavo is Terri Schiavo. In the absence of a living will or a clear directive from her, a court's decision – no matter which court – cannot be equated with her will. Ditto her husband's hearsay. We...

America is unsettled over the case of Terri Schiavo. Fifteen years ago, she suffered brain damage that left her totally dependent on others for basic care, including nourishment. Pursuant to a court order, this nourishment is scheduled to end March 18, when Michael Schiavo, her estranged husband and guardian, will have her feeding tube removed.1 Bob and Mary Schindler, Terri’s parents, have been battling in the courts to prevent their daughter’s death by starvation. Terri Schiavo’s Condition Food and water are all Terri needs to stay alive. Reliable health care specialists testify that she is not comatose and can improve...

"WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE political philosopher?" a group of Republican candidates were asked early in the 2000 race for president. And the frontrunner at the time, a Texas governor named George W. Bush, calmly answered, "Christ, because he changed my life." Well. You could barely hear the other candidates' answers in the crash and clatter of overturned chairs as reporters scrambled to reach the phones and call in the story. Some commentators decided Bush was nakedly pandering to Evangelical voters in a Machiavellian ploy so bold that he should have said his favorite political philosopher was, um, Machiavelli. Most of...

Subj: Kerry Scolds Vatican Over Gay Marriage Date: 10/31/2004 8:37:02 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: "Fr. Peter West" To: Kerry Scolds Vatican Over Gay Marriage Associated Press BOSTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry scolded the Vatican Friday for saying Catholic politicians like himself have a "moral duty" to oppose laws granting legal rights to gay couples. "I believe in the church and I care about it enormously," said the Massachusetts senator. "But I think that it's important to not have the church instructing politicians. That is an inappropriate crossing of the line in America." The Vatican had urged Catholics...

Natural Law in Our Lives, in Our Courts (Part 1) J. Budziszewski on the 4 Ways of Knowing It AUSTIN, Texas, APRIL 1, 2004 (Zenit) - Legal scholars and theologians debate over the details of natural law, but an expert in the field believes that the fundamentals are something that we can't not know. J. Budziszewski is professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas and author of several books, including most recently, "What We Can't Not Know: A Guide" (Spence Publishing). Budziszewski shared the four God-given witnesses of natural law: deep conscience, the designedness of things in...

R&L: The concept of natural law underpins the analysis in your latest book What We Can’t Not Know: A Guide. What is the natural law? Budziszewski: Our subject is called natural law because it has the qualities of all law. Law has rightly been defined as an ordinance of reason, for the common good, made by the one who has care of the community, and promulgated. Consider the natural law against murder. It is not an arbitrary whim, but a rule that the mind can grasp as right. It serves not some special interest, but the universal good. Its author...

Symposium in Rome Views the Challenges in Europe ROME, AUG. 28, 2004 (Zenit.org).- As part of the International Year of the Family the European Symposium for University Teachers in late June examined the situation of the family in the continent. In his introduction to the gathering Cesare Mirabelli, former president of Italy's Constitutional Court, noted that the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State" (Article 16). The family, Mirabelli said, is at the center of many personal and social...

The Delusion of Darwinian Natural Law Marc D. GuerraIn a short, inconspicuous paragraph in the conclusion to the first edition of On the Origin of Species, Darwin speculates that "in the distant future … psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation." One hundred and forty years later, Darwin's eerie prediction about the revolutionary effect of his work on human beings' self-understanding seems all too prophetic. After a century of dissemination, the once-novel theory of evolution is widely accepted as established scientific fact. Given the quasi-religious hold...

Master of the Quiet Style November 25, 2003 Forty years ago, on November 22, 1963, I was as shocked as billions of other people by the murder of John F. Kennedy. I didn’t even notice the passing of another man the same day, whose name at that time I barely knew: the English writer C.S. Lewis. But within a few years, Lewis was my favorite modern writer, and he has remained so. He is best known as a Christian apologist, but he was also a literary scholar of great distinction as well as an immensely popular writer of science fiction...

The Goodrich decision has more to it than meets the eye.The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in the majority opinion, "took note" of what marriage is.Except that the existing laws of Massachusetts and every other state were passed under the assumption that marriage was something else entirely.The SJC used its judicial notice to rule that the marriage law of Massachusetts was invalid, because it did not conform to the Court's (and so far only the Court's) definition of what marriage really is.So, the question immediately arises, are marriages licensed by the State under its invalid marriage statute valid, legal marriages?Is anyone...

We face a modern paradox that's difficult to reconcile. Animals are treated like persons, while human beings are treated as non-persons. We have only to look at the battle taking place for Terri Schiavo's life in Florida to see that this is true. Because of her disability, Schiavo's husband and the Florida courts decided that it was permissible to end a woman's life by starving her to death. Right-to-die advocates say that in the case of Terri Schiavo, the courts have spoken. In the nick of time, Gov. Jeb Bush, a Catholic, was able to intervene. Sometimes it seems our...

A Clash of Orthodoxies Robert P. George Copyright (c) 1999 First Things 95 (August/September 1999): 33-40.A few years ago, the eminent Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington published in Foreign Affairs a widely noted article called "The Clash of Civilizations." Looking at contemporary international relations from a geopolitical vantage point, he predicted a clash of the world’s major civilizations: the West, the Islamic world, and the Confucian East. Huntington’s article provoked a response from one of his own most brilliant former students—Swarthmore’s James Kurth. In an article in the National Interest entitled "The Real Clash," Kurth argued persuasively that the clash...