Free Republic

As a lifelong Catholic, I pray daily for the abolishment of abortion, and like many Catholics I have attended the rallies, marched in the rain, donated money, and from the sidewalks of Planned Parenthood worn the heckling as a badge of honor. In 2010 I was elected to the Iowa Senate as the first Republican to represent Sioux City in over 30 years, and I am proud to say that I am a Catholic, a husband, and a father who believes that abortion is murder, and that there is no such thing as an “exception” when it comes to the...

Group sought to convince Republicans that their rhetoric was pushing away atheist voters.AMES — As they arrived at an all-day cattle call of conservative presidential hopefuls, Christian conservatives were greeted by demonstrators from the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers who sought to convince Republicans that the party’s rhetoric was pushing atheists away as voters. “They’re telling me they don’t want me in their party,” said John Fruetel, of Newton, who was part of a protest outside of Stephens Auditorium in Ames where more than 2,500 people were arriving to hear from the 2016 GOP candidates at the 2015 Family Leadership Summit....

From the Catholic News Agency, we read that this conference will occur next week, July 21-22. Ostensibly its purpose is to demonstrate a linkage between "climate change" and slavery. Well, I daresay other linkages are made even more manifest by this conference. The title of the conference is one indicator. "Modern Slavery and Climate Change: the Commitment of the Cities" is the title of the workshop in question that will be held during the conference entitled "Prosperity, People and Planet: Achieving Sustainable Development in Our Cities". The conference is sponsored by (surprise!) the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Let's focus on...

There is a certain kind of American who, when overseas or in the presence of foreigners—especially Western Europeans—goes out of his way to advertise that he’s not at all like his ignorant and reactionary countrymen. Usually he does this preemptively. A well-timed joke about George W. Bush could do the trick. So could an ostentatious roll of the eyes at the sight of the fat Yankee tourists in their obnoxious yellow pants, baseball hats, and windbreakers.The point of this signaling is to acknowledge the intense shame that goes along with being a default member of a detested class. There is...

A bombshell undercover video showing Planned Parenthood Federation of America Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola talking about how the pro-abortion group sells the body parts of aborted fetuses over lunch has enraged even pro-choice advocates. But Franklin Graham has had some of the strongest words yet. The evangelist first states what at least most Christians believe: abortion is a sin and is clearly murder in God's eyes. Then he makes it personal. "The people who perform it have no conscience, so I'm not at all surprised that they would be selling organs, tissue and body parts from...

Using recent quoted from President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, this video makes the case that the change that liberals are really interested in is changing who you believe in and who you trust. The liberal idea of change is to get you to change your God. They want you to trust them with all of your life decisions.

If you’re a Catholic and you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen the sponsored posts. If you’re a person living in the DC Metro area, you’ve probably heard the radio ads, seen the posters at bus stops, or maybe even the full-page ad in the Washington Post. These ads, from a San Francisco-based non profit called the “Knights of St. Francis,” are showing up everywhere, and unless the space is being donated, at significant expense. I decided to dig a little deeper to find out who was behind the group, and I didn’t have to look too far.According the the group’s...

I wrote this piece weeks ago. It has just now been published online. I had no idea that the Center for Medical Progress was about to drop the bomb on Planned Parenthood and their participation in the market for aborted baby parts. In case you were wondering what some companies use aborted baby parts for, read my latest at the National Catholic Register: "It has been several years since the height of the stem-cell controversy, where every day debate raged over the destruction of embryos for embryonic stem cells. These human embryos, conceived in a lab by the hundreds of...

DENVER, Colorado - Four Christian Universities in Oklahoma lost a religious freedom case Tuesday in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. A district court temporarily stopped enforcement of the Obama administration's abortion-pill mandate after the universities objected to it in 2013. The appeals court overturned that ruling Tuesday saying it's the insurance companies that provide the contraception not the universities.

As old-fashioned Catholic liberalism has morphed into today’s “progressive” Catholicism, forms of authoritarian bullying, shaming, and exclusion have become commonplace Georgetown University (us.fotolia.com/rmbarricarte) Back in the day (the late 1960s or thereabouts), Father Andrew Greeley – the model of an old-fashioned liberal Catholic – accused Father Daniel Berrigan (the beau ideal of post-conciliar Catholic radicalism) of harboring an authoritarian streak in his politics. By which Greeley meant that, were Berrigan and his radical friends to achieve power, their aggressive sense of moral superiority would lead them to put Greeley and his liberal friends in jail. It was classic Greeley hyperbole,...

My friend, there is a BIG BAD GLOBAL TRIBULATION headed our way and with the Four Horsemen ready to ride nothing is going to stop that event from transpiring. Many professing Christians have set their “tent pegs” deep in the world reasoning and system, and have given a distant second status to their position in Christ (Eph. 2:6, Col. 3:1-4) and the Gospel proclamation to all the world (Matt. 28:19-20; Rom 1:16). They have lost their ETERNAL vision and focus, and the Heavenly calling given them by Almighty God, which is needed so drastically for today for our nation and...

July 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- If “actions speak louder than words,” as the saying goes, the message of Pope Francis on homosexuality is increasingly confusing. On the one hand, he has reiterated the Church’s teaching that marriage is reserved for one man and one woman, and has even repeatedly condemned gender ideology, the intellectual underpinning of the LGBT movement. However both in his deeds - most notably his choice of advisors and prelates to elevate to higher positions - and omissions he has left an impression in many minds that seems very different from the Church’s tradition.It is not...

Pope Francis gestures as he answers questions from journalists aboard his flight from Asuncion to Rome (CNS) Francis answered questions from journalists while flying home to Rome from South America Before arriving in the United States in September, Pope Francis said, he will study American criticisms of his critiques of the global economy and finance.“I have heard that some criticisms were made in the United States — I’ve heard that — but I have not read them and have not had time to study them well,” the Pope told reporters traveling with him from Paraguay back to Rome on July...

In the aftermath of Obergefell v. Hodges, pastors and church members are experiencing a wave of anxiety over what many of them deem the “nightmare scenario”: lawsuits or government action designed to force them to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. While there are — so far — no meaningful judicial precedents that would permit such dramatic interference with churches’ core First Amendment rights, lawsuits challenging church liberties are inevitable. Indeed, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has declared that prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity “sometimes” apply to churches and has stated that a “church...

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it; he is obligated to do so." Without question, it was this principle that a coalition of religious leaders had in mind, when 16 days in advance of the U. S. Supreme Court's decision, they stated in a Washington Post advertisement that they would not abide by a ruling that gives homosexuals a constitutional right to marriage. The ad, which covered a full page, featured "key signers" such as David and Jason Benham, Ambassador Kenneth Blackwell, Alveda King, former U.S. House Speaker Tom...

Moscow, July 14, Interfax - The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia criticizes the decision of the USA Supreme Court to legalize the homosexual 'marriages.' "We deeply regret that the United States Supreme Court has taken a decision which, in so definitively spurning the revealed will of God, opens the peoples of this land to an increase of suffering and sorrow, and a further decrease of moral stability," the ROCOR Synod says in its message posted in its official website. It is stressed that "marriage has been from creation, is now and will always be...

There have been a lot of suggestions going around that in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex marriage nationally, the Catholic Church in the US should announce that priests will no longer perform civil marriages.In order to be treated as married under the law in the United States, you need to file a witnessed marriage license in your state. The way it worked for us in California was: you go down to your city hall or other government building to pick the license up. The city clerk fills it out but then leaves the final...

Full title: "For the record: Pope Francis personally clarifies that he was not offended by Hammer-and-Sickle "crucifix", explicitly acknowledges the Marxism of its Jesuit originator -- and praises him." As expected, Pope Francis held an in-flight press conference on his way back to Rome this Monday. As widely reported by secular media, he made use of this opportunity to personally clarify his thoughts about the Hammer and Sickle "crucifix" (and the medallion, the "Order of Fr. Espinal" featuring a smaller version of the same) that were presented to him by President Evo Morales of Bolivia. Catholic News Agency has, thankfully,...

The HirelingSpreading like wildfire through all the media is the "conciliatory" and "moderate" language of Cardinal Wuerl, as reported in a July 5 article: “The law of the land is the law of the land,” says Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl. “We certainly follow what the law says. That doesn’t mean we change the word of God. That doesn’t mean we change the scriptures, or the church’s millennia-long tradition of what marriage is.” [link]In one sense, this is hardly surprising; we have seen the same Cardinal take a soft line towards pro-abortion politicians who abuse the Most Blessed Sacrament...

A family friend sent me a link to my ex husband's Facebook page telling me that I would not believe it. She was right. We split 25 years ago. While politics played no role in our issues, we were night and day in that arena. When we were married, he was a barely practicing Jew. His Facebook page shows a changed man. He is now quite vocal about issues affecting Isreal and has a good working understanding of who obama really is. And apparently omama gets all the credit for the transformation. I pray that many more see the light.