Free Republic

The United Methodist church is settling a complaint against a retired bishop who performed a same-sex wedding in Alabama, and a church leader said the agreement showed the denomination doesn’t have to be divided by differences over gay marriage. Church statements issued Monday said the case against retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert had ended with a settlement that the denomination calls a “just resolution.” Official Methodist teaching doesn’t allow same-sex marriages, and there’s been discussion of splitting the denomination over disagreements about whether the position should be amended as society changes. Talbert is retired, but he still holds the title...

Of course, Mohammed did not like dogs. The Hadith and other sources record his distaste at their “filth” and even the notion that a dog walking in front of a Muslim praying negates the effect of those prayers. He even called for killing them..... None of the sources I found in a cursory bit of research mentioned what seemed to me to be another reason why Mohammed didn’t like dogs: he had been a caravan raider, and dogs have always (and still do) act as guardians against thieves.

I have just learned that my cousin David is in ICU at John's Hopkins after being diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. He had his pancreas (with tumor) and damaged gall bladder removed in emergency surgery Christmas Eve. He is recovering but is still in ICU. I ask all of you for your prayers for his quick recovery. David and Faith celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary earlier last month. They have a daughter and two lovely young granddaughters, Anna 4 & Rosalie 1. Updates as I get them from his sister.

When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don't tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don't ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That won't do anything but make them hate them self....

Even as same-sex marriage edges closer to becoming legal nationwide, gay rights advocates face other challenges in 2015 that may not bring quick victories. In Congress, for example, liberal Democrats plan to introduce civil rights bills in the House and Senate that would outlaw a broad range of discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. However, Republicans will control both chambers in the new Congress, and there is no sign that GOP leaders will help the bills advance. Absent such a federal law, activists will seek to pass more nondiscrimination laws at the state and local levels, but some...

Planned Parenthood clinics did 327,653 abortions in its fiscal year 2014 (which ran from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014), according to Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s newly released annual report. That works out to an average of 37 abortions per hour or nearly 1 every 90 seconds. Planned Parenthood also received $528.4 million from government grants and reimbursements, which equaled 41 percent of its revenue. The federal government is prohibited from paying directly for abortions through Title X family planning grants and reimbursements; however, federal funds do pay for Planned Parenthood operations, including the clinics where abortions are...

A Haverhill woman is accused of swinging a large metal crucifix at a police officer — a cross that Haverhill authorties say had been placed in the manger at Sacred Hearts Church after the church’s creche was vandalized with a pig’s head on Christmas Day. At 3 p.m. yesterday, police were called to a church on Portland Street where a woman reportedly had written “666” on the outside of the building in at least 15 places. The building is home to a Spanish language Baptist church, La Iglesia Biblica Bautista.

Planned Parenthood abortionist Timothy Liveright, a former abortionist at Planned Parenthood of Delaware, has been hired by a new Planned Parenthood affiliate to do abortions. Liveright is the abortionist who, last year, reached a consent agreement with the Delaware Board of Licensure and Discipline to avoid losing his medical license over medical misconduct and filthy conditions at his abortion clinic. LifeNews previously reported on Liveright, who sang to one patient during her abortion, “Jesus, Ohhhhh Jesus, take the sinners down the river, Ohhhh Jesus.” Several medical emergencies at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic he ran prompted three former clinic employees...

Former New York Times Middle East bureau chief Chris Hedges said he was disinvited to speak at a University of Pennsylvania conference following a column comparing Israel to ISIS. Hedges, now a columnist for the Truthdig.com website, was to speak at an April forum on prospects for peace in the Middle East sponsored by the university’s International Affairs Association. Zachary Michael Belnavis, a student leader of the association, wrote to the lecture agency that his group didn’t see Hedges as a “suitable fit” for the conference. …

Jew-hatred is by its very nature a violent phenomenon, a leading anti-Semitism researcher told The Jerusalem Post during an interview on Tuesday. While forms of discrimination such as sexism and racism are “repugnant,” both have a certain logic to them in that they express the desire to “control and dominate a certain group of people, [while] the one thing that distinguishes anti-Semitism from other forms of discrimination is that it’s inherently genocidal,” Dr. Charles Asher Small, director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy, said, speaking with the Post during a trip to Israel. …

Is anybody watching the History Channel's Revelation : The End of Days? I'm curious, if you are watching, what are your thoughts?

A friend on Facebook wrote that she and her husband were taking a walk the night after Christmas Day. They passed a neighbor out in his yard and wished him a merry Christmas. The neighbor paused and said, “Oh, you mean for next year?” The husband “told him that no, the wish was for this year since Christmas lasts twelve days and we’re only on day two. He said, ‘Oh, yeah, I guess you’re right.’” The day after Christmas my husband and I were walking in our neighborhood retail area. I thought we might get our children some Christmas treats...

One of the nation’s best loved countrymen, Winston Churchill is best remembered for his role in overcoming the Nazi threat, and later for denouncing the Soviet regime’s Iron Curtain. But few are aware of his fascination with the orient and his strong admiration for Islam, which even led him to adopting Arab attire in private. Now a newly uncovered letter sent to Churchill by his future sister-in-law has revealed that, such was his obsession, she was moved to urge him not to convert to Islam. In 1907, Churchill wrote to Lady Litton: “You will think me a pasha [rank of...

I am a white, privileged, well-off, 61-year-old former Republican religious right-wing activist who changed his mind about religion and politics long ago. The New York Times profiled my change of heart saying that to my former friends I’m considered a “traitorous prince” since my religious-right family was once thought of as “evangelical royalty.” You see, only in the Mafia, the British Royal family and big time American religion is a nepotistic rise to power seen as normal. And I was good at it. And I hated it while hypocritically profiting from it—until, that is, in the mid-1980s, I quit. These...

Our top 12 stories of 2014. #9: When a man was fitted with a new heart, his mind changed in unusual ways. Why? The answer reveals a surprising truth about all our bodies, says David Robson. Every second or so, Carlos would feel a small “bump” hitting his tummy. It was the beating of his “second heart”. The small mechanical pump was meant to relieve the burden of his failing cardiac muscles, but Carlos (not his real name) disliked the sensation. The beat of the machine seemed to replace his pulse, a sensation that warped his body image: as the...

A Muslim group is suing the Navy on behalf of a man who says he was discriminated against because of his beard. The former Navy enlisted man alleges that he requested to keep his beard for religious reasons and was later made fun of because of it. He also claims he was rejected for a promotion due to his beard. …

Argentina’s President has adopted a young Jewish man as her godson to prevent him from turning into a werewolf. President Christina Fernández met Yair Tawil and several members of his family at her office on Tuesday to hold the unusual ceremony, dating back over 100 years. According to Argentinian folklore, the seventh straight son born to a family will transform into the feared “el lobison.” The werewolf shows its true nature on the first Friday after the boy’s 13th birthday, legend says. The boy turns into a demon at midnight whenever there is a full moon, doomed to hunt and...

It stands to reason that if abortion is viewed as morally and legally correct, other immoral acts will become socially acceptable as well. Now, according to a judge in Australia, incest is one of those acts. During the trial of a brother charged with raping his younger sister, Judge Garry Neilson said that incest may no longer be morally unacceptable because the only reason it is criminal is due to the potential for abnormalities in any conceived children. Neilson said that thanks to contraception and abortion, there is no longer that risk. The man on trial had raped his sister...

Less than half (46%) of U.S. kids younger than 18 years of age are living in a home with two married heterosexual parents in their first marriage. This is a marked change from 1960, when 73% of children fit this description, and 1980, when 61% did, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of recently-released American Community Survey (ACS) and Decennial Census data. Rapid changes in American family structure have altered the image of who’s gathering for the holidays. While the old “ideal” involved couples marrying young, then starting a family, and staying married till “death do they part”, the...

A Christmas dedication to our men and women in uniform. A Soldier's Silent Night was originally titled 'Merry Christmas My Friend' and written by Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt in 1987.