Free Republic

John Finnie, an Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament, has submitted a Private Member’s Bill to ban religious representatives from education committees. Mr Finnie’s Bill must get the support of 18 MSPs in order to be brought before parliament. John Finnie is jumping on the bandwagon of the Edinburgh Secular Society petition to repeal the Local Government Act to ban the Church from local-authority education committees. Father Tom Boyle, assistant general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland for the Catholic Church, who also sits on East Renfrewshire’s education committee, dismissed the petition as an attempt to “remove any influence...

First Amendment: A federal court has ruled that the ObamaCare contraception mandate violates the guarantee of free exercise of religion and forces some to choose between their religious conscience and bankruptcy. The Supreme Court's decision in June 2012 that ObamaCare was constitutional because its fines for not complying with its mandates made the law a tax within Congress' authority to impose did not end the constitutional or court challenges to this attempt at redistribution of health and wealth. On Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Gilardi v. HHS that ObamaCare's contraception mandate violates the constitutional rights of...

A reader of one of my articles expressed the view that if we could only rid the world of the killing of the unborn (abortion), much of the surrounding evil would fall. He thinks that the devastating consequences of the homosexual agenda and other agendas like it would be eliminated, as a result of the cleansing effect the removal of abortion would have on the world. I agree fully with that reader's stance toward abortion, but the legal push to force an acceptance of sexual perversion upon an unreceptive nation is somewhat different from permitting killing of the unborn. Abortion...

France's highest court ruled on Friday that the country's mayors cannot refuse to officiate at same-sex marriages, rejecting a bid by a group of mayors who claimed gay marriage went against their moral or religious beliefs. The Constitutional Council's ruling followed an appeal by mayors and registrars opposed to France’s controversial bill legalising same-sex marriages, which came into effect in May this year. They argued that the same-sex marriage bill should have included a “freedom of conscience” clause, giving officiators the right not to carry out same-sex marriages if it conflicts with their personal religious or moral beliefs. The lack...

Brilliant observation by WND’s David Kupelian – The ‘gay rights’ movement is a trojan horse for totalitarianism. He explores this in the October issue of Whistleblower available here. A “Trojan Horse” is “any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or space.” (Wiki) WND Story here. David Kupelian says, “this particular issue – this revolutionary sexual anarchy movement, which more than any other ideology, including Marxism, Islam or atheism, has the potential of permanently corrupting our nation’s core ‘operating system’ called the family – is the one issue that almost everybody...

Crystal Dixon has run out of options. Dixon, the former associate vice president of human resources at the University of Toledo (UT), sued her former employer in 2008 after she was fired for publishing a column expressing her opinions on homosexuality. In February 2012, a federal judge ruled against Dixon. Later that year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit concurred with the lower court. Now, this week, the United States Supreme Court has declined to hear Dixon’s appeal. In her column, published in The Toledo Free Press, Dixon, who is black, had expressed her disagreement with comparisons...

After six years and hundreds of celebratory confections, it wasn’t the economy, the stiff competition, financing, or any of the other usual road bumps of building a new business that caused Sweet Cakes by Melissa—a husband-and-wife bakery in Portland, Oregon area—to close its doors at the end of the summer.Instead, it was the nationwide battle over same-sex marriage.In January, co-owner Aaron Klein had denied a request to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding. “The Bible tells us to flee from sin,” his wife and business namesake, Melissa Klein told a Fox News columnist recently. “I don’t think making a...

Scores Dead After Church Bombed in Pakistan On Sunday, in what is called the deadliest attack on Christians in Pakistan to date, suicide bombers killed at least 78 worshippers and wounded 140 at the All Saints Church in Peshawar. Christians make up about four percent of Pakistan’s population of 180 million. "Marriage and Religious Freedom Act" introduced in CongressOn September 19, a bipartisan group introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would prevent the federal government from discriminating through the tax code against individual religious believers who hold the principle that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. According to bill author,...

Bipartisan legislation was introduced today in the House of Representatives that would prevent the federal government from discriminating against citizens and organizations who believe that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. The Marriage and Religious Freedom Act (H.R. 3133) was introduced by Representative Raul Labrador (R–ID) and over 60 other original co-sponsors from both political parties. The bill is an important step for conscience protection. Government policy should respect those who stand for marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Even in jurisdictions that have redefined marriage, those who believe marriage is the...

The majority of Americans are Christians, but we're not treated with respect by the culture, the schools, or by our politicians. "Vengeance" may be the Lord's to dish out, but that doesn't mean Christians have to support the people who are attacking us or meekly stand by when other followers of Christ are denigrated and oppressed for their faith. The habitual wimpiness of so many Christians is particularly grating because when Christians shine a spotlight on these attacks and say, "That's enough," more often than not we win. So, if Christians across the country were consistently willing to speak out...

Christians in the United States are witnessing a subtle but mounting transformation in our relationship with the American empire. Some would say the changes are not so subtle. Believers have enjoyed an enviable status throughout the history of this country, largely due to our own efforts in helping to secure certain liberties during it’s founding decades. These “unalienable Rights” were seen, not as rights created by Government, but as gifts given to mankind by the Creator. The Bill of Rights, for example, was composed in order to impel the government to secure rights which already existed. This climate of liberty...

You may say that there is no discrimination against Christians in America or casually dismiss it because Christians need no protection here because this is allegedly a Christian nation. But there is plenty of such discrimination, as I documented in my book "Persecution" a few years back. During the publicity tour for the book, I had a mini-debate with Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz on CNN, as I recall. Dershowitz, who was very respectful and who is unquestionably quite intelligent, advanced a curious argument that night. If memory serves, he suggested that it is absurd for me to argue that Christians...

For moral, ethical and biblical reasons, the United States should not drop bombs on Syria. To cross Syria’s boundary, a country which has not attacked us, is to show a profound lack of respect for its national sovereignty. Had Syria attacked us, we would of course have the moral right to use whatever military force is necessary to neutralize the threat to our own sovereignty. But absent the moral justification of self-defense, we have no right to be there. The Scriptures are clear that the boundaries of the world’s nations are established by God (Acts 17:26), and those boundaries should...

The New York Times story, "President Gains McCain's Backing on Syria Attack," is predictable, considering that Obama had invited Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to the White House for the specific purpose of supporting his proposed military strike on Syria. Obama has also asked the same two senators to travel to Egypt to undermine the military leaders who overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government there. What is lacking from the media coverage is any recognition that the inevitable result, according to congressional testimony, will be the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood and associated terrorist groups in Syria, and...

When Chris Christie signed a law against conversion therapy directed at counseling teens experiencing homoerotic feelings, he probably didn't think he had just put New Jersey on a path similar to countries like Saudi Arabia, which forbids conversion from the prevailing Muslim faith. But forbidding efforts to convert is essentially what the governor did. He expressly forbade conversion from the prevailing progressive religion, whose chief doctrine is that sexual behavior, including the homoerotic behavior of some children, is a sacred, infallible, and therefore unchangeable indicator of what human identity entails. He forbade moral suasion. He forbade attempts to persuade young...

A Gresham bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, prompting a state investigation, shut its doors. On Sunday, KGW stopped by Sweet Cakes by Melissa and found the bakery completely empty. All counter tops, display cases and decorations were gone. Hanging in the window was a sign from the Oregon Family Council that read "Religious freedom is under attack in Gresham." As first reported in Willamette Week, Sweet Cakes by Melissa posted on its Facebook page, “This will be our last weekend at the shop we are moving our business to an in home bakery....

Syrian rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to dogs, according to a nun who says the West is ignoring atrocities committed by Islamic extremists. The nun said taxi driver Andrei Arbashe, 38, was kidnapped after his brother was heard complaining that fighters against the ruling regime behaved like bandits.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Worried they could be sued by gay couples, some churches are changing their bylaws to reflect their view that the Bible allows only marriage between one man and one woman. Although there have been lawsuits against wedding industry businesses that refuse to serve gay couples, attorneys promoting the bylaw changes say they don't know of any lawsuits against churches. Critics say the changes are unnecessary, but some churches fear that it's only a matter of time before one of them is sued. "I thought marriage was always between one man and one woman, but the Supreme...

From Catholic World News (Aug. 16): Citing the Alien Tort Statute, which became law in 1789, a U.S. district judge has ruled that a Ugandan umbrella LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) organization may sue an American evangelical pastor in U.S. court for allegedly committing 'crimes against humanity.' The Alien Tort Statute (ATS) permits foreign citizens to sue U.S. citizens in U.S. courts for actions 'committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.' According to the court decision, Scott Lively, a Massachusetts pastor, reportedly traveled to Uganda, spoke out against homosexuality, linked...

The homofascist rainbow-shirts are at it again. They’ve unsheathed, once more, their anti-Christian long knives. Back in April, I wrote the following in a column headlined “Religious freedom and ‘gay marriage’ cannot coexist”: “‘Gay pride’ necessitates anti-Christian hate. It must. ‘Gay marriage’ and other ‘sexual orientation’-based laws do violence to freedom and truth. They are the hammer with which the postmodern left intends to bludgeon bloody religious liberty and the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic.”