Free Republic

President Trump addresses the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Video of President Trump's speech about freedom of religion around the world to United Nations.

President Trump is waging a nonstop, all-encompassing war against progressive culture, in magnitude analogous to what 19th-century Germans once called a "Kulturkampf." As a result, not even former President George W. Bush has incurred the degree of hatred from the left that is now directed at Trump. For most of his time in office, Trump, his family, his friends and his businesses have been investigated, probed, dissected and constantly attacked. In 2016 and early 2017, President Barack Obama's appointees in the FBI, CIA and Department of Justice tried to subvert the Trump campaign, interfere with his transition and, ultimately, abort...

Fear, Silence and Inaction: Eroding Catholic Civil Rights The following is written by Hon. Robert Marshall, former member of the Virginia House of Delegates The so-called Equality ActOn October 30, 2008, Barack Obama said, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”   The legal policy changes wrought under the Obama Administration paved the way for the so-called Equality Act, HR 5, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 17, 2019 by a vote of 236 to 173.  The Equality Act would fundamentally and radically alter Civil Rights Law to prohibit “discrimination” on the...

Let’s put aside for a moment that the current idea of “separation of Church and state” is not what the Founders (specifically, Thomas Jefferson) intended. I simply want to make an observation. When liberals quote the Bible to support their views, nobody bats an eyelash (aside from conservatives raising charges of hypocrisy). When conservatives quote the Bible to support their views, liberals howl, “Separation of Church and state!” But this has been the pattern for years. Christian faith on the left is praiseworthy. Christian faith on the right is dangerous. Think back to the 1988 presidential elections when both Pat...

An appeals court has ruled in favor of a Christian couple who oversee a film company that were told by Minnesota officials that they must film same-sex weddings despite religious objections. A three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit decided last Friday that the Minnesota Human Rights Act violated the First Amendment rights of Carl and Angel Larsen of Telescope Media Group. The decision largely overturned a lower court ruling against the Larsens and remanded their request for an injunction against the MHRA back to the district court level. Circuit Judge David Stras,...

A Christian realtor in Virginia is suing the state real estate board after it charged her with violating fair housing laws by putting the Bible verse John 3:16 on her website, and using phrases like "Jesus loves you" in her email signatures. This began when the Virginia Real Estate Board filed a complaint against realtor Hadassah Carter, saying that because she's using religious speech, she could make someone feel discriminated against. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has filed a lawsuit on Carter's behalf, charging the state board with violating her First Amendment rights and calling this "an...

You know that things have really spiralled downward when Princeton atheist and bioethicist — Peter Singer — is defending Israel Folau and his freedom to express his Christian convictions. Singer writes: [Folau’s] post no more expresses hatred toward homosexuals than cigarette warnings express hatred toward smokers. The only rational reason that anyone would get so upset about Folau’s post is if you actually believe that he is speaking the truth about heaven and hell. Singer continues: [Folau’s beliefs] do not trouble me, because there is, in my view, no god, no afterlife, and no hell. Nor do I differentiate, ethically,...

The current campaign to amend federal and state civil rights laws to extend protections to sexual orientation and gender identity isn't meant to eliminate discrimination — it's meant to eliminate religious freedom. What else are we to believe when proponents of such amendments tell us as much? Earlier this month, Michigan State Senator Jeremy Moss introduced legislation to amend the state's civil rights law to add sexual orientation and sexual identity as protected classes.  One of the main objections to changing the law before now has been the harm it must do to conscience protections and free exercise of religion.  Like their federal...

On Thursday, the Supreme Court in American Legion et. al. v. American Humanist Association, decided that the Bladensburg Peace Cross, which was erected nearly 100 years ago and has stood on public land in Maryland for roughly 50 years, does not violate the Establishment Clause. This decision should be celebrated, but the reasoning that the Court used does not entirely protect religious monuments or other displays in the future. Seven of the justices decided that the Cross does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. However, this was a plurality decision, which means there was not a majority...

A large cross in Bladensburg, Maryland has been a source of controversy for years as we awaited the Supreme Court's decision on whether the symbol can continue to stand. A local post of The American Legion erected the Bladensburg Peace Cross in 1925. To most, the statue was dedicated to the memory of 49 local heroes who gave their lives serving in the U.S. Armed Forces in WWI. To the Humanist Association, it was an unconstitutional eyesore. They sued in 2014 arguing the cross violated the Establishment Clause and demanded its removal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth...

“And these are the religious people?!” The state Capitol turned into a chaotic scene Thursday as both houses of legislature — and eventually Gov. Cuomo — passed a bill that will end New York’s policy of allowing religious exemptions from vaccine requirements. Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, the bill’s sponsor, got cursed out and flat-out threatened at one point by opponents of the legislation after it got passed and sent to the Senate floor. “We’ll be back for you Jeffrey!” shouted one man in Orthodox religious garb, who was fuming in the gallery with others, many of whom had children with them....

A slim majority of Americans favors new civil rights protections for the LGBT community, according to a new Gallup poll released Thursday. About 53 percent of Americans said they believe new civil rights laws are needed to reduce discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The poll’s release comes about a month after the House passed the Equality Act, which includes protections for LGBT people from discrimination in employment, housing and other areas. The bill, which was passed two days after Gallup began surveying for the poll on May 15, is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate....

(RNS) — Last week, to little notice, the Masterpiece Cakeshop case ended with a whimper. Nine months after the Supreme Court found that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had acted prejudicially in upholding the complaint of a gay couple who were refused a wedding cake by baker Jack Phillips, the two sides agreed to stop fighting. Specifically, the commission withdrew its proceedings against Phillips for discrimination and Phillips withdrew his case against the commission for harassment. Which is to say that Phillips can keep refusing to customize cakes that, as he put it, “celebrate events or express messages that conflict...

Court signals it may change church-state doctrine WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court gave hope Wednesday (Feb. 27) to at least some defenders of a 40-foot cross on public land that it might not only protect the memorial but clarify its doctrine on government establishment of religion. The justices heard oral arguments in the appeal of a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that a Latin cross in memory of World War I soldiers promotes Christianity, thus violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment under a nearly 50-year-old test. The American Humanist Association (AHA) challenged the constitutionality of...

Kamala Harris is set to announce her candidacy for president sometime around Martin Luther King Jr. Day. What sort of chief executive would she be? Well, here's your first clue: On December 5, Harris posed a series of written questions to Brian Buescher, President Trump's nominee for District Court in Nebraska. The third question reads as follows: Since 1993, you have been a member of the Knights of Columbus, an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men. In 2016, Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus, described abortion as ‘a legal regime that has resulted in more than 40...

In the Nov. 6 elections, residents of Alabma voted overwhelmingly to amend their state constitution to authorize the display of the Ten Commandments on public property, including public schools. The measure, Alabama Amendment 1, also defined certain religious liberty rights to be included in the state's constitution.

"This November 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it's a referendum on your religion, it's a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment. It's a referendum on so much," Trump told the assemblage of pastors and other Christian leaders gathered in the State Dining Room, according to a recording from people in the room. "It's not a question of like or dislike, it's a question that they will overturn everything that we've done and they will do it quickly and violently. And violently. There is violence. When you look at Antifa -- these are...

The military has dropped charges against a United States Army chaplain and his assistant for refusing to conduct a marriage retreat for a lesbian couple. The women filed a discrimination complaint, which the military investigated. The investigation led to a report charging Major Scott Squires and Sergeant Kacie Griffin with dereliction of duty. While a chaplain at Fort Bragg, Squires reportedly told a soldier he was unable to conduct a marriage retreat that included her and her same-sex partner because of the requirements of his church. Under the army's policies, every United States Army Special Operations Command commander is responsible...

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the federal government clarified that it is free to work with whichever organization is best able to achieve the government’s goals, providing optimal services to those in need. The guidelines, recently issued by the DOL, explain that under current law the federal government may not discriminate against religious contractors or subcontractors. Instead, all contractors, religious and non-religious, must be permitted to compete for federal contracts on an equal playing field. A wide variety of charitable work across the country is done through government contracts with various...