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Mormon church leaders are making a national appeal for a 'balanced approach' in the clash between gay rights and religious freedom. The church is promising to support some housing and job protections for gays and lesbians in exchange for legal protections for believers who object to the behavior of others. It's not clear how much common ground the Mormons will find with this new campaign. The church insists it is making no changes in doctrine, and still believes it's against the law of God to have sex outside marriage between a man and a woman. Scroll down for video

… Using This One Weird Trick! It seems as if everybody’s down on the idea of Mitt Romney running for president again. Even establishment Republicans who aren’t part of the vast Bush claque seem to be hostile. President Obama’s aides mocked Romney’s interest in income inequality, per Politico: (SNIP) “It’s simply never going to be believable to go from car elevators, off-shore accounts and his famous 47 percent comment to the populist income equality warrior.”… (SNIP) After all, there’s one obvious, simple move Romney could make to turn the mockery around, jujutsu style, in a way that would give him...

The Supreme Court is going to once again review the issue of homosexual marriage. Last time around the Court punted on ruling whether states had the Constitutional right to outlaw such “marriages.” This time around they won’t be punting. Odds are by the end of June the Supreme Court will dictate to the country that sodomites have the legal right to marry. Our nation will finally have stooped to the point where we’re no better than Sodom and Gomorrah. Marriage was ordained by God in the Garden of Eden, it has lasted since that time as an institution involving one...

High court to hear gay marriage cases in April Associated Press WASHINGTON (January 16, 2015) — Setting the stage for a potentially historic ruling, the Supreme Court announced Friday it will decide whether same-sex couples have a right to marry everywhere in America under the Constitution. The justices will take up gay-rights cases that ask them to overturn bans in four states and declare for the entire nation that people can marry the partners of their choice, regardless of gender. The cases will be argued in April, and a decision is expected by late June. Proponents of same-sex marriage said...

If evangelical Christianity is famous for anything in contemporary American politics, it is for its complete opposition to gay marriage. Now, slowly yet undeniably, evangelicals are changing their minds. Every day, evangelical communities across the country are arriving at new crossroads over marriage. My magazine story for TIME this week, “A Change of Heart,” is a deep dive into the changing allegiances and divides in evangelical churches and communities over homosexuality. In public, so many churches and pastors are afraid to talk about the generational and societal shifts happening. But behind the scenes, it’s a whole different game. Support for...

Mitt Romney stressed the need to sharply reduce poverty in America Friday night during a speech to members of the Republican National Committee. “Under President Obama, the rich have gotten richer, income inequality has gotten worse and there are more people in poverty in American than ever before,” the former Massachusetts governor told a large crowd aboard the USS Midway Museum on San Diego Bay. He said only Republican and conservative principles, such as focusing on education, fostering strong families and creating jobs, could solve a problem that President Lyndon Johnson first tackled 50 years ago. “His heart was in...

Breaking: The US Supreme Court has agreed to take up the issue of same-sex marriage.

Mitt Romney is moving quickly to reassemble his national political network, spending the weekend and Monday calling former aides, donors and other supporters — as well as onetime foes such as Newt Gingrich. Romney’s message was that he is serious about making a 2016 presidential bid. He told one senior Republican he “almost certainly will” run in what would be his third campaign for the White House, this person said. His aggressive outreach over the past three days indicates that Romney’s declaration of interest to a group of donors in New York Friday was more than the release of a...

In a move that surprised his most loyal supporters and former staff, Mitt Romney told several donors Friday he is seriously considering a third run for the White House… “Mitt has been a terrific leader for the Republican Party, but if he runs again, he’ll have to earn it again,” said veteran Republican operative Phil Musser, a former Romney supporter. His firm is already handling preliminary campaign work for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, but Musser says he has not committed to a candidate… “Jeb Bush forced everyone’s hand,” said Barney Keller, a Republican strategist. “If he’s serious, Romney needs...

Most of the children of gays and lesbians who have filed court briefs in same-sex marriage cases say their parents’ inability to marry has deprived them of legal protections and hampered them from living their otherwise typical lives. But four adult children of gay parents — acting as a “quartet of truth” — have submitted briefs to the 5th U.S. CircuitCourt of Appeals opposing same-sex marriages, with several saying that growing up under the rainbow was neither normal nor pleasant. The court, which is considering whether to uphold the man-woman marriage laws in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, will hear arguments in New Orleans...

Romney tells donors he is considering 2016 campaign Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Republican donors in New York on Friday that he is seriously considering a third presidential campaign in 2016, ... “I believe Mitt Romney is too much of a patriot to sit on the sidelines ... Zwick said.... Romney’s move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as former Florida governor Jeb Bush is swiftly snatching up major party donors and operatives as he prepares for an all-but-certain presidential campaign. The former Massachusetts governor held a lengthy meeting on Friday with about 30 major...

For the most part, the gay marriage debate now falls along partisan lines: Democrats support it, But within the crowded field of likely 2016 presidential contenders, there’s a lot of room for nuance. The would-be candidates have made much different arguments and have varying records on the issue. Meantime, the issue continues to change. On Jan. 6, Florida became the second-largest state to recognize gay marriage, bringing the total to 36. And on Friday, the Supreme Court will meet privately to decide whether to consider cases that could lead to a more definitive ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. Here’s...

The owner of a Richland flower shop being sued over her refusal to provide services for a same-sex wedding can face claims in her personal capacity, a Benton County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday. Barronelle Stutzman and her Arlene’s Flowers are being sued by the state Attorney General’s office and a same-sex couple. Stutzman, a Christian, declined to provide services for the couple’s wedding because of her religious beliefs. Her attorneys argued the claims against her personally should be dropped, describing them as unprecedented and unjust. Attorneys for the state and the couple argued Stutzman can be held personally liable...

I’m glad there’s a moderate Democrat finally running for president. I just wish he were running on the Democratic ticket. Jeb Bush, a likely Republican presidential candidate, called for “respect” of same-sex marriages on Monday as his home state of Florida began allowing gays to wed following a court ruling. Bush, a former governor of Florida, said in a statement that even those like him who oppose same-sex marriage must “respect the rule of law” now that the state’s ban on gay marriages has been ruled unconstitutional. Do you know what else is the law of the land? ObamaCare. So...

Leaders of the Florida Republican Party that supported the state’s 2008 ban on gay marriage were mostly silent Monday as throngs cheered South Florida couples given the right to wed.

Twenty-four hours in advance of a court deadline ordering clerks in at least one county to issue same-sex marriage licenses, former Sunshine State Governor and putative 2016 GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush shrugged his shoulders at the decision. “It ought be a local decision. I mean, a state decision,” Bush told the Miami Herald. “The state decided. The people of the state decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess.”

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has filed a petition appealing the legalization of same-sex marriage in Idaho to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the state’s case is the “ideal vehicle” to resolve the issue for the nation. “The time has come for this court to resolve a question of critical importance to the states, their citizens and especially their children: Whether the federal Constitution prohibits a state from maintaining the traditional understanding and definition of marriage as between a man and a woman,” Otter’s Washington, D.C. attorney, Gene Schaerr, wrote in the 41-page petition.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle has answered one of the state's big questions about gay marriage: Can all 67 counties issue licenses to gay couples who want to marry? Yes, they can, Hinkle wrote in an order released Thursday afternoon, "Reasonable people can debate whether the ruling in this case was correct and who it binds," Hinkle wrote. "There should be no debate, however, on the question whether a clerk of court may follow the ruling, even for marriage-license applicants who are not parties to this case." Hinkle also warned that clerk's who don't issue marriage licences could be sued:...

<p>WASHINGTON — Jeb Bush, who’s seriously considering a 2016 presidential bid, has sprinted to the front of the Republican field in a new McClatchy-Marist Poll.</p> <p>Former GOP nominee Mitt Romney remains on top, with Bush, a former Florida governor, a close second. Take away Romney, and Bush leads the field.</p>

Mitt Romney has become the acid reflux candidate: He just keeps coming back up. There has been poll after poll, story after story and now, over the weekend, a “Ready for Romney” website emerged that may or may not be serious. (I am guessing “Masochists for Mitt” was already taken.) The Mitt boomlet is driven by three major forces: First, the belief that the potential Republican field for 2016 is so weak — even though you can find more than a dozen reasonably serious candidates in it — that Mitt will rise head and shoulders above it. It’s the Simon...