Free Republic

Lost in the celebrations over universal gay marriage, like abortion, being deemed a right found in the “penumbras and emanations” of the Constitution is the chilling effect the ruling has on religious liberty. In a telling exchange between the Obama administration’s Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito, detailed by Tom Blumer at Newsbusters.com, in which Verrilli admitted that churches could lose their tax exemptions if they refuse to perform gay weddings: Justice Alito: Well, in the Bob Jones case, the Court held that a college was not entitled to tax­exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage...

I join THE CHIEF JUSTICE’s opinion in full. I write separately to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy. The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me. The law can recognize as marriage whatever sexual attachments and living arrangements it wishes, and can accord them favorable civil consequences, from tax treatment to rights of inheritance. Those civil consequences—and the public approval that conferring the name of marriage evidences—can perhaps have adverse social effects, but no more adverse than the effects of many other controversial laws. So it is not of special importance to...

"Natural law -- God's law -- will always trump common law," said Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a Christian leader in her own right, "God will have the final word in this matter." But, for now, Justice Anthony Kennedy has the final word. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land, as the right of gays and lesbians to marry is right there in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1868. We just didn't see it. Tony Kennedy spotted what no previous court had detected. The absurdity of the decision aside,...

“I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools. By imposing its own views on the entire country, the majority facilitates the marginalization of the many Americans who have traditional ideas.” – Justice Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court decision that forced gay marriage on the country The dilemma Christians and conservatives face after the Supreme Court's made-up-from-whole-cloth-instead-of-the-Constitution ruling on gay marriage is...

MANILA, Philippines - Same-sex marriage is impossible to be legalized in the country, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday. “From the point of view of our culture, it’s an impossibility for quite some time,” he told reporters. He said he does not see Congress approving a bill allowing same sex marriage because it is against the Filipinos’ culture. “The law lives within the culture and not the other way around,” he said. In the same breath, Belmonte said he does not see efforts to have Congress pass a divorce bill succeeding. “I don’t think we are going into something like...

Suggested Bible Based Christian Church Gay Wedding Ceremony… We gather today under threat of legal prosecution and persecution… to unite Adam and Steve legally in a union they call “marriage” but in fact is a mockery of God’s most sacred sacrament. God created marriage, man did not... for one man and woman only. So though required by law… this union cannot be blessed by God. As a counsel to the participants, I ask them to accept as Savior our Lord Jesus Christ… and seek His ways and repent of this abomination forced upon this church. (vows now to be spoken...

It’s basic good manners not to ask people to do something they don’t think they can do. They’re happier and you’re happier if you find someone else who wants to do the job. You might call this “anticipatory tolerance.” It’s one of the things that makes a diverse society work. I don’t push you if I can help it, you don’t push me if you can help it, and we can keep saying “hello” to each other when we pass on the street. Not everyone does this. Bakers, wedding photographers and bed-and-breakfast owners, are being abused for declining to support...

While the Supreme Court of the United States ruled Friday that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states, several religious leaders in Corsicana said Monday they will not hold a same-sex wedding service in their churches. ... Pastors of several churches cited Biblical teachings for their stance. ...

Salon has brilliantly presented the argument that animals should be considered people, positing that the antiquated notion of a line of demarcation between humans and animals should be discarded. (snip) The court was obviously behind the times. According to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, not only should animals have rights, they should be allowed to marry humans. Kennedy used four criteria in voting for gay marriage: 1. Individual autonomy: Kennedy wrote: “There is dignity in the bond between two men or two women who seek to marry and in their autonomy to make such profound choices.” Certainly orcas and chimps...

Today’s US Supreme Court ruling against the understanding for millennia that marriage can naturally only be the union of one man and one woman, although expected, is nevertheless a shocker. It is a shocker because of what we now understand are grave implications of the decision.The concept of law is now further in shambles. It is ridiculed, gutted, and trashed by these judges who consider themselves to be a unilaterally declared new power over the American people.They have made it very clear that they are an enemy of the American Republic and its original declarations and ideals.Allan Parker, president of...

On Friday, shortly after the Gaypocolypse began raining down on the media landscape like an ELE comet strike, I had already begun musing on Twitter about the no longer hypothetical slippery slope which had just opened up. To be sure, we’ve had more than a few discussions of slippery slope items in years past which were little more than hyperbole in the real world. But then, the “real world” has been changing rather rapidly in the past few years and I’ve had to take a fresh look at some items which I’d previously written off as straw men, but have...

June 28, 2015 Feast of Ss. Cyrus and John Beloved in Christ, May God bless you always. On June 26, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision that effectively defines “marriage” as legal between any two consenting adults throughout our country, regardless of their biological sex, a decision that will no doubt have sweeping effects in our society, not just for these couples but for children, families, churches, other religious organizations and all people of faith. This action by the Court attempting to redefine marriage is deeply wrong, but it gives us an opportunity to reiterate...

The U.S. Supreme Court must think God asleep. In its most odious decision since Roe v. Wade, which over the past four decades has resulted in the slaughter of more than 57 million unborn children, the High Court on Friday declared homosexual marriage a Constitutional right. In a majority opinion at odds with his putative Catholic faith, Justice Anthony Kennedy suggests that those who oppose “marriage equality” just don’t get where lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders are coming from. “It would misunderstand these men and women,” wrote Kennedy, “to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that...

Supreme Court cases, former cover boys for Wheaties’ cereal boxes, faux ethnic origins—have you noticed? We live in the day of the unreal. The misdirected. The re-channelled. We do it all based on emotion. As most of the social media denunciations of Christians this weekend chastised them for ignoring (in their words) the command of God to “love” people, the very same youthful, ignorant, and misinformed forgot all about the portions of the Bible that call us to sacrifice, obedience, and trust. The new hashtag that is being championed around the twitterverse, cybersphere, and interwebs is #LoveWins. The uninformed—including...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Sen. Lindsey Graham told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that the Republican party needs to finally hang it up when it comes to keeping a proposal for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in their party platform, but that he made it clear they're not going to let it go as a wedge issue any time soon. As long as they can keep the religious right whipped into a frenzy over whether their "liberties" are being violated by not being free to discriminate against a group of people they don't like, they're going to keep going after those...

Welcome to the age of vanity politics and campaigns-for-hire. What would our founders make of this nightmare? Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt. From Plato and Aristotle forward, corruption was meant to describe actions and decisions that put a narrow, special, or personal interest ahead of the interest of the public or commonwealth. Corruption did not have to stoop to...

The conservative pundit tells CNN Republicans will become "relics" if they don't evolve on same-sex marriage.Conservative pundit S.E. Cupp got emotional on CNN Friday afternoon in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality, which she urged the Republican party to accept. Tears welling, lip quivering and all, Cupp — a longtime supporter of same-sex marriage, though not always for the most progressive reasons — begged the GOP to evolve on the issue, lest conservatives begin to be viewed as “relics.” “Those people there are not pariahs, they’re patriots,” Cupp said of same-sex couples. ”And wherever you stand...

In Australia, same-sex marriage activists are upset that polyamorists are trying to jump on their equality bandwagon. From The Australian: THE main lobby group promoting gay marriage yesterday distanced itself from polyamorists demanding to be included in the proposed reforms, saying marriage involving more than two people would undermine a traditional institution.As reported yesterday by The Australian, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has come under attack from polyamorists, including some who are members of her party, for insisting that marriage should be between two people of any sex, but no more than two.Greens volunteer and polyamorist Naomi Bicheno wrote on...

Come on. How many will truly be surprised to see the American Civil Liberties Union backpedal away from an enumerated civil right in the Constitution, now that the cognoscenti considers it a form of bigotry? I feel so old. I remember when the ACLU was a civil liberties organization. http://t.co/oe1EiYAXja— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) June 27, 2015 @Popehat @Lorienen @ACLU well now that Christians use it the ACLU can't support it— Clarence Whorley (@ClarenceWhorley) June 27, 2015 The organization that once went to court to ensure that the American Nazi Party could parade through Skokie, Illinois in an exercise of free...

Now that the Supreme Court has decided that same-sex marriage is a Constitutionally-protected right of all citizens, the question that naturally arises is: What happens next? In the 37 states where same-sex marriage is already legal, nothing happens.  Things simply go on as they have. In the 13 states where same-sex marriage is prohibited by state law and constitutional amendment, things are more complicated. Court cases will be filed, or existing cases in the federal court system will be handed down in accordance with the SCOTUS decision--meaning those amendments and laws will be struck down. Then there's the matter of...