Free Republic

Though abortion has dominated the early politicking over Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination, another hot-button issue - religion - has cheered conservatives and worried liberals. In his 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rulings, Alito has shown a deference toward religious interests that some liberal groups think has allowed unwarranted government support for faith. Supporters portray him as a champion for the right to religious expression under the Constitution. Oddly, both sides in the debate say they're defending religious liberty. The Alliance for Justice says that as a federal appeals judge, Alito has "tried to weaken church-state separation." Meanwhile, Bruce...

On the Tuesday evening edition (11/08/2005) of the Colbert Report I was surprised to see a normally super-liberal and irreverent Stephen Colbert seriously challenge Catherine Crier when she lamented that our country would soon start to 'revert' to prayer in school, public display of nativity scenes and menorahs, etc...because of the likes of the Tom Delays and others on the Christian right. There is not transcript available but Colbert slammed her and Crier was really caught off guard. He basically stated that it was foolish to abandon our moral conscious for the 'public good' and what was wrong with a...

Council backs separation of church and state A majority of the state Church Council is willing to separate church and state, but want the church to maintain a privileged position among religious communities in Norway. The Council wants this to be rooted in a Church Act, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reports. The new 'red-green' left-center government has been unable to agree on the future organization of the Norwegian state church and in their government platform, the Soria Moria Declaration, decided to leave this stance until the Council had reached its own conclusion. A survey commissioned by Centennial Norway 2005 this spring...

EDITORIAL: Fuelling the separatists' fire According to Jean Chretien, today is the day that inspired him to come up with the federal sponsorship program, otherwise known as AdScam. After all, the former prime minister has always insisted that it was the narrow defeat of the separatists exactly 10 years ago today in the second Quebec referendum that prompted him to develop the sponsorship program. His brilliant idea? To fly the Canadian flag and display the Canadian logo prominently in Quebec in order to help keep Canada united. And we all know how that turned out. On Tuesday, Judge John Gomery...

New deal needed to put unity issue to rest once and for all Divided we fall Calgary Sun October 30, 2005 One decade ago today Canadians coast-to-coast watched a cliffhanger vote on the fate of our country unfurl as Quebec separatists lost their bid for independence by just 1.2% of the vote. The nail-biting tally — 50.6% to 49.4% — shook our nation to the core. It also embittered Parti Quebecois Premier Jacques Parizeau’s supporters who came so close to fulfilling their dream to split from Canada. There were reports that had the PQ won by even the slightest margin...

he attack on a Buddhist temple and murder of a monk and two temple boys has pushed the government's patience to the limit and there are scores to be settled with the insurgents, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday. The security forces had been too laid-back and would have to shape up. A review of tactics used against the insurgents was being finalised and a new phase of suppression would begin before the end of this month. The killings at Wat Phromprasit were more than anyone could bear. Until Sunday, Buddhist monasteries, being places of reverence, had been off limits...

Better with coke Why Quebecers love their gay, drug-snorting PQ leadership hopeful BENOIT AUBIN He's got the looks of a matinee idol, a grin that could melt icebergs, and, at 39, in a political formation made up mostly of white-haired veterans, André Boisclair still passes for young. So what better than a little political striptease to sex up his campaign for the Parti Québécois leadership even more? At the onset, he admitted he is gay, and "proud of living in such a tolerant society." Two weeks ago, he went on Tout le monde en parle, the province's hippest talkshow, and...

Fort Smith (Arkansas) Police are investigating a case of domestic assault that severed a man's genitals, and landed his estranged wife behind bars. Police say the attack happened Sunday night just around 5:00 p.m. They say the couple have been separated for months, but were meeting to talk things over. Police say what happened next, is shocking and gruesome. The call came to 911. Dispatch took the information, “One of my best friends has been stabbed, there's blood running down, between his legs,” said the caller. And with the initial call, the initial thought, was a stab wound. But what...

Secession of the West: Is it time? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 3, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Alberta and Saskatchewan marked their 100th anniversary as Canadian provinces last Thursday, precisely two months after a poll found that 41 percent of Albertans and 31.9 percent of Saskatchewanites thought that "Western Canadians should begin to explore the idea of forming their own country." The results in the other two western provinces were lower – 30.8 percent in British Columbia and 27.5 percent in Manitoba – but all four figures nevertheless ran much higher than anything shown in previous polls on "western...

http://westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?page=article&article_id=928 A nation torn apart An exclusive Western Standard poll shows more than a third of westerners are thinking of separating from Canada. What’s dividing the country--and can anything be done to save it? Kevin Steel - August 22, 2005 It wasn’t just what the bumper sticker said, but where it was placed and what it was stuck on. The white rectangle that read, "One hundred years is long enough," followed by the website address, www.separationalberta.com, was high up in the rear window of a shiny new, high-end SUV driving through supposedly Liberal downtown Edmonton-- not on a dusty old...

Here's something that I posted a day or two ago on the forum site for my home-town newspaper, mainly to try to cause some strokes among the whacko lefties there: "OK, this is going to irritate a bunch of you I suspect. SGould [a leftie who admantly denies being one, and even denies being the person referred to in his listed email address :) ] is adamant that religion has no place in public discourse. I expect that view is generally agreed with by the liberal contingent here. Religion shouldn't be promulgated or exercised on public property, or in any...

On June 8, 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited President Bush in the White House. Among the topics the two discussed were freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Speaking from the Oval Office, Bush declared Turkey's democracy to be "an important example for the people of the broader Middle East."Turkey remains an important ally of the United States despite recent bilateral tensions over the Iraq war and its aftermath. Both Republican and Democratic administrations have valued Turkey not only as a strategic military partner in the Cold War but also, in recent decades, as a democratic outpost...

Saturday, July 30, 2005 Disengagement Begins Tomorrow Disengagement, as Prime Minister Sharon calls it, or unilateral separation, as former prime Minister Ehud Barak called it, or withdrawal, or whatever other term you like, begins in earnest tomorrow when settlers from Gush Katif will be moved to Nitzanim as part of Israel's pullout from Gaza. Interior Minister Ophir Pines (Labor) gushed about the preparations for the evacuees in Nitzanim, which are, in reality, double wide mobile homes. Let's be honest about disengagement: this is definitely what Prime Minister Sharon meant by "painful concessions", with an emphasis on the word "painful". It...

Being a rational thinker, it is often impossible to understand how Democrats can be so stupid. What exactly do the Democrats think is going to happen when they Balkanize America and invent categories for people so that no one is an American any longer but rather an "African-American" or an "Hispanic-American" or a woman or a homosexual whose allegiance shouldn't be to America but rather to the "cultural heritage" or the unique behavior that "defines" them? What do the Democrats think is going to happen when English is not the language of everyone but everyone is to speak their own...

Monday, July 25, 2005 Justifying the Fence: A Surprising Source The New York Times is often harshly critical of Israel. OK, not all the time. Much of their reporting is factual. Some, however, does seem to have a bias. Today, however, there was a truly excellent article titled In Most Cases, Israel Thwarts Suicide Attacks Without a Shot. Yes, there are successful attacks, most recently on July 12 in Netanya. To quote a relevant point: Israel is also building a separation barrier - an electronic fence and in some places a huge concrete wall - to make it harder for...

I recently took some time to review the final documents generated by the Royal Commission on renewing and strengthening Newfoundland and Labrador’s place in Canada. Even though the commission delivered its final report back in 2002, I don’t believe many people in the province and country have taken the time to examine the results, nor do I believe the media or both levels of government have given enough thought to its contents. ... The first is the fact that 72% of Canadians see Newfoundlanders and Labradorians as a distinct culture. This is very telling. Quebec has been officially recognized in...

I had the chance to sit down today and browse through a "Legion Magazine". It was quite impressive, and as I looked through it, I felt a great deal of pride for our grandparents and great-grandparents. It is an amazing magazine, full of anecdotes and stories that you would probably enjoy.

Some recent events would seem to indicate that the American Civil Liberties Union is lost in the woods without a compass. A moral compass, that is. For the last five years, the ACLU has been fighting the federal departments of Defense and Housing and Urban Development because of their support for the Boy Scouts of America – support that has taken the form of raising money for their national jamborees, allowing military personnel to lead Scout troops in their personal capacities, and providing access to government facilities for free. Now, a federal judge has sided with the ACLU and ruled...

A few days ago, the majority of the Supreme Court ruled as if it were using the Constitution of France instead of the Constitution of the USA. The French Constitution states that its nation is a secular one, while our Constitution states that we are a nation under God. One would not know this if the majority of the Supreme Court today is to be believed Mark Levin states in his book, Men in Black, “Chief Justice William Rehnquist has written that the Court ‘bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life.’” Based on a misreading of Thomas...

On April 22 I was presented with the 2005 Media Award by the New Jersey Family Policy Council at their annual banquet. While honored to receive such recognition, upon deeper reflection, I can’t help but ask myself the question: Was there no one else more qualified? Is there really such a dearth of professional, family-friendly journalists in newsrooms across our state that the Family Policy Council felt compelled to award a businessman moonlighting as a columnist? Apparently the answer is yes. A University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy study found that journalists who were surveyed picked Democrat John Kerry...

Alabama 1901, Preamble. We the people of the State of Alabama, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.Alaska 1956, Preamble. We, the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land. Arizona 1911, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arizona, grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this Constitution... Arkansas 1874, Preamble. We, the people of the State of Arkansas, grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of government... California 1879, Preamble. We, the...

I mean no disrespect to FDR. I know it's the wrong date. I hope it got your attention. I noticed this in another forum, and I cannot stop laughing. Everything you know about the separation of church and state argument is wrong. If what we are led to believe is true about this, then that makes..... It makes..... FDR a criminal. As it was posted, a picture is worth a thousand words.

To the Editor, In an attempt to save the ACLU time and money in guaranteeing the separation of church and state, I would like to recommend the following policies be adopted in our state schools: (1) The NAME Program (Non Abhorrent Moniker Exchange) and (2) The RAR Program(Religion Avoidance Routes): First, since children named Christian, Mohammed or Moses are going to be mutually offensive to one another--and to atheists in general; and, since it is additionally illegal to promote religion and allow the very mention of their names in a government school--because it violates the establishment clause of the First...

The lesson, O'Connor said, is not merely that a president's Supreme Court appointments often disappoint that same chief executive. “It is that our system of government is one of delegated authority and separation of powers,” she said. “By their ruling in the steel-seizure case, President Truman's appointees proved their friendship, I think, not by siding with the president for personal reasons, but by fulfilling their duty to decide each case as impartially as possible as members of a separate branch of government. “In short, as members of a truly independent judiciary.” Afterward, O'Connor met with federal judges and staffers at...

Montgomery County Public Schools yesterday halted a new sex-ed curriculum that was to have begun today, after a federal judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit that charged the course is unconstitutional and promotes homosexuality. U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. had granted a 10-day temporary restraining order yesterday to halt the teaching of the new course. "I have directed the office of the deputy superintendent of schools to review and evaluate the materials referenced in the judge's order," Superintendent Jerry D. Weast said, "...before any decisions are made about any future pilot testing of the revised curriculum in our...

'We'll sabotage disengagement' Right-wing radical placed under house arrest, says measure won't deter plans to undermine disenaggement By Uri Yablonka Noam Federman: 'They won't be able to get to Gaza.' Photo: Amit Shabi TEL AVIV - "We are organizing violent riots in Arab villages during the disengagement plan to tie up soldiers and police officers who are supposed to remove settlements," right-wing ringleader Noam Federman declared. In order to stymie his plan, Federman was placed under house arrest by the order of OC Central Command Maj. Gen.Yair Naveh on the advice of the Shin Bet's Jewish Department. It was the...

"The great object of my fear is the Federal Judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting with noiseless foot and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step and holding what it gains, is engulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them." – Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1821. Interview with North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby NCC: Justice Newby, thank you for taking the time to acquaint our readers with your judicial philosophy. I just have a few questions for you this evening. You ran on a platform emphasizing judicial restraint, could you elaborate...

Is Religion really being kicked out of America’s schools ? by Ron Edwards Increasingly across America, government schools are supposedly building upon a wall of separation between students and religion, particularly Christianity. No longer is it permissible to openly pray before sporting events or graduation exercises at many government high schools. Even at the elementary school my son attends, all references to Thanksgiving and Christmas were banned this past holiday season. Why? “ because both Thanksgiving and Christmas may remind people of Christianity.” Oh My! So, with such a mighty effort to stamp religion out of government schools, why does...

An offended atheist citizen is thus mollified.Lost in the uproar of Terri Schiavo's pro-Life struggle was a report in the Washington Post that San Diego's City Council was forced to order the removal of a Cross which is the centerpiece of a memorial to our veterans. Here's an excerpt:Sixteen years of legal wrangling over whether a 43-foot cross at the top of Mount Soledad in La Jolla, Calif., violates the separation of church and state came to a halt Tuesday when the San Diego City Council voted 5 to 3 to reject a plan to keep the cross where it...

An offended atheist citizen is thus mollified.Lost in the uproar of Terri Schiavo's pro-Life struggle was a report in the Washington Post that San Diego's City Council was forced to order the removal of a Cross which is the centerpiece of a memorial to our veterans. Here's an excerpt:Sixteen years of legal wrangling over whether a 43-foot cross at the top of Mount Soledad in La Jolla, Calif., violates the separation of church and state came to a halt Tuesday when the San Diego City Council voted 5 to 3 to reject a plan to keep the cross where it...

Today: March 08, 2005 at 15:26:21 PST Court OKs AmeriCorps, Catholic School Link ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court Tuesday endorsed the use of federal AmeriCorps money to place young teachers in religious schools, reversing a lower court judge who said the program crossed the constitutional line separating church and state. The government is not promoting religion and AmeriCorps creates no incentives for participants to teach religion, Appeals Court Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote in a 3-0 decision. The AmeriCorps program trains participants, offers them $4,725 in financial aid and has them teach some of the nation's...

In God We Trust Patriotic Flash Movie Finished and posted just in time for Washington's Birthday! (BTW, it's hard to swallow polls that find Washington ranked as America's 7th greatest president.) The presentation features quotes from Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Henry, Lincoln, Reagan, and more on the subject of God and morality in government. Many of these quotes were taken from their own speeches to the American people as elected officials (sorry ye Newdows and ACLUers of the world)! Enjoy and spread freely! I created two versions--one for high bandwidth (T1, DSL, Cable), and another for those trapped in dialupland....

This article was sent via email to one of my Christian Wives members. Apparently it is an email circulating through the conservative Christian web, being encouraged to be passed along and posted wherever it can. It is amazing to me, with the hullabaloo of 'separation between church and state',(which are all aware IS NOT in the Constitution!) that the liberal 'powers that be' are not taking the time to search their American Heritage, and truly discover what this country was founded for , and the principles it was founded on. I hope all of you enjoy this as much as...

Sore, WV, 1/14/05, Zarr Chasm Public School Superintendent, Doctor P.C. Macher, has issued guidelines for implementation of the new NAME (Non Abhorrent Moniker Exchange) program beginning with the 2005-6 school year. "To prevent anyone from being offended by religious names and to insure absolute separation of church and state in Sore County, all children must have a voluntary name change upon attendance at our public schools," explained Macher. "Obviously, children named Christian, Mohammed or Moses are going to be mutually offensive to one another--and to atheists; and, it is additionally illegal to allow the very mention of their names in...

Dear Dr. Johnson! Samuel Johnson, that is: eighteenth-century London's "literary dictator," most famous today for conversations he may not have even realized James Boswell was recording for a projected biography. Johnson also wrote poetry, of which only one couplet remains famous: How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! In this age of total government, these words remind us that government once played a far smaller part in men's lives than it now does. Under the rule of King George III, Americans paid only a few pennies per year in...

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there, thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

The words were said countless thousands of times last year as a minister concluded the ceremony. "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." But so often man and woman do. While gay marriage has been roundly condemned in most churches (and rightly so), you will not hear much about divorce. In many cases, if divorce is discussed in church, it's talked about as this horrible circumstance that comes upon people, listed in the same breath as automobile accidents or serious illnesses. The Bible is quite clear on the issue of divorce. Malachi 2:16 says it clearly, "For...

Hinson, builder of megachurch, dies Preacher turned around the struggling First Methodist By RICHARD VARA Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle The Rev. William H. "Bill" Hinson, a nationally known preacher who presided over the growth of First United Methodist Church from a dwindling downtown congregation to a two-campus megachurch, has died. ADVERTISEMENT Hinson, who suffered a massive stroke Nov. 28, died at noon Sunday in Huntsville, Ala., with his family at his hospital bedside, said Ann Spears, a spokeswoman for First United Methodist Church. He was 68. "My immediate reaction was one of shock and great sadness, for a mighty man...

Christ and faith have been under attack for the past 2000 years. The attempts at destruction started with His birth and have escalated across the globe for centuries. In the United States the anti-Christian movement has now reached the point where those who keep religion as the focal point of their lives can no longer dismiss the actions of a hate-filled leftist movement. At the center of the attack on the Judeo-Christian heritage of America is the ACLU, which has been appropriately renamed by the Traditional Values Coalition, the "Anti-Christian Liberties Union". This organization, professing to be dedicated to protecting...

I am looking at the front page, top center story in the Sacramento Bee for Friday, December 3, 2004, the gist of which is that a Christmas tree was erected in the rotunda of the Federal courthouse in Sacramento. Soon after, an attorney donated a Menorah to the display to commemorate Hanukkah, which almost immediately aroused a controversy, as a result of which both the Menorah and the Christmas tree were removed, which aroused another controversy, whereupon the Menorah and the Christmas tree were restored to the rotunda, and ever since a debate has raged whether it is permissible to...

We all know that the ACLU makes its living in the destruction of traditional American values. So its no surprise that once they were successful at removing Christ from the classroom, and then from public square, that there would be more to their ill conceived agenda. But removing Christ from Christmas? Has anyone bothered to look up the definition of Christmas? In case you haven’t, here it is…according to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000, Christmas is simply “A Christian feast commemorating the birth of Jesus, December 25, the day on which this...

Anytime religion is mentioned within the confines of government today people cry, "Separation of Church and State". Many people think this statement appears in the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution and therefore must be strictly enforced. However, the words: "separation", "church", and "state" do not even appear in the first amendment. The first amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." The statement about a wall of separation between church and state was made in a letter on January 1, 1802, by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association...

Go to this link and click "Contact Us" near the bottom. http://www.historychannel.com/global/feedback/faq.jsp?NetwCode=THC&level_1=nodes_38&level_2=nodes_71&level_3=nodes_86&x=27&y=19 A Letter to the History Channel (feel free to copy, paste and edit): To Whom it May Concern - I would like to express my displeasure with your recently broadcast program about the life of Benjamin Franklin. One-hundred-five minutes into the 120 minute broadcast is when the comment of one of your "experts" completely ruined and brought into question the veracity of the entire program. The comments by this "expert" demonstrate either a historical error made the the HISTORY Channel, or an attempt by the HISTORY Channel to...

Mustang Residents Protest Nativity Ban By Sarah Kahne The Oklahoman MUSTANG - "No Christ. No Christmas. Know Christ. Know Christmas." That was the sign held Thursday by a protester outside Mustang High School. A community's outrage over the elimination of a nativity scene from a fifth-grade Christmas play was displayed in a quiet and reverent protest. A manger with a baby nestled in the hay was surrounded by Mary, Joseph, a shepherd and wise men played by members of the community just outside the auditorium where Lakehoma Elementary students performed the revised version of their Christmas play. The participants sang...

Student Suspended For Handing Out Religious Fliers Student To Spend 5 Days Working For Charities POSTED: 4:29 pm EST December 9, 2004 UPDATED: 6:18 pm EST December 9, 2004 OAK HILLS -- A teenager was suspended from a Tri-state high school for handing out letters promoting his Christian faith, News 5's Emily Longnecker reported. Investigators said Eric Bast, a senior at Oak Hills High School, distributed personally addressed letters to his peers during homeroom Wednesday. When the students opened the envelopes, they found a letter about Jesus Christ. Bast was suspended for five days because of the incident and he...

“When the framers of the American Constitution wrote, ‘We, the people,’ they did not mean me.” Condaleeza Rice’s comments are well-taken. The religious issues raised by John Kerry and George Bush in the presidential campaign require us to take another look at the phrase “original intent.” It doesn’t mean what we tend to think. Political conservatives love to talk about original intent. Except when they don’t. After all, today’s conservatives do not argue that only landed white males should have the vote, although that was clearly the original intent of the founders. Political liberals love to point this out. Liberals...

The Leftist social liberals continue to harangue on the "separation of church and state" as justification for eliminating religious issues from public view. The phrase "Separation of Church and State" has been bandied about for so long that 67% of all Americans believe that it is actually in the Constitution. In fact, those three words appear nowhere in the Constitution. Oblivious to the irrelevance of their arguments, and at the same time refusing to acknowledge that no document of state, let alone the Constitution, has ever proposed such a concept, those on the Left have tried to convince the American...

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's security barrier was a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Eleven days later, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 to condemn Israel and demand removal of the barrier. All twenty-five members of the European Union supported the motion.[1] The EU position would not have been so offensive had it not then undertaken an act of stunning hypocrisy. In August 2004, the EU put out tenders for companies to construct a European separation fence to prevent migration into the EU from countries excluded from...

NEW YORK - The Rev. Al Sharpton (news - web sites) and his wife, Kathy Jordan Sharpton, have announced their separation after 23 years of marriage. The Sharptons said in a statement Friday that they "will remain on the best of terms." The pair "have extremely active careers and their separation allows them to continue pursuing their work interests," the statement said. "They will continue to work together in their civil rights work and in their other business ventures, including those in the entertainment industry." "Together they have successfully raised two daughters, one of whom started college this year, and...

Americans United today asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate events that appeared to be efforts to boost the candidacy of Sen. John F. Kerry at two churches in "swing states" on Oct. 24.