Free Republic

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky County Clerks Association will propose removing clerks’ names from the document in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage. Overturning the state’s ban on same-sex marriage has prompted Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and two others to deny licenses to all couples, drawing a federal lawsuit against Davis as well as calls to change the licensing process. Leslie County Clerk James Lewis, chairman of the association’s elections committee, told reporters Tuesday that his group is drafting “a simple solution” to the matter. “You would have the county and the county seat listed...

LOS ANGELES, CA, August 25, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – The GOP's leading presidential candidate said that he has been to a gay "wedding" and that conservatives should accept the Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage. In a wide-ranging interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Donald Trump was asked whether the issue of marriage's redefinition is "a dead issue for the GOP at this point." "Some people have hopes of passing amendments [to the U.S. Constitution]," said Trump, "but it's not going to happen. Congress can't pass simple things, let alone that. So anybody that's making that an issue is doing it for political...

A friend recently went through statements published by the Irish Bishops’ Conference between 2012 and 2015 to examine the language the bishops used about morality, especially in response to the initiatives of the Enda Kenny government. During this period the Irish government legalised both the killing of unborn babies through abortion and the treatment of homosexuality as equivalent with heterosexuality through so called same-sex "marriage". The statements from the Bishops’ Conference show the Irish bishops failing to name the evil of abortion and homosexual sex even though the Second Vatican Council named abortion an “unspeakable crime” (Gaudium et Spes, 50)...

After its success in Ireland and then the United States, the movement to legalise same-sex marriage is now knocking on Australia's doors to the dismay of devoted Christians in the Land Down Under.Australian Archbishop Anthony Fisher revealed recently that "there are voices in our culture that no longer think marriage need be for life, or be open to children, or be exclusive, or be between man and wife."Addressing the faithful during the Annual Marriage Mass with Renewal of Vows at Saint Mary's Cathedral in Sydney last July 12, Fisher said those behind this movement "write off as benighted and bigoted...

The website of the German Bishops' Conference, katholisch.de, reported yesterday on the first case of a practicing homosexual permitted to remain in a position at a Catholic Church institution despite a flagrant and public violation of the Church's moral law. The woman who heads a Caritas Day Care Center in Bavaria, had been asked in April to leave her position due to her announcement that she was going to “marry” a woman. The decision has now been rescinded, according to Fr. Hans Lindenberger, head of the Caritas in Munich, Germany. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is the Archbishop of the Diocese...

The Good Book says, "...be sure your sin will find you out," and this is a lesson that the monsters at Planned Parenthood have been learning for the past three weeks. Caught on camera, these hideous harvesters of human life have been exposed to the whole world as the fiends they are, talking about "gentler" techniques for murdering babies so that they don't "crunch" the organs of tiny unborn children, so they can sell them for profits euphemistically disguised as "reimbursements." The fact that I could even write a sentence like that is definitive proof that America is infected with...

One hundred and twenty-five members of Congress asked Secretary of State John Kerry in a letter Monday to deny visas to diplomats’ spouses if the envoys come from a country that doesn’t recognize same-sex spouses of State Department personnel. House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) led the letter, which got one GOP signature — Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), who has a transgender son. The lawmakers argued that countries not granting accreditation to same-sex spouses of American foreign service...

Is the debate about marriage over after the Supreme Court’s June decision to redefine marriage in all fifty states? That’s what some Amazon.com reviewers are insisting after a new book was released last week. The book, “Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom,” is a roadmap from Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, on how the conservative movement can move forward in promoting marriage and protecting religious freedom after the Supreme Court’s ruling. “I wrote this book for all Americans. For those who disagree with me, to at least understand the viewpoint of roughly...

Brittney Griner filed to have her marriage to fellow WNBA player Glory Johnson annulled last month, claiming that the union was based on “fraud and duress” and that Johnson pressured her into it. Griner also suspected that Johnson was cheating on her. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Griner says she discovered in April that Johnson had been texting with her ex-boyfriend. She says she never would have married Johnson if she suspected something was still going on between Johnson and the man.

When the Supreme Court rules, Americans normally respond by increasing support for the decision. But a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows gay marriage advocates have not sealed the deal with the American people. The poll received attention under the heading: “Over 60 percent of Republicans oppose court on gay marriage”.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- President Barack Obama heads to Kenya this week for a global economic summit. It will be Obama's first visit as president to his father's homeland. While some hope the trip will bring closer ties between our two countries, there's one subject many Kenyans don't want the president to talk about: gay rights and same-sex marriage. The streets are already buzzing in anticipation of his arrival, with polls showing Obama enjoys widespread popularity among Kenyans. "I think this is a guy who really appreciates his roots," said one resident of the capital city. "Because he is our brother,...

A high-ranking California police lieutenant has been placed on leave after he sent a newspaper a letter condemning the legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide. He signed the letter with his rank and employer — and the newspaper editor says that's how he wanted it to appear in print.

Sweet Cakes by Melissa owners Aaron and Melissa Klein had the audacity to defend their religious beliefs two years ago, and they suffered mightily. When a lesbian couple, Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer, requested a cake from the Oregon-based Christian bakers for their wedding, the latter politely declined because doing so would violate the religious edicts they so strongly follow. The Kleins’ religiously motivated decision prompted the gay couple to sue, and the Oregon labor commissioner ruled that the Kleins would have to shell out $135,000 in damages. Thanks to Americans who still cherish religious freedom, however, it appears this Christian family...

Dent County is a place in southeast Missouri where about 15,000 people live. Today, the County Commission there voted unanimously — unanimously! — to fly the flags at the courthouse and judicial building below half-mast on the 26th day of every single month between now and June 2016.

At the risk of sounding like Paul Krugman — who returns to a handful of cherished topics over and over again in his New York Times column — I want to revisit one of my hobby horses, which I most recently raised in my discussion of Hobby Lobby. My own cherished topic is this: Liberalism's decline from a political philosophy of pluralism into a rigidly intolerant dogma. The decline is especially pronounced on a range of issues wrapped up with religion and sex. For a time, electoral self-interest kept these intolerant tendencies in check, since the strongly liberal position on...

With its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court has brought the sexual revolution to its apex—a redefinition of our civilization’s primordial institution, cutting its link to procreation and declaring sex differences meaningless. The court has usurped the authority of the people, working through the democratic process, to define marriage. And it has shut down debate just as we were starting to hear new voices—gay people who agree that children need their mother and their father, and children of same-sex couples who wish they knew both their mom and dad. If the polls are right, there has also been...

County clerks across the country are resigning after the June 29 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. Just a few days after the monumental ruling, an entire county clerk office in Tennessee resigned. Decatur County Clerk Gwen Pope and both of her deputy assistants, Sharon Bell and Mickey Butler, resigned, saying the order clashed with their religious beliefs. All three were long-time employees of the clerk’s office. Pope told The Jackson Sun they didn’t want to make the news. "It's kind of sort of like you don't want to draw attention to yourself for any reason," she said. "That's...

I don't get it. I honestly don't. Call me an idiot; declare me obtuse. I can't figure out the long game of the American left. I've been struggling with the thought for a while. But the answer isn't forthcoming. I don't mean to insult. I'm genuinely asking for clues. The progressive outlook seems negative. Everyone's being cheated. Everything's unfair. And offensive. Especially that. I've lived in this country for 52 years. I never knew it was such a cynical place. Instead of seeking ways to move the nation forward, spiritually and economically, the political left is on an inequity hunt....

In the weeks since the historic Supreme Court ruling that recognized same-sex marriage as a “fundamental right” many leftist commentators and LGBT activists have turned their sights on Christians. From attacks on bakery owners who refused to bake cakes for same-sex weddings to daily attacks on all things Christianity, the hard left has made it clear that they are far from done with their “culture war” and will not be happy until anyone that disagrees with them is completely silenced. Now, in what can be described as the opening silo in another round of the war on Christianity, LGBT activist...

Much has been written on the unconstitutionality and irrationality of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell “same-sex marriage” opinion. Will Governors and officials around the country kowtow to the Court and allow lawless same-sex marriage in states where it was banned? Will they imitate the disgraceful Massachusetts model? Will citizens allow this to happen? The turning point for the radical effort to impose “same-sex marriage” (SSM) on the country was the 2003 Goodridge case in Massachusetts. There, the homosexual activists pioneered using the courts to circumvent the democratic lawmaking process and took advantage of an ambitious Governor to implement their dream. In...