Free Republic

The Church of England’s General Synod has voted to end plans for stand-alone blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples in churches after extended debate. The decision also closes a years-long process that had examined whether such ceremonies could be introduced.Members this week approved a motion from bishops to conclude the Living in Love and Faith process and halt further work toward permitting special services for same-sex couples in civil marriages, The Telegraph reported.The vote followed hours of discussion and confirmed that agreement between conservative and liberal factions had not been reached.The Synod supported forming new working groups on relationships, sexuality and...

Probably the most galling thing about Joe Biden's and Kamala Harris's open borders was in the surge of fake asylum claims, fraudulently filed, with a whopping fifty percent of them accepted by roundheeled activist Biden administration judges as real. AdvertisementIllegal migrants paid nothing to file them. NGOs and the United Nations coached them in how to use loopholes to win their claims, and Biden's judges were ready with their rubber-stamps, putting the illegal migrants on the express lane for public benefits, with immediate eligibility. With an acceptance rate like that and the payoff that followed, it's no wonder so many...

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told European leaders on Feb. 14 that Washington is not walking away from the transatlantic alliance—but called for a renewed partnership that aligns with President Donald Trump’s push for national revival, tougher border control, and a return to industrial and military strength.Addressing the annual Munich Security Conference, Rubio sought to reassure governments unsettled by a year of tensions over trade, defense spending, and at times critical U.S. rhetoric toward NATO.At the same time, he made clear that Washington’s commitment would be tied to what he called a broader civilizational renewal—one that calls on Europe...

Since 2019, U.S. household incomes have surged - rising from $68,700 to $83,730 nationally, a 21.9% increase in just five years.But where you live matters a lot.While some states tracked close to the national average, others saw incomes climb at nearly double the pace, driven by booming local industries and major investment.States like Colorado posted outsized gains, while Georgia’s expanding EV industry brought billions in investment and rising paychecks.The map, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows which states saw the fastest growth in median household income from 2019 to 2024, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau.Trends in Median Income...

Fox News Digital learned authorities have used a high-tech Bluetooth scanner placed on the bottom of law enforcement helicopters to detect Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker signal. The helicopters fly low, typically in grid patterns, at a slow pace to pick up signals. Fox News Digital spotted one of the low-flying helicopters near Guthrie's home on Feb. 4, just three days after her disappearance.

A lazy, surface-level media habitually conflates the statutory duty of a private citizen to comply with a congressional subpoena with the constitutional duty of a senior White House adviser to resist one that implicates executive privilege.The latest example comes from National Review’s Rich Lowry, who lumps me together with Bill Clinton in a single moral bucket.That analogy gets the stakes exactly backward.Lowry’s free trade antipathy to the Trump tariff agenda I have championed in the White House is no secret. Fair enough. Policy disputes are part of democratic life.What is harder to accept is Lowry’s tariff animus spilling into applause...

“It’s very difficult to find love,” Aleksandr Zhadan, a 20-something software developer from Moscow, lamented on social media last year. To speed things up, Mr Zhadan programmed an artificial-intelligence (AI) bot to trawl through endless profiles on Tinder, a dating app, and interact with more than 5,000 lucky girls on his behalf. After some 100 real-world dates, Mr Zhadan proudly announced that he had just proposed to his algorithmically ordained other half. Mr Zhadan is not alone. According to a study published in June by Match Group, Tinder’s owner, and the Kinsey Institute, a research centre at Indiana University, a...

During a Friday appearance before the press on the White House lawn, President Donald Trump warned that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is gonna have to get moving, otherwise he’s gonna miss a great opportunity” because “Russia wants to make a deal.”Responding to a reporter who questioned whether the president will still “demand” that Zelensky “hold elections before summer,” Trump said, “Well, Zelensky is gonna have to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelensky’s gonna have to get moving, otherwise he’s gonna miss a great opportunity. He has to move.”Late on Wednesday, Zelensky told reporters that he has...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Fernández tells SSPX superior that Vatican II documents ‘cannot be corrected’The Vatican's immovability chills the likelihood of an agreement with the SSPX, given that the Society has repeatedly insisted parts of Vatican II texts contradict magisterial teaching.Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, reportedly told Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), that documents from the Second Vatican Council cannot “be corrected.” A communiqué from the SSPX General House published Thursday revealed that, while Fernández has proposed dialogue with the SSPX to...

During Team USA's comeback men's hockey win over Denmark at the Winter Olympics, two fans raised the flag of Greenland in the stands to protest President Donald Trump's intent to acquire Greenland for the U.S. The flag was raised enthusiastically after Denmark took an early lead. However, the U.S. came back to win the game 6-3. Vita Kalniņa and her husband Alexander Kalniņš, fans of the Latvian hockey team who live in Germany, held up a large Greenland flag during warmups and again when the Danish team scored the opening goal of the preliminary round game against the U.S., which...

While AI hyperscalers are committing hundreds of billions of dollar per year on capital expenditures, Anthropic’s spending plans are more cautious by comparison.But cofounder and CEO Dario Amodei said the reason for his more measured approach is because even a slight miscalculation could sink the company.In an interview with Dwarkesh Patel on Friday, the podcaster asked why Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, doesn’t spend more aggressively, given Amodei’s earlier prediction that an AI data center could one day be a “country of geniuses.”Amodei replied that while he is confident the technical milestone is achievable soon, he’s less certain...

When I was growing up in the 1980s, there was a galaxy of left-wing, even socialist, intellectual stars such as Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault and Gore Vidal whose works were like an inkwell that politicians and commentators could draw from. Judging from the Munich Security Conference this weekend, that inkwell has run dry. Take this gem of a comment on global order from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, queen of the democratic socialists: "What we are seeking is a return to a rules-based order that eliminates the hypocrisies around when too often in the West we look the other way for inconvenient...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (I John 5:14) Religion forum threads labeled (Prayer) are closed to debate of any kind.

By Dr. John BergsmaThe “Hippie Jesus" is one of the common misunderstandings of Christ that are circulating in popular culture. People think of Jesus as a laid-back guru who traveled around Israel in this Volkswagen Vanagon, accompanied by twelve dudes in tie-died T-shirts. Jesus taught that all we need is Love, and not to be so uptight, like all those rule-bound priests and scribes. Of course, that view of Jesus is wrong. People adopt it, however, because they misunderstand the nature of Jesus’ conflict with the priests, scribes, and Pharisees that dominated Jewish religious practice in his day. Because Jesus...

A new manifestation of 'go woke, go broke,' this time hitting the Olympic medal count.One by one, America’s made-for-TV stars fell short of expectations. Lindsey Vonn crashed. Chloe Kim fell. Mikaela Shiffrin struggled. The most shocking fumble of all came on Friday night when figure skater Ilia Malinin, the self-proclaimed “quad god,” melted down in the brutal heat of the Olympic spotlight.It was merely the latest disappointment of an Olympics souring faster than burrata in the sun for Team USA, which is suddenly on track for its fewest winter golds since 1998.What a coincidence -- not liking your country goes...

Tampering with federal election results is against the law, and a new study by Unite4Freedom exposes an explosive problem—federal election records of the vote are changing after the election has been certified. Is this Malice, ignorance or pathetically pervasive Apathy (MIA) by our election officials?

KEEPING THE FAITH The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung with grief and...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was a larger-than-life figure. Which is why it’s hard to believe that Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, marks 10 years since his passing. Often viewed as a chief pioneer of the modern originalist movement, Scalia was instrumental in laying the groundwork necessary for restoring proper jurisprudence to an institution that had swayed from its intended purpose. With his crafty wit and skilled penmanship, the Reagan appointee authored some of the most thought-provoking and memorable legal opinions in the court’s recent history. Encapsulating the best moments from Scalia’s nearly 30-year Supreme Court career into one article is...

A long-running Pride Month event known as “Gay Days” at Disney World has been placed on pause for 2026, with event organizers citing a sponsorship loss and other logistics challenges. “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to pause the GayDays Orlando event scheduled for June 2026,” Gay Days event organizers announced on Sunday. “Changes to our host hotel agreement, the loss of key sponsorship support, and broader challenges currently impacting LGBTQIA+ events nationwide made it impossible to deliver the experience our community deserves,” they added. Organizers went on to insist, in a ChatGPT-esque banality, “This is a...

14 February 2026 Saints Cyril, monk, and Methodius, Bishop on Saturday of week 5 in Ordinary Time Church of Saint Valentine in Woźniki Śląskie, PolandReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst reading1 Kings 12:26-32,13:33-34The prophecy of the separation of IsraelJeroboam thought to himself, ‘As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David. If this people continues to go up to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people’s heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and...