Free Republic

’ve evolved. In the not-so-distant past, I held a view that has since proven to be oppressive, a view of the law and culture that I now see as stifling the rights of others and damaging the fabric of our families and our democracy. I supported same-sex marriage. The year was 2004, and I was a partner in a large commercial law firm. Despite working mainly in commercial, contract litigation, I’d cultivated a constitutional practice and represented a number of Christian ministries. So, when the Massachusetts supreme judicial court legalized gay marriage, a number of fellow Christians asked for my...

(This April 27, 2015 story was refiled to correct the seventh paragraph to show that the USDA corrects to chicken farm from turkey farm.) Initial tests have found probable avian influenza outbreaks at five new commercial poultry sites in Iowa, affecting more than 6 million birds, the state's agriculture department and the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Monday. Additional tests are pending to confirm the highly pathogenic H5N2 that is rapidly spreading, agency officials said. Positive results would push the outbreak's national tally to more than 15.1 million affected birds from commercial flocks in 13 states. In the avian...

Moments ago according to the native Twitter feed of Arabiya, Iranian forces have seized a US cargo ship, which has some 34 American sailors, which they have taken to the port of Bandar Abbas. More as we get it.

The Texas senator thinks he can improve on Karl Rove's results among "gays, guns and God" voters. Not in 2016... For the 2004 election, Karl Rove resolved to avoid a too-close-to-call repeat of the 2000 contest. He believed as many as 4 million white evangelical voters failed to show up in the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. Four years later, President Bush was enjoying strong approval ratings as a “war president,” but Rove wasn’t taking any chances. He set out to inflame conservative fear with a campaign strategy built on a theme of “Gays, Guns and God.”...

Eyes That Are Humble – A Meditation on the Humbling Thorn of St. Paul By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe story of St. Paul’s conversion is well known and we read it last week in daily Mass. But there is a detail that I have often pondered which, though speculative, ought not be overlooked. Indeed, even my choice of the words “speculative” and “overlooked” (both of which refer to the eyes) indicate that we ought to give an eye (i.e., a look) to St. Paul’s eyes.As you probably recall, St. Paul was not just struck down on the road to Damascus, he was...

Efforts to return the state’s two major electric utilities, Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison, to virtual monopoly status appear to have run headlong into an obstacle, and it remains to be seen how hard it will be to overcome. Hearings on House Bill 4298, which would eliminate the final 10 percent of generation market competition that the big Michigan utilities have to contend with, had been ongoing. There was a sense the Energy Policy Committee might soon approve the legislation and send it to the full House. Then on April 13, the news media began reporting on a statewide poll...

GOP Presidential candidate Ted Cruz is sending a letter to tens of thousand of pastors asking them sand with God and pray during the two-hour time frame on April 28 when the Supreme Court hears a landmark same-sex marriage case. The justices will decide whether the Constitution allows homosexual couples the right to marry no matter where they reside or whether states have the right to say marriage is only between a man and a woman. Cruz asks the pastors the following in the letter: “How will the American church respond?...Will we be on the right side of history,...

Tabletalk: Your book is titled The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. Could you explain some of your “secret thoughts,” and why you were an “unlikely convert”? Rosaria Butterfield: I considered myself an atheist, having rejected my Catholic childhood and what I perceived to be the superstitions and illogic of the historic Christian faith. I found Christians to be difficult, sour, fearful, and intellectually unengaged people. In addition, since the age of twenty-eight, I had lived in monogamous lesbian relationships and politically supported LGBT causes. I coauthored Syracuse University’s first successful domestic partnership policy while working there as a professor...

In veiled threat, Wendy Sherman says if Israeli gov't doesn't show commitment to two-state solution, US will have trouble backing it in UN. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman Reuters US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman had a harsh message for American Jewish leaders on Monday. Sherman warned them that if the new Israeli government does not demonstrate a strong commitment to the two-state solution, the US will have trouble assisting it in efforts to halt international initiatives at the United Nations. Speaking at a conference of the Reform Movement in the United States, Sherman insisted...

Geneva, Switzerland — What is the happiest place? Last week in its annual “World Happiness Report,” the United Nations reported that Switzerland was No. 1. The United States ranked No. 15, and the African country of Togo came in last, at number 158. Switzerland is arguably the world’s most successful country — and most improbably so. It is landlocked and without much in the way of natural resources. It has four official languages, many different religious groups, and is surrounded by warring neighbors. Yet, it has remained an island of peace and prosperity. The last armed conflict on Swiss territory...

The past week was a very good one for Ted Cruz in South Carolina, as he swept the straw polls at four bi-annual Republican county conventions, and one county GOP Executive Committee bi-monthly meeting. The first came as Cruz won the Anderson County GOP convention straw poll as follows: Cruz 27%, Walker 25%, Rubio 15%, Huckabee 9%, Graham and Perry 6% each, Santorum 5%, Bush, Paul and Carson 1% each. But the biggest prizes came for Cruz as he won Greenville, Spartanburg and Aiken GOP convention straw polls all on the same day as follows: Greenville: Cruz 28%, Walker 22%, Carson 8.5%, Rubio...

Fire Island is a magical place. After my first trip out to the Pines a decade ago, I remember describing it as "Wonderland" to those friends who had yet to experience it. The moment the ferry slowly pulled into the harbor, I was smiling ear to ear as I watched a sanctuary reveal itself before me. Men were walking hand in hand with no fear of a dirty look or dangerous encounter. Pride flags blew in the breeze from every rooftop. You could dance the hours away into the night and then feel the ocean breeze whip across your face...

In April of 1511, Martin Luther went to Wittenberg, a city of 2,000 to 2,500. Luther received his Doctor of Theology in October of the following year, but for all his accomplishments, certainty of salvation eluded his grasp. He confessed his sins as much as possible, even six hours at a time in the confessional booth. Prayers were no help either. Even Johann von Staupitz, the vicar of his Augustinian order, could not help him with the mystic way: “Since man is weak, let him cease to strive; let him surrender himself to the being and the love of God”...

Protesters on the ground in Baltimore and on social media are calling on people to attack "pigs" and "crackers." Despite the fact that neighborhoods are being burned and stores looted, thousands of protesters are still rioting and people on social media are cheering them on. The riots also have a distinctly racist tinge, as protesters are specifically targeting "whites" and "crackers:"

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is serving as the Vice President at the 82nd U.S. Conference of Mayors in Dallas.

Japan used to have a pretty good reputation on climate change. Thanks to its robust industrial economy, it has the fourth-largest carbon footprint in the G20 nations. But it gets a sizeable chunk of its power from zero-carbon sources like hydro dams and, at least until the 2011 disaster at Fukushima, nuclear plants. In the aftermath of that disaster Japan decided to indefinitely shutter all of its nuclear power plants. The last one closed in September 2013, completely eliminating an energy source that had once provided nearly a third of the country's power. That hole has since been filled by...

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The court arguments will start shortly after 10 a.m., and we will have updates from the court action in a bit. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/04/28/live-blog-gay-marriage-arguments-at-supreme-court-tuesday

Mom smacks, drags son from Baltimore violence By David K. Li One Baltimore mom took matters into her own hands Monday, furiously grabbing her would-be rioter son by the scruff of his neck and dragging him away from the violence. The jaw-dropping encounter captured by WMAR-TV showed a teen boy clad from head to toe in black, including a scarf over his face, and ready to rumble — until Mom stepped in. He had just thrown rocks, WMAR reported, when his mother jumped into action. She grabbed him in the back of his head and smacked the rock thrower several...

Delivering the keynote address at the 2015 Women in the World Summit in New York City on Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton asserted that “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed” so that women can have access to “reproductive health care.” “Yes, we’ve cut the maternal mortality rate in half, but far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe child birth,” Clinton said. “All the laws we’ve passed don’t count for much if they’re not enforced. Rights have to exist in practice not just paper.” She...