Free Republic

For 20 years, McKrae Game led Hope for Wholeness, a faith-based conversion therapy program in South Carolina. The discredited practice was intended to suppress or eradicate a person’s LGBTQ identity through counseling or ministry, reports The Post and Courier. Game was fired from the group and in June announced he was gay. Game, 51, told The Post and Courier that he is coming to terms with the harm he inflicted while he was working to change people’s sexuality. “Conversion therapy is not just a lie, but it’s very harmful,” Game told The Post and Courier. “Because it’s false advertising.” Game...

The U.S. trade deficit declined in July, including the gap with China that has been the focus of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the gap between the goods and services the U.S. buys and what it sells abroad fell 2.7% to $54 billion in July from June. Exports rose 0.6% to $207.4 billion, while imports ticked down 0.1% to $261.4 billion. Compared to a year ago, the average trade gap has increased $7 billion. Trade has become a sensitive topic for the global economy as the United States has escalated a tariff war with China....

After lots of growling from Beijing about how the communist regime wouldn't 'sit on its hands' over the massive protests disrupting Hong Kong, and new threats to 'show no mercy' to the protesters, the Chicoms have folded. >Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed puppet leader, Carrie Lam, has withdrawn the extradition bill that triggered the protests, the one that permitted Beijing to freely snatch back anyone who displeases Red China to face what passes for 'justice' in the communist dictatorship. According to the New York Times: HONG KONG — Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said Wednesday that the government would withdraw a contentious extradition...

It had already been a long and emotional day for the Virginia Beach man when he walked into a 7-Eleven store to buy a Big Gulp. He’d just been involved in a heated argument with his stepfather, and police had been called to the house. After talking to officers, it took him more than an hour to walk back to his conversion van, which was parked near his work. The vehicle wasn’t working at the time, but he’d been living in it for a few weeks. Once he got there, he realized his canteen was empty. “I said, ‘Well, it...

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's loss of his Tory parliamentary majority, done very theatrically by the British equivalent of RINOs, just as he was speaking to parliament, was billed as a disastrous defeat for his Brexit agenda. Brendan O'Neill at Spiked wrote this: Tonight’s vote by MPs to seize control of the parliamentary agenda in order to prevent a No Deal Brexit is not, as they claim, a wonderful assertion of parliamentary sovereignty against a dictatorial executive led by Boris Johnson. No, it is an assertion of the political elite’s arrogant authority over the people. If MPs have seized power...

Catalina Lauf is 26-years-old and running for Congress in Illinois, hoping to unseat a Democrat incumbent and push aside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress. Kyle S. Reyes of Law Enforcement Today writes: She’s a young Latina. She’s from Illinois.  She’s running for Congress.  And she’s the polar opposite of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s conservative. She’s smart.  She’s gorgeous.  She supports law enforcement.  She actually loves America.  Her idol is Ronald Reagan.  And she’s not afraid to ruffle feathers. Photo via Law Enforcement Today Her name is Catalina Lauf, and she’s 26-years-old.  Her goal is to...

The Framers of the U.S. Constitution lived in a generation that saw more advancements for firearms than any other, arguably even more than the era of WWII.  They understood the importance of a well armed civilian population being "necessary to the free state," often pointing out themselves that a tyrant has never been able to take over an armed population.  Their Pennsylvania rifles were supreme to the British Brown Bess muskets, and that is what secured our independence and the birth of America.Pretending that these very intelligent men could never foresee the invention of the AR-15 (or similar weaponry)...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) responded to actress Alyssa Milano’s challenge for a meeting about guns as well as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, saying he’s more than ready to meet her. “I’d be happy to sit down & visit next week about uniting to stop gun violence & about the Constitution,” he told the activist. “If we can have a civil & positive conversation—in the spirit of 1 Peter 4:8 as you suggest—despite our political differences, that might help resolve the discord in our Nation.”

FULL TITLE: 7 Olentangy middle school students charged for allegedly putting urine, semen into food served to teachers Seven teenagers are now charged for putting bodily fluids inside the food that they fed to their teachers. Delaware County prosecutors filed charges Tuesday against the Olentangy Hyatts Middle School students. The incident happened in May when prosecutors say the students, all 14-year-old boys, concocted a foul plan to taint food they served to their teachers. According to prosecutors, they did that with their bodily fluids. This was part of a cooking contest in their class- where teachers were judging dishes prepared...

Israel was close to launching an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities in 2012, despite opposition from the Obama Administration, the New York Times reported. Israel had delayed a joint military exercise which had been scheduled for spring, 2012, prompting concerns among American officials that an attack on Iran was imminent. The administration sent a series of officials to Israel to "Bibisit" Prime Minister Netanyahu and convince him to hold off on any attack every few weeks. In addition, then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta showed then Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak video of an American strike on an exact replica of...

Five Democratic presidential candidates in the span of 24 hours have released sweeping plans to address climate change, ahead of a series of town halls devoted to the issue. On Wednesday, California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg each unveiled their climate plans. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Obama cabinet member Julián Castro each laid out theirs on Tuesday. The flurry of plans comes ahead of a CNN town hall event on global warming, which 10 Democrats seeking the White House plan to attend. The forums come after liberals had...

FULL TITLE: Foster mother is charged over death of one-year-old boy who was left in hot car at shopping mall while she worked inside A foster mother has been charged with the death of a toddler who died after being left in a hot car at the mall last week. Dawn Aberson-Vanden Broecke, 42, was charged on Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter. On August 29, she left the baby boy, who has not been named, in the parking lot outside Lowes at a shopping center in Pineville, North Carolina. Temperatures soared into the 80s and the boy died as a result....

Maxine Waters, the intelligent Democrat, crawled out of a hole today to appear with conspiracy theorist Chris Hayes on MSNBC. Mad Maxine told Chris Hayes that “Terrible Trump” was Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend. Wow.

SICK. Ocasio-Cortez Helps Raise Money for Jailed Antifa Terrorists Who Threw Urine Bombs and Attacked Police Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pushed a fundraiser for bail money for a group of far left Boston protesters that included members of the violent Antifa movement. The arrests, 36 in all, came after a “Straight Pride” parade in Boston, Massachusetts, this weekend, according to the Boston Herald.

One way to support the local LGBTQ community impacted by Boston’s white supremacist parade? Contribute to the Bail Fund for the activists who put themselves on the line protecting the Boston community:https://fundrazr.com/61YIs8?ref=ab_7ZU6lUcHlAs7ZU6lUcHlAs … (Any $ left over goes to @MassBailFund+@Boston_GLASS) https://twitter.com/AyannaPressley/status/1167927769105219585 … Solidarity Against Hate Legal Defense Fund Known fascists and white supremacists, under the front organization Super Happy Fun America, are descending on Boston for “Straight Pride” on Saturday, 8/31. As we have for the last 3 years, Boston... fundrazr.com Ayanna Pressley ✔ @AyannaPressley Join me right now in making a contribution. TY to the allies & accomplices who...

Union auto workers voted, by a large majority, to authorize strikes while the United Auto Workers (UAW) union negotiates contracts with General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Fiat Chrysler. UAW members voted about 96 percent to allow union workers to strike while UAW leaders negotiate contracts with GM, Ford, and Chrysler — a vote that merely authorizes strikes and does not indicate that strikes will be held. UAW President Gary Jones said in a statement:

David Simon, a former journalist for The Baltimore Sun and executive producer of HBO's The Wire (2002-2008), used Twitter to express his desire that God use Hurricane Dorian to destroy Mar-a-Lago, a National Historic Landmark sometimes used for presidential meetings that is owned by President Donald Trump, who refers to it as the "Winter White House." "After the last three years, the work of a just and righteous God cannot be considered credible evidence of His goodness unless He picks all of Mar-a-lago up by the roots, sails it across half of Florida and heaves it on top of Doral...

A University of Illinois student was charged with a hate crime on Tuesday for allegedly placing a noose in a campus residence hall. Andrew Smith, a 19-year-old sophomore, was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and committing a hate crime, which is a felony, after students found a noose hanging inside an elevator over the weekend, according to university police. News of the finding began to make rounds on social media as students expressed their outrage. That's when a woman who said she was with Smith when he tied the noose reportedly called campus police to report him.

[Catholic Caucus] New Rome Pastoral Guidelines Raise Eyebrows Vicar general of Rome establishes guidelines to build the 'Church of the future' ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Recently, vicar general of his holiness for the diocese of Rome, Cdl. Angelo De Donatis, was the subject of much controversy in Italian Catholic circles for his choice of unprecedentedly unconventional language to address the Roman clergy. A couple of letters delivered to Roman parishes in July 2019 were unusually informal, as they also contained specifications that could be read as contrary to what the Church teaches about cardinal virtues. The letters aimed to offer guidelines for the formation of the new pastoral teams for the...

When legislatures create laws that call for actions to be taken that contradict constitutional law, they exceed the boundaries of their delegated powers, contradict the law of the land, and set up conditions leading to violation of civil rights. Executives who sign those pieces of legislation into law also act corruptly and in violation of constitutional law. Red flag laws, for example, which permit circumvention of due process, are unconstitutional. Yet judges use them as a basis for issuing orders to confiscate firearms. When they do so, they are violating constitutional law. Judicial orders that call for confiscation of firearms...