Free Republic

My old boss, M. Stanton Evans, loved to tell a joke centered around the late Senator Jesse Helms, R-NC, a conservative icon: “Jesse Helms announced that he is now in favor of sex education in public schools. He said, ‘If the government does that as well as it does everything else, pretty soon nobody will be doing it.’” Well, that joke is becoming a reality. “Consent from the person you are kissing — or more — is not merely silence or a lack of protest, Shafia Zaloom, a health educator at the Urban School of San Francisco, told the students,”...

Embattled ex-IRS Commissioner Lois Lerner inquired abouot auditing a pro-abstinance group with ties to Brisol Palin, the daughter of former Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, according to a Senate report released on Wednesday.

[...] Bristol Palin announced via her blog that she is pregnant. The 24-year old already has a son after choosing life in 2008 and becoming a teen mother. Now, she’s expecting again and once again she is unmarried. And? [...] Let’s call it what it really is. This is just another case of the haters waiting for someone they already hate to have a problem so they can go after them full throttle. They’re loaded for (mama grizzly) bear. [...] Others are upset about how Palin’s pregnancy could affect a potential run for office by her mother. Really? We’ve elected...

Each year during the Octave of Easter – and of Christmas – there is a Friday.  Fridays are days of penance, usually observed by abstinence from meat.So, can one eat meat on Friday in the Octave of Easter?The 1983 Code of Canon Law says in can. 1251: Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday… (Can. 1251) The General/Universal Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar 24 says that: The first eight days of the Easter season make up...

For the Church, Lent like Advent is a "powerful season" a season of waiting and preparing and therefore a time for sacrifice, repentance, and purification. But, in our hedonistic society of today these words seem to strike a rather discordant note. So, is it fair to ask : how do we speak today about sacrifice and how do we practice it ?? Lent lasts for 40 days - as many days as Jesus Christ spent in the desert before he took on his mission of salvation. 40 is a sacred number in the Bible : the Deluge lasted for 40...

Gay men just got a step closer to being able to donate blood. Since 1983, men who have had sex with men anytime since 1977 were barred from donating blood, a policy put in place because of the HIV/AIDs epidemic, which especially ravaged the gay community in its early years. But on Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety voted 16-2 to tweak the ban, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, suggesting instead that men who have had sex with men could give blood, but with a caveat. They’d have to be abstinent for...

There’s no good time to tell a guy you’re a virgin. First date? Too much, too soon. Wait until the third date and you risk being considered a tease. Second date? Perhaps, but at this point you’re both still fretting over whether or not to eat another piece of bread; delving into sexual histories (or lack thereof) seems a bit extreme. So: There’s no good time to tell a guy you’re a virgin. Even worse? Telling him you’re waiting until marriage.

An Arkansas middle school is under fire for banning a student’s t-shirt which reads “Virginity Rocks.”Although 13-year-old Cloe Rubiano is saving herself for marriage, school officials are unhappy she is sharing that message with students at Ramay Junior High. Rubiano purchased the shirt at a Christian festival to display her pro-life values. The shirt says “Virginity Rocks” on the front, and “I’m loving my husband and I haven’t even met him” on the back.However, when she wore the shirt to school, officials banned the shirt and made her wear a school-issued gym shirt instead, saying the shirt might lead to...

The latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates continued dramatic declines in teen births, but the “news” regarding the CDC report is the general acknowledgement that abstinence efforts are contributing to the decline in teen births. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) explained: “The declines in teen birth rates reflect a number of behavioral changes, including decreased sexual activity, increases in the use of contraception at first sex and at most recent sex, and the adoption and increased use of hormonal contraception, injectables, and intrauterine devices.” [Notice that abortion is not mentioned at all;...

Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Fastwith suggestions for family observance of the season(From Family Sourcebook for Lent and Easter)"The main current of Lent must flow through the interior man, through hearts and consciences. The essential effort of repentance consists in this. In this effort the human determination to be converted to God is invested with the predisposing grace of conversion and, at the same time, of forgiveness and of spiritual liberation".This reflection by Pope John Paul II in Lent of 1979, recorded in a collection of his meditations, The Light of Christ, indicates the attitude with which we should...

Former Vice President Al Gore raised eyebrows last week when he suggested that “fertility management” was the key to fighting global warming and promoting economic development in poor countries. Gore’s comments drew criticism from free-marketeers who said his remarks amount to “eco-imperialism.” “Gore’s agenda for saving the world from global warming has always included population control,” Myron Ebell, director of global warming and international environmental policy at the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Advocating population control specifically for Africa is just another form of imperialism. Gore’s eco-imperialism is uncomfortably close to the original racist goals...

You’re not ready to have sex if… 1. You think sex equals love. 2. You feel pressured. 3. You’re afraid to say no. 4. It’s just easier to give in. 5. You think everyone else is doing it. (They’re not!) 6. Your instincts tell you not to. 7. You don’t know the facts about pregnancy. 8. You don’t understand how birth control works. 9. You don’t think a woman can get pregnant the first time. (She can.) 10. It goes against your moral beliefs. 11. It goes against your religious beliefs. 12. You’ll regret it in the morning. 13. You...

[Prefatory notes] † Defining and using terms in this debate is fraught with difficulties. Gay can be a political term of the sexual left. Many consider homosexual to be pejorative. Then there is “same-sex attracted.” I am using “gay” out of deference to the good people I am writing about. †† Homophile was the term used for gay groups in the 1950s and 60s, prior to the birth of the modern gay rights movement. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -...

Archbishop Cordileone at USCCB meeting in Nov. (photo by Addie Mena of CNA) The following comes from a Dec. 6 press release issued by the U.S. bishops.The U.S. Catholic bishops have launched a pastoral strategy addressing critical life, marriage and religious liberty concerns. The five-part strategy or call to prayer was approved by the bishops in November and is set to begin after Christmas. The overall focus is to invite Catholics to pray for rebuilding a culture favorable to life and marriage and for increased protections of religious liberty.Campaign components include monthly Eucharistic holy hours in cathedrals and parishes, daily...

Research published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found those who did not consume any alcohol appeared to have a higher mortality rate, regardless of whether they were former heavy drinkers or not, than those who drank heavily. Instead, “moderate” drinking, defined as one to three drinks per day, was associated with the lowest mortality rate. …

Dr. Donna Freitas, perhaps the nation’s leading expert on university hookup culture, has being doing research among college students and on college campuses regarding sex, the hookup culture, and student religiosity for several years.  She has produced many scholarly publications and studies.  One consistent finding she has observed is that evangelical college students are significantly less likely to hookup than any of their counterparts (Catholic or secular).  Why?  An excerpt from an interview: The attitudes toward sexuality on evangelical campuses were remarkably different from everywhere else. Everyone is struggling with sex, but they do it in very different ways.It’s impossible on...

A confident woman who speaks her mind is a powerful force for good, and newly crowned Miss World Megan Young is unafraid to speak her mind on sex, marriage and life. Young was born in the United States (Virginia) to a Filipino mother and an American father. When she was a young girl, her family moved to the Philippines. Young was crowned Miss Philippines 2013 and, last month, she was crowned Miss World 2013. One month before she was crowned Miss World, Young was interviewed by the local television network ANC. She told the host: “I’m pro-life, and if it...

Dear Parents,Please allow me a quick moment to introduce myself before we go much further. My name is Anne Marie Miller. I’m thirty-three years old. I’m newly married to a wonderful man named Tim. We don’t have any children yet, but we plan to. For the purpose of this letter, you need to know I’m a recovering addict. Pornography was my drug of choice.I grew up in the church – the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher man with a passion for learning the Bible. I was the honors student; the athlete; the girl who got along with everyone from...

President Barack Obama delivers a statement announcing the nomination of three candidates for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in the Rose Garden of the White House, June 4, 2013. Nominees from left are: Robert Leon Wilkins, Cornelia "Nina" Pillard, and Patricia Ann Millett. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy) (CNSNews.com) – The Senate will consider the nomination of Cornelia Pillard, a vocal abortion advocate who said abstinence education was unconstitutional for violating “reproductive justice,” to serve as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a hearing Wednesday. “The equal...

Elizabeth SmartIn 2002, the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart captured the nation’s attention. Rescued nine months later, Smart had been held prisoner and raped by Brian David Mitchell, who is currently serving a richly-deserved life sentence. Today, Smart is a 25-year-old author, advocate for child-protection laws, and missing persons commentator for ABC News. Last Wednesday, Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins University forum on human trafficking. She discussed her mindset while in captivity, the following excerpt of which has been picked up by numerous liberal commentators: I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about,...