Free Republic

In what was likely his last appearance in the Pentagon briefing room, soon-to-be retiring Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway once more waded into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” waters with his straight-shooter candor by suggesting that “very religious” Marines with “moral concerns” about homosexuality might not be forced to live with their gay battle buddies. Marines are billeted – or assigned sleeping quarters – in twos. Already earlier this year, Conway told Military.com that he "would not ask our Marines" to bunk in the same rooms with openly gay Marines. But exactly what about cohabitation worried him was unclear....

What would America look like after four years of an Obama administration? "Hardship," "persecution" and "suffering" are among the prospects in a hypothetical letter from a "Christian from 2012" released today by evangelical leader James Dobson's political activist group Focus on the Family Action. Titled "Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America," the piece clearly targets the many evangelical Christians seeking "change," particularly the young, who could tip the election in favor of the Illinois Democrat . At the end of the letter, the fictional Christian laments that these people "simply did not realize Obama's far-left agenda would take away many...

....What is new about the new atheists? It's not their arguments. Spend as much time as you like with a pile of the recent anti-religion books, but you won't encounter a single point you didn't hear in your freshman dormitory. It's their tone that is novel. Belief, in their eyes, is not just misguided but contemptible, the product of provincial minds, the mark of people who need to be told how to think and how to vote -- both of which, the new atheists assure us, they do in lockstep with the pope and Jerry Falwell. For them, belief in...

Italian priest on trial for asserting Jesus' existenceJan. 27, 2006. 10:10 AM VITERBO, Italy (AP) — Opening arguments began Friday in the case of an Italian priest who was accused by an atheist of breaking two Italian laws by stating that Jesus Christ existed. Lawyers for the prelate, Rev. Enrico Righi, and his accuser, Luigi Cascioli, headed into the closed-door hearing in the courtroom in Viterbo, north of Rome, to learn whether the judge would dismiss the case or order Righi to stand trial. Cascioli filed a criminal complaint against Righi, his old schoolmate, in 2002 after Righi wrote in...

Oxford University Press gets the prize for the year's snappiest book title: "God?'' As the subtitle explains, this is "A Debate Between a Christian and an Atheist'' about whether God exists, one of humanity's great questions. The book doesn't assess any old deity but the Bible's unique, all-loving and all-powerful God. This ancient question became quite current with two recent opinion pieces in The New York Times. In one, Tufts University's Daniel Dennett caustically championed those like himself who don't believe in "ghosts or elves or the Easter Bunny – or God.'' Dennett said atheists are "the moral backbone of...