Free Republic

A Sudanese priest recently had an eye-opening introduction to the U.S. Episcopal Church. John, a clergyman from the Episcopal Church of Sudan, sent an inquiry to the "justice missioner" on the website of the Diocese of Newark. The justice missioner responded to John's email and informed him that her focus was advocacy for people with disabilities, people of color, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex community. Although fluent in English, John found this language incomprehensible. He knew Americans talked openly about homosexuality, but he was bewildered by the terms "transgender" and "intersex." John asked the justice missioner if...

In the first two months of 2009, the Democratic Congress and the White House have spent more money than was spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the response to Hurricane Katrina combined. After they doled out taxpayer dollars at such a blistering pace, the instinct of many inside the Beltway is to do what's most convenient: desperately try to change the subject by creating straw men -- called "the party of no" -- to rally against. And in a carefully calculated campaign, operatives and allies of the Obama administration are seeking to divert attention toward radio host Rush...

Maybe thrift isn't dead after all. The Year of the Bottomless Bailout has yielded a much needed correction in the lives of ordinary Americans. While fiscal restraint is AWOL in Washington, individual frugality has made a cultural comeback. Better late than never. In large and small ways, we are cutting back. An online Zogby International survey this week reported that 70 percent of households are foregoing movies and restaurants. Forty percent of those polled said they were delaying the purchase of major items such as automobiles, home entertainment electronics or a computer; the same percent said they were giving up...

As the government gets set to spend nearly $800 billion to stimulate the economy, make sure to get your fair share of the plunder by participating in Reason's Personal Stimulus Generator™. It only takes a minute and will be worth billions! Share with friends, family, complete strangers, and members of Congress! Answer a few simple questions and you'll get a specific earmark—the only one in the whole bill, we promise!—written directly into the legislation. Suitable for framing, it also makes a wonderful gift for you grandchildren, your grandchildren's grandchildren, and everyone else who will be paying off the cost of...

A series of events over the past few days have brought to light, once again, how difficult it is for some people who call themselves Catholic to practice the faith they claim as their own. At the same time, these events have confirmed the strength and courage required of those who not only wish to be identified as Catholic, but are also willing to step out in faith, go against the tide and actually make a difference for the Lord in this otherwise abysmal world of ours. Today, for example, at a Philadelphia-area Catholic college, Cabrini by name, the annual...

I have made the Word of God complicated. I have taken the Psalms—"I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations" (Psalm 89:1)—and rendered them inert. One can do that in at least two ways: Regard them as prophetic ecstasy; regard them as bygone liturgical recitations. A day is coming when we will groan at how simple this all was: You do not tell your lover in private how awesome he is, and then act embarrassed about him in public. This would not be called discretion...

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas. It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through. Did you hear that? The other team's fans? They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions. It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200...

(In remarks delivered yesterday at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life, Robert P. George reflected on the history of the pro-life movement and offered advice for its future.) Thirty-six years ago tomorrow, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its infamous decision in Roe v. Wade and its companion case Doe v. Bolton. In the name of a generalized “right to privacy” allegedly implicit in the Due Process Clause of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, seven justices created a license to kill the unborn. These men probably had no idea that they were unleashing a struggle for the soul...

In the course of the 2008 presidential campaign, a small group of Catholic and Evangelical Protestant intellectuals and activists, while saying that they personally support legal protection for the unborn and oppose the redefinition of marriage, promoted the candidacy of Barack Obama, who made no secret of his intention to wipe out the entire range of laws restricting or discouraging abortion and embryo-destructive research, or of his opposition to all state and federal initiatives (such as California Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act) to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman. These intellectuals...

In keeping with the leaner, belt-tightened America now governed by President Barack Obama, I got a small car. Small. The smallest car I have ever owned. If I won the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt, which I am not allowed to do, the medallion would constitute luggage. Everybody, it seemed, was doing something to prepare themselves for Obama's inauguration: clipping photos, making scrapbooks, lighting votive candles, buying commemorative coins and plates. I wanted to do something, too, so I went small car. I have motorcycles longer than this car. It doesn't make any difference what kind of car. What I discovered...

I don't know about you, but the more I read about the Senate recount battle between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, the more upset I am with the slipshod way the election was conducted. Now, I want to make clear that I am not referring here to Morrison County Auditor Russ Nygren, his staff or this county's many election judges. This county was involved in six recounts (two city council, three legislative and the Coleman-Franken race) and except for a few counting errors, and perhaps one improperly rejected absentee ballot, no other mistakes were uncovered. The recounts of the council...

Obama-time is still two days away, but the legislative branch is already hard at work. For Democrats, the Senate has always been their special preserve. They are masters of the filibuster, keepers of the Senatorial privilege, and firm adherents to the iron law of seniority. As befits a coalition of interest groups united by their love of gov’t $$, the Senate Dems are a mixed lot from all the way from Ben “The Secret Republican” Nelson to Bernie “Why Don’t You Move Back to Russia” Sanders. Read this preview and weep for the fact that – in what is still...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The one thing people in Washington already know about freshman congressman Aaron Schock is that he is young. At 27, he meets the age requirement for serving in the House established in 1787 by James Madison and the Founders with just two years to spare. He is currently the youngest serving member of Congress (House members must be 25 while Senators must be 30 years old), and the first to be born in the 1980s—and already he has scored a leadership post in Congress working with the No. 2 Republican. For fellow Republicans looking to shake up their party's...

As the Bush administration ended, reporters who credited or discredited me with developing "compassionate conservatism" asked for an assessment. Most hoped that I'd dump on Bush, as so many others have. I didn't oblige, but honesty requires the mention of disappointment. Governor and then President Bush wanted to fight poverty, alcoholism, addiction, and other social problems. He saw faith-based approaches (from personal experience) as an effective way to do battle. He wanted them to garner additional resources and left the how-to questions to his advisors. As a volunteer chairman of a Bush task force in 1999, I was pleased when...

Religious freedom is the foundation of a healthy and hopeful society. On Religious Freedom Day, we recognize the importance of the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. We also celebrate the first liberties enshrined in our Constitution's Bill of Rights, which guarantee the free exercise of religion for all Americans and prohibit an establishment of religion. Our Nation was founded by people seeking haven from religious persecution, and the religious liberty they found here remains one of this land's greatest blessings. As Americans, we believe that all people have inherent dignity and worth. Though we may profess...

The Nov. 6 Reuters headline, "Media bias largely unseen in U.S. presidential race," was laughable because almost everyone saw it. American voters by an 8-1 margin said they witnessed a pro-Obama press, and even Time's Mark Halperin said the "extreme pro-Obama coverage" represented a "disgusting failure of people in our business." Sadly funny examples galore make up the evidence. The most famous was MSNBC's Chris Matthews saying on Feb. 12 that when Obama spoke, "I felt this thrill going up my leg." But during 2008 other journalists fell in love: New York Times reporter Michael Powell in January: "He has...

Supporters of California's Proposition 8 say they are being harrassed by homosexual activists who use California campaign finance rules to get their names, addresses, and other personal information. (AP File Photo) (CNSNews.com) – Citizens who supported California’s Proposition 8 say they are being systematically harassed because of disclosures required by California campaign finance laws. A marriage protection group is now challenging the constitutionality of California campaign finance laws that compelled Prop 8 donors to submit personal information. Prop 8, a voter initiative that passed in November, amended the California Constitution to say, “Only marriage between a man and a woman...

In response to requests from the media and public for the ballots we brought to the State Canvassing Board as inconsistently counted for Coleman and Franken, we have recently posted some of those ballots on our website. While we have great respect for the long, difficult work that has been done by the canvassing board throughout this process, we remain concerned about the hasty dismissal of our concerns today. In an election that is this breathtakingly close, such inconsistencies matter to the overall credibility of the count. As the ballots will show you, there have clearly been some inconsistencies in...

If 2008 is remembered as the year of the “bailout,” when the federal government spent billions to rescue the nation’s financial system, it should also be recalled for another kind of bailout—Christians with impeccably pro-life records who suddenly abandoned what they declared to be a sinking ship. Abortion seemed to be one of the few issues on which Senator Barack Obama had an unambiguous and unchangeable position during the campaign, as he promised that “the first thing I’d do as president is to sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” something that would nullify all existing laws restricting abortion. The most...

Our daughter was born at 5:22 p.m. on December 30, 2005. Two hours later, a nurse called my husband out of the room. When he returned, he took my hand and said, “They think Penny has Down syndrome.” As this news began to make its way into my consciousness, we heard shouts from the room next door. Another child had been born. “She’s perfect!” someone exclaimed about that other baby. “She’s perfect!” Once we found out that Penny had Down syndrome, we had a hard time celebrating her birth. We didn’t open the bottle of champagne perched by my bedside....