Free Republic

A law professor nominated by President Obama to become a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a signatory to a radical 2006 manifesto which endorsed polygamous households and argued traditional marriage should not be privileged “above all others.” Georgetown University Law Center professor Chai R. Feldblum, nominated as a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), is listed as a signatory to the July 26, 2006 manifesto “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families & Relationships.” The manifesto’s signatories said they proposed a “new vision” for governmental and private recognition of “diverse kinds”...

President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden have officially invited the Lesbian and Gay Band Association to march in the Inaugural Parade. One of the association’s web sites reports that the group will also march in September as part of the homosexual “Southern Decadence” festival infamous for its public lewd acts. The Lesbian and Gay Band Association (LGBA) is a network of lesbian and gay bands comprised of concert and marching bands from various American cities. According to a December 10 press release from the Presidential Inaugural Committee, the group’s appearance in the Inaugural Parade on January 20 will...

Boulder, CO, Jan 22, 2008 / 03:11 am (CNA).- A Catholic-sponsored debate about the ethics of abortion packed hundreds into an auditorium on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, CO this past Friday night. The debate featured two prominent philosophy professors—Drs. Peter Kreeft and David Boonin—who defended their views on the ethics of abortion. Listeners filled all 288 seats of the auditorium, while others sat in the aisles. Still more sat in the overflow seating in the basement hallway, and even crowded the stairs leading up from the basement, a total audience easily surpassing 400 in number. The debate,...

How did the Democratic Party lose the support of the working-class and Catholic voters who were once its stronghold? In his book Why the Democrats Are Blue: How Secular Liberals Hijacked the People's Party, Mark Stricherz argues that the change from the "people's party" to a party of secular-elite values can be traced to a particular political moment -- and one that few people would think. Deal W. Hudson sat down with Stricherz to talk about what he calls "the greatest untold story in American politics." ♦ ♦ ♦ Deal W. Hudson: Mark, what led you to write this book?...

Archbishop Burke: public figures must receive Holy Communion worthily Pastors must protect the holiness of the Eucharist and communicant’s soul St. Louis, Oct 2, 2007 / 10:24 am (CNA).- In an essay certain to have an impact on American politics, Archbishop Raymond Burke of the Archdiocese of St. Louis has criticized lax attitudes concerning the reception of the Holy Eucharist. His words continue a long-standing debate about whether Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should receive communion. Archbishop Burke's essay, titled "The Discipline Regarding the Denial of Holy Communion to Those Obstinately Persevering in Manifest Grave Sin," appeared in Periodica...

...Like many other state legislatures last year, Iowa’s was narrowly divided. So all it would take to break the momentum toward a constitutional marriage ban was to tip a few close races. If Democrats took control of the House and Senate, however narrowly, the initiative would die, and with it the likelihood of further legislation limiting civil rights for gays and lesbians. And, fortuitously, Carroll’s own reelection race looked to be one of the closest. He represented the liberal college town of Grinnell and had won the last time around by just a handful of votes. Over the summer, Carroll’s...

"The Rocky Mtn News calculated that Dems raised $4 million for friendly 527s, compared with $2.9 mil raised by Republicans." [...] "Three millionaire liberals are working the state's electoral levers. "They're trying to buy the political structure of the state," says Governor Owens. "Everywhere we look, we see their money and their resources." The ringleader is Tim Gill, the founder of Quark, a software firm; over the last decade, he has donated tens of millions to gay and lesbian causes. His political activism dates back to 1992, when Colorado voters amended the state constitution to restrict certain gay-rights laws. "Nothing...

It never fails. The moment I loosen my Roman collar and settle in for a long flight, a fellow passenger pops the question: "So, Father, what do you do?" Running down the list of my ministerial responsibilities, this one intrigues them the most: "I teach Latin in the seminary." "Really? Priests still have to know that? Didn't the Church get rid of Latin after Vatican II? What do seminarians have to know a dead language for?" Yes, yes, no, and I would never bother teaching anyone a dead language. Catholics usually are more perplexed by the requirement for seminarians to...

When Sacha Baron Cohen wanted a village to represent the impoverished Kazakh home of his character Borat, he found the perfect place in Glod: a remote mountain outpost with no sewerage or running water and where locals eke out meagre livings peddling scrap iron or working patches of land. But now the villagers of this tiny, close-knit community have angrily accused the comedian of exploiting them, after discovering his new blockbuster film portrays them as a backward group of rapists, abortionists and prostitutes, who happily engage in casual incest. They claim film-makers lied to them about the true nature of...

The Confession II “Conservative” proponents of same-sex marriage are about to overtaken by radicals. By Stanley Kurtz In his well-received 1997 book on the AIDS crisis, Sexual Ecology, journalist Gabriel Rotello said: The anti-marriage sentiment in the gay and lesbian political world has abated in recent years, and the legalization of same-sex marriage is now an accepted focus of gay liberation. Yet it is rarely posed as a major issue of AIDS prevention. Prevention activists generally don’t include marriage as a goal because they generally don’t include monogamy as a goal....such advocates are generally careful not to make the case...

In recent times the Church has developed uneasy relations with its musicians. Growing up in the 1960s and 70s I was aware of a creeping separation between my serious engagement with the study of music, the application and practice of assiduously honed skills, and what the Church seemed to need and want for its liturgy. I soon discovered that most serious Catholic musicians were being repulsed by an increasingly rigid misinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council’s reforms on music. Clergy and “liturgists” began expressing a scarcely veiled disdain for the very expertise and learning that musicians had sought to acquire....

There is a same-sex domestic partnership referendum on the Colorado ballot this year called Referendum I. It extends the legal benefits and responsibilities of marriage to registered same-sex domestic partners. Its supporters disingenously insist that domestic partnerships are in no way the same as marriage. The considerable moral concerns about legitimizing homosexual acts are excluded from the opposing arguments in the Colorado voters' Blue Book entry on the referendum. Observing the rampant amorality of our government and the collapse of substantive public ethical discussion, this exclusion is hardly surprising. Yet the Blue Book also neglects fiscal argument nearly as important....

Converts from Islam to Christianity pose a challenge for governments to ensure freedom of religion -- and their witness is also a challenge to the Church itself. So says Giorgio Paolucci, editor in chief of the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire. He has written a book with Lebanese journalist Camille Eid, Avvenire's Mideast correspondent, entitled "I Cristiani Venuti dall'Islam" (Christian Converts from Islam), which gathers the testimonies of Muslims residing in Italy who have converted to Christianity. "The book seeks to bring to light an iceberg," says Paolucci. "Whereas Westerners who convert to Islam are very well known -- they go...

A Colorado group known as the Minutemen -whose aim is keeping an eye on illegal immigrants- says they were attacked. It was all caught on camera. Fox 31’s Jeremy Hubbard has the exclusive details.

Homosexual Activist Targets Colorado Family with “Hate Crime” Fire in Front Yard Fire starter leaves note accusing family of being terrorists for opposing homosexuality By Gudrun Schultz COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, September 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A family displaying signs opposing homosexuality on their front lawn have been the target of accelerating harassment by homosexual activists, culminating in a Klu Klux Klan type of blazing fire started in their front yard in the middle of the night, Focus on the Family’s Citizen Link reported yesterday. Christina Sewall woke up about 2 a.m. in her Colorado Springs home to discover a large...

Fear of the Horizon Barbary brutality. By John Derbyshire Presented with the word “slavery,” what comes to your mind? If you are an American, it is surely the race slavery that was a feature of life here for 250 years, that continued through the early decades of the Republic in some states, and that caused divisions that led to the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in our history. That is as it should be. We naturally think of our own country first. Slavery, however, has been a feature of life in many societies all over the world, from the most...

This is a paranoid moment in American politics. A host of conspiracies haunt our national imagination, and apparent incompetence is assumed to be the consequence of a dark design: President Bush knew about the attacks of 9/11 in advance, or else the Israelis did; the Straussians took us to war in Iraq, unless the oil companies did; the federal government let the levees break in New Orleans, unless it dynamited them itself. Perhaps the strangest of these strange stories, though, is the notion that twenty-first-century America is slouching toward theocracy. This is an old paranoia: Back in 1952, the science-fiction...

The city of Arvada is working toward condemning a church property in Olde Town to build a parking lot for the new Arvada Library set to open this fall. Arvada City Council approved an ordinance to use eminent domain if needed to acquire the lot owned by Shrine of St. Anne's Catholic Church. A public hearing is set for 7:30 p.m. on July 10. However, City Manager Craig Kocian said negotiations are ongoing with the church. "It's still entirely possible that there will be an agreement between the parish and the city," he said. Negotiations between the two have been...

Story summary: Lech Walesa of Poland will speak about Democracy: The Never-Ending Battle at 7 p.m. Friday, March 24, at Regis University. President Lech Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement in Poland, will speak at Regis University at 7 p.m. Friday, March 24, in the Regis Fieldhouse. He will talk about “Democracy: The Never-Ending Battle.” Recipient of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, Walesa will become the 12th laureate to speak at Regis University in nine years. He was an electrician when he energized striking works at the shipyards in Gdansk, Poland, leading to the downfall of Communism. He became Poland’s...

The Latest Tyranny: Tagging Terrorist Chickens Have you heard about the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)? The radio ads feature a “farmer” telling us how hard it is to make a living farming today - harder than it was for Momma and Daddy. Worse yet, now we’ve got the risks of all these new diseases. But - golly, golly, gee -- the government is going to help. They’ve come up with a voluntary program to register our farms and animals to protect us and our animals from diseases. All good Americans will sign up. Characteristically, the radio propaganda-speak beareth no...