Free Republic

Throughout history, religion has sanctioned and fueled the persecution of homosexuality. That dynamic may be drawing to an end. Polls, clerics, and denominations are shifting. Theology is adapting. Resistance to same-sex marriage is dwindling, and there’s no end in sight. For 15 years, the Ethics and Public Policy Center has hosted the Faith Angle Forum, a regular conference on religion and public life. Several weeks ago, the group met again to discuss current issues. Transcripts of the conference have just been posted on EPPC’s website. They underscore the extent of the anti-gay collapse. The first session, led by papal biographer...

Andy Raymond, a Rockland, Md., firearms dealer, found out how much some people who love guns and the Second Amendment really hate some guns, causing the owner of Engage Armament this week to reverse his plan to sell the Armatix iP1, the nation's first "smart" gun. The German-made Armatix iP1 won't fire unless it's in proximity of a special watch, thus making it useless if stolen. Gun control advocates, including Attorney General Eric Holder, have cited such technology as potential life savers. But the NRA and many gun owners say it's a government Trojan horse... When Mr. Raymond said he'd...

The state's highest court on Thursday struck Gov. Tom Corbett's only Republican challenger from the May 20 primary election ballot, leaving Corbett unchallenged for the GOP nomination he was favored to win anyway. In a 5-2 decision, the state Supreme Court reversed a Commonwealth Court ruling on grounds that conservative activist Bob Guzzardi's failure to file his statement of financial interests on time with the State Ethics Commission doomed his candidacy. "The untimely filing of the statement constitutes a fatal defect that precludes a candidate's appearance on the ballot," the majority wrote. Challengers backed by state Republican Party had raised...

It's no secret that establishment Republicans are out to get Rand Paul, but the "darkest secret" on Wall Street, reports Politico, is that they'll happily vote Hillary in 2016 to do it. The Monday piece reveals that Wall Street Republicans won't think twice about voting for Hillary Clinton in a world where Jeb Bush and Chris Christie aren't running for president and Rand Paul holds the GOP nomination. "The bulk of the big money guys are either Big Boy [Christie] or Jeb," said a top GOP donor. "Rand Paul still is a grass-roots phenom and a boardroom horror show." The...

A great debate is going on within the Republican Party over how to handle one of the most sensitive social issues of modern times: the definition of marriage. Supporters of same-sex marriage point to signs that the party is gradually changing its tune on the issue, as it seeks to grow its appeal among younger voters and project a more inclusive image. While defense of traditional marriage has long been a defining issue for GOP social conservatives, a recent Pew poll found that 61 percent of Republicans under age 30 favor the right to same-sex marriage. Earlier this month, the...

The White House has asked legislators crafting competing reforms of the National Security Agency to provide legal immunity for telecommunications firms that provide the government with customer data, the Guardian has learned. In a statement of principles privately delivered to lawmakers some weeks ago to guide surveillance reforms, the White House said it wanted legislation protecting “any person who complies in good faith with an order to produce records” from legal liability for complying with court orders for phone records to the government once the NSA no longer collects the data in bulk. The brief request, contained in a four-page...

Right now most people who believe in the classic understanding of marriage are in shock, they are awed by the powers now shutting down the debate and by our ineffectualness at responding to these developments. The temptation to shout and yell and stamp our feet in ineffectual ridiculousness is understandable, but it is to be resisted. The version of America we were born into is no more.... The rapid collapse of opposition to gay marriage we are witnessing did not just happen, and it was not inevitable. But it is.... Hiding or pretending is not going to help us, now....

The NSA has lost the trust of the American people as a result of the Edward Snowden leaks, and needs to be more transparent to gain it back, the NSA's new director said Wednesday in his first public comments since taking control of the embattled spy agency. "I tell the [NSA] workforce out there as the new guy, let’s be honest with each other, the nation has lost a measure of trust in us," Admiral Michael Rogers told a conference of the Women in Aerospace conference in Crystal City, Va.... Rogers didn't lay complete responsibility at the doorstep of the...

A coalition of clergy members is challenging North Carolina's constitutional ban on gay marriage with an unusual approach in a federal lawsuit: They say it violates their religious freedom. The clergy members said in the lawsuit filed Monday that they'd like to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies in their congregations, but they can't because of the "unjust law."... "North Carolina's marriage laws are a direct affront to freedom of religion," said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, executive minister with the Cleveland-based United Church of Christ, which is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "We feel that it is important that any person...

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's 15 minutes of fame are up. He was a Fox News poster boy when he refused to pay fees for grazing his cows on federal land and greeted federal rangers with the threat of armed resistance. But when he voiced his views on the joys of slavery for "the Negro," his conservative champions fled from his side. What is interesting about Bundy, however, is not his tired racism but rather his remarkable sense of entitlement. His cattle have fed off public lands for two decades while he refused to pay grazing fees that are much lower...

Man, the 12 minute speech Sarah Palin gave to the NRA convention is awful. It's just witless, red-meat blathering, delivered in that nasal whine of hers that makes it sound like she's chewing wads of tinfoil. For people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. Fast-forward in the video to the 6:30 mark, though, and listen to what she says about terrorists. It's part of a long harangue about lily-livered liberals, delivered in such a way that makes Archie Bunker sound like Cicero. Money quote: "Oh, but you can't offend them, can't make...

Trust in nearly every federal government institution has fallen in the last year among young adults, according to a new poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics. The survey of 18-to-29-year-old adults released Tuesday found overall trust in the federal government stands at 20 percent, a 2-point drop since last year....