Free Republic

Outspoken San Diego Pastor Chris Clark of the East Clairemont Southern Baptist Church of San Diego, Calif., isn't shy about defending citizens' rights when it comes to government encroachment, especially when it pertains to parental rights. Speaking out against the California Family Health Council mailing condoms to more youths, Clark told The Christian Post, "This is one more example of the government's intrusion on parental rights and responsibilities with their kids. … And it goes against what Scripture teaches." The California Family Health Council, a statewide organization that "champions and promotes access to quality sexual and reproductive health care for...

As anyone who’s read my abstinence column here at Fox News Opinion could guess, my wedding is something that I’ve looked forward to for quite some time. After having tied the knot at the end of August, I can now say beyond all shadow of a doubt, that it was everything I’d hoped and prayed that it would be since childhood. (I’d also prayed to be bitten by a radioactive spider and develop sticky hands, but… I was an idiot.) Let me preface this column by saying this: my wife (I have to get used to saying that) and I...

Anti-Prostitution Posters, World War II Emphasizing the relationship between patriotism, morality, health preservation, and disease prevention, images of the infected soldier and disease-carrying prostitute in posters during the First and Second World Wars came to symbolize both moral failure and social decay. The following posters use images of "loose" women, patriotic iconography, and frightening symbols to grab the attention of the viewer and inspire behavior modification. These images not only reflected attitudes, values, and beliefs about the causes and consequences of venereal disease but also affected responses to the problem. (Note: Most these photos link back to Retronaut; added are...

The New Orleans Saints bounty scandal is currently being dealt with by NFL officials, and already another bounty has been issued: $1 million in exchange for proof that Tim Tebow is no longer a virgin. A controversial website that helps married individuals have affairs, AshleyMadison.com, is offering $1 million to the woman who can prove she has been sexually involved with the New York Jets' quarterback. "I personally thought it was a very offensive publicity stunt...And I think that not only is it insulting to highlight Tim in that way, but I think it's insulting to all the people who...

Benedict XVI Calls Christians to Rediscover Chastity Addresses US Bishops on Issues of Marriage, Sexuality By Kathleen NaabVATICAN CITY, MARCH 9, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says that chastity might be countercultural and challenging, but the entire Christian community should recover an appreciation for it.The Pope said this today in an address to a group of bishops from the midwest of the United States, who are in Rome for their five-yearly ad limina visit.The Holy Father's talk, which he presented as a continuation of reflections on "certain aspects of the evangelization of American culture," resonated in the social and political...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan NEW YORK, January 26, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catholics in a sex-saturated society need to “regain the upper ground,” and preach “the ancient wisdom of chastity and purity,” New York Archbishop and Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan told his congregation last Sunday. In a powerful sermon delivered at St. Patrick’s cathedral, Dolan reflected on the second reading from that Sunday, in which St. Paul tells the Corinthians that the body is a “temple of the Holy Spirit,” and exhorts Christians to avoid sins of the flesh. To listen to the complete homily, click here. The archbishop, who is also the...

Women religious at World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid. Washington D.C., Dec 10, 2011 / 08:05 am (CNA).- An article claiming that nuns should use contraception to lower their risk of breast, ovarian and uterine cancers drew criticism from medical professionals who say the study’s basis is seriously flawed.Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life International, said the argument was so poorly made that she initially thought the article was a parody.“It’s that bad,” she told CNA on Dec. 8, adding that the claims were not only outlandish but unsupported by the evidence presented in the analysis.Australian researchers Kara...

A young Christian at an purity rally spreads the word. True love doesn’t wait after all. That’s the implication in the upcoming October issue of an evangelical magazine that claims that young, unmarried Christians are having premarital sex almost as much as their non-Christian peers. The article in Relevant magazine, entitled “(Almost) Everyone’s Doing It,” cited several studies examining the sexual activity of single Christians. One of the biggest surprises was a December 2009 study, conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which included information on sexual activity. While the study’s primary report did not explore...

Steve Gershom (a pseudonym) is a gay Catholic man in his late twenties. His blog, stevegershom.com, has been around for some months, but he has just decided to make it public. It's original, funny, poignant -- and culturally important. You can also find him on Twitter as stevegershom. I am profoundly grateful to Steve for agreeing to write this post for the Bubble. +++++++ When Leila asked me to write about gay marriage, the first thing I found out was how little I know about it. If I wanted to say anything coherent, I'd have to have definite beliefs about some deeper,...

Featured Term (selected at random):NATURAL SINS A term used to describe those sins against chastity in which the natural purpose of the sexual act is or can be attained, but they are performed outside the legitimate bonds of matrimony. Implicit in such acts is the malice of committing a sin against some other virtue besides chastity. Thus adultery, rape, and abduction are crimes against justice' formication sins against the justice due to the offspring, the community, and the unmarried partner; incest is opposed to familial piety; and sacrilege offends against the virtue of religion for a person vowed to celibacy....

The Presbyterian Church USA has opened the door for ordaining gay ministers, deacons and elders. The church's constitution used to have a requirement for its leaders to "live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness." However, recently the PCUSA has dropped that stipulation and now nebulously requires church leaders "submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life"--whatever that means! In doing this the PCUSA contradicts the Bible's clear teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman: i.e. Adam and Eve not Adam...

Washington D.C., May 12, 2011 / 12:39 am (CNA).- The Presbyterian Church USA has voted to remove clergy requirements of marital fidelity or single chastity, thus allowing the ordination of ministers and lay leaders who are openly homosexual or living in unmarried relationships.“This is a lonely day for Presbyterians who believe what the Bible and the Church have consistently taught: that God’s will is that we be faithful in marriage or chaste in singleness. Now we belong to a denomination that is no longer sure it believes that teaching,” said Allan Wisdom, a director of Presbyterian Action at the...

Folks, recently a brother asked for my advice as to how live in married chastity, meaning, the right use of that sacred and pure gift of sexual love exclusively directed to one’s spouse. That brother was facing some difficulties in his life which he wanted to conquer in Jesus’ Name. I want to share my answer to him, hoping that others too, may benefit: Like you, I am a married man with children. I’m familiar with temptations of the flesh. Thanks to Our Lord and His grace I’ve been able to discipline my mind and my body to avoid these...

MINNEAPOLIS — A Lutheran pastor in Minneapolis who opposes homosexuals being allowed to lead congregations said Monday he is attracted to men, but that he's not a hypocrite because he never acted on his urges. The Rev. Tom Brock told The Associated Press he has known for years he is sexually attracted to men, but doesn't consider himself gay because he never acted on it. In June, the Minnesota gay magazine Lavender reported that Brock was a member of a support group for Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction. Brock's church, the Hope Lutheran Church, placed him on leave while...

This is a troubling story. There are support groups of all kinds. Groups that help you stay sober or drug free. There are groups that support you if you battle gambling addiction or even porn addiction. The one thing that all these groups have in common is a bond of privacy. What gets talked about in the group stays in the group. But what if what you are battling something that others don't want you battling. Does your privacy go out the window? A Lutheran Pastor who is opposed to gay clergy suffers himself from same-sex attraction. But this Pastor...

It is not a new thing for Christianity to be accused of trying to take the fun out of life, especially in matters of sex, by upholding taboos which are simply contradictory to human nature. The pagan contemporaries of the early Christians scoffed at their insistence on premarital chastity and marital fidelity, and more than one martyr in the first centuries was a victim of what we now understand to have been acts of sadism. Exercise of power by individuals and groups was often associated with a wanton cruelty that had its origins in sexual pleasure heightened by causing others...

Friday, April 09, 2010 The Validity of Homosexual Vows of Chastity in Religious Life By Regis Scanlon We are all too painfully aware of the problems that homosexuality in the priesthood has caused the Catholic Church. When the John Jay College of Criminal Justice conducted its research into clerical sex abuse for the U.S. bishops in 2004, it found not a pedophilia crisis but what Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, described as a pattern of "homosexual predation on American Catholic youth." The first question that comes to mind is: Should the Church accept homosexuals into diocesan...

The current battles over clerical celibacy are nothing new. When mandatory celibacy was first universally imposed on the clergy a millennium ago, clergy and laity alike broke into riotous rebellion for more than two generations, and a good number of bishops and priests flouted these laws for several generations more. When the Protestant Reformation broke out half a millennium ago, clerical celibacy and marriage were among the most bitter grievances over which the Western Church ultimately splintered. Today, the exposures of child abuse by some enterprising Catholic priests has rejoined these ancient battles within Catholicism and between Catholics and Protestants...

Chastity talk resonates with Baltimore teens Sacred Heart, Glyndon, parishioners Allison Boyd and Katie Lutz share a moment inside the Sprint Center. (CR Staff/Matt Palmer) Matt Palmer mpalmer@CatholicReview.org KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Adults talking sexuality with a bunch of teens is typically a recipe for awkwardness. So, when a husband and wife team, Jason and Crystalina Evert, stood in front of 21,000 teenagers Nov. 20 and preached the values of chastity, the last thing anyone expected was for it to go over like gangbusters. But, that's exactly what happened. At the end of the Everts' nearly 40-minute presentation at the...

The temptation to have sex before marriage is as old as marriage itself. More than 1,600 years ago, St. Augustine, grappling with his desires, cried out to God, "Give me chastity . . . but not yet!"What is chastity? The word is often used to mean simply abstaining from sex, as if it were equivalent to celibacy. So it may be strange to learn that, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life." If that meant total abstinence, how would there be any new Catholics? (After all, cloning is...