Free Republic

A cathedral is pressing ahead with plans to show two “not for the faint-hearted” horror films and Monty Python’s Life of Brian on an inflatable big screen – despite opposition from some church wardens. The Dean of Derby, The Very Reverend Dr Stephen Hance, said the decision to host the city’s QUAD cinema’s Fright Club and other films in the nave would not compromise the cathedral’s holiness. Critics of the plans have claimed 1970s classics The Wicker Man and Don’t Look Now are inappropriate for a place-of-worship because of a graphic nude sex scene and themes of paganism. Other films...

In 2015, in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, Bernie Sanders infamously insisted that open borders is “a Koch Brothers proposal,” and free immigration is a “right-wing proposal, which essentially says that there is no United States.” Vox’s Ezra Klein, Bernie’s interviewer, quite correctly observed that open borders would “make the global poor richer.” As philosopher Jason Brennan writes in “Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know,” “When economists estimate the welfare losses from immigration restrictions, they tend to conclude that eliminating immigration restrictions would double world GDP.” Sanders’ assertions of concern for the global poor ring awfully hollow...

This may seem to be a rather obscure topic, but it popped up while I was reading Helen Smith’s musings on whether or not pornography should be made illegal and the long term, detrimental effects that it can have on marriage. As a subset of that discussion, she touched on David Friedman’s book, Law’s Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters. In it, Friedman makes the following observation on prostitution in general and the specific side effects it can have when married men pay for sex outside of marriage. (I specify “men” here only because...

Even though San Francisco has been known to be home of the radical gay agenda, and where selective abortion based upon sex has been pushed by government officials, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi seems to think the city is on par with Biblical scripture. During a Thanksgiving day speech at the San Francisco Interfaith Council, Nancy Pelosi stated that San Francisco is the “model” for living the gospel (20:30-20:42): “And I think that we have to challenge all of us in public policy, certainly not in San Francisco which is the model of living the gospel, but in public policy to say,...

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) argues that despite the fact that President Obama’s executive amnesty will not have the force of law, it would be very difficult for another president to rescind. “This is something that is fair and the right thing to do,” Reid said on Thursday. “They have the opportunity at some later time, some president to say, ‘I want this all changed.’ I wish that person luck to try to tell these millions of people and their families -- who many at that time will have many, many more United States citizens -- are going...

From efforts to install a monument at the Oklahoma Capitol to a controversial “Black Mass” at Harvard University, Satanists are all over the news. But are they, along with Wiccans and pagans, all together in one non-Abrahamic lump? Not at all, say experts on paganism and the major Satanist groups’ websites. “Paganism is an umbrella term for a wide variety of traditions outside the Abrahamic faiths. Wicca is the largest but there are countless others, from Druid to Heathen to people who are creating their own faiths even as we speak,” said Laura Wildman-Hanlon, a Wiccan priestess and editor of...

This “pastoral letter” was sent by Planned Parenthood and it reads: Many people wrongly assume that all religious leaders disapprove of abortion. The truth is that abortion is not even mentioned in the Scriptures—Jewish or Christian—and there are clergy and people of faith from all denominations who support women making this complex decision. The letter text: The decision to have an abortion is personal. Though your reasons may be complicated and private, you’re not alone. As religious leaders from a number of religious traditions, we’re here to support you in your decision. Many people wrongly assume that all religious leaders...

Chris Sevier, a man from Florida, believes he should be allowed to wed his Macbook. Mr Sevier argues that if gays should be allowed to marry, then so should other sexual minorities. Mr Sevier states he has fallen in love with a pornography laden computer. “Over time, I began preferring sex with my computer over sex with real women,” he told a court in Florida. This appears to be not a passing holiday romance, but a lifelong commitment.

High Point police say the woman who died in a head-on collision Thursday was posting selfies and updating her Facebook status moments before the fatal crash. Courtney Ann Sanford, 32, of Clemmons, updated her Facebook status with: “The happy song makes me HAPPY” one minute before the crash was called in to police, investigators say. “These posts were brought to investigators’ attention by family and friends,” said Lt. Charles Lanier with the High Point Police Dept. “Investigators say that she also was taking pictures of herself while driving. The posts were very close proximity in time to our first calls...

Attorney General Eric Holder has given the nod to his state counterparts that they do not have to defend laws they consider discriminatory -- effectively giving the green light for states to stop defending bans on gay marriage. Holder addressed the issue during a gathering of state attorneys general on Tuesday, after detailing his position in a New York Times interview. Speaking to the National Association of Attorneys General, Holder said that any decision not to defend individual laws must be "exceedingly rare" and reserved for "exceptional circumstances." He indicated that legal challenges to gay marriage bans would qualify as...

Fire, brimstone, eternal suffering — hell is not a pleasant concept. But research has pointed to the societal benefits of a belief in supernatural punishment, including higher economic growth in developing countries and less crime. But there are also drawbacks, even in this life. A new study links believing in hell, and perhaps even thinking about it, with lower levels of happiness and satisfaction in life. "It seems there is this trade-off," said Azim Shariff, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. In research published in January in PLOS ONE, Shariff and a colleague looked at international...

The Obama administration is facing criticism over its attempt to straddle the federal law that makes marijuana illegal and state laws that permit recreational use of the drug. In the first congressional hearing since the administration announced a new, permissive enforcement policy, law enforcement and drug-prevention groups and their congressional allies see an opportunity to push back. The administration's Aug. 29 announcement allows the two states where recreational marijuana use has been legalized — Colorado and Washington — to go their own way without federal interference as long as they implement strong enforcement systems. "We are at a precipice," said...

LIMA — When Travis Stevick goes to work, he wears his heart on his sleeve, literally. For the 34-year-old pediatric nurse, his body is a canvas, and the tattoos are all metaphors of his life. Along his left arm, there’s a tiger and cherry blossoms on his forearm, and a coy fish on his upper arm. This is mostly what is exposed when he wears his scrubs to work. Stevick has 20 tattoos in all so far, from his arms, legs, back and chest. He plans on getting more, too. And Stevick said at Health Partners of Western Ohio, where...

A man has been found guilty of leading a "satanic" sex cult from his home in a small Welsh town. Colin Batley, 48, of Kidwelly, west Wales, presided over a group that preyed on young children and held occult rites. He was found guilty at Swansea crown court of rape and carrying out perverted sexual acts on children and adults. Batley was the self-styled high priest of the group, which operated from a series of homes in a cul-de-sac in the seaside town. He and five other alleged members insisted throughout the five-week trial that no cult had ever existed....

So, Why Is Incest Wrong? Wednesday, December 15, 2010 There are certain questions now pressed upon us that previous generations would never believe could be asked. One of these is thrust upon us by events in New York City, where a well-known Ivy League professor has been arrested for the crime of incest. What makes the question urgent is not so much the arrest, but the controversy surrounding it. David Epstein is a professor of political science at Columbia University, where his wife also teaches. He previously taught on the faculties of Harvard and Stanford. Last week, he was arraigned...

Cancer-stricken Sen. Kennedy asks state leaders for speedy process to replace him in Congress BOSTON (AP) — A cancer-stricken Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has written a poignant letter to Massachusetts leaders asking that they change state law to allow a speedy replacement of him in Congress. The note to Gov. Deval Patrick and the state's Senate president and House speaker acknowledges the state changed its succession law in 2004 to require a special election to fill any vacancy. At the time, legislative Democrats were concerned Republican Gov. Mitt Romney would be able to fill any vacancy created as Sen. John...

Till death do us part? An unusual wedding ceremony was held in the southern resort town of Eilat on Wednesday, as Sharon Tendler, a 41-years-old Jewish millionaire from London married her beloved Cindy, a 35-year-old dolphin, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.  The groom, a resident of the Eilat dolphin reef, met Tendler 15 years ago, when she first visited the resort. The British rock concert producer took a liking to the dolphin and has made a habit of traveling to Eilat two or three times a year and spending time with her underwater sweetheart.  "The peace and...

Two mainline denominations have announced decisions indicating a further move away from Bible-based Christianity. In Michigan, the new bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is an ordained Zen Buddhist. Northern Michigan's Episcopal congregations and delegates overwhelmingly elected the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester at their convention on Saturday. The diocesan website says Thew Forrester "has practiced Zen meditation for almost a decade," and the Buddhist community welcomed his commitment by granting him "lay ordination." The website also says Northern Michigan's new bishop "resonates deeply" with "his own interfaith dialogue with Buddhism and meditative practice." Meanwhile, Presbyterian Church (USA) representatives...

LOS ANGELES, February 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Actor Gary Graham knew that by writing about his personal experience and rejection of abortion, he would be incurring the ire of not a few among the Hollywood elite.Yet a blog column posted last Tuesday by the seasoned actor, known most recently for his roles as Ambassador Soval in the TV series "Star Trek: Enterprise" and Capt. Ingles on "J.A.G.", took an unflinching look at truths almost entirely ignored by those in the Hollywood establishment."I’m going to say what millions know in the front of their brains, and many, many more millions know...

"Just as most older conservatives now acknowledge that they once erred in "keeping blacks in their place," they should make the same acknowledgement for gays and their right to marry, and live happy, open and contented lives in each other's arms." "Fear that others may reject these apparently arbitrary moral boundaries, and hence question those who decreed them, and cause society to fall apart, is the reason for the conservatives' deep paranoia about the mythical "gay recruiting" and the equally mythical "gay agenda.""