Free Republic

Pastor Franklin Graham sharply criticized Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico over his false claims about the Bible supposedly being silent on abortion. Graham is calling it “an absolute lie” for the U.S. Senate candidate to claim the Bible does not condemn killing babies before birth. Graham, CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, responded after Talarico, the Democratic nominee challenging Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in November, asserted that his Christian faith somehow allows abortion. “I trust Texas women to make decisions about their own bodies, to shape their own destinies in consultation with their...

Now that the ballot for the Texas Senate race has been finalized, and Republican Ken Paxton will be facing off against Democrat James Talarico, we're learning even more about Talarico's troubling, radical past statements. Not only does Talarico think God is non-binary, that the Bible condones abortion, and that veganism is the way to save the planet, it turns out Talarico was praised for quoting a Communist-adjacent saying in an invocation before a 2021 legislative session.Redditor on r/GayChristians recounts his favorite prayer from James Talarico. pic.twitter.com/h2077NVYxG— Reddit Lies (@reddit_lies) May 28, 2026The post popped up under the subreddit r/GayChristians and...

Huntly Gordon, San Francisco’s unofficial pope, has died after falling in his apartment and hitting his head. Gordon, a businessman, activist and longtime member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, spent his last night out dancing at the club. He was 91 years old.

he Supreme Court likely sounded the death knell of state and local bans on so-called conversion therapy for minors, at least limited to talking, when eight justices blocked Colorado from punishing counselor Kaley Chiles for not affirming unwanted gender confusion in her young clients while letting her talk them into identifying as the opposite sex. Missouri's Kansas City and Jackson County are nonetheless trying to preserve their self-admitted "functionally identical" ordinances as long as possible, and in the city's case, validate an even further-reaching, all-ages public accommodation ordinance, in response to a challenge by licensed counselors Wyatt Bury and Pamela...

Planet Fitness canceled a woman’s membership — apparently forging her signature to do so — and called the police after the woman expressed discomfort that a large male was using female shower facilities. That “transgender”-identifying male is reportedly Christopher Beaulieu, who is a serial criminal and registered sex offender.The established facts, based on Judy Walcott's testimony, are that Planet Fitness staff not only canceled her membership but later called police on her, claiming trespass after she requested a refund for her unused month of membership. The mentally ill man whose use of female facilities reportedly triggered the incident is tentatively...

Portland Press Herald Maine official recommends transgender athlete referendum be invalidated Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien says that supporters fell roughly 500 valid signatures short of qualifying for the November ballot. May 21, 2026 Billy Kobin, Staff Writer A Maine official is recommending that a proposed referendum seeking to ban transgender athletes from competing in a way that aligns with their gender identity not appear on the November ballot. The rebuke Thursday came from Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien, the designated hearing officer in a case that has pitted supporters of the referendum against opponents. McBrien...

Undeterred by the shocking, last-minute cancellation of the city’s annual Pride Festival, Long Beach’s Pride Parade roared forward Sunday.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed legislation this week to permanently direct millions in state taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood, the state’s largest abortion business. The taxpayer funding is designed to replace federal Medicaid funding blocked by the Trump administration. House Bill 4127, which Kotek signed in March, requires the Oregon Health Authority to create a payment mechanism using state funds to backfill reimbursements lost since July 2025. It also establishes a permanent contingency plan should Congress cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood indefinitely. Oregon is the first state to enact such a long-term replacement plan. All Republicans in the...

I'm not sure what's more of a clown show: The boy being allowed to take 1st in all these girls' track events, or a Fox News host calling him a "she." Host Brian Kilmeade referred correctly to the transgender high school athlete, AB Hernandez, as a male. But host Ainsley Earhardt then immediately and repeatedly referred to Hernandez as "she." The segment talked about the importance of saving girls' sports ... while accepting the delusion that boys can be called "she." Pick a lane, Fox News!

A California postseason track meet on Saturday opened with a "Save Girls’ Sports" rally outside the gates and ended in familiar fashion, as one athlete again separated from the field in the jumping events, highlighting growing concerns over competitive fairness in girls’ sports. Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division 3 preliminaries in Yorba Linda drew attention before competition began, with demonstrators protesting California’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Inside, the focus turned to the jumping events, where biological male AB Hernandez, a senior from Jurupa Valley, competed against women and finished first across all three competitions with...

The Trump administration attacked a judge for releasing an accused murderer, but it withheld existence of the foreign warrant. A federal judge said Monday that the Trump administration had put her security at risk by posting a “patently false” allegation that she knowingly released an ICE detainee with an international warrant for murder. Justice Department attorney Kevin Bolan profusely apologized to Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose for the press release posted last week by the Department of Homeland Security, which Bolan acknowledged “simply was not true.” Bolan said that he didn’t tell the judge about the foreign arrest...

It’s been a while since I’ve written a Progressive Christianity Watch. I have a trio of doozies for you today, so enjoy.Let’s head over to Houston, where Rev. Lura Groen, a woman pastor (shocker) preaches at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is part of the far-left Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She’s also an “out bisexual.”Did you know that God has a crush on you, likes to flirt with you, and thinks of you as a pet? That’s how Groen “interprets” the Bible.So goodness and mercy can chase you, can consensually pursue you, can delightfully flirt with you, can want...

Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh 🚨 HOLY SMOKES. DOJ report just dropped a bombshell: The Biden DOJ aggressively targeted and harassed Christians, privately called them "CULTISTS" and sought out HARSH prison sentences for peaceful protests Even worse: They used the SPLC to do it! This is outright Christian persecution, right on American soil! LOCK UP everyone who carried this out. "That went beyond disagreement and moved to punishing Christians who held conservative religious beliefs in conflict with the administration's pro-choice gender ideology agenda." "The report found the Biden DOJ brought multiple cases against pro-life activists, many of them Christians, under the FACE...

Israel is set to host the Middle East’s largest ever LGBT festival at the Dead Sea in June 2026. The new festival, Pride Land, intends to transform the middle of the Judean Desert into a colorful pride city from June 1 to June 4. The event intends to create an experience broader than parties or performances, instead aiming for a space that is alive 24 hours a day, with 15 hotels, beach complexes, parties, and a central performance arena all operating around the clock. Alongside the nightlife, Pride Land will have cultural and art complexes, relaxation and scenic areas, and...

"Remember Lot's wife... one of the shortest verses in all the Bible. Don't look back." Billy Graham unpacks the terrifying lesson from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. When the angels led Lot's family out of the judgment, they were given one rule: don't look back. But she loved the world too much, looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt! Jesus used her as the ultimate warning for believers today. If you have been rescued by grace, stop looking longingly at your old life!

Progressive activist Analilia Mejia soundly defeated Republican Joe Hathaway in a special election Thursday in the 11th Congressional District, delivering a victory for Democrats in the runup to this fall’s midterm elections. “In November, when I jumped into this race, the odds were stacked against us. But you know — we did the impossible, and we won,” Mejia said in a crowded hall at the Montclair Art Museum Thursday evening. Mejia will fill the seat, vacated by Gov. Mikie Sherrill after Sherrill won the governorship in November, until Jan. 3, 2027. The Associated Press called the race just seven minutes...

The post-transphobia commonwealthWhat is the difference between an audacious and a mediocre dead-horse take? Frankly, I don’t know anymore. Some people may read what I have to say as the musings of a neoliberal bubble-inhabiting princess, and others may see them as a call from the Kremlin to stir workers of the world and unite against the master. Whatever you make of my positionality, I have an observation to share with my UC Berkeley compatriots in the Red Army: We may be deluding ourselves into thinking our particular tract of society is an egalitarian wet dream. Oftentimes, when I talk...

A Minnesota children’s hospital plans to resume sex change procedures for minors, flying in the face of President Trump’s executive order banning the practice. Last January, Trump signed the “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” Executive Order, which restricts sex-change procedures for minors by cutting federal funding to institutions that practice the satanic procedures. “It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,”...

While preparing to write today’s stories for NRL News Today, I ran across “Please Laugh About My Abortion With Me” which ran in 2022. And while Alison Leiby wasn’t kidding, I wondered what the audience’s response was to her one-woman “comedy.” Prior to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe, Alison Leiby tells us that “When I started performing the show at a tiny theater in Queens and at bars around the city, there were a lot of bombs and uncomfortable silences. Just saying the word ‘abortion’ can quiet a room. I saw crossed arms and scowls when I would...

Men will be barred from using parts of an on-campus gym at the University of Southern California under a new initiative to make women and non-binary gym-goers feel more comfortable while working out. The Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment (SAGE) pushed for the new rules in partnership with the Lyon Center, a recreational facility controlled by the university. SAGE describes itself as a “programming assembly and intersectional feminist organization under the student government, committed to uplifting all voices oppressed by the patriarchy.” The plan excludes men from working out in portions of the Robinson Room at the Lyon Center on...