Free Republic

AUSTIN - Judges in Texas are now able to refuse to perform marriages for religious reasons, the state's highest court decided Friday. While the Texas Supreme Court's addition to the judicial conduct code does not include reasoning for the change, it follows a years-long debate over whether judges within the state are obligated to perform same-sex ceremonies. Texas Supreme Court ruling What we know: The ruling, amending Canon 4 of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, was signed Friday, Oct. 24. Click to open this PDF in a new window. The comment reads as follows: "It is not a violation...

In a recent article, Emily Wood Hawley passionately remarks, “Marriage does not truly exist outside of what God established — a sacred union between one man and one woman for life — because the state cannot redefine an institution God ordained.” The redefinition Hawley is referring to is the Obergefell v. Hodges decision of 2015. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion which was handed down in a 5-4 vote stating that homosexual marriage was a Constitutionally legitimate right that belonged to all homosexuals in the USA. Justice Kennedy gave three reasons in SCOTUS’ landmark decision why homosexual marriage is...

At AmFest2024, Sage Steele sat down with businesswoman Erika Kirk, the wife of conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, and chatted about faith, family, and finding purpose. Erika shared her journey of balancing marriage, motherhood, and entrepreneurship in this heartfelt conversation. From her Christian lifestyle brand, Proclaim365, to her inspiring Bible in 365 ministry, Erika delves into how faith shapes her life and work. She also opens up about the joys and challenges of parenting young children, maintaining a strong marriage, and embracing her role as a wife, mother, and entrepreneur in today’s culture. This episode...

Swift is “dreamin’ ’bout a driveway with a basketball hoop” on her new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ which dropped Friday… On “Eldest Daughter,” Swift sings of accepting love that she never thought she’d find. “I’m never gonna let you down / I’m never gonna leave you out / So many traitors / Smooth operators / I’m never gonna break that vow…” “When I said I don’t believe in marriage / That was a lie / Every eldest daughter / Was the first lamb to the slaughter / so we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire…”...

Americans are shocked that conservative Christian Charlie Kirk was assassinated because radicals on the left could not tolerate debating the issues with him on college campuses and elsewhere. They also are surprised to learn of the deep interconnectedness and complicity of the LGBT community in the violence and hate coming from the left which has culminated in Kirk’s assassination. They shouldn’t be. I have experienced this hate and violence for nearly two decades as I have advocated for traditional marriage, the biological basis of gender, and free speech. It all began with Prop. 8 in 2008. Proposition 8 was a...

Police have arrested a suspect nearly four months after a New Jersey Republican councilwoman was gunned down in her car as she was nearing her home. Rashid Ali Bynum, 28, was arrested and charged in the murder of 30-year-old Eunice Dwumfour, who was shot and killed on the evening of February 1. Dwumfour and Bynum knew each other from working together at Champions Royal Assembly, a Nigeria-based prosperity gospel church in Newark, police said, according to ABC 7. “This was a very complex, extensive case with painstaking police work every single moment until today and it will continue after today,”...

It turns out there is a certain breed of men who continue to cheat on their loved ones — and it has to do with either the type of job they have or the lack thereof. According to a new study conducted by the Institute for Family Studies in a blog post, men in high-power positions — like CEOs, surgeons and physicians — and those unemployed are more likely to cheat than their counterparts. Writer Wendy Wang studied occupational data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to conclude that 18% of men in these top positions have been unfaithful in...

Alistair Begg | Parkside Church/ScreenshotFormer pastor Alistair Begg recently doubled down on his controversial advice to a grandmother in 2023, which advised her to attend her grandson's wedding to a transgender-identifying individual.Begg, whose radio ministry "Truth For Life" is carried by nearly 1,800 radio stations nationwide, drew backlash that year when comments he made went viral on social media after he shared his advice to the Christian grandmother that she ought to attend the wedding and buy a gift to avoid reinforcing "judgmental" stereotypes about Christians.Touching on the issue again during an interview published this week by the Christian podcast...

Ten years after the Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide, the justices this fall will consider for the first time whether to take up a case that explicitly asks them to overturn that decision. Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for six days in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds, is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees. In a petition for writ of certiorari filed last month, Davis argues First Amendment protection for free exercise of religion immunizes...

UPDATE: A 36-year-old woman is being held on felony stalking charges in a bizarre case where a wedding was held without the groom present and without his knowledge. Beverly Hills Police Chief Kory Martin expressed he’s never seen anything like this. “I was here Friday evening when this came in. When I was talking to the lieutenant, I said, ‘I don’t I don’t think in 23 years I’ve ever heard of anybody who managed somehow to get married to someone who wasn’t present for a ceremony.'” “At first, we were really considering that it may be some forged documents. However,...

Dating is hard, but blaming all men for your horrible choices is easy. A new New York Times piece, “The Trouble With Wanting Men,” by Jean Garnett, posits that the trouble with wanting men is … men. Like, all of them. It’s part of a genre of man-hating thought pieces that turn hetero love and dating into an all-out gender war — and totally absolve women of any agency or responsibility in their relationships. There’s no accountability or introspection, just the big diagnosis that men are the problem, from a woman who has decided to pursue open relationships, casual sex...

“When it comes to the interpretation of the Constitution — the ‘great charter of our liberties,’ which was ‘meant to endure through the long lapse of the ages,’ — we place a high value on having the matter ‘settled right’ ...When one of our constitutional decisions goes astray, the country is usually stuck with the bad decision unless we correct our own mistake” – (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization 2022). The time has come for the Court to do just that — correct the mistake it made a decade ago and overturn the disastrous and unconstitutional decision that legalized...

The alarmists were right. Ten years after the Obergefell decision enacting same-sex marriage nationwide, its opponents — smeared then and now as cranks and bigots — have been vindicated. Same-sex marriage was sold to the public through a campaign of lies, and the lies are hurting people. It is therefore no wonder that support for same-sex marriage seems to have peaked, and may even be starting to decline, especially on the right. Of course, GOP leaders, whether from MAGA or the old establishment, have no stomach for the fight. They just want the issue to go away. They and the...

[Catholic Caucus] Heterodox Jesuit parish publishes blasphemous image of Trinity as female with LGBT ‘pride’ flagThe bulletin for St. Joseph and St. Therese churches in Seattle featured a mockery of Andrei Rublev's 15th-century Holy Trinity icon depicting three women sitting by a 'pride' flag.A Jesuit-run Catholic parish marked Holy Trinity Sunday by publishing a blasphemous icon depicting the Blessed Trinity as women that included an LGBT “Pride” flag.The first page of the parish bulletin for St. Joseph and St. Therese churches, dated June 15, Holy Trinity Sunday, featured a mockery of Andrei Rublev’s 15th-century Holy Trinity icon depicting three women...

...today at the Vatican, Pope Leo addressed the issue of cohabitation with these words: “Perhaps many young people today, who choose cohabitation instead of Christian marriage, actually need someone who, in a concrete and understandable way—especially by the example of their life—shows them what the gift of sacramental grace is and what strength it brings; someone who helps them understand ‘the beauty and greatness of the vocation to love and to the service of life’ that God gives to spouses (St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, 1).” Out of love and concern for His creatures, God has taught...

[Catholic Caucus] Leo XIV: "Marriage is not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful"As soon as we were born, we needed others in order to live; left to ourselves, we would not have survived. Someone else saved us by caring for us in body and spirit. All of us are alive today thanks to a relationship, a free and freeing relationship of human kindness and mutual care.That human kindness is sometimes betrayed. As for example, whenever freedom is invoked not to give life, but to...

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One morning, a Greek woman makes coffee. By sunset, she decided to end her marriage because ChatGPT told her that her husband was cheating. Yes, you read that correctly, AI is now a marriage counsellor and has evidence while brewing drama. When AI meets coffee Forget therapy sessions and horoscopes. In 2025, you can snap a photo of leftover Greek coffee, upload it to ChatGPT, and let that machine spirit inform you of your fate—or, in this specific case, your husband’s supposed affair with a mystery woman whose name begins with “E.” According to Greek media, the woman in question...

In a recent message, I explained the concept of men being servant leaders in their homes, and to their wives. I explained how most modern marriages are set up for failure right from the start, when both partners expect to give 50% of their effort toward the relationship. A 50-50 situation is most common today, as wives expect their husbands to contribute half of everything and the husband expects the wife to contribute the other half. By our human reasoning, this sounds like the ideal situation, but as I explained previously, when each partner contributes 50%, that means that each...

Former President Barack Obama was spotted going out to dinner with his daughters in Los Angeles on Saturday night — but former first lady Michele Obama was nowhere to be found as rumors of marriage problems continue to swirl. Obama, 63, with daughters Sasha, 23, and Malia, 26, broke bread at upscale Japanese restaurant Hamasaku on Santa Monica Boulevard, which has been a favorite of the family since at least 2022, according to images of the dinner. Despite the conspicuous absence of Michelle, eagle-eyed relationship monitors noticed that the former president was wearing his wedding ring.