Free Republic

After six years in office, there are few things that President Obama does that surprises me. Notwithstanding this, I was still shocked to hear his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. Using some misguided moral equivalency, President Obama reached back over almost a thousand years to compare a group of Christians then to current day radical Islamists killing innocents in the name of Allah, telling Christians not to get on their “high horse”. (Not to mention, he conveniently omitted the context of the Crusades, a response to Islamic conquest). At times during the speech, it appeared the President was taking...

This year the movie God Is Not Dead preyed on every Christian parent’s fear of sending a child off to college only to have their family’s faith and values undermined by an atheist college professor espousing some form of moral relativism. The movie hinges on a certain cliché, but the cliché is a cliché because many of us took a class with “that professor.” He might not have been so over-the-top, but his prejudices were evident. The American university tends to be fairly hostile to the conservative movement. One of the core tenets of conservatism is the Judeo-Christian teaching that...

In the 900th issue of Action Comics, Superman decides to go before the United Nations and renounce his U.S. citizenship. " 'Truth, justice and the American way'—it's not enough any more," he despairs. That issue, published in April 2011, is perhaps the most dramatic example of modern comics' descent into political correctness, moral ambiguity and leftist ideology. We are comic-book artists and comics are our passion. But more important they've inspired and shaped many millions of young Americans. Our fear is that today's young comic-book readers are being ill-served by a medium that often presents heroes as morally compromised or...

Dr. Ben Carson, potential contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, has been enjoying near "rock star" status in ostensibly conservative circles. If that continues, "conservatives" had might as well give up trying to cast themselves as representing the "pro-gun" position, because Carson's stance on guns is one that would probably not displease the Brady Campaign. Carson first raised gun owners' hackles in March, 2013, when he blithely told Glenn Beck that the right to own semi-automatic firearms is contingent on where one lives. From Mediate: But when asked whether people should be allowed to own “semi-automatic weapons,” the...

Despite major changes in public opinion in recent years, Rev. Franklin Graham, son of perhaps the most famous American preacher of all time, Billy Graham, reiterated his strong opposition to gay marriage and gay adoption today on ABC's "This Week." As a part of a special Easter week discussion on religion, Graham told ABC News' Martha Raddatz that gays could go to heaven if they repent.

Marilyn Bradford is a therapist who tries to help people out of addiction, such as alcoholism, without any belief in a higher power. In short, she is a moral relativist preaching the “gospel” of moral relativism. Having suffered from what was diagnosed as depression and alcoholism, as well as having put her faith in various gurus and belief systems, Marilyn knows first hand how frustrating and difficult it can be to move beyond other’s restrictive and rigid belief systems. Now free to know what she knows to be true for her, she empowers others to do the same. No one...

McCain blasted Obama on the Al-Qaeda takeover of Fallujah about 3 days ago and the raising of their flag there. This flag-raising and takeover of Fallujah is indeed an abomination in the sight of anyone with a conscience, but can anyone say that McCain has a strict adherence to principles? Would McCain shake hands with Saddam, then later bomb him? Would he pal around with Pinochet, and then later seek to bomb him? Would he seek to overthrow an elected Iranian leader in 1953, only later to regret it? And thus the lesson on why Washington said that we must...

There was a powerful description given by Pope Emeritus Benedict to describe the modern stance of a world that has abandoned any notion of objective truth to which it is accountable. The phrase was “The tyranny of relativism.”In effect the expression describes what happens when there is no standard outside ourselves to which reasonable people can and should appeal in order to square their views or opinions. In such a setting, appeals to reason and agreed upon standards cannot hold the day and resolve disputes.Thus who “wins”? Whose view prevails? The sad answer is that those with the most money,...

I recently interviewed a 26-year-old Swedish student about her views on life. I asked her if she believed in G-d or in any religion. "No, that's silly," she replied. "Then how do you know what is right and wrong?" I asked. "My heart tells me," she responded. In a nutshell, that's the major reason for the great divide within America and between America and much of Europe. The majority of people use their heart — stirred by their eyes — to determine what is right and wrong. A minority uses their mind and/or the Bible to make that determination. Pick...

The press room podium in the European Union’s headquarters is usually the domain of men in conservatively-cut dark suits. Last week, however, the stage was a profusion of flowing robes, broad-brimmed fedoras, gleaming gold chains, turbans, ecclesiastical dog collars and a shimmering blue-grey sari, as the EU’s leadership sought to take the continent’s spiritual pulse at their annual meeting with religious representatives. With its popularity battered in the midst of the economic crisis, the EU was seeking some solace and support. … Europe’s crisis goes beyond the economic, speakers at the meeting agreed. Disillusioned citizens are questioning the values of...

The purported value of ethical relativism, the idea that there are no transcendent, binding rules for right and wrong that all humans are morally required to submit to, is that it allows us to live in peace. That is, if you have your ethics, and I have my ethics, well then there is no real need for us to fight over whose ethic wins. (So long, as, of course, our lives never actually cross.) The real value is far more sinister. We find ethical relativism appealing because we find our own guilt unappealing. Though we seek to suppress such knowledge,...

Why has the American society changed so drastically in the past few decades? How did the feminist movement get started? How did Obama get elected? Why are there so many single parent families? Where is God?

The media in Fargo, North Dakota were scandalized when a nearby Minnesota priest informed the parents of Lennon Cihak that he would not be confirmed in the local Catholic church after he posted a picture on Facebook supporting gay marriage (or a No vote on the traditional-marriage ballot initiative). Naturally, the liberal parents – who agree with their son – were shocked, shocked that the church would stand for something. “You kind of know the Catholic beliefs, but I never thought they would deny somebody confirmation because you weren’t 100 percent. I guess that’s what shocks me,” Shana Cihak said....

One time I read an internet posting made by a woman who had stopped renting to some Christians who had been tenants at her property. Her reason? They made her feel bad about herself. People who have no intention of dispensing with vice don't like moral standards they pale in comparison to -- which is why moral relativism is all the rage today, and why there is rage at Christianity -- and they don't like moral standard-bearers they pale in comparison to, either. Why do you think the Bible states, "What fellowship hath light with darkness? The darkness hates the...

ROCKWALL — Cathy Samford, a volleyball coach and science teacher, was fired from Heritage Christian Academy for getting pregnant and not being married, the school acknowledged. "I looked it up and thought, 'They can't do this,'" said Samford, 29. For almost three years, she coached volleyball at the private school. Samford was named "Coach of the Year" and recently began teaching science. But when she got pregnant last fall, the school fired her because she was not married. "We all have different views and interpretations," Samford said. "It's not necessarily the Christian thing to do to throw somebody aside because...

The culture war might be likened to fighting a war against a coalition of powers. Imagine WWI-style trench warfare on a long front. In the center of the enemy lines are the forces of moral relativism. These forces oppose the idea that there is a universal moral law. On one flank are the forces of the sexual revolution, including gays, feminists, adulterers, the promiscuous, and the pro-abortion folks. On the other flank are the cultural relativists, and multiculturalists. This camp opposes the ideas of truth, beauty, and intrinsic quality. It seeks to suppress the literary, philosophical, and artistic heritage of...

In a recent article that has to be read to be believed, Shannon Dea, co-president of Planned Parenthood Waterloo Region, responds to a call by a Canadian member of parliament to have a debate on the humanity of the unborn child, saying: “Medical science is irrelevant to the question of when a fetus becomes a human being — that matter is a legal and philosophical one, not a medical one.” Dea might as well have said that medical science is irrelevant to the question of whether or not a pig is a pig, or an elephant is an elephant, or...

Kristy, 15, was in such pain after days of being attacked with sticks, a metal bar, hammer and chisel that he begged to die, jurors heard. His brother-in-law Eric Bikubi was joined by his partner, Kristy's sister Magalie, in the horror, said Brian Altman QC, prosecuting. And his other siblings were forced to join in before they were all placed in the bath to be hosed down in cold water with a shower head by Bikubi on Christmas Day, 2010. ... The jury was told that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the defendants are originally from, witchcraft...

The Pope will on Sunday launch a renewed attack on the "moral relativism" that he has blamed for Britain's summer riots.In a message for the 2012 World Peace Day of January 1, Pope Benedict said that neither peace nor justice was obtainable if the objective norms of morality expressed in the Ten Commandments continue to be rejected. His words represent another severe criticism of moral relativism, the humanistic creed that holds there can be no objective standard on which to base morality. They come just months after the Pope told Nigel Baker, Britain's Ambassador to the Holy See, that the...

  The Content of Their What? David C. Stolinsky Dec. 15, 2011 I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.– Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The word “judgmental,” in the sense of overly critical or self-righteous, dates only from the 1960s. For centuries, great writers expressed themselves without this word, but now we use it frequently. Why? What does this word reveal about our thinking? How does it affect our actions? Specifically,...