Free Republic

The most momentous thing about Monday night's presidential debate wasn't anything Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton said. It's what they didn't say. Not a word was spoken about abortion, same-sex marriage, religious freedom, "family values," or any other issue championed by the religious right over the past few decades. True, those issues didn't fit naturally with the economic, race, and national security topics on the agenda Monday night. But in previous presidential contests, that wouldn't have stopped the Republican nominee from inserting a comment somewhere about protecting unborn life or the importance of traditional families. On Monday night, we heard...

I’m running for president to make sure our country continues to live up to our founding principles. Those timeless ideas teach us that we’re stronger together when we work in unison to solve our problems, no matter what we look like, where we come from or how we pray. That last one is important. As Americans, we hold fast to the belief that everyone has the right to worship however he or she sees fit. I’ve been fighting to defend religious freedom for years. As secretary of state, I made it a cornerstone of our foreign policy to protect the...

On August 2, Pope Francis said a few words about gender identity—words that are not at all new with him. In a meeting with bishops that day, he observed: "In Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and in some countries of Asia, there are genuine forms of ideological colonization taking place. And one of these—I will call it clearly by its name—is [the ideology of] “gender.” [It is, in fact, an artificial construct, as is evident by the co-opting of a word that, in its normative meaning, refers to grammar.] Today children—children!—are taught in school that everyone can choose his or...

A few days ago, trying to maneuver through a “scrum” of reporters in Philadelphia, I was asked about my views regarding religious freedom and non-discrimination laws. Given the divisiveness and pain that have accompanied several state religious freedom laws, I approach attempts at legislating religious exceptions to anti-discrimination laws with great sensitivity and care.

At the Democratic National Committee I ran into Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor and Libertarian Party nominee for president. Here's a transcript of our conversation, edited for clarity, and reorganized thematically.

The late Claremont Institute scholar, Harry V. Jaffa, opened an essay he wrote called "The American Founding as the Best Regime," discussing the meaning of the words of the preamble to our Constitution. Included in those words, laying out the purpose of the Constitution is the phrase, to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Jaffa says that "No words of the Constitution reveal the intention of the Constitution," more than these. "What is a blessing?" asks Jaffa. It is "what is good in the eyes of God," he answers. Jaffa then turns to the closing words...

Some current and former Wyoming lawmakers as well as national religious groups are supporting a municipal judge who faces a dismissal petition before the Wyoming Supreme Court for saying she would not preside over same-sex marriages. The Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics is recommending the court remove Municipal Judge and Circuit Court Magistrate Ruth Neely of Pinedale. The commission started investigating Neely after she told a reporter in 2014 she would not perform same-sex marriages because of her religious beliefs.

NASCAR has decided to openly oppose the North Carolina bathroom law, according to a Motorsport report. The law forbids people from using the public bathrooms of the opposite sex in government buildings. At this week’s 2016 Associated Press Sports Editors Meeting, NASCAR Chairman Brian France said his sport is “working behind the scenes” to change the controversial law.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights strongly condemns recent state laws passed, and proposals being considered, under the guise of so-called “religious liberty” which target members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (“LGBT”) community for discrimination. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory recently signed into law H.B. 2, legislation blocking local governments from passing anti-discrimination rules that grant protections to gay and transgender persons. The law also repeals existing municipal anti-discrimination laws which protected LGBT people from bias in housing and employment. Critically, the new legislation also forces transgender people to utilize public bathrooms and changing facilities based on...

The New Yorker‘s James Surowiecki writes this week about how Big Business has been a massively effective force for gay rights. He writes that progressives are used to seeing Big Business as the bad guy, but the pro-LGBT activist role corporations have taken on complicates matters. More:

Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Republican presidential candidate Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said religious liberty laws that allow refusal of services based on sexual orientation like the ones vetoed in Georgia and passed in North Carolina and Mississippi are unnecessary.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a controversial bill into law on Tuesday that could allow businesses and government workers to deny services to lesbian and gay couples. Bryant said in a statement that he was signing HB 1523 “to protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions of individuals, organizations and private associations from discriminatory action by state government or its political subdivisions.”

Lionsgate and the A+E network say they won’t film TV shows and movies in North Carolina if the state doesn’t repeal its new LGBT law. Along with Fox, Miramax and The Weinstein Company, the entertainment producers have voiced opposition to House Bill 2, which replaces local ordinances with a statewide nondiscrimination law that doesn’t include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories.

For evangelical voters, it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Not in Georgia, at least. When Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, first heard that Governor Nathan Deal had vetoed a controversial religious-liberty bill, his phone exploded with text messages. HB-757 was seen by many as a modest attempt to safeguard religious freedoms, stating, for example, that pastors could not be forced to perform same-sex weddings. Naturally, faith leaders across the state were furious, and Moore quickly became a sounding board.

5th UPDATE, 6:25 PM: Now Amblin Partners has joined the anti-Georgia chorus over the state’s pending religious liberty legislation. “Amblin Partners is committed to diversity and inclusion for all,” the company led by Steven Spielberg. “We would be disappointed to see our pipeline of production end at the Georgia border because of this legislation. While we are aware that Governor Deal has not yet made a decision, we stand with our industry colleagues in strongly urging him to veto this bill.”

Used to be that the Republican coalition was made up of free marketers, libertarians, social and religious conservatives, and national security hawks. Their commonalities, versus the Democratic Party’s coalition, made it possible for them to elide their differences. Besides, when it got right down to it, most religious and social conservatives (wrongly) didn’t see any particular threat to their values from capitalism.

Over two days, virtually every major Hollywood production house has come out against Georgia’s “religious liberty” bill, calling on Gov. Nathan Deal to veto the legislation that passed last week. New York-based Time Warner, which oversees Atlanta’s Turner Entertainment and CNN operations, said the bill “clearly violates the values and principles of inclusion and the ability of all people to live and work free from discrimination.” The Weinstein Company – known for its array of Oscar-winning films – said it “will not stand behind sanctioning the discrimination of‎ LGBT people or any American.” Others who have jumped in against the...

One day after Disney announced that it would take its business elsewhere if Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signs into law a bill that would permit faith-based groups and organizations in the state to discriminate based on sexuality, one of the Peach State’s biggest media players has stepped into the debate. Today, Time Warner urged the Republican Peach State official to stop the Free Exercise Protection Act in its tracks.

Disney has made big movies like the upcoming Captain America: Civil War in Georgia, and with the state’s lucrative tax incentives likely has planned to make more – but maybe not now. “Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law,” said a Disney spokesman today over a bill that the Georgia legislature has passed that would permit faith-based groups and organizations to discriminate based on sexuality.

Roger Goodell, chairman of the National Football League is on the cusp of becoming America’s newest gay icon. Goodell, who has an openly gay brother, and the NFL, have emerged as staunch allies in gay rights advocates’ efforts to defeat HB 757, the controversial religious freedom bill that passed the Georgia legislature late last week.