Free Republic

A photo exhibit featuring partners in same-sex relationships will be on display beginning Sunday at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1609 University Ave. An open house will be held Sunday from 1-3 p.m., and the exhibit will be on display at the church for one week. The exhibit, titled "Shall Not Be Recognized," was created by Jeff Pearcy and Will Fellows in response to the passage of the 2006 marriage amendment in Wisconsin that does not legally recognize same-sex relationships. The display includes 30 photographs of couples who have been together for seven to 50 years. "In recent years,...

At least another 75 students have been suspended from school in California for wearing shirts that expressed their biblically-based opposition to homosexuality, and the district that, as WND reported, has been imposing the punishments, says those quotations aren't necessarily acceptable because they are from God's Word. That's the verdict from San Juan Unified School District Superintendent Steven Enoch, according to lawyers for the Pacific Justice Institute, which is working on behalf of the students. The suspensions were begun on April 18 when the homosexual lobby-supported "Day of Silence" was observed in public schools in California – and across the nation....

One of the strangest features of the contemporary political landscape is the convergence everywhere of the Left with Muslim jihadis and extremists. Those who once protested against the installation of cruise missiles in Western Europe, say, now demonstrate against the war on terror. Those who praised the Soviet Union as peace-loving are now busy signing petitions and publishing articles to the effect that Iran's nuclear program and nuclear weapons (if it comes to that) are a third-world success and nothing to worry about. Anti-Americanism has made bedfellows of people whose world views and values are ostensibly incompatible. David Horowitz was...

ATLANTA --... Members of St. John's Lutheran Church last weekend filed by their pastor, hugging him and exchanging jokes. Many in the 350-member Atlanta congregation say they don't plan to let the Rev. Bradley E. Schmeling leave the pulpit Aug. 15, as ordered last week by an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) disciplinary committee because he is in a gay relationship. ... "We are not an activist church, even though we can stand for issues of justice," said Charles Fox, who occasionally assists Schmeling at Sunday worship. "He exemplifies the kind of love and empathy I envision Christ to...

GREENSBORO — Episcopalians meeting in Greensboro this week gave strong preliminary support for a resolution apologizing to gays and lesbians for how they’ve been treated by Christians. The resolution, which is expected to go before the full Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina this morning, would also affirm homosexuals as "children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance and pastoral concern and care of the Church." A similar resolution was passed this past summer by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, which has been racked with division since the affirmation...

In the contest for oddest pronouncement in a State of the Union address, high marks should go to President Bush’s call last January for a national ban on “creating human-animal hybrids.” Fortunately, the modern biotech laboratory does not yet resemble H.G. Wells’s island of Dr. Moreau, that fictional place where an exiled scientist blends man and beast by vivisection. Not even our most skillful, least scrupulous genetic engineers can manufacture humanzees to provide spare parts or serve as semi-skilled labor. We are not yet so talented or so depraved. Yet the President’s call to action did not come out of...

Via BSALegal.Org An atheist mother represented by the ACLU complained that allowing Boy Scouts to recruit in public schools on the same basis as other groups discriminated against her atheist son who attends Portland public schools. In today's decision reversing a lower court decision, the Oregon Supreme Court emphatically concluded that "nothing that occurred in any public school program, service, or activity was discriminatory at all." "Giving Boy Scouts equal access is not discrimination," said Scouting spokesperson Robert H. Bork, Jr. "It is the law." "The First Amendment and two federal statues require that Boy Scouts be given the same...

The past two decades have seen a growing symbiosis between the mass movement of evangelical Christians and the Republican Party. Since the 1968 presidential election, when nearly 10 million Americans voted for segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace, the Republicans have worked to broaden the class base of their party downward. That has meant following Wallace's lead in using issues of race, crime, and "morality" to attract white middle and lower middle class voters. In the mid-1970s and 1980s, Gallup poll surveys showed that one-quarter to one-third of the US population identified itself as "born-again" evangelicals. Most of them have become...

BANGKOK, Thailand - The suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey visited a Bangkok clinic specializing in sex-change operations and cosmetic surgery, clinic officials said Sunday. Dr. Thep Vechwijit, a doctor at the Pratunam Polyclinic, said John Mark Karr, 41, had been his patient but declined to provide further details. "He was one of my patients," Vechwijit said. A staffer at the clinic, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Karr had consulted the doctor about a sex-change operation. Karr was to be flown later Sunday to the United States...

Show links Darwin, Hitler ideologies Holocaust was fallout of evolution theory, says new production -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: August 19, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Charles Darwin should share with Hitler the blame for the 11 million or more lives lost in the Holocaust, a new television special explains. And, the program says, the more than 45 million American lives lost to abortion also can be blamed on that famous founder of evolutionary theory. The results of Darwin’s theories "This show basically is about the social effects of Darwinism, and shows this idea, which is scientifically bankrupt, has probably been...

Group of gay hopefuls to challenge military's policy PHOENIX We've all heard of the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy," which bans service members from being openly gay. Under the policy, military personnel are not allowed to talk about being gay or even admit it. But in more than 30 cities across the country, including Phoenix, homosexuals will be challenging the thirteen-year-old policy in a nationwide campaign they have named Right to Serve. As they try to sign up at recruiting offices, they will also disclose their sexual orientation. Twenty-four-year-old Meg Sneed says she plans to do just that at...

Gay Jewish porn star to visit Israel to show solidarity with country, perform for gay community A gay Jewish porn star is to visit Israel at the end of the month to show solidarity with the country and perform and entertain for the gay community as well as raise awareness of gay issues. New York-based Michael Lucas who is the owner and star of Lucas Entertainment will be in Israel from August 29 to September 4 where he will be performing a live show with free admission to Israeli soldiers. "It will be my fourth trip to Israel, and my...

Actor Michael J Fox has slammed George W Bush's decision to veto US government funding of pioneering studies into stem cell research. On Wednesday, the US president used his power of veto for the first time since he came to power in January 2001. Back to the Future star Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, is outraged Bush went against American public opinion that scientists should be allowed to try and find the cure for many diseases using the cells from nearly 400,000 embryos currently in storage. He said: "I regret the loss of five years when real progress...

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., made a false accusation against the Catholic Church during debate on the Senate floor over federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, according to Catholic News Service. Arguing President Bush's opposition to the federal funding on moral grounds could seriously set back scientific discovery, Specter said: "Pope Boniface VII (sic) banned the practice of cadaver dissection in the 1200s. This stopped the practice for over 300 years and greatly slowed the accumulation of education regarding human anatomy." Specter not only misidentified the pope, the Catholic news site asserts, but most historical sources indicate no pontiff in history...

Yesterday President Bush vetoed a bill that, had it become law, would have deeply eroded respect for human life. It was a courageous act because there was enormous pressure on him to agree to fund more embryo-destructive research. After vetoing this bill, the president signed one for funding research into methods of creating pluripotent stem cells—the kind that can be turned into many types of body tissue without creating or killing human embryos. Not surprisingly, there was an outpouring of vitriol directed not only against the president but also against conservative Christians. A full-page ad in the New York Times,...

CALGARY, June 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Recently, Canadians voted in a nationwide contest for who they thought was the “Greatest Canadian” of all time. They chose socialist icon, Tommy Douglas, the “father of medicare,” and founder of the extreme left party, the New Democrats.  The 2004 “Greatest Canadian”, however, held views on the poor and disabled that his zealous fans on the left would like to keep quiet. In the July 3 edition of the Western Standard, John Robson quotes Douglas’ 1933 master’s thesis, where he argued that “The subnormal family presents the most appalling of all family problems.” “Because this class...

by Mark Finkelstein June 23, 2006 Let me share a little trade secret. Any time I'm on the prowl for something to write about, I go to the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times. Almost invariably the journey is rewarded with a remarkable liberal morsel. Take this morning's editorial - 'Battling over Bishops' - in which the Times decides to wade into the controversy roiling the Episcopal Church. Here's the kernel of the Times' argument "What both controversies [over homosexual and female clergy] have in common is not only a fixation on sex and gender but also the challenge...

I’m rarely lifted by some occurrence under the Capitol dome, but 48 members of the Senate provided an exception this week: They spared us the protracted and dangerous distraction of a federal battle over gay marriage. That even five minutes was spent on this issue — let alone all the words poured out about the need for a constitutional amendment to “protect” marriage — illustrates how far our nation is from getting its priorities in order and its act together. You know, the act we need to perfect so we can seriously deal on the global stage with real political,...

The nation just witnessed the dreary spectacle of the most powerful deliberative body in the world weighing the most important social issue of our time - an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defending traditional marriage -in a debate dominated by hypocrisy, cynicism and a concerted effort at reality-avoidance. Democrats and half a dozen Republicans wouldn't even allow the amendment to come up for a vote. A move to cut off a filibuster (60 votes needed) failed 49 to 48. "A vote for this amendment is a vote for bigotry," slurred the senior Senator from Massachusetts. In so saying, Edward Kennedy...

SAN FRANCISCO — Like other gay men in their golden years, Jack Norris and Seymour Sirota had heard the horror stories. An elderly lesbian couple is housed on separate floors of a nursing home and kept from seeing each other. A gay retired college professor feels compelled to keep his sexual orientation a secret after his roommate at an assisted living facility asks to be transferred. "I thought, 'We are not going to be in that situation,'" the 67-year-old Norris says crisply. "This is not going to happen to us in our final days." That's how the two New Yorkers,...