Free Republic

GOP nominee’s ‘concept of the human person and the human body’ is incompatible with Judaism’s teachings, say spiritual leaders. ... The letter, entitled “Women Rabbis Condemn Trump Hate Speech,” was deliberately planned to coincide with Simhat Torah, the annual time of year in which Jews around the world conclude and then restart their reading cycle of Judaism’s holiest text. One of its signatories, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly who delivered an invocation at this year’s Democratic National Convention, said in an email to reporters that the idea derived from a similar letter sent by Christian...

Witchcraft related abuse is a very serious problem in African migrant communities in the UK. There is documented evidence that these abuses are linked to activities of African pastors and African initiated churches. Unfortunately efforts to address this problem are bogged down by concerns over racism, minority rights and abuse of religious liberty. We should not allow such concerns to distract us from addressing this problem. Vulnerable members of the African migrant communities in the UK, particularly children, are at risk of being tortured and murdered by relatives who accuse them of witchcraft. Many of such horrific treatments in the...

... In an unapologetically frank open letter, published to a Facebook page called Trek Against Trump, "Star Trek" actors, directors, producers, and crew members expressed their political stance that Donald Trump represents the opposite of everything "Star Trek" stands for and should not be allowed anywhere near the presidency. "We cannot turn our backs on what is happening in the upcoming election," the letter reads. "Never has there been a presidential candidate who stands in such complete opposition to the ideals of the Star Trek universe as Donald Trump." The letter was signed by J.J. Abrams (director of the 2009...

... He went on to essentially say he wanted to use his post-presidential bully pulpit more like an activist than a venerable elder statesman. “There are institutional obligations I have to carry out that are important for a president of the United States to carry out, but may not always align with what I think would move the ball down the field on the issues that I care most deeply about,” he said. ...

BLOOMINGTON, MN On September 12, 2016 at least 10 people were arrested or cited by Bloomington Police after a melee broke out during the Islamic celebration of Eid Al Adha at the Mall of America KARE 11 reports. According to KARE 11, the people who were arrested or cited all were between the ages of 12-15. Four were boys and six were girls. The police did not comment on what started the melee, but the reports state that those involved were cited on charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing the legal process and giving false information to the police. The video...

A gay Chinese student activist on Monday lodged a suit against the Ministry of Education over school textbooks describing homosexuality as a mental disorder, the latest step by China's small but growing gay rights movement. It is not illegal to be gay in China and these days many large Chinese cities have thriving gay scenes, though there is still a lot of family pressure to get married and have children, even for gay men and women. Homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder until 2001. However, Chinese universities continue to use textbooks that contain terms such as "disorder" and "impediment"...

<p>BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg has married his long-time partner.</p> <p>WGBH-FM reported that Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, and Bryon Hefner were married on Tuesday.</p> <p>A statement issued by a spokeswoman for the Senate leader said a private ceremony was held at Cambridge City Hall.</p>

... A Japanese company named Trottla already ships child-sized sex dolls globally. Earlier this year, a Canadian man went on trial after he was arrested in 2013 for ordering such a doll. Under Canadian law, they are considered child pornography and he could go to jail for seven years. But what if dolls like these could help rather than hurt? Ron Arkin, a robotics engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology and one of the panelists, argued that people should not only legally be permitted to have such dolls, but perhaps some should be handed prescriptions for them. In his...

Eighteen-year-old waitress Sadie Elledge was working the lunch shift at Jess’ Lunch, in Harrisonburg, Virginia when a couple, in lieu of a tip, left a message on their receipt that said, “We only tip citizens.” Sadie, whose father was born in Honduras and mother in Mexico, is, in fact, a U.S. citizen who grew up in Harrisonburg. “I’ve had people make comments like ‘Go make me a burrito,’ but that’s at school and I don’t pay attention,” said Sadie, adding that the insult wasn’t that big a deal to her. But when her grandfather, John Elledge, heard of the incident...

Tim Kaine is a Georgetown graduate, but he and other pro-choice Catholic politicians owe much to Notre Dame. As Matthew Franck has observed in First Things, Mario Cuomo’s 1984 “personally opposed but won’t impose” speech at the university was a “watershed moment” for pro-choice apologists. Notre Dame’s gift to Cuomo of a high-visibility platform and an enthusiastic audience seemed to stamp “nihil obstat” on his argument. (Despite, as Dr. Franck explained, the “crashing ineptitude” of Cuomo’s rationale.) Then a couple of months ago, just in time for Senator Kaine’s campaign on a ticket with the most radical pro-abortion platform in...

The Navy is set to name a ship after the gay rights icon and San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, according to a Congressional notification obtained by USNI News. The July 14, 2016 notification, signed by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, indicated he intended to name a planned Military Sealift Command fleet oiler USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206). The ship would be the second of the John Lewis-class oilers being built by General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego, Calif.

When the country elected Barack Obama president in 2008, those of us who disagreed with many of his policy ideas were nonetheless consoled by the fact that his victory illustrated that America had moved well beyond institutional racism. Certainly the fact that Obama had succeeded in both a hard-fought Democratic primary and a general election meant that the country was ready to move past the intense focus on race in our national politics. Boy, were we wrong! Rather than seeing his own victory as a significant advance in American social life, Obama and those he appointed to his administration vigorously...

Chelsea Manning has made an impassioned critique against the US military’s new rules allowing transgender people openly to serve in the armed forces, arguing that the reforms fall short of true equality. As the highest-profile transgender individual in the armed services today, Manning’s criticisms carry particular weight within the debate around opening up the military. The army soldier said she responded to the defense secretary Ash Carter’s announcement of the rule change on Thursday with initial relief, followed by a dawning concern. Writing for the Guardian from her prison cell in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she is serving a 35-year...

In the early 1990s, with panic over the AIDS epidemic rising, hundreds of school districts began making condoms more accessible to students. The hope was to encourage students to practice safe sex and better protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. A new research paper suggests that decision may have backfired. It finds that access to condoms in school led to a 10 percent increase in teen births. The effects were concentrated in schools that offered condoms with no required counseling. Those schools also saw that gonorrhea rates for women rose following the condom programs.

When she discovered she was pregnant, the 22-year-old aspiring veterinarian started calling abortion clinics in her home state of Oklahoma. It was a short list – there are only two, and neither could get her an appointment quickly. Unemployed, no car, and still living with her parents, Pearl thought about trying Texas, but knew the state had also recently tightened restrictions on clinics. ...

The following is a list of prominent Republicans who say they’re not planning to attend the Republican National Convention -- based on responses from their offices and previously published reports: Former President George W. Bush Former President George H.W. Bush 2008 Republican presidential nominee and Arizona Sen. John McCain 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney 2016 presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval Wyoming Gov. Matthew Mead South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson Kansas Sen....

The Church of Scotland has voted to let its ministers enter same-sex marriages — though saying it "maintains its traditional view of marriage between a man and woman." At its general assembly, meeting in Edinburgh, voted Saturday to allow congregations to "opt out" from traditional teaching if they wish to appoint a minister or a deacon in a same-sex marriage.

Donald Trump's gun policies are "not just way out there" but "dangerous" and would make America less safe, Hillary Clinton said Saturday. "This is someone running to be president of the United States of America — a country facing a gun violence epidemic — and he's talking about more guns in our schools, he's talking about more hatred and division in our streets," the likely Democratic presidential nominee said of her presumptive Republican rival. "That's no way to keep us safe." ...

Dozens of Methodist clergy members took a stand for equality on Monday in the hope that their church will re-evaluate discriminatory policies toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals during its 2016 General Conference, which begins on Tuesday. More than 100 pastors, deacons, elders and candidates for ministry in the United Methodist Church released a letter publicly coming out as LGBT just one day before the church’s top policy-making body convenes in Portand to consider roughly 1,000 legislative petitions.

(Newser) – Mitt Romney and William Kristol met privately "over glasses of water" Thursday to discuss running a third-party candidate and the possibility that candidate might be Romney himself, the Washington Post reports. Kristol, a conservative commentator and editor of the Weekly Standard, has been a major part of the #NeverTrump movement, according to Time. “[Romney] came pretty close to being elected president, so I thought he may consider doing it, especially since he has been very forthright in explaining why Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton should not be president of the United States,” Kristol tells the Post. Romney announced...