Free Republic

The recent flap over the Obama Administration’s edict that all employers must provide birth control, including abortifacients, as part of heath insurance benefits for employees has given us a “teaching moment,” says representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.). “We have established the fundamental principle that employers may not force their views on employees by refusing to cover the costs of birth control measures,” Wasserman-Schultz crowed. “The days of employer oppression of employees are over. The government has stepped in to defend the working class.” The Congresswoman dismissed complaints that the Obama Administration’s move wrongfully violates individuals’ rights to act in accord with...

President Obama has a slightly different interpretation of Exodus 20:3, first of the Ten Commandments, he has now clarified his policy: When a despot (Obama) declares one “right” (too choose to kill your offspring) to be SUPERIOR to another right (worship and conscience, as per First Amendment)… we soon learn we in reality have NO RIGHTS at all (how can any "right" trump another?)! Obama’s actions are tantamount to “establishing religion” as worship of government above all other is demanded and to be forced through Federal coercion! This is not just unconstitutional, it is ANTI-Constitutional! BIG LIB, media and Obama...

Constitution: The Air Force removes a reference to God from its logo as the Army forbids Catholic chaplains from reading an archbishop's letter to those in uniform. What's next, the crosses at Arlington National Cemetery? 'It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle," read the letter from Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services to the Catholic chaplains in the U.S. military. The letter that the Army's Office of the Chief of Chaplains kept from being read to...

Journalism: When the abortion giant's funding was in jeopardy, the media provided 24/7 coverage with a decidedly liberal slant. When the feds assaulted First Amendment religious freedom, you could hear the crickets chirp. Secular progressive bias in the media was never more evident than in the past few weeks with the difference in coverage of two major news stories — the temporary cutoff of funds from the Susan G. Komen Foundation to Planned Parenthood and the ultimatum from the Obama administration that the Catholic Church and its institutions had a year to find a way to violate their consciences and...

When Vatican I defined the personal infallibility of the Pope, it was understood by the Fathers of that Council that the teaching was incomplete: the council fathers knew that, at some time in the future, the teaching would have to be completed to address the authority of the Ordinary Magisterium as well. That task was left to Vatican II. One of the forgotten teachings of Vatican II was its definition of the infallibility of the Ordinary Magisterium: namely, that the Pope doesn't have to declare something ex cathedra in order for it to be considered infallible; that the Church's ordinary...

1st Amendment: Catholic bishops on Sunday issued a response to ObamaCare's mandates on providing contraception in violation of conscience and religious freedom. The message was simple: We will not comply. It was hardly a profile in courage when the Obama administration, hoping to kick the issue down the road past the November election, announced last Friday that Catholic hospitals and other religious institutions will have an extra year to comply with a new requirement that most health plans provide contraceptive benefits at no cost to their members. On Sunday, America's Catholic bishops in an open letter to their parishioners and...

The Catholic Church has taken a rather strong stand in opposing the Obama administration's requirement that the church provide contraceptive medicine and treatments as a required component of Obamacare. Apparently the administration is in accord with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in shrugging off concerns about the "conscience thing" that has forced the Catholic Church to denounce this policy from the pulpit during Mass on this past Sunday all over America. The government is requiring the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and the congregants who are devout Catholics, to fund such contraceptive medicine for all lay employees of Catholic grammar...

The decision last week by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reject the appeals of scores of religious leaders and retain a very narrow “religious” exemption from Obamacare’s so-called contraception mandate has ignited an uproar among Catholic leaders, as well it should — because it’s hard to fathom a government dictate more offensive than this one. Here’s how we got where we are: Obamacare includes within its massive delegation of power to the federal government the authority to define what constitutes “preventive services” that must be covered by all health-insurance plans sold and purchased in the United States,...

Confession – Is It Still Necessary? July 28th, 2009 by Gary ZimakOne of the harsh realities facing the Catholic Church is the fact that many of her members no longer receive the sacrament of Confession on a regular basis. For one reason or another, many Catholics don’t feel the need to go to Confession. Let’s look at some of the common objections and discuss why the sacrament of Confession is still as relevant today as it was when Jesus instituted it 2000 years ago. “I confess my sins directly to Christ. Why do I need to go through a ‘middle...

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi blasted Catholics for fighting for the right not to perform or fund abortions, describing their abhorrence for supporting abortions as “this conscience thing,” in remarks to the Washington Post. Last month, during a debate in the House over a bill to stop abortion funding in the health care bill and to strengthen conscience rights on abortion, Pelosi had described the bill as “savage,” claiming that it would allow doctors to let women “die on the floor” because they could refuse to perform an abortion. In her...

Sarah Palin's true role will be revealed in her next contribution to conservatism. The first token will be seen in her participation in primaries on behalf of conservatives against rinos. After the election, assuming a Republican president and a Republican Senate, look for Sarah Palin to assume the role of the conscience of conservatism. When Sarah Palin burst onto the national scene she was reflexively and viscerally loathed by the left. The left's reaction was visceral in the sense that it was not cerebral. They loathed Sarah Palin, they could do no other, and they did not even know why....

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Two people have been charged with burglary after police said they stole property but later returned it because they felt bad. According to arrest records, 24-year-old Eugene Carrier Jr. admitted to police that he unlawfully entered a home on Driftwood Drive and stole property. Police said 21-year-old Katherine Hunt waited outside. Carrier gave the stolen items to Hunt and they drove away together, police said. Hunt said that a few days later, they returned the stolen items to the victim because they felt bad about what they had done, according to arrest records.

Adult First Confession Candidates (preparing for Confirmation/First Communion), you need to go to confession sometime this Lent, that is, before the Easter Vigil. The Elect (preparing for Baptism), you don’t have to go to Confession this Lent, because Baptism itself washes away all sins. But sometime after Baptism, you should think about going to Confession, since regular Confession is an excellent habit to get into. Baptism --- by God’s grace -- makes you clean. Confession--- by God’s grace--- helps you stay that way. 1. Absolutely commit to doing it. Set a date. Put it on your calendar (in ink!) And...

Santorum is going to get a lot of heat for this. When the Islamic supremacist tools in the mainstream media challenge him on it, he should ask them if they think the death penalty for apostates, stoning for adultery, amputation of the hand for theft, the denial of the freedom of speech, and institutionalized second-class status for women and non-Muslims is not evil. They will then, following some smooth Islamic supremacist deceiver, claim that those things are not part of Sharia; Santorum should then challenge them to name one Muslim country that has ever implemented Sharia without implementing those measures,...

Booklist review of "Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life," by Robert Moss, on Amazon.com: This is more and better than just a book about how to remember and understand dreams, although it is that kind of book and as good as any such recently published. Moss covers all the expected terrain, from how to train the mind to recall its nightly narratives, through how to unravel meaning from them, to how to start and sustain a dream group. But his book excels because he extends its purview to include shamanic dreaming, dreams of dead loved ones, healing dreams,...

In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.( I John 2:10-12)Cain and Abel were brothers. Both of them were strict Monotheistic worshippers also. But that is where the similarity...

A brush of idealism paints the 1st-century church as a nostalgic example of community and perfection. The congregation in Corinth, however, was anything but ideal. Rather than sharing their possessions, the Corinthians would sue each other to get more stuff. Rather than eating meals together, the Corinthians would cut in line during communion to get drunk off the wine. And rather than communal singing, the Corinthians had communal sex. I’m A.J. Hamilton with Mars Hill Church in Seattle. In this sermon series, Pastor Mark Driscoll teaches on the letter known as 1 Corinthians, which the Apostle Paul wrote to untangle...

A woman, who helped a barbershop owner steal an Adenium plant from a family 20 years ago, bought an Adenium plant and secretly returned it to the family together with an apologising note out of deep regret. The incident took place in Aulong New Village on 6 October 2010. According to plant receiver Wu Jiajia, he found a plant and a note left in front of the backdoor of his house when he returned home with his wife and children. In the note, the person who returned the plant wrote that she was 11 years old and was working in...

This afternoon, less than two weeks before the start of a civil rights trial in Tacoma federal court, attorneys for the State of Washington told a federal judge that the State would seek to create new rules for pharmacists with conscientious objections. The new regulations would give the plaintiffs in the lawsuit–the owners of Ralph’s Thriftway pharmacy and two pharmacists–what they’ve wanted all along: the right to refuse to stock or dispense Plan B (the so-called “morning after pill�) based on their conscientious objection.This is an enormous about-face for the State, which has for several years maintained that it had...

What is the impact of the current forms of gathering and transmitting information from person to person? Can people be affected by communications they don't use, or even know how to use? There were five of us around a table in church this morning. All of us used the internet at least somewhat. Most of us did not use Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. Our uses of the photo and video capacities of this generation of cell phones, fell someplace in the middle. But with some thought, the answer was clear. Whether or not we use these means of communication, they...

A heroic homeless man, stabbed after saving a Queens woman from a knife-wielding attacker, lay dying in a pool of blood for more than an hour as nearly 25 people indifferently strolled past him, a shocking surveillance video obtained by The Post reveals. Some of the passers-by paused to stare at Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax last Sunday morning and others leaned down to look at his face. He had jumped to the aid of a woman attacked on 144th Street at 88th Road in Jamaica at 5:40 a.m., was stabbed several times in the chest and collapsed as he chased his...

Featured Term (selected at random):DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE A state of mind when it cannot certainly decide for or against a course of action and leaves the person unsure about the morality of what one is to do, or what one may have done. One sign of a doubtful conscience is that it gives rise to a positive judgment with a prudent fear of being wrong, or more commonly to a negative judgment in which the person does not know whether an act is lawful or not. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal...

Wow. Wow. Wow. Not a surprise "Wow." But like "wow" is Senate candidate Martha Coakley so politically unaware that she just said what all those liberals actually think about religious people. Martha Coakley said on the radio that she's against conscience protections and then added in answer to a question about Catholics in particular: "you can have religious freedom but you probably shouldn’t work in an emergency room.” So what she's saying is that you can believe whatever you want but you have to do what the government tells you to do. So you can have your religion as long...

The following YouTube clip is shocking audio of Massachusetts Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate, Martha Coakley, arrogantly informing Catholics (and, by extension, other Christian believers who might wish to exercise their religious rights of conscience), “You can have religious freedom, you probably shouldn’t work in the emergency room.” [video goes here - view at source link] Attorney General Coakley, with all due respect to her office, is wrong. Her statement mischaracterizes the law and, if applied, would amount to unlawful religious discrimination. Religious freedom means much more than believers merely being free to voluntarily segregate themselves from certain professions...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi / Archbishop George Niederauer San Francisco, Calif., Jan 13, 2010 / 05:46 pm (CNA).- Archbishop George Niederauer responded today to Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) recent comments that she has “some concerns about the Church's position respecting a woman's right to choose.” Justifying her decision to support abortion by citing her free will “is entirely incompatible with Catholic teaching,” the archbishop insisted.Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi told Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift in a December 21, 2009 interview that she disagrees with the Church on certain issues but considers herself a “practicing Catholic.” “I have...

I sent the following letter to each of 100 Senators this week. Thank you for reading this open letter to the Senate. Dear [Ohio] Senator [Sherrod] Brown, I am uninsured by choice and will not be insured by any individual, not by any employer, not by government, federal or otherwise. This is a personal decision and is no one’s prerogative to interfere therewith. I do not recognize the authority of the United States government to legislate personal attitudes or personal consumer purchases. My reasons for reaching this conclusion are my own and not subject to review or judgment by any...

Do purely evil individuals exist who can hide their true nature from the rest of the world? And are these individuals drawn into politics as a conduit for dominating an unsuspecting and acquiescent populace? There is a theory that evil is a pathological disorder. The observation that psychopaths, including sociopaths and narcissists, all exhibit chronically evil behavior is a persuasive argument toward that theory. In Andrew M. Lobaczewski's book, Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, the case is made for equating evil and psychosis in the political arena:

What do John Lennon, Glenn Beck, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn all have in common? The answer (and question) appears to be something no major political party in America appears able to grasp. While the GOP is looking for the leak in the roof, selling out conservative values to include more in the “big tent”, the big tent (the new and improved fiscal responsible one of course, sans “social values”), is swiftly being washed downstream, heading for the perilous cliff. Splash, crash, there goes another one! 9-9-09 SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Republican state lawmaker from Southern California was ousted Wednesday from...

Francisco Caamano, Spain's Minister of Justice Madrid, Spain, Aug 14, 2009 / 04:13 pm (CNA).- The Collegial Medical Organization and various pro-life groups in Spain have strongly rejected statements by the country’s Minister of Justice, Francisco Caamano, who said Thursday that “there is no room for conscientious objection” when it comes to abortion.   The president of the Collegial Medical Organization, Dr. Juan Jose Rodriguez Sendin, said, “The right doctors have in Spain to conscientious objection is going to be respected, whether they like it or not, and it is better this is accepted on good rather than on bad...

Modern liberals have a habit of denying the inevitable consequences of their policies. They refuse to concede that a healthcare bureaucracy created and run by persons who embrace utilitarian views of human life might unsettle Americans concerned that government would, as Senator Chuck Grassley put it this week, “pull the plug on Grandma.” And they seem baffled by those who find President Obama’s professed desire to “reduce the number of abortions” difficult to reconcile with his efforts to subsidize and expand access to them. Worst of all is the left’s position on conscience protections for those with religious or moral...

Our teenagers are more sexually active than any generation of youth before them. They also are consuming more pornography and compromising basic moral standards more often. It seems that many of them have lost not only their innocence, but their conscience, too. The plethora of negative and immoral behaviors glorified by a media world that's gone stark raving mad -- combined with graphic, non-judgmental sex education and a highly sexualized culture in general -- causes many of them to lose understanding of what is wrong and what is right. When a young child's sensibilities are constantly violated, and he begins...

If there is one part of the spiritual life that St. Ignatius stressed, it was the daily--and even twice daily--examination of conscience. As we read the Spiritual Exercises, we may be overwhelmed by the minute detail of St. Ignatius' treatment of what he calls the particular examination of conscience. At the same time, he is careful to provide, "Some Notes on Scruples." It is very important, therefore, that we form a clear and correct conscience. This means that we cultivate a sensitive judgment which is alert to the least offense against the Divine will and, at the same time,...

New York City, N.Y., Jul 28, 2009 / 05:12 am (CNA).- "It felt like a horror film unfolding," said Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, the Brooklyn nurse who says she was forced to aid an abortion against her will. Now Cenzon-DeCarlo is speaking out, describing the terror she felt as she was asked to sacrifice her religious convictions for the sake of her job.Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a devout Catholic, says she has been having nightmares and difficulty sleeping ever since the incident took place on May 24, reports the New York Post."I couldn't believe that this could happen," Cenzon-DeCarlo told the Post, describing how...

Conscience or Career? By Alan Burkhart More and more often we encounter news of an employee forced to choose between his or her job and performing an act which that person finds morally reprehensible. This occurs most frequently in the medical and pharmaceutical professions. Consider the case of Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. According to a recent article in the New York Post: A Brooklyn nurse [Cenzon-DeCarlo] claims she was forced to choose between her religious convictions and her job when Mount Sinai Hospital ordered her to assist in a late-term abortion against...

Gov. Bobby Jindal Baton Rouge, La., Jul 12, 2009 / 05:48 am (CNA).- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a law expanding conscience protections for health care workers beyond abortion.House Bill 517, sponsored by Democratic State Rep. Bernard LeBas, allows any person to refuse to provide abortions, distribute “abortifacient drugs,” work on human embryonic stem cell research or cloning, or participate in euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.The drug provision is intended to include the “morning-after pill” but would not extend to regular birth control, the Times-Picayune reports.The Jindal administration said the measure is necessary to uphold the individual rights of...

The most overturned appellate court has teed up another case for the Supreme Court to consider — and likely soon. The 9th Circuit overturned an injunction in a district court case, allowing the state of Washington to force a pharmacy to stock and dispense morning-after pills, which causes the abortion of an embryo in the early days of a pregnancy. The pharmacy owners had objected, claiming that the law violated their religious practice:

We reported earlier on the president’s meeting with the Catholic press and his promise regarding conscience-clause protection. For his exact words on the subject, read on. “I think that the only reason that my position may appear unclear is because it came in the wake of a last-minute, 11th-hour change in conscience clause provisions that were pushed forward by the previous administration that we chose to reverse,� said President Obama. “But my underlying position has always been consistent, which is I’m a believer in conscience clauses. I was a supporter of a robust conscience clause in Illinois for Catholic hospitals...

It seems one man’s religious freedom is another man’s “ridiculous prejudice.” One government official fumed that Catholic doctors were refusing to perform abortions-abortions that were perfectly legal. He wrote in a memo: “After all, these scruples are in most cases nothing but ridiculous prejudices . . . One is tempted to ask: where does state authority come in these cases, or else, is the state, perhaps, not anxious to assert its authority in this particular instance?” Well, Nazi Germany was seldom hesitant to assert its authority, even over religion and individual conscience. As described in the June/July issue of First...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The president of the U.S. bishops' conference and two members of Congress have called on President Barack Obama to make good on something he said in his May 17 speech to University of Notre Dame graduates, namely that he wished to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion." In a May 22 statement, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said he was grateful for Obama's promise to support conscience clauses. At a May 19 press conference in Washington and in a letter sent that day to the president, Reps. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Chris Smith,...

Friday May 22, 2009 Request by Louisiana Hospital for Summary Judgment against Pro-Life Nurse "Denied": State Supreme Court By Hilary WhiteCOVINGTON, Louisiana, (LifeSiteNews.com) - The case of a pro-life nurse in Louisiana will go to trial after four years of legal dispute. Nurse Toni Lemly contests being demoted in 2005 from her job at a Covington hospital for refusing to dispense the abortifacient 'morning after' abortion pill, Plan B. With a single-word refusal, "Denied," the Louisiana State Supreme Court refused to grant a request by the hospital to give a summary judgment against Lemly. In 2005, attorneys with the...

Wednesday May 20, 2009 Congressmen Challenge Obama to Follow Through on Notre Dame Statement, Stop Efforts to Repeal Conscience Regulation By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, D.C., May 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - During his commencement address at Notre Dame on Sunday, President Obama said he was in favor of what he termed a "sensible conscience clause" as well as a reduction in abortions. In response two U.S. congressmen yesterday held a press conference and sent a letter to President Obama calling on him to publicly forgo his efforts to rescind the Bush era conscience protection regulation.The Obama administration in February began the process...

The topic of torture is in the headlines again, resuscitated by the Democrats, an assembly most grievously afflicted with the bane of idleness. The reasons, of course, are manifold, leading among which is the fact that the Obama experiment is desperately in need of a compelling distraction from the dreadful economic results it has thus far yielded. There are also the latent vestiges of unresolved animus toward the previous administration from a boisterous fringe that refuses to be pacified. But one reason for having a renewed interest in this issue which liberal democrats can never be accused of is that...

The renewed debate over enhanced interrogation techniques is just another episode in the hopelessly naive search for the ultimate oxymoron -- humane war. "Shocks the conscience" is a key phrase in the CIA documents that the Obama administration released. Obama's motive for releasing the memos is fertile ground for speculation. (If it's part of his strategy to be a uniter, it isn't working.) It's difficult not to assume it had something to do with politics beyond the stated motive of promoting transparency in government. The Federal Government is as inherently transparent as lead, except in cases of dramatic waste and...

Doctors from across the country have come to Washington to try to save a federal regulation that gives added protection to medical workers who choose not to perform certain procedures, like abortion, that they morally object to. "It is open season on healthcare professionals of conscience," said David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association. "Discriminate at will." Though a number of "provider protection" laws have been on the books for decades, some doctors complained they weren't being enforced. So just before he left office, President Bush enacted a federal regulation calling for better enforcement and mandating that some medical...

Physicians oppose Obama's plan to gut 'conscience' rule Pro-life physicians, nurses and other health care providers are urging Americans to contact the White House by the end of tomorrow to urge tolerance for those who do not want to provide medical services that violate their religious beliefs.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Dr. John T. Bruchalski would rather close the doors of his highly successful Fairfax, Va., medical practice than violate his conscience if he is forced to offer services that violate the basic tenets of his Catholic faith. A pro-life obstetrician and gynecologist whose Tepeyac Family Center delivered 629 babies in 2008, Bruchalski is concerned that a Department of Health and Human Services proposal to rescind a conscience protection regulation for health care workers would force him to perform abortions or, at the very least, refer patients to physicians who offer the procedure. Bruchalski told Catholic News Service...

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art. - From the original Hippocratic Oath used in America until the late 20th Century Is there anything more fundamental than the right to refuse to kill for the state? As Americans, we have given steadfast honor to this bedrock individual liberty throughout our history. Even in times of all-out war, when millions and millions of...

Newfoundland, Canada, Apr 6, 2009 / 07:31 pm (CNA).- The executive director of an international organization of obstetricians and gynecologists has expressed “deep concern” regarding the Obama Administration's proposed canceling of conscience protections for pro-life doctors and medical professionals. He warned the changes would further devalue human life, characterizing them as “a form of totalitarianism.” Dr. Robert L. Walley, MaterCare executive director, in an April 6 letter said conscientious objection has “long been a tenet of civilized societies and it is now proposed that this right be denied by the rescinding protection of doctors.” “By interfering in the freedom to...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate on Thursday night rejected an amendment from a pro-life senator that would have provided conscience protection on abortion for doctors and medical centers. The amendment comes at a time when President Barack Obama is considering overturning further protections.Sen Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, sponsored an amendment to the Senate budget bill that would protect the right of conscience for health care workers.His budget amendment was to "protect the freedom of conscience for patients and the right of health care providers to serve patients without violating their moral and religious convictions."However, the Senate rejected the...