Free Republic

In 1787, when delegates at the Constitutional Convention were divided and at an impasse regarding how to build our government and frame the U.S. Constitution, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin appealed to the other delegates to pray for divine intervention to help them out of their darkness: "In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened ... that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning...

Kirsten Powers has done a national service, by virtue of her now-famous USA Today column, of putting the news of the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on the national radar screen. This, of course, is the horror story of a cesspool in Philadelphia posturing as an abortion clinic, operating without inspection for 17 years. Gosnell, the doctor who ran the place, is formally charged with the murder of one woman and seven infants. However, the grand jury report and testimony of family and staff at the trial indicate that if there were records in this dump, where life and...

A group of nearly two dozen Republican lawmakers is threatening to pull state funding from an Iowa community college unless they defund an anti-bullying program that the lawmakers say bullies Christians and conservatives. The Des Moines Area Community College is one of several sponsors of the Iowa Governors Conference on LGBTQ Youth – scheduled to be held next week. The program was founded by Iowa Safe Schools. The college’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter filed a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered that tax and tuition dollars were being used to cover the costs. “It’s outrageous,” said Jake...

With Easter approaching and the Astroturf groundswell for same-sex marriage at its apex, I thought I'd put in a plug for the Bible, whose integrity and timeless principles are under increasing assault in our culture. In fact, what sparked this column was a warning by a nationally prominent Republican to his party that it ought not go "Old Testament" and oppose same-sex marriage. I don't want to turn this column into a rant about same-sex marriage, but I cite this example to illustrate a common tendency to bifurcate the Old Testament and the New Testament and to paint Jesus...

A coalition of Eagle Scouts, Scoutmasters, and parents have launched a new organization vowing to keep sex and politics out of the Boy Scouts of America. “The Boy Scouts are one of the great jewels of American culture,” said John Stemberger, an Eagle Scout and the founder of OnMyHonor.net. Representatives from more than a dozen states gathered in Florida to announce the opposition to any attempt to allow open homosexuality in the BSA. The BSA is expected to offer a proposal that would remove the national rule banning open homosexuality -- and replacing it with a local option. That...

Florida Atlantic University has issued a formal apology to a student that was facing academic charges after he complained about a professor who ordered the class to write the name “Jesus” and then stomp on the pieces of paper. Ryan Rotela, a student at FAU, was accused of violating the student code of conduct after he reported his instructor to university administrators. He was removed from the class, ordered not to contact fellow students, and was facing possible suspension or expulsion – pending the outcome of a student hearing. But after a massive national outcry, the university reversed course Monday...

Dr. Jennifer Morse recently gave a perfectly civil and thoroughly Christian talk to a group of Catholic college students in Iowa. In a speech deeply rooted in compassion, she urged students to reach out to same-sex attracted classmates and offer them friendship. She thought they could benefit from chaste friendships, and that they would not necessarily get much of that type of support from others on campus. The response to Jennifer's speech was predictable. The Gaystapo took to the internet with a series of egregious mischaracterizations of the speech - all of which were intended to intimidate those who would...

In our increasingly politically-correct society, Christmas isn’t the only holiday too hot to handle for school districts. Easter, another holiday rooted in Christian faith, is now being marginalized by governmental entities. School districts and cities across America are holding “Spring egg hunts” and similar events, frequently omitting the word “Easter” from calendars and public announcements. Consider these: • On March 16th, Flat Rock Elementary School in Anderson, South Carolina is holding a “Community Egg Hunt.” • West Shore School District will be holding its “PTO Egg Hunt” on March 16th. • New York’s East Meadow Schools will be holding its...

For people of faith in America, the Obama administration's birth control mandate represents an unprecedented assault on religious conscience. It seems that the President and his surrogates have little appreciation for the role that faith plays in the lives of many Americans, and even less respect for the Constitution's protection of religious liberty. As if to confirm this impression, the U.S. Justice Department is doubling down on the Administration's anti-faith stance with a lawsuit against a German family seeking religious asylum in the United States. According to our esteemed Attorney General, the right to choose the best education for your...

Within the next few months, Justice Anthony Kennedy will likely rule that same-sex marriage is mandated by the Constitution of the United States. The ruling will offend both common sense and Constitutional law. But it will nonetheless become the law of the land. With it, states will be forced to recognize same-sex marriages; same-sex marriage will enter the public school lexicon; religious institutions will be forced to recognize same-sex marriages or lose their tax-exempt status. Religious Americans will be forced into violating their beliefs or facing legal consequences by the government. The First Amendment's guarantee of religious liberty will largely...

I’d like to start off this column about apologetics with an apology. I apologize to all the people I’ve sat next to on airplanes, occasionally exchanging a few words about going to Atlanta but nary a mention about going to heaven. To be precise, I’m no master of evangelism. Any successes I’ve had in focusing the attention of others on what’s most important have been accidental (seems that way to me) and utterly foreordained (by God). So, you are getting the following from me as reporter, not the frequent practitioner I should be—and what I can report is that...

One of the first official acts of the newly installed Pope Francis was to reach out to the Jewish community of Rome, as his predecessor Pope Benedict had done, and he is being greeted warmly by many Jewish leaders worldwide. For most of the last 1,500 years, though, Catholic-Jewish relations have not been so warm. In fact, there was a time when the Catholic Church was rocked with a scandal: It was alleged that the Pope himself was Jewish. But that was almost 1,000 years ago, and the first order of business is to note how well received Pope Francis...

In the Monday, April 4, 2005 Mullings I wrote: I am not certain why I feel as strongly as I do about the passing of Pope John Paul II. I am not Catholic. I am not even Christian. I felt the same way watching the coverage of the Conclave in the Vatican to choose a man to replace Pope Benedict I. I'm not sure why I was so taken by the process and so eager to see who would be chosen. I have proven over the past four or five months that my understanding of American politics is a little...

"The Faith is Europe. And Europe is the Faith," wrote Hilaire Belloc after that bloodbath we call World War I. "Either Europe will return to the Faith or she will perish." By 1938, Belloc concluded Christian Europe was done: "The bad work begun at the Reformation is bearing its final fruit in the dissolution of our ancient doctrines -- the very structure of society is dissolving." He was right. Europe is the dying continent. And looking back at the history of the Old Continent, we see the truth of G.K. Chesterton's insight: When men cease to believe in God, they...

The mayor of a Washington town has directed pastors to stop invoking the name “Jesus Christ” in city council invocations. Don Jensen, the mayor of Longview, Wash., told the Kelso-Longview Ministerial Association that prayers mentioning Christ were not acceptable because they could expose the city to a lawsuit. The decision has sparked controversy in the city – located about 50 miles north of Portland, Ore. Mark Schmutz, who pastors the Northlake Baptist Church, said if they can’t speak the name Jesus Christ, association ministers will no longer provide the invocation. “We need to be able to speak Jesus’ name,”...

Gay rights activists are demanding Tim Tebow back out of a speaking engagement at Liberty University just two weeks after pressuring the New York Jets quarterback to cancel a speaking engagement at the First Baptist Church of Dallas. Tebow is expected to speak this weekend at Wildfire – a men’s conference hosted by the conservative Christian university. His remarks will be closed to the general public. The professional football player is well-known for sharing his faith in Christ – but in recent weeks he’s come under fire from the national media and gay rights activists for speaking in churches...

Journey back with me, if you will, to a simpler time. To a dark and ominous period known as American history up until now. An oppressive period when society actually believed the genitals you left your mother’s womb with determined your gender. A tyrannical time when parents actually parented according to the acknowledged moral standard of the universe, rather than enabling and validating their offspring’s unhealthy tantrums and desires. Thankfully we’ve progressed past that now. We are entering a brave new world. A world where a 6-year old boy in Colorado Springs demanding he’s actually a girl isn’t thought to...

"Here in the hall, she casts an unlikely silhouette -- unassuming in a lineup of proud stares, challenging us once more to look up and draw strength from stillness." Speaker of the House John Boehner was referring to the new statue of Rosa Parks in the Capitol's rotunda. Boehner told a Washington crowd about how Parks' strong religious faith bolstered her at every turn, and gave her the quiet yet steely courage necessary for the tough civil-rights battles that she fought, and which ultimately changed the face of American society. "Humility isn't incompatible with bravery," Boehner reflected. "When we put...

An Advanced Placement World Geography teacher at a Texas high school who encouraged students to dress in Islamic clothing also instructed them to refer to the 9-11 hijackers not as terrorists – but as “freedom fighters,” according to students who were in the class. Students at Lumberton High School were also told to stop referring to the Holocaust as Genocide – instead they were told to use the term “ethnic cleansing.” John Valastro, the superintendent of the Lumberton Independent School District, tells me that the teacher did absolutely nothing wrong. “What is more dangerous – fear and ignorance or education...

Imagine browsing Facebook one day and discovered a photograph of your 14-year-old daughter wearing a burqa – at school. That’s exactly what happened to a parent in Lumberton, Tex. She asked me not to disclose her identity because she fears for her daughter’s safety. Her daughter’s world geography class was supposed to be learning about the continents. Instead, they were given a tutorial in Islam – complete with authentic Muslim garments. Some of the young ladies were photographed – and the image has now gone viral. The students were told the purpose of the class was to change their perceptions...