Free Republic

United Nations follows Pope Francis's lead in declaring international dayWith unanimous vote in the General Assembly, February 4 becomes the International Day of Human Fraternity.The United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously to designate February 4 — the anniversary of the signing of the “Document for Human Fraternity” by Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb — as the “International Day of Human Fraternity.”The General Assembly voted Tuesday and invited Member States and the United Nations system to include this celebration in their calendar beginning in 2021.Supported by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco, Burkina Faso and...

The Department of Justice is also suing a Vermont hospital for forcing a nurse to participate in the killing of an unborn child. WASHINGTON, D.C., December 16, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Today, the Trump administration unveiled steps that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) are taking to enforce federal conscience protection laws by holding California and Vermont officials accountable for anti-life discrimination. The announcement was made during “Life Is Winning: Celebrating 4 Years of Pro-Life Accomplishments,” an event hosted by Vice President Mike Pence at the White House, highlighting the many...

More than two years ago, the Kentucky Court of Appeals issued what should have been an unremarkable ruling in what should have been an unremarkable case.Of course, if that were so, the Kentucky Supreme Court would not be hearing arguments today in the same case, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission v. Hands On Originals.The question before the court is whether the government can force the owner of a promotional print shop to create shirts with messages that violate his faith. The core issue, however, goes much deeper than cotton-poly blends and silk screening. Must Americans surrender their First Amendment rights of...

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are demanding to know why Fox News did not publish a story prior to the 2016 election about an alleged affair years before between porn star Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump. House Committee on Oversight and Reform chair Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) wrote to former Fox News reporter Diana Falzone last month demanding that she turn over any documents relating to Trump’s alleged extramarital affairs. An article in the New Yorker last month alleged that Fox News executive Ken LaCorte spiked the story to protect Trump — a claim LaCorte has vehemently denied,...

Ironically, Beza found his "signal example"8 of how to deal with tyranny and resistance not so much in the work of early Calvinists as in the work of later Lutherans—particularly the Lutheran jurists and theologians who had drafted the Magdeburg Confession of 1550. The Magdeburg Confession was a major distillation of the most advanced Lutheran resistance theories of the day.9 The leaders of the small Saxon city of Magdeburg had drafted this Confession in response to the order of the Holy Roman Emperor to impose by civil law the uniform Catholic doctrines and liturgies being crafted by the Council of...

Russell Moore, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, has joined other faith leaders in raising concerns over the lack of religious liberty protections in President Obama's new executive order. Moore said: “While we don’t know the full implications of this executive order, I am disappointed that this administration persistently violates the freedom of conscience for religious organizations that provide necessary relief for the poor and endangered. The same religious convictions that inspire their social action are the convictions now considered outside the new mainstream of sexual revolutionary fundamentalism. The ones hurt will be...

The Obama administration has prohibited the Kennedy family from practicing its Catholicism, and the Kennedys now intend to ask the Supreme Court to restore their First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. Their case could become one of the most consequential in our nation's history. The issue: Will the most fundamental liberty of all -- freedom of conscience -- survive in post-Obama America? John Kennedy serves as president of Autocam and Autocam Medical, Michigan-based companies that produce automobile components and medical devices. He and his family own the companies, which employ 661 people in the United States. The...

Due to a perceived slight against homosexuality, Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk is in a fight for his career. The Lackland Air Force base first sergeant was told by his commanding officer to clear out his office on Aug. 9. The point of contention reportedly is not about anything Monk said, but what he refused to say. "It's all because he didn't say anything wrong. He thought it," said Steven Branson, pastor of Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio. Monk, his wife and their three teenage sons faithfully attend services each Sunday the pastor said. Branson said he has...

When and Where: 12-1 at the Poff Federal Building, 210 Franklin Rd., SW, Roanoke, VA—(meet at the corner of 3rd St. and Franklin Rd.) Folks - You know what to do. We need a real FReeper showing in Roanoke this Friday. If you're on Facebook, sign up for the Rally, if not, let me know here if you'll be there. Bring your most creative signs and MOABs. (Remember to keep it polite, there are likely to be a lot of nice church people there who may not be used to high sarcasm or Protest Warrior tactics!) Try to get there...

A formidable coalition of 150 Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical leaders are calling on Christians in a new manifesto to reject secular authority – and even engage in civil disobedience – if laws force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other ideas that betray their religious beliefs. On Friday, these leaders released a 4,700-word document – called the "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience." The document was signed by leaders ranging from evangelical leader Chuck Colson to two of the leading Catholic prelates in the U.S., Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New...

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:

Pope: "Non-Negotiable Human Rights" include "Right to Life and Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion" VATICAN CITY, MAY 5, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI addressed members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences yesterday at their plenary session which is focused on the theme of Catholic social teaching and human rights, and called for the promotion of universal human rights based on both faith and reason, affirming the "right to life and the right to freedom of conscience and religion as being at the center of those rights that spring from human nature itself." The Holy Father noted...

In 1997, the National Association of Social Work (NASW) altered its ethics code, ruling that all social workers must promote social justice “from local to global level.” This call for mandatory advocacy raised the question: what kind of political action did the highly liberal field of social work have in mind? The answer wasn’t long in coming. The Council on Social Work Education, the national accreditor of social work education programs, says candidates must fight “oppression,” and sees American society as pervaded by the “global interconnections of oppression.” Now aspiring social workers must commit themselves, usually in writing, to a...

Quebec Mandates Relativistic Ethical and Religious Education For All Students in Province Program includes positive presentation of homosexual families and requires children to question their own religious upbringing By John-Henry Westen QUEBEC CITY, October 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As of the beginning of the 2008 school year, all students in the province of Quebec whether in public school, private school or even homeschooled will be mandated to take a program on "Ethics and Religious Culture" which runs from grade one till the end of high school.  The program is completely relativistic and includes positive presentation of homosexual families and requires...

BREAKING NEWS Four San Diego firefighters charge their superiors forced them to ride in San Diego's Gay Pride parade. “You could not even look at the crowd without getting some kind of sexual gesture. If any crew member were to hang up pictures at the station of what we saw, we would be disciplined.” So said one of four San Diego firefighters who say their superiors forced them, in full uniform and on their city fire truck, to attend the July 21 San Diego “Gay Pride” parade, according to an Aug. 6 press release from the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas...

Illinois Court Rules Pharmacists May Reject Plan B By Peter J. Smith SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, August 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Illinois pharmacists are not obligated to violate their consciences and dispense Plan-B and "emergency contraceptives" according to this week's ruling by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Jeanne Scott ruled Tuesday that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's executive order in April 2005 requiring pharmacies "without delay" to provide Plan-B and other abortifacient "emergency contraceptives" mandated store owners to provide it, but did not mean that pharmacists themselves had to violate their conscience and religious beliefs by dispensing it. Scott's decision means that...

Springfield, IL (LifeNews.com) -- An Illinois pharmacist has won the first battle against Wal-Mart over whether he has to be forced to distribute the morning after pill, which can cause an abortion in limited circumstances. Beardstown pharmacist Ethan Vandersand rejected a request to fill a prescription for the drug last year. That refusal led to disciplinary action from Wal-Mart and a civil rights lawsuit from Vandersand. Vandersand was the only pharmacist on duty at the Wal-Mart store when a Planned Parenthood staff member seeking the Plan B drugs presented the script. The staffer eventually went to another pharmacy in town.The...

Seattle, Jul 27, 2007 / 08:47 am (CNA).- Pharmacists have sued Washington state over a new regulation that requires them to sell emergency contraception, also known as the "morning-after pill,” because it contains no exception for those who object on the basis of belief or conscience. In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen, and Stormans Inc., said the rule that took effect Thursday violates their civil rights by forcing them into choosing between "their livelihoods and their deeply held religious and moral beliefs." "The stakes really couldn't be much higher," plaintiffs' attorney Kristen...

PRETORIA, June 25, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A South African nurse, who in 2004 had been banned from the operating room because of her opposition to abortion, has had her case referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The CCMA is an independent juristic body established after apartheid to settle disputes using consensus and arbitration. Sister Wilhelmien Charles filed suit three years ago when the hospital she worked in as a senior nurse barred her from working when she objected to abortion on religious grounds. Her case was heard this week by the Labour Appeals Court in Braamfontein....

Johannesburg, South Africa (LifeNews.com) -- A South African nurse who faced discrimination for refusing to do abortions had her case heard at an appeals court Friday. The woman filed suit in August 2004 after refusing a hospital's orders to participate in abortions. Sister Wilhelmien Charles has since become the face of those in the medical community who don't want to do abortions. Charles sued the Hospital in Vereeniging because she did not want to be required to do abortions. The suit, filed against Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the Gauteng hospital seeks immediate reinstatement, 50,000 Rand (over $7,400 U.S. dollars),...