Free Republic

Public opinion is swinging back, thanks to progressives’ excesses. I woke up yesterday morning deeply confused. If there is one thing that I thought I’d learned over the past few weeks, it’s that history has a “side,” and I don’t happen to be on it. My views — pro-life, pro-traditional-marriage — were yesterday’s news. The rainbow White House, rainbow Facebook, and — most important — the rainbow Supreme Court all told me so. The culture war was over. All that was left was the mop-up operation. I should hightail it back to my “house of worship” — which the Left...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) came out with a new video on Tuesday, highlighting a straight Iowa couple who operates a wedding services business and refused to do business with a same-sex couple. It's a marked contrast with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who used her presidential launch video to draw attention to same-sex couples who were about to get married. While some GOP candidates have tried to avoid talking much about same-sex marriage, Cruz has been more vocal in his opposition. In April, he introduced legislation to push a constitutional amendment protecting states that barred marriage equality. And...

In the wake of last month’s Supreme Court ruling establishing same-sex marriage as a nationwide constitutional right, critics and supporters of the decision alike wondered what the future might hold for Americans of faith whose objections to such unions were unswayed by the judicial outcome. Will Evangelical photographers, Muslim florists, and Catholic bakers be coerced into serving gay weddings, or will they be sued and harassed into dust by the Left’s highly-choreographed pro-“tolerance” enforcement squad? Early indicators are mixed, so expect a lot more litigation on this front in the coming years, including lawsuits against churches and religious charities....

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/07/21/cruz-religious-rally-video-featuring-odgaards/30445803/

President Vladimir Putin, former KGB agent of a once-atheist nation, rebukes America, a once-Christian nation by saying that by forsaking traditional Christian values and putting same-sex marriage on the same level as traditional marriage with a man, woman, and children, the nation is forsaking God and believing in Satan and will be led into degradation and chaotic darkness. At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American conservatives to label the officially atheist Soviet Union a “godless nation.” More than two decades on, history has come full circle, as the Kremlin and its allies in the Russian...

Gay marriage and abortion have little in common except for how each became federal law without ever being codified by Congress. The U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision delivers social change the citizenry not only did not want but which it actively fought against.

Aaron and Melissa Klein, Christians and former owners of a bakery in Oregon who were ordered by a judge to pay a fine of $135,000 for declining to bake a cake for a lesbian marriage ceremony, have set a record on a crowdfunding site by raising $352,500 in two months, after their campaign was shut down by another site. The campaign by "Sweet Cakes by Melissa" has raised more than any previous campaign by individuals in the three-year history of the crowdfunding site Continue to Give, site founder Jesse Wellhoefer told The Washington Times. The bakery has received $352,500 through...

If Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul is (politically) from Mars, then the leftist feminist writer Naomi Wolf is from Venus. But there's at least one thing this odd couple agrees on here on Earth: The government should get out of the marriage business. Following the Supreme Court's gay marriage ruling, Sen. Paul argued that Southern states that want to stop issuing marriage licenses were right. The government shouldn't "confer a special imprimatur upon a new definition of marriage," he said. It should leave marriage to churches and temples, regardless of how these institutions define marriage, and let consenting adults of...

Yesterday, Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern wrote a piece that mainly disagrees with my (orthodox Christian) belief that homosexual sex is morally wrong — as is all sexual intercourse outside of marriage. I’m shocked — shocked — that a liberal writer on LGBT issues would take issue with my rather conventional Christian world view. What I did find interesting, however, was this statement: His thesis is that homosexuality is like abortion: an evil to be combatted, anathema to basic Christian values. Gay marriage is wrong, he suggests, because gay sex is wrong—an immoral choice, not an aspect of an immutable...

A 'straw man' or real threat? Conservatives warn that IRS could target gay marriage opponents.A brief exchange during Supreme Court arguments in the same-sex marriage case has exploded into a full-blown crisis for some conservatives who warn that the IRS could start revoking the tax-exempt status of religious groups that oppose gay marriage. The attorneys general of 15 states have written Congress asking for legislation to protect religious schools and other groups. Bills in the House and Senate are gaining support. Officials are responding to the Supreme Court ruling in June that required every state to recognize same-sex marriages....

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has revealed she is opposed to gay marriage and believes matrimony should be restricted to just heterosexual couples. The twice-married Christian said that while she believes anti-gay discrimination must be 'eliminated', she draws the line at same sex marriage because there has to be 'a difference at some point'. The revelations came during a 30-minute YouTube interview with German social media star Florian Mundt, also known as LeFloid, who pressed Merkel on why she refused to support gay marriage but happily endorsed equal benefits and tax breaks for same-sex couples. Speaking during the show, Merkel said:...

'ITS NOT PROGRESSIVE TO ALLOW PEOPLE RETIRE EARLY' Leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras talks about the latest austerity measures including a 67 year old retirement age. "A CONSUMPTION TAX WOULD REVITALIZE THE NATION'S ECONOMY' Conservative radio host and 'friend' of John Boehner Bill Cunningham on his Sunday July 12, 2015 radio program. Political parties and political media claim there are major differences between major parties. The Progressive parties of the Left are against cutting benefits and the Conservative parties of the Right are against raising taxes. But then there's the hard truth of economic reality where nations are deeper...

Last week, I railed against the persistent doubts of equal marriage rights. I said that marriage should be solely about consensual love of adults, and not based on the traditional, archaic, child-rearing institution of one man and one woman. Well, there was one concern that opponents of same-sex marriage often raised that I did not address, and I’d like to do that now. Yes, you’re right, if we allow same-sex marriage, then we should also allow legal rights to polygamy, a marriage to multiple partners. Because yes, if we define marriage to be about the pillars of love and consent,...

The head of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is weighing in on the firing of teacher from a Montgomery County Catholic school, who allegedly lost her job because of her same-sex marriage. Margie Winters says she lost her job as the religious education director at Waldron Mercy Academy because of her marriage to Andrea Vittori. More than 100 people gathered together in support Winters at General Wayne Park in Lower Merion Township on Sunday afternoon. "I'm here to support Margie and let her know what was done to her was unjust, discriminatory and unfair," said Anthony Arechavale, parent. "I think it's...

The June 26 Supreme Court ruling is being hailed as a victory for inclusivity, tolerance and love. It is also being described as a long-sought destination — a place where the soldiers of “marriage equality” could rest and savor their hard-won gold star of normalcy. It is already proving to be neither of these things. The soldiers aren’t resting. They’re reaching for more. Not more equality and normality, mind you, but more destruction and desecration of cultural institutions they blame for their unhappiness. The U.S. military is an enormous cultural institution that has been under relentless attack recently, and now...

Many do not adequately understand the issue of homosexuality. Recently, I went undercover and asked individuals who identify as gay the following question: “Do you believe being gay is strictly genetic?” What I found was shocking. I learned that many attribute their own sexual orientation to molestation. After finding out just how many gays claim they are gay because they were molested, I decided to change my script, in an attempt to try to figure out who was doing the molesting. What I found was nothing less than horrific. I interviewed individuals at an average gay bar on an average...

While gays are our siblings in Christ, the gay lifestyle is nothing like the straight lifestyle. That’s why we have to condemn the gay lifestyle because we love gays as people, just as we condemn smoking out of love for smokers. One of the key reasons that gay “marriage” has won as much public support as it has is that few people understand how harmful the massively promiscuous gay lifestyle is.  The Big Gay Lie (BGL) is that the gay lifestyle is the same as the straight lifestyle. The BGL has a number of facets including: Lots of people are...

July 14, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- There has been no shortage of anti-Christian rhetoric from various media outlets in the fallout from the Supreme Court decision decreeing homosexual "marriage" across the country. "Too many Christians, not enough lions," a derisive reference capitalizing on the Christians martyred in ancient Rome, was also how one LGBT activist responded to Catholic Vote's (CV) pro-marriage "Not Alone" video, according to CV President Brian Burch. Released the day of the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the CV video logged more than 1.3 million views in the first 10 days. "Seeing the power of our message, LGBT activists...

In the aftermath of Obergefell v. Hodges, pastors and church members are experiencing a wave of anxiety over what many of them deem the “nightmare scenario”: lawsuits or government action designed to force them to perform or recognize same-sex marriages. While there are — so far — no meaningful judicial precedents that would permit such dramatic interference with churches’ core First Amendment rights, lawsuits challenging church liberties are inevitable. Indeed, the Iowa Civil Rights Commission has declared that prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity “sometimes” apply to churches and has stated that a “church...

A bill introduced to protect churches and religious organizations from IRS and other federal punishment may be gaining steam according to lawmakers; however, only one Democrat currently co-sponsors the religious freedom bill. Congressman Raul Labrador (R-Idaho), a co-founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus, is pushing support for the "First Amendment Defense Act" (H.R. 2802) that is designed to protect same-sex marriage dissenting religious churches and organizations from possible IRS penalties and persecution. While America's "first freedom" is no longer a foregone conclusion in today's cultural climate and new understandings of sexual rights, the "First Amendment Defense Act" would only affect...