Free Republic

April 23, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - On Saturday, thousands of pro-family Americans are expected to flock to Washington, D.C. for the third annual March for Marriage.Organized by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), March-related events will begin at noon, with a rally from 12:00-1:00, and then the march itself at 1:00. Participants will gather at the mall in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.  On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex "marriage," or if states should be allowed to make their own marriage policy.The will take place...

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA. Vatican City, Apr 24, 2015 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis met April 17 with Laurent Stefanini, the openly gay foreign service officer named by France to be ambassador to the Vatican. News of the private audience, which was kept strictly confidential, was reported April 22 by the French magazine Le Canard Enchainé, although the magazine said that the meeting took place April 18. A source from the Vatican Secretariat of State told CNA that the meeting actually took place in the late evening of April 17, and confirmed that it...

Barack Obama paved the way, and now Hillary too has "evolved" on the position of redefining marriage to include two persons of the same sex. "Hillary Clinton supports marriage equality and hopes the Supreme Court will come down on the side of same-sex couples being guaranteed that constitutional right," Adrienne Elrod, a Clinton spokeswoman, said in a statement, CNN reported.  Clinton, like Obama, opposed same-sex "marriage" in 2008, the last time she made a run for the White House. She supported the idea of civil unions instead and did not proclaim her personal support for same-sex "marriage" until she retired as...

Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, speaks at the March for Marriage near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., last June. CNS photo Same-sex marriage currently is legal in 36 states — or 37, depending on the outcome of a dispute between state and federal courts in Alabama. But in only 11 of those states was it legalized by referendums or legislation. In the others, it was imposed by courts.It is generally expected, though not certain, that the Supreme Court soon will follow this pattern and impose same-sex marriage nationwide. The court on April 28 will devote two...

• A year ago today, I posted what was probably my most controversial editorial: "Welcome to the Reign of 'Gay'". With that in mind, it seems fitting that my first "Carl's Cuts" in several months takes a look at recent controversies over the spreading Reign. • I first read about Indiana's Senate Bill 101—aka, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)—via a sports news feed on my iPhone. The headline referenced "Indiana's anti-gay law", but the article did not explain what the law actually stated. Instead, it had quotes from sports commentators gravely uttering banalities and clichés—something, admittedly, they do...

Have you wondered why militant GLBT activists adopted something as seemingly benign as a rainbow, incorporated it into a flag and attempt to use it as a statement for "equality"? Like many and movements symbols, origins and meanings use by those movements are not necessarily what they purport to be. In fact, sometimes they are outright lies. The current politically correct meaning of the rainbow flag is as follows. Now of course such terms seem perfectly innocent. Who could possibly disagree with any of the above concepts or words? You're not against sunshine and nature are you? If you do...

Gay activists and corporate leaders assailed a new Indiana allows that extends legal protections to religious business owners and individuals and vowed to boycott the state, according to CNBC. The law, signed by Pence on Thursday, allows businesses to use an owner's faith as a reason to refuse service to customers, including same-sex married couples. The law risks setting off a business chill in the state, with money-making conferences and major corporations threatening to pull out. Big corporations were among the loudest critics. Columbus, Indiana-based Cummins, the world's largest diesel engine maker, opposed the new law in strong terms. "Cummins believes...

Arthur Fitzmaurice criticized the Church’s 'poor and dangerous theology' on homosexuality. LOS ANGELES, March 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- A speaker at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles annual conference for religious educators on the weekend denounced the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, saying the Catechism’s language on the issue is “abusive” and “gravely evil.”Speaking at the conference of 800 catechists from the U.S. and Canada, Arthur Fitzmaurice, the resource director for the Oakland-based Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry a former co-chair of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' Catholic Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Persons, criticized what he called the...

A screen shot of the website of the Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabbana, which states, "The family is our point of reference" (www.dolcegabbana.com/dgfamily/) One of the world's most famous and prestigious fashion houses has come under barrage of harsh and angry attacks after stating to the Italian press that, "The only family is the traditional one." Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of the Italian fashion house Dolce and Gabbana are themselves gay men. All the more surprising, then, that other high profile homosexuals should create a social media tsunami against the pair. Elton John, the English singer and...

Background:San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, well-known for his uncompromising defense of orthodox Catholic teaching and pro-life and pro-family values, urgently needs your help!Gay activists, politicians and dissident Catholics have launched an all-out media attack campaign against the archbishop after he recently announced that he wants to codify a long-standing, commonsense expectation that Catholic schoolteachers in his diocese uphold and display public integrity regarding Catholic teachings on a wide variety of topics.This includes Catholic teaching on controversial issues like abortion, contraception, chastity, and same-sex “marriage,” as well the Eucharist and the teaching authority of the Church.Opponents of the archbishop are...

Dear Justice Kennedy,June is nigh, and with it will comes your ruling on the most contentious political issue of our time: marriage.I write because I am one of many children with gay parents who believe we should protect marriage. I believe you were right when, during the Proposition 8 deliberations, you said “the voice of those children [of same-sex parents] is important.” I’d like to explain why I think redefining marriage would actually serve to strip these children of their most fundamental rights.It’s very difficult to speak about this subject, because I love my mom. Most of us children...

The pontiff has a bad habit of dissing women and marginalizing sexual minorities. Is he as liberal as his image suggests?News emerged last week that Pope Francis has strongly criticized modern theories of gender, comparing them to the educational policies of Hitler and the destructive possibilities of the nuclear arms race.In an interview included in a new book by Andrea Tornielli and Giacomo Galeazzi, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, and released in part in the Italian daily La Stampa, Francis compared gender theory to nuclear arms: “Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few...

Visitors line up outside U.S. Supreme Court in Washington Oct. 6, 2014, to get a seat inside to watch oral arguments on the first day of the new term. (CNS/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters) The likelihood that the Supreme Court next June will announce its discovery of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage raises an obvious question for the Catholic Church: What do we do now? Two steps come to mind. First, press for strong legal protections for individuals and institutions conscientiously unable to cooperate with a legal regime that requires sweeping concessions to the LGBT agenda. Second, give serious thought...

Yesterday, Mormon leaders announced a kind of via media on gay rights. In a public statement, leaders agreed to …support legislation where it is being sought to provide protections in housing, employment and some other areas where LGBT people do not have protections, while ensuring that religious freedom is not compromised.In other words, the church proposes to give a little in order to get a little. If I understand their statement of principles correctly, they are now willing to acknowledge sexual orientation as a protected class along with religion, race, and sex. They are willing to do this in certain...

In November of 1996 First Things hosted a symposium titled “The Judicial Usurpation of Politics” in which contributors discussed the threat to American democracy posed by the Supreme Court instated imposition of abortion on America. Nothing rivals the sheer volume of innocent human beings killed by abortion and yet First Things saw fit to focus not on the babies themselves or the mothers and fathers, but on the threat to democracy and the American experiment posed by the judicial over-reach that legalized abortion.The legalization of same-sex “marriage” does not bring with it the innocent blood which cries to heaven,...

Archbishop: "It's hard to imagine how the essential meaning of marriage ... consistent with every society throughout all of human history, could be declared illegal" Washington, D.C., January 17, 2015 (Zenit.org) | 192 hits The U. S. Supreme Court granted a request Friday to review the November 2014 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upholding the constitutionality of marriage laws in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The decision regarding same-sex marriage is expected in June or July.Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and...

As Christians around the world got ready to contemplate the innocence of the child Jesus, last week the Russian Orthodox Church took on a UNICEF paper that says children have LGBT rights.The Patriarch’s Commission on the Family of the Russian Orthodox Church released a scathing statement criticizing a UNICEF position paper that urges countries to protect LGBT rights because, it says, it is in the “best interests of children.” The Commission turns the tables on UNICEF and says: “Placing children to be raised by same-sex couples is a gross violation of the rights and interests of a child.”The Orthodox Commission...

American activists against “reparative therapy” asked the UN Committee on Torture to define the practice as a form of torture and a violation of international law. At issue is the treatment sought by persons who struggle with unwanted same-sex desires. Many therapists still offer the treatment to those who ask for it, even though professional organizations for the therapeutic community say same-sex desire is not a form of mental illness and discourage this kind of therapy. There is a movement in the United States to ban all such therapy by law. Already, New Jersey and California have banned reparative therapy...

In the wake of a federal court decision legalizing same-sex “marriage” in North Carolina, at least six judges in the state have resigned rather than be forced to officiate such unions. All stepped down, since October 10, because they believe marriage is a union between one man and one woman. They are: John Kallam Jr. (Rockingham County), Gilbert Breedlove (Swain County), Bill Stevenson (Gaston County), Tommy Holland (Graham County), Gayle Myrick (Union County) and Jeff Powell (Jackson County). The decision wasn’t easy for Stevenson, whose family depends on his $50,000 per year salary as their primary income. "I prayed about...

The Department of Theatre and Media Arts is releasing the first public screening of the student film “Pride and Faith” on Oct. 24. The documentary, written and directed by BYU alumnus Scott Raia, explores the complex lives of two LGBT students as they reconcile their identity and faith. Raia filmed “Pride and Faith” during his senior year for his capstone project as a film student. He hoped to become an ally of the LGBT community after broadening his awareness on the subject. “As I prepared for graduation, I looked to my future and some of my friends and their futures,”...