http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/moralrelativism/ en-us Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:47:49 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386593/posts Should the “greatest good for the greatest number” be the guiding principle behind health care? As I have said before on Breakpoint, much of the hype and even hysteria surrounding the H1N1 flu strain is unwarranted. That’s not to say that the swine flu’s potential impact isn’t devastating—it is, but not in the way cable news would have us think. And now the Florida Department of Health has issued a set of guidelines that instructs hospitals on what to do “if the state is overwhelmed by [H1N1] cases.” The guidelines recommend that hospitals bar “patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple... BreakPoint http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386593/posts#comment Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:47:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2371691/posts (10-25) 19:34 PDT Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- Authorities say a 37-year-old Los Angeles man has been arrested on suspicion of murder for the death of an unborn child believed to be his. Police said in a press release that Joshua Woodward was arrested Sunday in Los Angeles and is being held on $2 million bail in a county jail. Police say the arrest came after an investigation on Monday revealed "suspicious circumstances of a miscarriage." Investigators estimate the fetus was in its 13th week. Police released no information on the mother or the circumstances of the child's death. The... AP via SFGate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2371691/posts#comment Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:47:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2345647/posts The American university is the anti-Disneyland, the saddest place on Earth. Today's colleges can make MSNBC seem fair and balanced and give the term "clinical depression" a sunny and joyful flavor. It's no wonder so many prominent liberal intellectuals are angry, begrudging, and gloomy. They imbibe four to ten years of it during their college studies. And their brethren in the media give them a consistent platform for their gloom. A few years ago, the Washington Post discovered that over 72 percent of college professors classify themselves as liberal. The study showed that the most left-leaning departments are in the... American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2345647/posts#comment Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:13:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311811/posts In my high school World History class I remember reading about moral relativists who expressed moral indifference at the practice of forced female circumcision common in some African cultures. These moral relativists argued that moral principles were culture-specific and not universal. According to this theory, there is no objective standard by which to judge cultural norms. Curiously, the moral relativists were equally reticent about immoral acts committed in the United States. They defended the violence of The Weathermen and other extremist groups, excused brutal murderers sentenced to death row, and extolled the virtues of the 60's counter-culture. The argument that... The American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311811/posts#comment Sun, 9 Aug 2009 09:28:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2301174/posts The Episcopal Church in the United States took another major step toward ensuring its own demise last week, by adopting a resolution endorsing the ordination of homosexuals as clergy and bishops. The resolution, adopted at the denomination’s General Convention, said that “gay and lesbian persons . . . have responded to God’s call and have exercised various ministries,” and declared that “God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.” The resolution was widely interpreted as abandoning a moratorium on the ordination of homosexual bishops that was adopted after the furor surrounding the... Family Research Council http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2301174/posts#comment Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:41:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280729/posts Courage was considered the prime virtue through most of recorded history among virtually all peoples on the Earth, and has only recently been displaced by liberal Western concepts such as tolerance and comity. Children are no longer instilled with the desire to express courage — moral or otherwise — but instead are taught to value “openness,” “diversity,” “conflict resolution,” and other liberal forms of pacifism designed to create a drab and dreary conflict-free wilderness, a land where no one can be offended, no one holds any strong or difficult positions, a place without danger and fear — in short, a... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280729/posts#comment Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:29:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270788/posts MANY PEOPLE in the field of genetics are mourning the murder of Dr. George Tiller as the loss of a personal friend. I'm one of them. I first met George in 1987 at a conference of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, where I was executive director for 18 years until 2005. He and his incredibly loyal staff - whom he treated with great generosity - had developed a procedure that provided excellent medical care but also respect and emotional support to the women who came to him for help. Philadelphia Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2270788/posts#comment Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:29:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266787/posts News of Dr. George Tiller's death was only hours old last week when bloggers began asking the question: What kind of church accepts a doctor who performs abortions into its membership? "I wonder what kind, if any, preaching against sin this church did since Tiller felt welcomed there," opined Blue Collar Todd, who declares on his blog that "liberalism, or sometimes called progressivism, is a false religion that stands in total antithesis to biblical Christianity." Todd has already made up his mind, and so have others who called or e-mailed me this week to criticize a column I wrote describing... The Kansas City Star http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2266787/posts#comment Sun, 7 Jun 2009 21:56:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2265829/posts I stole a laundry bag from the Alvear Palace Hotel in Buenos Aires. It was made of thick ivory linen, embroidered with the words "dry cleaning" in cerulean blue, and looked like something that I could have found at an antique textiles show. But that wasn't the case. I'm usually pretty scrupulous about purloined souvenirs. Of course, I help myself to soap and shampoo, sewing kits, even those black sponges meant to spruce up your shoes -- oh, and ballpoint pens and darling little notepads. But the laundry bag was my first sojourn into the land of, what shall we... cnn http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2265829/posts#comment Fri, 5 Jun 2009 22:14:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2264914/posts ELCA Congregation Grieves after Member Shot in Church 09-127-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The funeral for Dr. George Tiller will be June 6 at College Hill United Methodist Church, Wichita, Kan. Tiller was shot and killed May 31 while serving as an usher for Sunday worship at nearby Reformation Lutheran Church, where he was a member. Tiller was 67. The funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Tiller's family requested College Hill because it offers more available seating than Reformation. "All the different stages and symptoms of grief are happening here," said the Rev. Lowell R. Michelson, senior pastor for Reformation, a... ECLA News Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2264914/posts#comment Thu, 4 Jun 2009 21:15:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2262226/posts A Former Pro-life Activist Reflects on the Death of George Tiller by Paul Sauer — June 01, 2009 When I heard the initial news teaser on the radio that an abortion provider had been shot at a church, I knew both the abortionist and the church before either were named. Few abortionists were as outspoken about the abortion services they provided as George Tiller. No other abortionist was as outspoken about his involvement in a church as George Tiller. The sickening part about waiting for the actual story was to see if I would recognize the name of the alleged... Lutheran Forum http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2262226/posts#comment Mon, 1 Jun 2009 16:43:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253162/posts The abortion debate is a shape shifter, its contours twisted by politics, culture, timing and the very language pollsters use when they ask people how they feel. So when the folks at Gallup announced that for the first time more Americans are pro-life than pro-choice, there are all kinds of ways to misunderstand what that means. First and foremost are the labels, which cloud the issue by oversimplifying it — that's why the advocates picked them. Most people are neither pro-choice nor pro-life, but both; we cherish life, we value choice, and we trade them off with great reluctance. Good... Time Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2253162/posts#comment Mon, 18 May 2009 13:36:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2247989/posts President Obama has named to his faith-based advisory council a self-professed Christian who holds that the New Testament's teaching that homosexual behavior is unnatural and wrong--which is found in St. Paul's letter to the Romans--“is not true." The appointee, Harry Knox, has also said that Obama's decision to invite the Rev. Rick Warren to say a prayer at the Inauguration "tainted" the ceremony and that Pope Benedict XVI is a "discredited leader." Harry Knox, a professed gay Christian who is director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual rights group, was named to President... CNS News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2247989/posts#comment Sun, 10 May 2009 13:22:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2233434/posts Slouching Toward Columbine: Darwin's Tree of Death April 20, 2009 David Klinghoffer I've long been fascinated by the image of the Tree of Death, parallel to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden and cryptically referred to in mystical texts explaining the Hebrew Bible: And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9). Come and behold: as soon as night falls, the... Beliefnet http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2233434/posts#comment Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:26:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2228451/posts Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China - is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as... Bay View http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2228451/posts#comment Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:50:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2216220/posts MANCHESTER, NH (July 9, 2021) -- The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church today has warned that the Diocese of New Hampshire must not in any way be ostracized because it has chosen to elect the church’s first openly non-celibate animal-loving bishop. "As presiding bishop, I am called to see to it that all perspectives are treated with respect,” said the Most Rev. Annie Thangohs. “We can, of course, disagree on the issue of animal-loving in the Christian life. I have seen, however, some distressing accounts in the secular press. I had hoped that we had removed that hateful term,... Virtue Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2216220/posts#comment Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:36:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2214619/posts Satan is losing the battle for people's minds. This is a clear trend, and it's been mounting for a long time. The basic reason is that evil has gotten a lot of competition. Are schizophrenics possessed by the Devil? Raise your hand if you say yes. A century ago, countless more people would have raised their hands than today, when we use "sick" in place of "evil" for many things, including psychosis. The more replacements we find for evil, the weaker Satan grows. After all, the Devil is the embodiment of absolute evil, the kind that admits no other explanation.... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2214619/posts#comment Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:21:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206397/posts Introduction: It has been twenty years since the late Allan Bloom shook the intellectual elite in this country with the opening line of The Closing of the American Mind: “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student in America believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.” In one sentence our dirty little secret -- we believe in the truth that there is no truth -- was out. Why do we believe this? Bloom had that pegged too: Relativism is necessary to openness; and this is the virtue, the only virtue, which all... The American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206397/posts#comment Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:09:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2204422/posts Proposition 8 opponents received permission Tuesday from the California Secretary of State's office to begin collecting petition signatures toward a repeal of the state's same-sex marriage ban. Wed, Mar. 11, 2009 Posted: 08:19 AM EDT Proposition 8 opponents received permission Tuesday from the California Secretary of State's office to begin collecting petition signatures toward a repeal of the state's same-sex marriage ban. The initiative would side step the issue of same-sex marriage by making all couples eligible for marriage benefits regardless of their sexual orientation. If approved, the initiative would strike the word "marriage" from all state laws and replace... Christian Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2204422/posts#comment Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:03:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2204621/posts SACRAMENTO, March 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - California same-sex "marriage" supporters are collecting signatures to support a ballot initiative that would remove civil marriage from California law entirely, as well as the provision codifying marriage as between a man and a woman. The "Domestic Partnership Initiative" proposes to categorize all unions simply as "domestic partnerships," while retaining all the rights of marriage for heterosexual couples, and extending them to homosexual couples. According to the initiative's summary, "Legally speaking, 'Marriage' itself would become a social ceremony, recognized by only non-governmental institutions." State Attorney General Jerry Brown submitted the official title and summary... LifeSiteNews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2204621/posts#comment Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:13:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2194729/posts In his latest “Memo from Cairo,” New York Times correspondent Michael Slackman virtually begs the Obama administration to avoid using the word “terrorist” in reference to Hamas and Hezbollah. According to Slackman... calling these groups “terrorists” turns off the Arab world, in which people view Israel as the “real terrorist,” whereas Hamas and Hezbollah are just “trying to liberate their countries.” In turn, intimates Slackman, using a “loaded word” like “terrorist” when describing Hamas or Hezbollah makes peace impossible. Let’s leave aside for a moment that Slackman has managed to pass off his own view on the mind-numbingly dull one-man’s-terrorist-is-another-man’s-freedom-fighter... Commentary http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2194729/posts#comment Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:06:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2176253/posts "Rename, then abort terrorists" Whether you call it liberalism or progressivism, it still remains a twisted world view where up is down, good is bad, guilt is innocence, and sinner is saint. Case and point: our fresh ingenue president, Barack Hussein Obama, has stated his desire to heal the nation's discourse and to obliterate America's red state/blue state divisions. Yet, Obama's first acts as president include opening the floodgates of taxpayer dollars to fund international abortions and coddling murderous terrorists. So, according to Obama's worldview, innocent unborn babies are not entitled to any due process or rights whatsoever. Yet, the... The Californian/North County Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2176253/posts#comment Sun, 1 Feb 2009 17:33:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2163080/posts Image courtesy of istockphoto. click for info Christianity Is No Longer Americans’ Default FaithJanuary 12, 2009 (Ventura, California) - For much of America’s history, the assumption was that if you were born in America, you would affiliate with the Christian faith. A new nationwide survey by The Barna Group, however, indicates that people’s views have changed. The study discovered that half of all adults now contend that Christianity is just one of many options that Americans choose from and that a huge majority of adults pick and choose what they believe rather than adopt a church or denomination’s slate... The Barna Group http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2163080/posts#comment Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:52:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2157990/posts The Israelis just struck back hard at Hamas in Gaza. In response, the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab world (at least publicly) expressed their anger at the killing of over 300 Palestinians, most of whom were terrorists and Hamas officials. For several prior weeks, Hamas terrorists had been daily launching rockets into Israeli towns that border Gaza. The recent volleys of missiles had insidiously become more frequent — up to 80 a day — and the payloads larger. Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists were reportedly supplying their own training and expertise. These terrorists point to the Lebanon war of... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2157990/posts#comment Sat, 3 Jan 2009 06:43:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2156665/posts Megachurch Pastor Rick Warren, Obama’s pick to deliver his inauguration’s invocation, has become controversial because, like most clergy, he opposes same-sex marriage. Getting almost no attention so far is Obama’s choice to deliver the benediction, the far left, conspiracy-minded and verbally intemperate Rev. Joseph Lowery, who is an older version of Jeremiah Wright. Cross Action News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2156665/posts#comment Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:15:34 GMT