Free Republic

Remember the terrible murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998 -- tortured, beaten and left hanging on a fence to die -- because he was gay? The American people were led from the outset to believe that Shepard was the victim of a hate crime, murdered because he was gay. And that is how virtually every American still views the story. In the words of Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), "Matthew Shepard is to gay rights what Emmett Till was to the civil rights movement." A play based on Shepard's killing, "The Laramie Project" became, according to the...

The Midas Touch is named for the mythical Greek king Midas, who is said to have been able to turn everything he touched into gold. The Left has the opposite ability: to turn virtually everything it touches into rubble. Sometimes it happens quickly; sometimes it takes generations. But it is inevitable.

I cannot count the number of times I heard liberal professors and liberal writers quote the phrase: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." The phrase is brilliant. There is actually no threat to America of fascism coming from the right. The essence of the American right, after all, is less government; and fascism, by definition, demands ever larger government. Therefore, if there is a real fascist threat to America, it comes from the left, whose appetite for state power is essentially unlimited. But because the left has so long dominated...

There are many liberals who lead thoroughly decent lives. And there are conservatives who do not. But that is not the whole issue. There is something about liberalism that is not nearly as true about conservatism. The further left one goes, the more one finds that the ideology provides moral cover for a life that is not moral. While many people left of center lead fine personal lives, many do not. And left-wing ideals enable a person to do that much more than conservative ideals do. There is an easy way to demonstrate this. If a married — or even...

The greatest hope most Americans -- including Republicans -- had when Barack Obama was elected president was that the election of a black person as the country's president would reduce, if not come close to eliminating, the racial tensions that have plagued America for generations. This has not happened. The election, and even the re-election, of a black man as president, in a country that is 87 percent non-black -- a first in human history -- has had no impact on what are called "racial tensions." In case there was any doubt about this, the reactions to the George Zimmerman...

<p>If a Martian were to observe the human condition, he would have to conclude that the left has an agenda to deprive children of their innocence.</p> <p>The Martian would have no other explanation for the premature sexualizing of children that the left has engaged in for decades, and which seems to increases almost weekly.</p>

I recently interviewed a 26-year-old Swedish student about her views on life. I asked her if she believed in G-d or in any religion. "No, that's silly," she replied. "Then how do you know what is right and wrong?" I asked. "My heart tells me," she responded. In a nutshell, that's the major reason for the great divide within America and between America and much of Europe. The majority of people use their heart — stirred by their eyes — to determine what is right and wrong. A minority uses their mind and/or the Bible to make that determination. Pick...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1kVw6qZLK0Why do so many in Europe feel so much hostility to the most open and liberal democracy in the Middle East? Daniel Gordis, President of the Shalem Center, zeroes in on the source of the problem in this fascinating look at the complex relationship between Europe, Israel and the Arab World.

If you were a Christian minister who was given the opportunity to write an op-ed piece for the Washington Post, what subject would you choose? War and peace? The decline in faith among America’s young people? The increasingly empty pews in mainstream Protestant churches? The ethical decline in society? Or any of myriad other morally and religiously troubling issues? Well, not if you were a Methodist minister named James P. Marsh Jr. For this man of the cloth, the issue troubling him so much that he had to write about in the Washington Post was . . . people standing...

Last week, Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio announced that he had reversed his position on same-sex marriage. The reason was that his son had come out to him and his wife as gay. This is not the first such instance. Periodically, we hear about Republican politicians whose child announces that he or she is gay, prompting the parent to change his mind about the man-woman definition of marriage. As a parent, I understand these parents. We love our children, and we want them to love us. Nevertheless I differ with their decisions to support the redefinition of marriage. In...

Denver television station CBS4 reports that Colorado has seen a sharp spike in marijuana use among teenagers since voters passed Amendment 64 last November, legalizing recreational use of the drug. As described in The Economist, along with a Washington State measure also legalizing marijuana, Amendment 64 is “an electoral first not only for America but for the world.” That means two American states are to the left of the Scandinavian countries, Holland, and every other liberal country regarding marijuana. CBS4 quotes a number of local high-school students: “I’ve seen a lot more people just walking down the street smoking (joints),”...

For some years now, we have been told about a major division within American conservatism: fiscal conservatives vs. social conservatives. This division is hurting conservatism and hurting America -- because the survival of American values depends on both fiscal and social conservatism. Furthermore, the division is logically and morally untenable. A conservative conserves all American values, not just economic ones. By "social conservatism," I am referring to the second and third components of what I call the American Trinity -- liberty, "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum." It is worth noting that a similar bifurcation does not exist...

Gay couples who seek spiritual affirmation of their relationships can now sanctify their unions with special blessings at South Florida's Episcopal churches. Priests in the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida have been given permission to perform a distinct rite, different from the marriage between a man and a woman. Called "The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant," the ceremony, to be introduced this month, was approved by national convention delegates over the summer. Lorraine Michels and Joan Van Ness were married in 2009 in Massachusetts, but decided to participate in a nine-couple blessing ceremony in April at All Saints...

Divisions in the Episcopal Church on the subject of gay marriage have led yet another diocese to break from the national US Episcopal Church. Reuters reports Bishop Mark Lawrence of the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina received a letter Oct. 15 from Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori saying he had “abandoned the church” and barring him from exercising his office. The local diocese however had previous stated that it would disassociate with the national church if it took exercised any hierarchical authority. It did, and the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina became the fifth US diocese to break from its mother...

Members of Pittsburgh Presbytery expressed grief and frustration with three churches that recently voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA) without going through the constitutional process for doing so, while the church's national moderator, who coincidentally was at their regular meeting Thursday, said he had offered to meet with leaders of those churches and two others that are pursuing the formal process for leaving. Representatives from only one of the five, later identified as Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Oakland, agreed to meet with the Rev. Neal Presa. About 140 churches are in the countywide presbytery. Recently, Mt. Lebanon United Presbyterian...

To argue that opposition to same-sex marriage is immoral is to argue that every moral thinker, and every religion and social movement in the history of mankind prior to the last 20 years in America and Europe was immoral.

Next week voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington will vote on whether to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples. Given that there are good people on both sides of this issue, how are we to explain their opposing views? The primary explanation is this: Proponents and opponents ask two different questions. Proponents of same-sex marriage ask: Is keeping the definition of marriage as man-woman fair to gays? Opponents of same-sex marriage ask: Is same-sex marriage good for society? Few on either side honestly address the question of the other side. Opponents of same-sex marriage rarely acknowledge how unfair the age-old...

Understanding why Mitt Romney so decisively won the first presidential debate is as important as the fact that he did. Why? Because once we know the reasons, almost everything about President Barack Obama and this election becomes clear. First, Obama lost because he, like virtually the entire left, lives in a left-wing bubble. Left-wing academics live in this bubble. There is no greater uniformity of thought than at our universities; their much-ballyhooed commitment to diversity is about race and ethnicity, not about ideas. So, too, the great majority of news media people live in the same bubble, the left-wing herd...

Given the awful state of the American economy, featuring a four-year high unemployment rate and an increasingly crushing national debt ... Given that America is at least as hated in the Muslim world as it was when George W. Bush was president — despite the Obama policy of obsequious rhetoric directed toward that world ... Given the virtually unprecedented tension between the United States and Israel, its closest ally in the Middle East ... Given the complete failure of sanctions to stop Iran from its pursuit of an atom bomb ... Given the spectacle of European financial collapse — and...

According to conventional wisdom, the older the person, the less young people are inclined to listen to him or her. This is probably true for some of you. But I do not believe that it is true for most of you. Most young people have tremendous respect for older people’s views. I saw this firsthand in my own life. I began lecturing publicly at the age of 21, and I give you my word that young people (and certainly older people) are far more respectful of my views today than when I was their age. All things being equal, it...