Free Republic

Here is how Father Mike Schmitz, a priest for the Diocese of Duluth, MN, explains society's acceptance of trans-gender. He breaks it down pretty well...

For forty years as the University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School—twenty-six of which were also spent as Psychiatrist in Chief of Johns Hopkins Hospital—I’ve been studying people who claim to be transgender. Over that time, I’ve watched the phenomenon change and expand in remarkable ways.A rare issue of a few men—both homosexual and heterosexual men, including some who sought sex-change surgery because they were erotically aroused by the thought or image of themselves as women—has spread to include women as well as men. Even young boys and girls have begun to present themselves as of...

(CNN)—It looks like it has happened again. A young male has allegedly killed. In this case it is nine people at a church in South Carolina. Anyone who is paying attention hears the news and thinks, "Here we go again." But why? After spending 20 years interviewing killers as a psychological expert witness in murder cases I have some thoughts about this. Males are disproportionately over-represented in the ranks of America's killers -- about 90%, in fact. Why is that? Some of it appears to lie in the biological vulnerability of males. About 30% of males (versus 9% of females)...

As parents, we face some of our biggest challenges when our kids misbehave. There’s a lot to consider when doling out discipline; and yet, in the heat of the moment when we’re angry and frustrated, our better judgment can easily fly out the window. We yell. We demand apologies. We force time-outs and revoke privileges. But whatever we do, we need to be aware not only of what should be done to discourage bad behaviour and teach them not to behave similarly in future; we also need to consider our own actions, how we interact with our kids, and what...

A study released last month suggests that, regardless of actual personal actions or beliefs, men with facial hair are perceived as being more sexist than those without. Written by Rebekah Herrick, a professor at Oklahoma State University, the study showed candidates pictures of men in Congress with and without facial hair. They were also shown on a scale, including clean-shaven men, men with stubble, men with mustaches, and men with full beards. "Pictured members of Congress with facial hair were perceived by our student subjects as more masculine, and less supportive of feminist issue positions, although not more willing to...

In this episode, we pick up where we last left off on the concept joy, and what it has done (promising you what it can do) for people who truly find it in the Lord. Then, we discuss how God provides restoration to the soul, showing us, through personal experience, how he accommodates, aides, and provides purpose, and companionship, satisfying (and completing) our soul’s overall longings and yearnings, as we have discussed throughout this series. (The program can be accessed by clicking on the "Source" link, or by clicking HERE.)

ew government research shows that female military veterans commit suicide at nearly six times the rate of other women, a startling finding that experts say poses disturbing questions about the backgrounds and experiences of women who serve in the armed forces.. Their suicide rate is so high that it approaches that of male veterans, a finding that surprised researchers because men generally are far more likely than women to commit suicide. "It's staggering," said Dr. Matthew Miller, an epidemiologist and suicide expert at Northeastern University who was not involved in the research. "We have to come to grips with why...

In the fourth part of our series on the Soul, Its Burdens, and the Path to Restoration, after we finish our discussion on how God transforms and influences the mind, we discuss how God can (and does) touch and influence the will and the emotions, and restore them to where they can act and/or react from a newly reapportioned disposition. (The program can be accessed by clicking on the "Source" link, or by clicking HERE.

A scene stands out to me from my graduate program in social work. A lesbian professor visited our class to tell about her experience of being same-sex attracted in a small, Midwestern, devoutly Protestant town in the latter twentieth century. As expected, her story was heart-rending. Afterward, during the Q&A, a black woman in her 40s raised her hand. “I’ve noticed that the high school girls today go through phases where they say that they like girls, and then change their minds and say they like boys again, like it just goes back and forth. And I don’t know if...

Oregon became the third state in the United States to ban gay conversion therapy, a practice that has attracted much debate. Democratic Gov. Kate Brown signed the bill into law earlier this week, though an ex-gay group has protested and called the bill "child abuse." CNN reported on Wednesday that the bill signed by Brown, the first openly bisexual governor in the U.S., will block therapist from offering conversion or reparative therapy on individuals who are younger than 18. Laws against the practice have also been made in California, New Jersey, and Washington D.C. While the American Psychological Association has...

A study that purported to show gay marriage opponents can easily be convinced to change their minds if they talk to gays was retracted after finding it used fake data. The study, "When contact changes minds: An experiment on transmission of support for gay equality," was published in the December 2014, issue of the journal Science. It was widely reported in the media and cited as evidence that support for gay marriage is inevitable. Donald P. Green, professor of political science at Columbia University, retracted the study after learning that his co-author, Michael LaCour, a UCLA graduate student, had used...

Most of us make an effort to be sensitive to other people's feelings regardless of race. But a study produced by the University of Illinois claims we shouldn't even bother. The fact that you are white causes people of color discomfort.

Dalrymple believes psychology has taught people to think of the world in terms of pathology rather than evil. Confronted with the “tragic dimension of human life,” as he terms it, we seek to explain behavior we don’t understand as illness, or as anything, really, other than human imperfection. The first issue of National Review in 1955 included the essay “Why They’ll Never Get Me on that Couch,” in which movie maven Morrie Ryskind declared himself a “non-conformist” for rejecting Hollywood’s latest craze, psychoanalysis. Five years later, in the same magazine, John Dos Passos put psychology on a level with communism...

An interview with Walt Heyer, who lived eight years as a woman following ‘gender reassignment’ surgery before undergoing therapy, turning to Christ and returning to living as a man. Courtesy of Walt Heyer Walt Heyer reverted to his biological male identity after living as a woman following ‘gender reassignment’ surgery. Walt Heyer lived for eight years as a woman named Laura Jensen. Having suffered from gender-identity disorder since he was a child, Heyer was a married, successful businessman when he underwent cosmetic surgery to alter his sex at age 42. However, Heyer said surgery and hormone treatment failed to address...

Sign me up for a crying room if we get Obama-redux in 2016. Japan is already bracing for Progressive Doomsday. Sure we got campus Safe Zones but nothing like the comfy cozy niches that Japan offers the weak-kneed, faint of heart, reality-averse denizens of the new millennium. I might even need a cuddle cafe to calm my nerves. There are even exciting extra cost optionals allowing you to lock eyes with and hair-stroke your lady cuddlemate. Or I can wander into the Owl Cafe where I can be soothed by fluttering birds or go to Maidreamin where pretty girls dressed...

May 4, 2015 (ThePublicDiscourse.com) -- Bruce Jenner and Diane Sawyer could benefit from a history lesson. I know, because I suffered through “sex change” surgery and lived as a woman for eight years. The surgery fixed nothing—it only masked and exacerbated deeper psychological problems.The beginnings of the transgender movement have gotten lost today in the push for transgender rights, acceptance, and tolerance. If more people were aware of the dark and troubled history of sex-reassignment surgery, perhaps we wouldn’t be so quick to push people toward it.The setting for the first transgender surgeries (mostly male-to-female) was in university-based clinics, starting in the...

The president of the St. Louis Association of Black Psychologists has come up with a unique diagnosis in connection with the Baltimore riots, saying the rioters suffer from “Battered Community Syndrome.” In a series of tweets Tuesday, Dr. Marva Robinson explained: “Like Battered Women Syndrome, this is Battered Community Syndrome-When PTSD meets sick-n-tired, you get unmeasured rage.” She also proffered the notion the outbreak of violence is the fault of some intentional plan by society. Robinson tweeted: “From the purposeful ploy of the crack epidemic to tactfully placed subpar schools-what’s on Americas doorstep is what was created #Ferg2Bmore.” The editors...

April 28, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- I’ve been saying for quite some time that pornography is dangerous for more reasons than those that we typically discuss. Pornography is not dangerous just because it is spiritually dangerous. Pornography is not dangerous just because it is addictive, unhealthy, and unrealistic. Pornography is dangerous because it is becoming a new ideology of sex, in which women are objects to be abused and consumed and men are sexual aggressors, using the girls and women to physically extract as much so-called “pleasure” as possible.When I first spoke on this issue at the University of Ottawa with...

Bruce Jenner was once hailed as the greatest athlete in the world and later became a reality television star with one of the world's most famous families. Now, the former Olympian is revealing a secret that has caused him turmoil for decades. "For all intents and purposes, I'm a woman," Jenner told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview that aired Friday in a special two-hour edition of ABC News' "20/20." "People look at me differently. They see you as this macho male, but my heart and my soul and everything that I do in life -- it is part...

A new study seems to confirm what we'll call the “Kit Harington Effect," which holds that a man's hunkiness may in fact prove an obstacle to his career. Research from the University of Maryland suggests that good-looking men sometimes have difficulty getting jobs in competitive environments, like sales, because they are subconsciously perceived as a threat to those in charge of hiring. Considering previous research has suggested that handsome men make more money, are perceived as more competent (attractive women, on the other hand, are often seen as less competent), and are more successful in closing big deals, that threat...