Free Republic

Two Utah Boy Scout leaders are facing significant backlash after posting a video online of the men tipping over a nearly 200-million-year-old rock formation in Goblin Valley State Park. Glenn Taylor and David Hall, from Highland, Utah, have now been removed from the Boy Scouts of America. An investigation is underway to determine whether the men will face felony charges. SNIP ...leadership of the Utah National Parks Council, the Boy Scouts’ local chapter, consulted with leadership of the chartering organization for the men’s unit — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — including ward and stake leaders, according...

Almost all of them jumped alone, although eyewitnesses talked of a couple who held hands as they fell. One woman, in a final act of modesty, appeared to be holding down her skirt. Others tried to make parachutes out of curtains or tablecloths, only to have them wrenched from their grip by the force of their descent. The fall was said to take about ten seconds. It would vary according to the body position and how long it took to reach terminal velocity — around 125mph in most cases, but if someone fell head down with their body straight, as

SAN ANGELO, Texas — A court-appointed attorney for a 16-year-old FLDS girl caught up in a grand jury investigation will go to court today under armed guard. Natalie Malonis confirmed to the Deseret News she has received death threats since she sought a restraining order against a high-profile member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church to prevent him from contacting her client. "I've been getting death threats and I am being provided a security detail," she said this morning. "That was not even at my request. Law enforcement recognized the need for it." Malonis said she did not know who has...

I am posting this on behalf of many LDS freepers. They will post their own 'signature' to this in the comments below. --- Some of you have noticed lately a lot of LDS (ie: Mormon) threads here on FR. I'm going to tell you why. For many years there have been several active LDS freepers here. We post to all the forums on relevant issues, and were happy to have a site where conservative values were so openly welcomed. Those conservative values include faith in God, and freedom of religion. We fully respect the rights of all posters to express...

The Kansas school board's hearings on evolution weren't limited to how the theory should be taught in public schools. The board is considering redefining science itself. Advocates of "intelligent design" are pushing the board to reject a definition limiting science to natural explanations for what's observed in the world. Instead, they want to define it as "a systematic method of continuing investigation," without specifying what kind of answer is being sought. The definition would appear in the introduction to the state's science standards. The proposed definition has outraged many scientists, who are frustrated that students could be discussing supernatural explanations...

The Catholic Church is the world's largest Christian denomination, with at least a billion members. But much of its ritual, history and doctrine remain a mystery to non-Catholics. Why, for example, do Catholics need a pope? Why can't women be ordained as priests? And why is contraception wrong, particularly in the age of AIDS? In an effort to answer those and other questions at the heart of this ancient tradition, we talked with two authorities on Catholicism. [snip] Why can't women be priests, especially since the Gospel stories show women being leaders and teachers in the early church? This is...

Respect, not love, is the key to peace. Holocaust survivor Jack Adler shared his story and message about respect with a standing-room-only audience at the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture Auditorium on Wednesday. “We live in the greatest nation in the world, represented by every race, ethnicity and religious group, and it’s a diversity that we should be very proud of. It’s a diversity that built and continues to build this great nation of ours. However we also have in our society hate groups who are ready and willing to tear this great nation apart,” Adler said. Adler used...

The Bush-Cheney campaign is reaching out to thousands of religious congregations in an effort to build a network that would register voters and distribute information on behalf of President Bush. The solicitation, brought to light in an e-mail sent Tuesday from Bush headquarters in Pennsylvania, immediately was decried by liberal groups as "an astonishing abuse of religion" that could cost cooperative churches their tax-exempt status. But it also underscored the pivotal role religion is expected to play in this year's presidential race, with Republicans intent on motivating voters concerned about such issues as gay marriage, abortion and school vouchers. The...

<p>Hewlett-Packard had the right to fire an employee who posted anti- gay passages from the Bible at his work cubicle in protest of the computer industry giant's diversity policy and in an effort to persuade gays to repent, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.</p>

Outraged Christians have called for a novel depicting Jesus as a foul-mouthed, promiscuous, pot-smoking youth to be banned from shelves of a local bookshop. This week The Utterly, Utterly Private and Confidential Teenage Diary of Jesus by cult author Paul Murphy went on sale at Ottaker's Book Shop in Middle Street, Yeovil. Mr Murphy's account of Jesus' adolescent years is vastly different from the Bible, portraying him as a typically-confused teenager. In the diaries Jesus calls the Virgin Mary a "frigid bitch", and describes his experiences of taking marijuana and LSD and having sex with Mary Magdelene. Mr Murphy of...

A new USA Today /CNN /Gallup Survey suggests there is a backlash of public opinion against homosexuality after the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Texas' sodomy law. It's not surprising. The decision was widely seen as a judicial push for the agenda of homosexual political activists eager to see their lifestyle not only accepted nationwide but promoted by government and major cultural institutions. Defenders of the Texas law had contended the ultimate goal of the case was not to end sodomy laws, but to advance the "ambitious agenda" of homosexual activists. Justice Antonin Scalia, in a scathing dissent, agreed. "The...

This morning I decided to let BRAVO have an earful. Here is my email:"As a DirecTV subscriber, I am notifying you I am permanently blocking BRAVO from my menu on my DSS receiver.Your push for homosexual-'friendly' programming demonstrates your pandering to an audience that exhibits behavior that is not only detrimental to their own health, but the health and safety of families everywhere. I refuse to risk allowing my children to see promo material on your channel, so I find it necessary to block BRAVO and will encourage others to do so. Your advertisers will no longer reach me or...

Savage Loses TV Show The Real Story What happened on the air is much different than what is being reported. It was in the middle of an airline horror story segment with a great set (see photos above). Out of nowhere a crank caller from a competitive talk show went from describing his airline horror story to making vicious personal attacks against me. I signaled and thought that this crank caller was cut from the air. His insults continued in my ear piece and I reacted to him personally as an individual who was attacking me to defend myself. Unfortunately,...

Nudity, Crassness, Perversion on Display as San Francisco Celebrates Legal Sodomy 7/2/2003 By Allyson Smith Anti-Catholic 'Sisters' group takes shot at Vice President Cheney SAN FRANCISCO—Homosexuals were jubilant—and some naked—Sunday, June 29, as they celebrated last week’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Texas’ sodomy law during this city’s 33rd annual “gay pride” parade. This writer witnessed no attempt by city police to arrest those who were publicly nude, and no attempts to urge revelers to cover their private parts. The San Francisco "gay" celebration occurred just two days after President George W. Bush visited the city on a campaign stop to...

U.S. Supreme Court rewrites Constitution and 3,000 years of history WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court today rewrote the U.S. Constitution and 3,000 years of legal history by striking down the Texas sodomy law in a 6-3 decision. The court overrode the Constitution, the history of American law, and its own precedent by declaring in Lawrence v. Texas that there is a right to privacy to protect private, adult consensual sexual activity. Justice Kennedy wrote for the majority, and only Justices Scalia and Thomas and Chief Justice Rhenquist dissented. The majority reasoned, unbelievably, that because of the trend in state...

In the recent film Hannibal, a character named Mason Verger has just one goal in life: to catch up with the cannibal who chewed off his face, and feed him to flesh-eating pigs. It’s a sick and twisted goal—and it may not surprise you to learn that Verger is the film’s only Christian character. Just one more illustration of how Hollywood tends to treat followers of Christ. Sadly, there’s no shortage of other recent examples. In the historical film Quills, about the Marquis de Sade, the vilest sexual behavior is performed by a Catholic priest; de Sade is portrayed as...

SCOTUS sided with the perverts.

The Great “Gay” Con Exclusive commentary by Patrick Rooney Jun 23, 2003 Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said last week his country would officially recognize same-sex marriages. The announcement followed court rulings in Canada striking down the country’s definition of marriage because it specified a union between a man and a woman. But it is just the latest action signaling the successful implementation of one of the greatest cons of our time. Homosexuality has historically been seen as anti-God and anti-nature. Society has shunned it, often making light of it to mask its revulsion. Even today, the average person still...

<p>Hordes of quivering GOP lawmakers and vast throngs of proudly homophobic right-wing Christian Americans fell into an adorable tizzy the other day as the entire really, really big country of Canada announced it will change its law to allow full-on homosexual marriage anywhere in the whole country including Vancouver and Toronto and even "that weird province with all the gay French people."</p>

In the spring and with the coming of Easter, an old man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of gods. I am now 83 pushing 84 and the closer I come to shuffling off this mortal coil, the more mystified I am by Christian belief in the deity they call by the not very original name of God (as if there had never been others). Not all Christians of course, for the exodus from their churches these past few decades has only been paralleled by the numbers of the children of Israel as they traipsed across the wilderness in search of...