Free Republic

After Steve Chalke and Rob Bell joined the ‘Accepting Evangelicals’ Group in affirming faithful same-sex erotic relationships earlier this year a new group of ‘post-gay’ evangelical Christian leaders has emerged. Their testimonies are clear, powerful, hugely encouraging and most welcome at a time when many young evangelicals are genuinely confused about the issue. These are men in pastoral ministry who admit to feelings of same sex attraction but who also see the Bible’s prohibitions on same-sex relationships as non-negotiable. The core of this new group, recently interviewed by Christianity magazine, are Sam Alberry, a church leader in Maidenhead, Sean Doherty,...

Editor’s note: This article is a follow-up to Dawn Wilde’s Confessions of a Recovering Lesbian. It was first printed at Catholicsistas.com and is reprinted with permission. In January, I wrote about my struggles with same-sex attraction (SSA), while living out my vocation as a Catholic wife and mother. The article was picked up by several Catholic websites and secular blogs. I wrote the article anonymously and considering the vitriol of the comments that followed, I’m glad I did. Especially after reading one man’s enraged, sentence-by-sentence dissection of the piece on a site called Face Punch. There seemed to be three...

Catholic officials have launched a fresh initiative to influence secular law according to the religious teachings of the Catholic Church, with marriage equality firmly in their sites. Church officials in Maine, the fifth and most recent state to offer marriage equality to gay and lesbian families, seek to bring those families’ rights to a popular vote, in hopes of seeing marriage equality repealed, as happened in California last year when, after a bruising and extremely expensive campaign to rescind family rights for gays and lesbians, voters narrowly passed Proposition 8. An Associated Press story from May 10 quoted Maine’s Secretary...

President Obama’s national security advisor, retired Marine Gen. James Jones, said over the weekend that he “doesn’t know” if the Obama administration is going to try to overturn the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that homosexuality is incompatible with military service. He also said that changing the military’s policy on homosexuality would not be “like a light switch.” Jones was interviewed Sunday on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, host: A lot of your former colleagues in the military, a thousand flag and general officers including 50 four stars have written a letter to the president opposing any...

Peter Tatchell, Britain’s well-known defender of the rights of sexual minorities, is going to visit Moscow to participate in the gay pride parade in Russia’s capital. Tatchell is arriving in Moscow despite the decision of the Moscow government to ban the march of homosexual individuals. The parade is to take place on May 16, Saturday, to coincide with the final night of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. The contest enjoys stable popularity among the people of untraditional sexual orientation, RIA Novosti news agency reports. The organizers of the Moscow gay march intend to make it become a common Slavic...

MSNBC's David Shuster said he wanted to "vomit" after the conclusion of Donald Trump's announcement that Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean, will keep her title. Shuster said the decision represents "everything that is wrong with the superficial nature" of pageants. "Donald Trump seemed to be saying lying is okay," he added.

WHITINSVILLE, Mass., – Twenty years after he met the love of his life, nearly five years after their wedding helped make history, it took a nasty bout of pneumonia for Gary Chalmers to fully appreciate the blessings of marriage. "I was out of work for eight weeks, spent a week in the hospital," Chalmers said. "That was the first time I really felt thankful for the sense of the security we had, with Rich there, talking with the physicians, helping make decisions. ... It really made a difference." At stake was the most basic recognition of marital bonds — something...

One thing we're going to miss, in the 21st century, is the quality of mercy. Life is not, cannot be, just. If it was, children would not die. All but a tiny few of us would roast for our sins. And to quote the lovely Jennifer Nettles, this would be the very last country song. But if human beings cannot be just, we can be merciful. We have that choice. And not too long ago, folks took mercy seriously. We believed in values like the Golden Rule, and lessons like the Sermon on the Mount. These days, the exercise of...

Tori Amos has blasted voters who pushed through a gay marriage ban in California - because it goes against the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. The hitmaker, whose father is a Methodist minister, insists outlawing same-sex unions is un-Christian and a breach of civil rights. And she is confused Californian voters passed the Proposition 8 bill - which reversed a previous ruling permitting gay marriage in the state - on the same day Barack Obama was elected U.S. President last year. She tells Attitude magazine, "(I was) extremely disappointed. Well, we go back to this concept of emancipation. The...

Two issues continue to cloud the American political scene. Gay rights and the protection of life. These two issues are seen as so important that many Americans are willing to ignore all other issues such as poverty, housing, foreign policy and health care to vote according to a candidate’s position on homosexuality and abortion. The right to life, abortion, freedom of choice issue is much the tougher issue and a healthy debate should continue until some sort of understanding is reached and codified into laws that are firmly upheld by our courts. I suspect the most workable solution is not...

As Florida Gov. Charlie Crist considers whether to enter the competitive race to replace Sen. Mel Martinez, some public talk has turned to the issue of his sexuality, thanks to Outrage, an independent film focused on politicians who are accused of hiding their sexual orientation. During this appearance on an Arlington, Va., cable newschannel, Crist's name surfaced during a conversation on Outrage. The film names Crist among several political figures alleged to be hiding their sexual orientation, using comments from people who claim to be past lovers in addition to other material. The newschannels' segment featured blogger Mike Rogers, whose...

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) joined forces to file a friend of the court brief asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals penalizing San Diego Boy Scouts because of their “morally straight” values. At issue in the case are leases from the City of San Diego allowing the San Diego Boy Scouts to build and operate campgrounds and an aquatic center for use by the Scouts and the...

(Note: David MacDonald is a Christian singer/artist who recently revealed that prior to his conversion he had been heavily involved in the gay lifestyle. Read his testimony here: www.GayTestimony.com) I hate to quote statistics, but Canada's largest gay paper XTRA recently reported that, "A group of six Canadian queers is taking on homophobia in Canada's healthcare system by filing a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission." Gens Hellquist, one of the complainants, is the executive director of the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition. She explained at length her concerns about the health status of homosexual men and women in Canada,...

President Obama was noticeably silent last month when the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. But now Mr. Obama — who has said he opposes same-sex marriage as a Christian but describes himself as a “fierce advocate of equality” for gay men and lesbians — is under pressure to engage on a variety of gay issues that are coming to the fore amid a dizzying pace of social, political, legal and legislative change. Two of Mr. Obama’s potential Supreme Court nominees are openly gay; some advocates, irked that there are no gay men or lesbians in...

President Barack Obama sent a hand-written note in response to a Chicago-area lesbian's plea for him to change the military's ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers. She sent her letter to Obama just six days after his inauguration, and it was published in the Feb. 11 Windy City Times as a cover story. 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao photo by Donna Tsao said she is “very hopeful” after receiving the letter May 5. “I believe he is a man of his word. … My heart is bounding with joy.” The timing is bittersweet: Tsao's last day in the service will...

In the twilight of his career, "M*A*S*H" actor David Ogden Stiers has finally come out, saying he's no longer afraid to be gay.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday he could consider a gay nominee for the nation’s highest court. “I’m not inclined to think that’s an automatic disqualification,” Sessions said of a gay nominee. He said he intends to consider only the nominee’s legal judgment when deciding his support for Justice David Souter’s proposed replacement. “I may disagree with some legal opinion on those issues, but I think fundamentally it will be up to the president to submit somebody who would unite the country and would be a clear statement of a mainstream judge...

Pepsico's board of directors has heard from a traditional values group about their support of the homosexual agenda -- and its alienation of the company's consumer base. At the Pepsico board meeting in Dallas on Wednesday, Greg Quinlan of PFOX -- Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays -- offered a resolution to the board calling for full disclosure and accountability on contributions to charitable organizations. He tells OneNewsNow why he called on shareholders to support Resolution No. 6. "Pepsico is giving a million dollars to the homosexual agenda, supporting groups like HRC, the Human Rights Campaign...the ninth-largest of all...

Maine's Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill into law allowing same-sex marriage in his state. Maine becomes the fifth state to do so. The other four: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont. "In the past, I opposed gay marriage while supporting the idea of civil unions," Baldacci said in a statement. "I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage." There is serious legislative activity to approve gay marriage in DC (where last night the city council voted to recognize...