Free Republic

A new published report from international researchers marshals every line of evidence in defense of fairness in women’s sports.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) developed its 2021 framework on sex and “gender” around the concepts of fairness, inclusion, and non-discrimination. This framework leaves it to each sport’s governing body “to determine how an athlete may be at a disproportionate advantage against their peers.” However, they admonish sports organizations against “targeted testing … aimed at determining [athletes’] sex, gender identity and/or sex variations.” Instead, it’s up to each sport to “[provide] confidence that no athlete within a category has an unfair and...

Communist dictator of North Korea Kim Jong-un declared through state media on Wednesday that the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was necessary to “clearly show what action the DPRK [North Korea] has been prepared and what option the DPRK would take when Washington makes a wrong decision against it.”

Allowing boys to play in girls' sports is a scourge in America. It not only erases young girls, it destroys their athletic hopes and dreams and puts them in serious physical danger. Examples of young women being seriously injured by their male counterparts increase nearly every week. It is undeniable that teenage boys in general possess natural physiological advantages over teenage girls, and we have seen the results of that over and over. But if that was not enough, the insanity has now reached the inevitable next level: humiliation. It is not enough anymore for boys to beat the girls,...

Tennessee Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who were briefly expelled from the state legislature earlier this year after joining in protests against gun violence, were named to the “Harper’s Bazaar” Icons list for 2023 on Thursday. The magazine announced its list of 14 people “who are helping to shift narratives, open doors, and reshape the culture,” adding the group “made their marks — and some of them might be making history." “I don’t look like the other elected officials in the building,” Jones told the magazine. “In fact, I was told that I should cut my hair...

The body that governs world cycling, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), has reversed course and decided to ban trans athletes from women’s competitions. The announcement was made today by UCI in a press release.From now on, female transgender athletes who have transitioned after (male) puberty will be prohibited from participating in women’s events on the UCI International Calendar – in all categories – in the various disciplines.For international Masters events – races on the UCI Cycling for All International Calendar and UCI events (UCI Gran Fondo World Series, UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, UCI Gravel World Series, UCI Gravel World Championships...

On this first Sunday of Great Lent, we commemorate the restoration of icons centuries ago in the Byzantine Empire. They were banned due to a misguided fear of idolatry, but restored as a proclamation of how Christ calls us to participate in His salvation in every dimension of our existence. The icons convey the incarnation of the God-Man, Who had to have a human body in order to be born, live in this world, die, rise from the grave, and ascend into heaven. Were any aspect of his humanity an illusion, we could not become “partakers of the divine nature”...

Today is the feast of Saint Luke, a father of the ancient Church renowned as Evangelist, Historian, and Physician. We should be aware of one additional title that is traditionally attributed to this early disciple of Christ: Artist. For the name of Saint Luke is attached to one of the most venerable works of art of the ancient Church—the Hodegetria icon which resided in Constantinople until its destruction in 1453. While the origins of the Hodegetria icon are shrouded in mystery, its connection to St. Luke is based upon traditions stretching back to the early centuries of Constantinople as a...

Facebook Icons in two different chapels inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were found to be streaming myrrh recently. A video posted on the “Orthodox Church (Православная Церковь)” Facebook shows four icons in the Chapel of St. Longinus and the Chapel of the Scourging streaming myrrh. Video The phenomenon was noticed by pilgrims at the nighttime Liturgy on Monday-Tuesday. The Jerusalem Patriarchate is reportedly studying the icons and is expected to make an announcement soon.

Dionysios Boloubassis developed a reputation as a talented iconographer in Greece before he immigrated to the United States in 2013. Over the past ten years he built up a new portfolio of work in America, which together with his churches in Greece, demonstrates his experience and skill in carrying on the iconographic tradition. Christ, Pantocrator, by the hand of Dionysios BouloubassisORTHODOX ARTS JOURNAL: Let’s start by learning about where you are from. DIONYSIOS BOULOUBASSIS: My parents are from Greece, but they immigrated to the US and I was born in Maryland. When I was still young, however, my mother and...

Also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, is celebrated on June 27 by the universal Church.The devotion to this Marian advocation revolves around the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, painted on wood, with background of gold. It is Byzantine in style and is supposed to have been painted in the thirteenth century. It represents the Mother of God holding the Divine Child while the Archangels Michael and Gabriel presenting Him the instruments of His Passion. Over the figures in the picture are some Greek letters which form the abbreviated words Mother of God, Jesus Christ, Archangel Michael,...

The Meaning Behind the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Icon The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help represents the Christian mystery of Redemption.Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a Byzantine icon that is believed to have its origin sometime during the 13th -15th century. The image is also known as “Our Lady of Perpetual Succour.” The icon is known for being miraculous; over the centuries countless healings and special graces have been attributed to it, so much so that the image has been honored and venerated by many Popes.The miraculous icon is painted on wood and measures about 20"...

Our Mother of Perpetual HelpSince 1866 the Redemptorists have spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the icon and title of Our Mother of Perpetual Help (also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help). According to tradition, the ancient Byzantine icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help was stolen from a church in Crete, where many miracles had occurred.The image remained in the private possession of a Roman merchant and his family until 1499, when it was publicly displayed in the Church of St. Matthew in Rome between the Basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. When...

It has been said that the whole of Orthodox theology and teaching can be found in a single, well-executed icon. I believe it to be true. Over the years, I have found that certain icons have been invaluable in efforts to teach a class of inquirers or catechumens about certain aspects of the faith. Those “certain aspects” could easily be expanded until, time permitting, the whole of the faith would be expounded. I daresay that some evenings in such classes, the students probably thought that time was permitting. My thoughts turn to this understanding each year as we approach the...

Thanks to Christine Schlesser, the Director of the Trinity Iconography Institute, for bringing the following to my notice. Princeton University has a catalog of images of icons from Mt Sinai which was obtained from expeditions made to the monastery in the 1950s and 1960s. The images have been recently upgraded, and the collection is available online. As Christine wrote: Princeton University just updated a website on the expedition of the late 1950s/early 1960s to St Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, where there is a repository of the world’s oldest icons. This collection is unique in that it documents, in color...

Our Lady of Perpetual HelpFr. William Saunders Q: What is the story behind the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help?The icon (about 54 x 41.5 centimeters) depicts our Blessed Mother Mary under the title “Mother of God,” holding the Child Jesus. The Archangels Michael and Gabriel, hovering in the upper corners, hold the instruments of the Passion: St. Michael (in the left corner) holds the spear, the wine-soaked sponge and the crown of thorns, and St. Gabriel (in the right corner) holds the cross and the nails. The intent of the artist was to portray the Child Jesus contemplating...

A classical Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition survives in Christian iconography  Have you ever wondered, while looking at religious icons, why the figures of Christ and the saints make certain hand gestures? Each gesture has a specific meaning, but it’s no wonder we can’t always understand them: they’re “written” in Greek! Classical Greeks and Romans developed a well-established, quite complex hand-gesture code, which was used by both orators and rhetoricians alike, when they were giving speeches in the agora or the Senate, during their private addresses, or even in the classroom. The gestures accompanying the oratory, of course, were a matter of public...

An ancient Trebizond church of Agia Sophia, built between 1238 and 1263 and defiled by being converted into a mosque in 1461, is now set to undergo a restoration project worth about 2 million Turkish liras (about $530,000). The building, regarded as an exemplary piece of Byzantine architecture, located in northeastern Turkey, served as a museum for fifty-two years before being opened to worship again in 2013. The new project plans to continue prior measures taken to conceal the church’s Orthodox Christian frescos from the eyes of Muslims, who, despite their dogmatic opposition to it, have chosen to worship in...

According to ancient tradition, the wonderworking icon of Tikhvin is one of several painted by St Luke the Evangelist. The icon was taken from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the fifth century, where it was enshrined in the Church of Blachernae, which was built especially for this purpose.In 1383, seventy years before the fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Turks, fishermen on Lake Ladoga in the principality of Novgorod the Great witnessed the icon miraculously hovering over the lake’s waters amidst a radiant light. According to an early sixteenth century Russian manuscript, “The Tale of Miracles of the...

A Short Meditation on the “Look” of Jesus By: Msgr. Charles PopeI have a large Icon of Christ in my room. What icons from the Eastern tradition do best is to capture “the Look.” No matter where I move in the room Christ is looking right at me. His look is intense, though not severe. In the Eastern spirituality Icons are windows into heaven. Hence this icon is no mere portrait that reminds one of Christ, it is an image which mediates his presence. When I look upon him, I experience that he knows me. It is a knowing...

Ten questions to ask your biology teacher about evolution. ORIGIN OF LIFE. Why do textbooks claim that the 1953 Miller-Urey experiment shows how life's building blocks may have formed on the early Earth -- when conditions on the early Earth were probably nothing like those used in the experiment, and the origin of life remains a mystery? DARWIN'S TREE OF LIFE. Why don't textbooks discuss the "Cambrian explosion," in which all major animal groups appear together in the fossil record fully formed instead of branching from a common ancestor -- thus contradicting the evolutionary tree of life? HOMOLOGY. Why do...