Free Republic

The Supreme Court’s abuse of its authority in the decision redefining marriage as an institution based on feelings rather than fact and sanctioning deviancy as a civil right was expected, but the surprise was its sentimental substitution of nihilistic narcissism for jurisprudence, expressed in an amorphous substitute for English diction. This passed a death sentence on Christian culture, just as Roe v. Wade sanctioned the deaths of millions of infants. As Christ rose from the dead, so can our nation, but only the cynic and the naïf will deny that the next steps will be attacks on Christ himself in...

Editor's note: This column was co-authored by Bob Morrison. Many of us applauded when President Bill Clinton signed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. That law—passed with broad bi-partisan support—established a U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that was required to issue annual reports. The law called for the appointment of an Ambassador-at-Large in the State Department who would make religious freedom a key concern. These initiatives gave great hope to advocates of religious freedom around the world. In the nearly twenty years since that good law was passed and signed, however, the picture for religious freedom worldwide...

'You chose to attack my faith … to threaten my very means of eating' A Washington state florist facing “ruin” for her decision not to support same-sex “marriage” through her business has rejected out of hand an offer to settle a state claim of discrimination against her. As WND reported this week, Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom authorized the state and the homosexual plaintiffs to pursue the business and personal assets of Barronelle Stutzman, including her home, in payment of damages and attorneys’ fees. The Alliance Defending Freedom confirmed Ekstrom granted a summary judgment in the case against...

errorism: As in Paris, where the White House insists four Jews in a kosher market were randomly selected for slaughter, the statement condemning IS beheading 21 Egyptians omits a key fact: all were Christians. Speaking of the Chapel Hill, N.C., murder of three Muslims, President Obama, as his FBI began an investigation into whether it was a "hate crime," issued a statement saying that "no one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship." Indeed not. Yet, we could find no such sentiment or statement...

All Catholic priests in the Crimea will be forced to leave by the end of 2014 under new rules established by the Russian government, the Forum 18 news service reports. Since Russia assumed control of Crimea, authorities have enforced Russian laws that require religious communities to register for formal approval. To date, Forum 18 has found, no religious communities in the region have been registered. Because only formally registered communities are allowed to have ministers from other countries, Catholic priests and religious from neighboring countries will be required to leave. When questioned by Forum 18 about the difficulties these rules...

After a federal judge in Idaho recently ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, ordained ministers Donald and Evelyn Knapp who own the Hitching Post wedding chapel in the city of Coeur d‘Alene, were asked by a gay couple to perform their wedding ceremony. According to Fox News , the ministers declined to perform the wedding due to their opposition to same-sex marriage. However, because the Hitching Post wedding chapel is registered as a for-profit business rather than a church or place of worship (although the wedding chapel is registered with the state as a “religious corporation”...

Saudi authorities have swooped on a house in the eastern province city of Khafji, on the border with Kuwait, and arrested 27 people for using the premises as church last week. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) also confiscated copies of the Bible and various musical instruments from the people during the raid. The swoop was prompted by a tip from a citizen, reported the English-language newspaper Saudi Gazette. Those arrested on September 5 were of various Asian nationalities, including women and children, the newspaper reported. "A citizen reported suspicious activities in...

Interview: the former attorney general says he fears that 'aggressive' secularism is pushing the Christian 'faith out of the public space' Britain is at risk of being “sanitised” of faith because an “aggressive form of secularism” in workplaces and public bodies is forcing Christians to hide their beliefs, a former attorney general has warned. Dominic Grieve said he found it “quite extraordinary” that people were being sacked or disciplined for expressing their beliefs at work. He described Christianity as a “powerful force for good” in modern Britain and warned that Christians should not be “intimidated” and “excluded” for their beliefs....

As a Christian lawyer — even when I was engaged in the “commercial” practice of law rather than the nonprofit, constitutional work I do now — I always drew moral lines around my representations decisions. I was not going to use whatever meager talents God gave me to advance or celebrate causes or principles I knew to be wrong. In other words, I discriminated. But not on the basis of race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation, but rather on the basis of the action or legal principle the case would advance. I’d happily represent anyone, gay or straight, in a...

Sunday, June 29, 2014 United Kingdom: Disciplinary Board Finds Christian Guilty of "Bullying" for Praying with Muslim Can anything be weaker than Islam? It brags about being the true religion, but recoils from the slightest challenge. Under Sharia, Christians are not allowed to share the Gospel with Muslims. In the United Kingdom, Sharia is already being enforced. Christians who so much as pray with a Muslim are accused of bullying and are punished accordingly. Victoria Wasteney The Telegraph—A Christian health worker has begun a legal challenge after being disciplined by the NHS for praying with a Muslim colleague. Victoria Wasteney,...

Miriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who faces a death sentence for apostasy from Islam, remains in prison, and pressure is mounting for her execution, the Archdiocese of Khartoum has warned. Contrary to some media reports, Ibrahim has not been released from prison, the archdiocese reported. Her sentence has been appealed, but there is no word on when that appeal will be heard. “According to the concerned authorities, Mrs. Miriam can only be released on the condition that she renounces Christianity and gets divorced from her husband,” the archdiocese said. While she has been urged by many people to submit...

Denver, Colo., May 30, 2014 / 05:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A commission’s ruling that Colorado baker Jack Phillips must bake same-sex “wedding” cakes forces him to choose between violating his conscience and supporting his family, the baker’s lawyer said. In America, we don’t separate a person’s creative expression from what he believes. Jack simply exercised the long-cherished American freedom to decline to use his artistic and creative talents to promote a message with which he disagrees,” said Nicolle Martin, the lawyer representing Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo. Martin, an attorney allied with the national legal group Alliance Defending Freedom,...

Catholic doctors who follow church teaching on sexual ethics cannot work as gynaecologists in Britain, the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) conference was told. Charlie O’Donnell, a consultant in emergency and intensive care medicine, said the best advice he could give to an “orthodox” Catholic wishing to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology would be to “emigrate”. Dr O’Donnell told the conference at Ealing Abbey, west London, on 17 May that a Catholic training to be a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology would soon find he or she had conscientious objections to such tasks as prescribing artificial contraceptives, giving unmarried couples fertility...

Twenty years ago, new president Bill Clinton stepped on a political landmine when he tried to fulfill a campaign promise to permit gay soldiers to serve openly. Same-sex marriage barely registered as a political cause; the country was then three years away from the Defense of Marriage Act and four years from comedian Ellen DeGeneres’s prime-time coming out. Then came what historians will one day recall as a cultural revolution. Now we’re entering the endgame of the struggle over gay rights and the meaning of homosexuality. Conservatives have been routed, both in court and increasingly in the court of public...

Teaching the truths about homosexuality, chastity, adultery, and how God wants us to live our lives is not always an easy thing to do. Nor is living that life. But God asks that we do our best nevertheless, for our ultimate goal is eternity with Him. We cannot plead ignorance. We cannot justify that we chose otherwise. God's word is the truth, and though some may try to silence those who tell the truth, it doesn't change the facts. April 11, 2014 (ALL.org) - Sister Jane Dominic Laurel, a Dominican nun who has recently come under fire for a presentation...

Intimidation, coercion and bullying will not win arguments or silence other points of view Haven’t you learned anything from history? ‘Advancements’ earned through tyranny never endure. You can only win a debate by suffocating your opposition for so long. Your strategy is doomed for failure, because it has always failed. In the name of ‘fighting for the freedom to love,’ you’ve utilized hate. For the sake of ‘tolerance,’ you’ve wielded bigotry. In order to push ‘diversity,’ you’ve been dogmatic. You are everything you accuse your opponents of being, and you stand for all the evil things that you claim they...

Many Christians have been warning for years that the radical homosexual activist lobby is made up of Christian-hating fascists who are in rebellion against both God and nature, who are hell-bent on criminalizing Christianity and pushing to the fringes anyone who publicly acknowledges natural human sexuality and the age-old, immutable institution of legitimate marriage as created by God. Sadly, many people, even many Christians, think that I and others are using hyperbole when we refer to this sexual anarchist "LGBT" movement as "homofascist" or the "Gaystapo." I hope you'll think again. It's time to wake up and smell the impending...

Mozilla has now made its employment policy clear. No Catholics need apply. Or Evangelical Christians. Or Eastern Orthodox. Or Orthodox Jews. Or Mormons. Or Muslims. Unless, that is, you are the "right kind" of Catholic, Evangelical, Eastern Orthodox Christian, observant Jew, Mormon, or Muslim, namely, the kind who believes your religious or philosophical tradition is wrong about the nature of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife, and the view now dominant among secular elites is correct. In that case, Mozilla will consider you morally worthy to work for them. Or maybe you can work for them even...

On Sunday, two remarkable Christian women, Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh, spoke at our church, describing their harrowing tale of imprisonment by the Iranian regime because of their Christian faith. Both were raised in Muslim homes in Iran but never embraced Islam. As young adults, they became Christians and met each other while studying theology in Turkey in 2005. When they returned to Iran, they began evangelizing together for several years, covertly distributing Bibles to some 20,000 people and starting two secret house churches. In March 2009, they were arrested in Tehran for promoting Christianity, which is punishable by death....

ROME, March 20, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Obama’s policies “have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” said American Cardinal Raymond Burke in an interview published in English exclusively by LifeSiteNews today. Burke did not mince words in responding to a question about the Catholic reaction to President Obama’s attack on religious freedom, especially through policies such as the controversial HHS mandate. “He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies,” said Burke. “Now he wants to restrict the exercise of the freedom of religion to freedom of worship, that is, he holds that...