I just finished reading an article in New York Magazine that I wish I could unread. It is an interview with a young woman engaged to marry her own father. I am not even going to link the interview here–it is just too vile and disturbing to share. You can read USA Today’s coverage of the situation here if you are interested. I mention the article because it raises some issues for the “marriage equality” movement. The sexual revolutionaries have been pushing to normalize any an all sexual relationships so long as they are between consenting adults. In effect, the only constraint on sexual morality is consent. Flowing from that,…
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Chief Kelvin Cochran: “My termination has made a great statement”
Terminated Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran spoke at a rally today in the Georgia State Capitol. It was really well done, and I encourage you to listen to all of it (it begins at 1:20:57 above). But I would draw your attention now to his conclusion below. In his own words: It has been said by Council Member Alex Wan that my termination has made a great statement. I could not agree with him more. It has made the statement that though there is no evidence that my religious beliefs have created a hostile work environment (as alleged) and no discrimination against any LGBT members of our community, there are grave…
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If Atlanta Fire Chief’s termination isn’t a religious liberty case, then nothing is
The New York Times offers a lead editorial today supporting the termination of Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran. The editorial argues that Cochran’s Christian beliefs about homosexuality are “homophobic,” “virulent anti-gay views.” It denies that Cochran’s firing has anything to do with religious liberty, but only with Chief Cochran’s failure to get permission to publish the book, commenting on his suspension, and exposing the city to lawsuits. But is this really accurate? Do the editors really believe that Chief Cochran’s primary error was failing to get permission to publish the book? Mayor Kasim Reed, who fired Chief Cochran, first commented on the book in November. He made it plain that…
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NY Times columnist would end religious freedom as we know it
Frank Bruni‘s illiberal New York Times column over the weekend has been rightly panned for being absolutely inimical to religious freedom. I encourage you to read responses from Ramesh Ponnuru, Albert Mohler, and Andrew Walker—all of them very well done and exposing the weaknesses of Bruni’s piece. My favorite tweet-length response comes from Robbie George, who sums up the matter rather accurately: I don't know Frank Bruni, but he cannot be as obtuse, ignorant of religion, and illiberal as he pretends to be in his NYT column today. — Robert P. George (@McCormickProf) January 12, 2015
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The firing of Atlanta fire chief is an intolerable precedent
No doubt by now you have read about the Fire Chief in Atlanta who was fired for his views on homosexuality. The New York Times reports: Mayor Kasim Reed announced Tuesday that he had fired the chief of the city’s Fire Rescue Department, Kelvin Cochran, after Mr. Cochran gave workers a religious book he wrote containing passages that condemn homosexuality…
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No, we are not Charlie
Rod Dreher offers a provocative counterpoint to the Je suis Charlie meme that has been sweeping the internet in the wake of the Paris shootings. Dreher writes: If you can’t imagine wearing an “I Am the Catholic League” (if you are a secular leftist) or “I Am NARAL” (if you are a pro-life conservative) t-shirt in protest of deadly violence against those organizations, then you should think twice about tweeting or claiming the phrase Je suis Charlie. I mean, you can and should be in solidarity with those dead journalists, and hope for their murderers to be caught and punished within the fullest extent of the law. But let’s be honest:…
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It’s time to move past the Madonna cult
Denise McAllister has an excellent little piece at The Federalist about ageing women and the cult of youth. She argues that women generally miss out on the joys of different life-stages because they have been conditioned to pursue that which time will ultimately take away from everyone—youthful beauty. She writes: “On and on it goes, as women move from motherhood to the crone years, desperately holding on to their maiden visage. But that identity is gone. Time has stolen it from them… Motherhood was either rushed through and not savored or it was rejected altogether, so there isn’t even that aspect of womanhood to carry with them into the twilight…
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Gov. Jeb Bush’s gay marriage views scrutinized
As former Governor Jeb Bush eyes a run for President of the United States, his record on gay marriage is coming under some scrutiny. He has always been a proponent of traditional marriage, but The Miami Herald has an article today reporting a certain ambivalence in his some of his public pronouncements: As governor, he was against same-sex marriage but wasn’t publicly enthusiastic about the successful 2008 campaign to rewrite the Florida Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Bush, who left office in 2007, said the change wasn’t needed, since state law already restricted marriage to heterosexual couples. Two years ago, he suggested in a…
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A short review of Pres. Bush’s biography of his father
President George W. Bush’s biography of his father is like no other I have ever read. It is unusual for both father and son to serve terms as President of the United States, much less that one would write a book about the other. But that is precisely what we have in 41: A Portrait of My Father. Historian David McCullough once told the younger Bush how much history would have been served if Pres. John Quincy Adams would have written about his father Pres. John Adams. Pres. Bush says that he wrote the current book in part as a result of that conversation. Pres. Bush begins by explaining that…
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The “celibate gay Christian” movement: How should we think about it?
Michelle Boorstein has a must-read piece in The Washington Post about the celibate gay Christian movement. It features Albert Mohler, Wesley Hill, and some others from the evangelical movement. The article begins with a discussion about Eve Tushnet, a celibate Roman Catholic lesbian. Today, Tushnet is a leader in a small but growing movement of celibate gay Christians who find it easier than before to be out of the closet in their traditional churches because they’re celibate. She is busy speaking at conservative Christian conferences with other celibate Catholics and Protestants and is the most well-known of 20 bloggers who post on spiritualfriendship.org, a site for celibate gay and lesbian…