Free Republic

"TONY BLAIR has admitted that his Christianity played a “hugely important” role during his premiership but he was forced to play down his religious conviction for fear of being seen by the public as “a nutter”. In his most frank television interview about his religious beliefs, Blair confesses he would have found it difficult to do the job of prime minister had he not been able to draw on his faith." "In The Blair Years, the former prime minister, who is expected to convert to Roman Catholicism soon, compares the differing attitude to religion in British politics with that in...

Tony blair has sparked controversy by claiming that people who speak about their religious faith can be viewed by society as "nutters". The former prime minister's comments came as he admitted for the first time that his faith was "hugely important" in influencing his decisions during his decade in power at Number 10, including going to war with Iraq in 2003. Mr Blair complained that he had been unable to follow the example of US politicians, such as President George W. Bush, in being open about his faith because people in Britain regarded religion with suspicion. "It's difficult if you...

Maybe you missed this but the Desert News in Salt Lake City didn't. Harry Reid had some harsh words for Evangelicals calling millions of them "anti-Christian". Read portions of the article below: (the key qote is bolded)Some past prominent LDS Church leaders wrongly pressed conservatism on church members, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday during a press conference at Brigham Young University. The Nevada senator attacked President Bush and evangelical Christians while saying members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints need to worry less about abortion and gay marriage and more about health care, global...

Imagine you own a small business—let’s say a donut shop—and you have an employee who is late for work everyday and is rude to customers. When you fire him, he claims it is really because he is gay—and sues. Or imagine you run a daycare center in your church basement. One day a homosexual applies for a job. When you turn him down, he says you broke the law. Today, both of these stories are simply scenarios. But by the end of the week, they could be reality. Under intense goading from the gay-rights lobby, the House of Representatives is...

In 1997, the National Association of Social Work (NASW) altered its ethics code, ruling that all social workers must promote social justice “from local to global level.� This call for mandatory advocacy raised the question: what kind of political action did the highly liberal field of social work have in mind? The answer wasn’t long in coming. The Council on Social Work Education, the national accreditor of social work education programs, says candidates must fight “oppression,� and sees American society as pervaded by the “global interconnections of oppression.� Now aspiring social workers must commit themselves, usually in writing, to a...

After an extensive audit, the Internal Revenue Service has exonerated Focus on the Family Chairman James Dobson of accusations from liberal watchdog groups that he violated his organization's non-profit status by endorsing GOP candidates -- including President Bush -- during the 2004 election. "No dings. No criticisms. Not a single allegation was found to have substance," Dobson said regarding charges made against him in 2005 by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and Citizens Project, a Colorado group that states its purpose is "creating a community valuing diversity, equality and religious freedom." [ snip ] CREW's original complaint,...

We are now living in what some scholars call the "post-Christian West."By this they mean that Christianity no longer influences culture in Europe or in North America in a way that it once did. Of course there are many inherited influences still evident in the law, but for the past 50 years Europe, then the United States, has jettisoned Christian influences in arts and entertainment, politic, and education.It is becoming, some scholars say, an "ABC moment" -- "Anything But Christian."While well over 90 percent of Americans still say they believe in God, and many still identify as "Christian," the values...

Newsweek's Anna Quindlen recently wrote that a presidential victory for Rudy Giuliani "wouldn't be a good thing for this country, but his candidacy may wind up being a good thing for his party," which Quindlen obviously believes has been hijacked by the Christian right. Giuliani's strong poll numbers, said Quindlen, perhaps "indicate that the end is nigh for the stranglehold the Leviticus Lobby has had on the GOP." It's no longer surprising that those screaming most loudly against Christianity and its influence on public policy in America often employ the same tactics and represent the same dangers they falsely attribute...

If public opinion isn't on your side, hit your opponent below the belt. This seemed to be the game plan for some Louisiana Democrats, who recently used religion to try and derail Republican rising star Congressman Bobby Jindal's run for the governorship. In a commercial that debuted in mid-August, sponsored by the state's official Democratic Party, the Catholic Jindal is accused of being "anti-Protestant." The unholy ads have run only in the Protestant-heavier north -- to play on Protestant fears without irritating the papists. According to the Almanac of American Politics 2006, "Catholic Cajun parishes (Louisiana has parishes rather than...

EVANSTON, Illinois, August 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Academics and transsexual activists turned on a psychology professor after he published a highly controversial explanation that transsexual desires are eroticism based on the "idea of being a woman". In his book "The Man Who Would be Queen," Professor J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern University explained that a man's desire to be a woman is based on a sexual desire called "autogynephilia," which he describes as "sexual arousal at the idea of being a woman." He also explained that the term "women trapped in men's bodies" is a misleading way of explaining the...

David French has known for years that college campuses are bastions of anti-evangelical bias. He knew it when he served on the admissions committee at Cornell Law School and watched his colleagues ridicule evangelical applicants as "Bible thumpers" or members of the "God squad." He knew it during his tenure with an education watchdog organization that routinely challenged university speech codes bent on silencing evangelical viewpoints. He knew it when he shifted into his current role as director of the Alliance Defense Fund's Center for Academic Freedom, a position from which he's filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of victimized evangelical...

In Tennessee, Rep. Steve Cohen (D) is finding out the hard way that pastors aren't buying the liberal line on H.R. 1592, the federal "hate crimes" bill. A growing number of ministers are sensing that the wave of support for applying "hate crimes" to sexual orientation spells trouble for religious leaders and their ability to speak freely from the pulpit. Although Cohen is doing his best to reassure Tennessee's churches that they'll be unaffected, the state's faithful are challenging his vote in favor of the bill. Together with a powerful alliance of black and white pastors, congregations have ignited a...

COLLEGE KORAN 'FLUSHER' COLLARED By PHILIP MESSING and HASANI GITTENS NYPost.com July 28, 2007 -- From Russia with . . . hate? Police yesterday arrested a Pace University student born in the former Soviet Union and charged him with a hate crime for allegedly clogging toilets with the Koran on two occasions last year. Business major Stanislav Shmulevich, 23, was collared at his Brooklyn home after cops confronted him with surveillance photos from the incidents last Oct. 13 and Nov. 21. In both cases, a teacher discovered a Koran in a second-floor toilet at 1 Pace Plaza in lower Manhattan.

San Diego School District Removes “God” from the Classroom: Thomas More Law Center Files Suit on Behalf of Teacher Tue, May 1, 2007 ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that it has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Poway Unified School District, located in San Diego, California. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Brad Johnson, a respected teacher who has been teaching in the school district for 30 years. The lawsuit claims that school officials violated Johnson’s constitutional rights by ordering...

From the year 2000 but it goes back several years before that...here's a partial list: January Sarasota, FL — The Sarasota County Superintendent of Schools David Bennett was profiled in Sarasota magazine. In the profile, Mr. Bennett was quoted as saying his interest in civil rights started when, as a child in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s, he heard that the Catholic Church was buying up homes in certain areas so that blacks couldn't purchase them. He provided no evidence of this charge or explanation for the statement, which appears to have been hearsay around the dinner table when...

From Nigeria to Indonesia, Christians are under siege in virtually every single country in the Muslim world, the victims of countless acts of discrimination, depredation, brutality, and murder that are so widespread and systematic that it can rightfully be called the new Holocaust. This time, however, the perpetrators of this Holocaust aren't wearing swastikas, but kufi skull caps and hijabs. Some of the oldest Christian communities in the world are subject to relentless attack and teeter on the brink of extinction at the hands of the "Religion of Peace": Palestinian Christians in Gaza and the West Bank; Assyrian, Syriac and...

An obviously angry Ann Coulter this morning ripped into critics who deliberately distorted her comments about former senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards. After a relentless 24-hour firestorm during which much of the mainstream media used selective quotes to mangle the meaning of several of Ann’s comments about Edwards, Coulter set the record straight while talking with Joe Scarborough host of MSNBC’s "Morning Joe” program. Coulter told Scarborough: "I’ve never seen people avoid ideas so much in such an obvious way and try to alert Americans not to read anything, not to listen to something someone said — not because...

In West Java, Islamic terrorists have forcibly closed another Christian church. Typically, a mob of Islamic militants will invade a church, during services, and desecrate the place, drive the worshipers out, and attack any clergy, all the time shouting Islamic slogans. When the police investigate, none of the known Islamic militant groups will take credit for the attack. In the last three years, at least 30 Christian churches have been forced to close in West Java.

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. Saturday, June 2, 2007 FAITH UNDER FIRE IRS to church: Shut up – Church to IRS: No way Pastor under investigation says he 'will not stop preaching God's word' Posted: June 2, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com A Christian church in Kansas has told the Internal Revenue Service that it will not stop teaching and preaching God's Word, "even if it relates to contemporary issues in the world," after the federal agency demanded answers to 31 questions about its beliefs and warned about "political"...

Proponents of intelligent design never know when they might be led away to the ideological chopping block. Take, for example, biologist Carolyn Crocker, who was banned from teaching evolution at George Mason University after mentioning intelligent design. Or evolutionary biologist Richard Sternberg, who was demoted by the Smithsonian Institute after he approved an article that supported intelligent design. Now add Guillermo Gonzalez to that list. Last month, Gonzalez, assistant professor of astronomy and physics at Iowa State University, was denied tenure. His supposed crime? Believing something other than Darwinism. Why else would he be denied? It certainly can’t be his...

This past week an ABC News debate aired on "Nightline," which pitted popular theists against Internet atheists. While I'll have more to say about that battle of wits in my next article, it testifies to the growing number (30 million Americans) of those who profess there is no God. Add to that what I believe is possibly three times the number of functional atheists, those who believe in a God but practically don't show it, and America is facing a new religious horizon in which atheism is becoming a formidable foe. Though the majority of Americans continue to claim to...

Justice: Will Democrats' effort to include sexual orientation in hate crimes legislation be expanded so that it applies to the mere criticism of protected groups? And if so, is this protecting civil rights or establishing a national thought police? The problem with defining a crime as a hate crime is that it's a classic definition of a distinction without a difference. It says that if someone assaults you because he hates you for the color of your skin, it's deserving of more punishment than if someone assaults you because he likes the color of your money.

Today, FIRE announced the decision by a disciplinary panel at Tufts to find the conservative student newspaper, The Primary Source, guilty of “harassment” for, among other things, publishing a satirical ad that listed less-than-flattering facts about Islam during Tufts’ Islamic Awareness Week. You can see the ad here, and Eugene Volokh has also published it with excellent commentary over at his blog, but, just to make sure people see the ad for themselves, I have reprinted the full text: Islam Arabic Translation: Submission In the Spirit of Islamic Awareness Week, the SOURCE presents an itinerary to supplement the educational experience....

Following on the heels of an 'anti-discrimination' plan Christians insist would virtually outlaw their religious beliefs comes another proposal – introduced by openly homosexual U.S. Rep. Barney Frank – that requires businesses to give special privileges to "gay" and "transgendered" individuals. Shari Rendall, director of legislation and public policy for Concerned Women for America, the nation's largest women's public policy group, said H.R. 2015, the "Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2007," would be a disaster. "This bill would unfairly extend special privileges based upon an individual's changeable sexual behaviors, rather than focusing on immutable, non-behavior characteristics such as skin color or...

A board member for Equality California has come out swinging at the Bible-based Capitol Resource Institute, which works on behalf of family and biblical values in California, especially among its lawmakers. "If you continue your efforts, we will BURY you," said an e-mail from Ben Patrick Johnson, to his "colleagues" at the CRI, according to a statement from the Christian organization. "For a group that purports to expand tolerance and civil rights, Equality California is not practicing what it preaches," CRI said. "This type of language evokes images of Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the podium of...

By day, Joe Zamecki works as a landscaper and valet in Austin, capital of George W Bush's home state of Texas, which is regarded by many natives as God's own country. In his spare time, however, he is quietly working to undermine the dominance of America's God-fearing majority. He is one among a growing band of "out" atheists, and wants a US that is "one nation under no god". On Thursday, while Christian Americans were celebrating National Prayer Day, Mr Zamecki, the state director of American Atheists, was leading a demonstration against the public display of the words "In God...

Are American Pastors Headed For Prison? By Janet Folger I've already told you about how H.R. 1592 will destroy equal justice (setting up a victim hierarchy), set up a Gay Gestapo with unlimited funds and send grandma to jail for sharing her faith on the public sidewalk, as happened in Philadelphia. But what you may not know is how this bill scheduled for a vote in the House this week will come after pastors and all those who disagree with the homosexual agenda out loud. H.R. 1592 the so-called "hate crimes" bill isn't about hate. It isn't about "crimes" (there...

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that it has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Poway Unified School District, located in San Diego, California. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Brad Johnson, a respected teacher who has been teaching in the school district for 30 years. The lawsuit claims that school officials violated Johnson’s constitutional rights by ordering him to remove several educational banners from his classroom walls because, according to these officials, the banners promote a “Judeo-Christian” viewpoint.

Frank G. Kauffman was teaching a course in social work at Missouri State University in 2005 when he gave an assignment that sparked a lawsuit and nearly destroyed his academic career. He asked his students to write letters urging state legislators to support adoptions by same-sex couples. Emily Brooker, then a junior majoring in social work, objected that the assignment violated her Christian beliefs. When she refused to sign her letter, she was hauled before a faculty panel on a charge of discriminating against gays. The case has fueled accusations by conservative groups that secular university faculties are dominated by...

The political left, which holds itself as progressive, rational and fact-based, is becoming an enemy of academic inquiry, and a practitioner of thought control on a wide variety of issues. Increasingly, from the left's perspective, there is just one acceptable viewpoint. Consider the subjects of evolution, global warming, special rights for homosexuals and abstinence education. Consider efforts of the left to silence conservative talk radio. Consider the mainstream media's arrogant denial of its transparent liberal bias, pronouncing itself to be above politics and inherently objective and its critics somehow skewed. Consider the leftist refrain that red-state conservatives do not merely...

Liberal Democrats are attempting to muzzle conservative talk radio: they are assaulting free speech. Like the communists in the former Soviet Union, America’s liberals seek to crush dissent by consolidating control over the media—especially talk radio, which has emerged as the dominant medium for conservative opinion. Allies close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are promoting legislation, which if passed, will take off the air prominent conservative radio hosts such as Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly—along with thousands of smaller conservative broadcasters. The bill, entitled the "Media Ownership Reform Act," is sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a...

A coalition of conservative black pastors is lobbying Congress to vote against a bill that would extend federal hate-crimes laws to cover gays, saying they fear it would prevent them from preaching against homosexuality. Several pastors last week urged House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., a sponsor of the bill, and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus to vote against the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. They say it would pin the hate-crime label on their sermons against homosexuality, which they consider a sin. "This law can be applied in the way that can keep the...

A couple doors down the hall from Mr. Johnson's classroom at Westview High School in Rancho Peñasquitos, a suburb of San Diego, a teacher has a picture of the grunge rock band Nirvana on her door. Other teachers have slogans from sports celebrities and cartoon characters. Teacher Brad Johnson has decorated his assigned homeroom with pictures of families and nature, and banners relating to American history, such as God Bless America. That last item, the school district told Johnson in January of this year, is banned and must be removed from the classroom. Why? Because the Poway Unified School District...

On the morning of April 18, Kutztown University (Pennsylvania), exhibited intolerance and hostility towards the gospel. Shortly after we began ministering at Kutztown University a crowd of approximately 400 to 500 students surrounded the team of Gospel preachers. Even though this is a state university and a classic free speech venue, the university police force ordered the Christians to leave the campus immediately. The police then, at the urging of a hostile crowd, arrested two preachers from the ministry team. As the remainder of the team left with police escort, they were followed by several hundred angry and profane lovers...

Breaking: Free speech victory in Washington state By Michelle Malkin   ·   April 26, 2007 12:38 PM There's an important breaking court decision on a political free speech case involving my friends at KVI radio in Seattle. A reader e-mails: A unanimous Washington state supreme court ruling, issued this morning, reversed a lower court ruling that held radio commentary by Seattle's KVI-570's Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson made "in-kind" contributions when they promoted an anti-gas tax voter initiative on their shows in 2005. Majority Opinion by Justice Barbara Madsen. Concurring opinion by Justice James Johnson, scolding the abusive prosecutors. Seattle Times...

<p>A fast-tracked congressional plan to add special protections for homosexuals to federal law would turn "thoughts, feelings, and beliefs" into criminal offenses and put Christians in the bull's-eye, according to opponents.</p> <p>"H.R. 1592 is a discriminatory measure that criminalizes thoughts, feelings, and beliefs [and] has the potential of interfering with religious liberty and freedom of speech," according to a white paper submitted by Glen Lavy, of the Alliance Defense Fund.</p>

Earlier this week I wrote about a Federal Judge which upheld censorship in a public school. The decision came in response to a student who wished to protest the “Day of Silence” which encourages students to show visible support for homosexual lifestyle by refusing to speak during the school day, while conveying written messages in the form of T-shirts, buttons, and stickers, all of which promote homosexual behavior. Yesterday a Michigan student was suspended yesterday for writitng the words “I’m Straight” on a piece of duct tape and placing it on his T-Shirt.....

Cultural clashes involving Islam have recently made headlines in Minnesota. At the airport, some Muslim taxi drivers refuse to transport passengers carrying alcohol; at Target stores, some Muslim cashiers won't scan pork products. Now there's a new point of friction: Minneapolis Community and Technical College. Its officials say the college, a public institution, has a strict policy of not promoting religion or favoring one religion over another. "The Constitution prevents us from doing this in any form," says Dianna Cusick, director of legal affairs. But that seems to depend on your religion. Where Christianity is concerned, the college goes to...

CAEN, France -- With 40 minutes to go before show time, the 500-seat Alexis de Tocqueville auditorium was already packed. A fan set up video camera in the front row. A sound engineer checked the microphones. The star: Michel Onfray, celebrity philosopher and France's high priest of militant atheism. Dressed entirely in black, he strode onto the stage and looked out at the reverential audience for his weekly two-hour lecture series, "Hedonist Philosophy," which is broadcast on a state radio station. "I could found a religion," he said. Mr. Onfray, 48 years old and author of 32 books, stands in...

If Don Imus' racially bigoted remark merited a two-week suspension by MSNBC, for how long will MSNBC and HBO ban Bill Maher after his bit of religious bigotry on today's "Imus in the Morning"? Maher, ostensibly on to discuss Imus' imbroglio, engaged in this repartee with the host: DON IMUS: I used to think that all of these things that the administration did were either because of the war criminal Vice-President and that psychopath who was over at the Pentagon, because of them, or because of stupidity. But I really believe, in my heart, that it's arrogance, and maliciousness and...

A plan being shoved down a fast track in the Oregon Legislature would give homosexuals a vast range of new state laws they could use to impose their moral perspective on Christians across the state, according to opponents who fear for their speech and religious expression rights. Senate Bill 2, on its face, is written to enshrine in state law special protections for homosexuals by classifying them as a protected civil rights group. But hundreds of pastors – whose churches include tens of thousands of evangelical Christians – are horrified by what they see advancing virtually without opposition. "Senate Bill...

"A plan being shoved down the fast tract of the Oregon State Legislature would give homosexuals a vast range of new state laws they could use to impose their moral perspective on Christians across the state, according to opponents who fear for their speech and religious expression rights. Senate Bill 2, on its face, is written to enshrine in state law special protections for homosexuals by classifying them as a protected civil rights group....."

Christians and Jews are accustomed to cultural elites trying to undermine their religious faith during Lent, Passover and Easter – but it’s never been as bad as this year.  Beginning on February 26, the news and entertainment media have fired a stunning barrage of criticism at religious beliefs, religious practice, and religious symbols. Nothing is too sacred to attack this year, not even the most crucial teachings of Judaism and Christianity. On Easter Sunday, the History Channel will question whether the Bible is God’s genuine revelation to mankind. The current – Holy Week – issue of Newsweek teases readers with...

LONDON, April 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Triumphing after last month’s passage of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, the UK’s secularists and homosexual activist groups are demanding the curtailing of Christian influence in British society. Terry Sanderson, head of the National Secularist Society, has produced an editorial calling Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor’s assertions that public expression of religious belief is under attack in Britain, “breathtakingly manipulative.” The Cardinal gave a lecture March 28, in which he warned that the secularizing trend will marginalize Christians. He said that religious freedom is more than the freedom to worship, “It is the freedom to serve...

By Charles Babb For The Christian Chronicle SEARCY, ARK. — Attacks leveled at those of faith represent a great threat against America, a federal appeals court judge said at Harding University. Judge Janice Rogers Brown, a member of the Silver Spring, Md., church, spoke on “Faith and Freedom” as part of Harding’s American Studies Institute lecture series. “In my view, Christianity at its best is the foundation of reason and liberty,” said Brown, a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “The true American religious tradition, the one that disciplines power, subjugating it to...

In a March 12 interview with the Chicago Tribune, General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made this statement: “I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.”1 Liberal Media Turn the Statement into a National Debate A media upoar ensued against the general, the first Marine to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. One would think the distinguished and highly decorated...

An Illinois high school student is in federal court seeking the right to wear T-shirts that declare sentiments such as "Be happy, not gay." Heidi Zamecnik, of the Chicago suburb Naperville, wants to wear the shirt at school the day after the "Day of Silence," a nationwide observance April 19 to protest harassment of homosexuals in schools, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Zamecnik is asking the court to order her school, Neuqua Valley High, and Indian Prairie District 204 to allow her to express her family's "conviction that true happiness cannot be found through homosexual behavior." (Story continues below) The "Day...

BRASILIA, Brazil, MARCH 18, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Debate continues over so-called homophobia legislation, which seeks to criminalize anything considered a condemnation of homosexuality, including priests who speak against the practice in homilies. Priests could face two to five years imprisonment for preaching against homosexuality. And a rector of a seminary who refuses admission to a homosexual student could face three to five years. Thursday, Brazil's Senate declined to vote on the legislation. Instead, the senators decided to form a work group, which will organize public audiences to hear specialists on the subject. According to ZENIT sources, a number of citizens voiced...

Politically Correct Death Threats at Georgia Tech By Peter Collier FrontPageMagazine.com | March 21, 2007 This past February, while other Georgia Tech students were exchanging flirtatious Valentine?s Day notes, Ruth Malhotra received an anonymous letter whose message was anything but amorous: This Valentine?s Day, you cannot attack gay marriage. It is about love and you are about hate. This Valentine?s Day, you cannot condemn a woman?s choice. It is about love and you are about hate. This Valentine? Day, you cannot protest the Vagina Monologues. It is about love and you are about hate. No, this Valentine?s Day, you will...

The vaunted Smithsonian Institution, highly regarded for promoting knowledge and science, is embroiled in a scandal for censoring scientific inquiry. It would be amusing when the mouthpieces of political correctness abandoned their mantra of freedom and tolerance to squash a threat to their power, if so much were not at stake. Consider the case of the squashing of Dr. Richard Sternberg, a former research associate at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and a distinguished evolutionary biologist with two doctorates in biology. Dr. Sternberg’s sin was to allow a scientific article critical of neo-Darwinism to be published in...