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If I came up to you and asked you how what the spirit of Christmas means to you, how would you respond? Let’s see if your answers would match the answers I would expect if I did ask. I think that if I asked that question some would answer saying that the Spirit of Christmas is about being with your friends or relatives for the Holidays. Yet the reality for too many people is that spending Christmas with their loved ones, if they go so far as to actually call them “loved” ones often becomes a chore, as many people...

I know this isn't a "religious" issue, but since most of us here celebrate Christmas, I thought you might find this clever video clip (http://patrickmadrid.blogspot.com/2009/12/jack-bauer-interrogates-santa.html) amusing. Merry Christmas!

Even as you read this, persecuted Christians from around the world are gathering names and addresses from their local communities. These names are then submitted to Bibles Unbound where members have the opportunity to mail New Testaments in the appropriate language directly to the field. This unique program gives you the ability to stand alongside our persecuted brothers and sisters and help create a witness for Jesus Christ in hostile lands right from your own home. We invite you to read about current ministry operations to the right and consider joining today. For a donation of only $30.00 per month...

Merry Christmas Everyone LORD'S PRAYER

A "Progressive" Anglican church in Auckland New Zealand paid to have this billboard placed near their parish. Here are some excerpts written by the Vicar, Archdeacon Glynn Cardy on the church's website touting what he did. ________________ To make the news at Christmas it seems a priest just needs to question the literalness of a virgin giving birth. Many in society mistakenly think that to challenge literalism is to challenge the norms of Christianity. What progressive interpretations try to do however is remove the supernatural obfuscation and delve into the deeper spiritual truth of this festival. Christian fundamentalism believes a...

The incoming Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, for example, has just come out publicly with a ringing affirmation of the truth of Catholic teaching about contraception — i.e., that it's a serious sin and no Catholic in good conscience can willfully contracept— this in response to yet another goofball pro-abortion front group which styles itself "Young Catholics for Choice" . . .

Folks, this according to the Thomas More Law Center: ANN ARBOR, MI – Tomorrow, December 16, 2009, at 10 AM PST, a panel of eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in San Francisco will hear oral arguments concerning the constitutionality of San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s virulent resolution attacking the Catholic Church for its teachings against homosexual adoptions. The en banc panel will review the earlier opinion of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that upheld the resolution. Thomas More Law Center attorney Robert Muise will argue the case on behalf of the plaintiffs in...

"In order to win the crown of heavenly glory, the saints were expected first to carry a heavy cross in life." -- Father Emil Kapaun Over the next six weeks, the POWs in the Pyoktong prison camp began a cloaked and daring effort to save Emil Kapaun’s life. On a rise above them stood the remains of a Buddhist monastery; the guards called it a hospital, but POWs called it "The Death House." The Chinese sometimes killed prisoners by isolating them there from food and help. The POWs knew that’s where Kapaun might end up. In April, weeks after his...

The web site of a Catholic college in Montana advises students who wish to obtain an abortion to contact Planned Parenthood. “How can I obtain an abortion?” asks an anonymous "ask-a-nurse" advice column for Carroll College students. The response-- “thoughtfully prepared by Health Services”-- is "Carroll College does not offer abortion counseling based on its Catholic Tradition. There is a Planned Parenthood in Helena or you can talk with any health care provider concerning your options." In addition, the college’s official “Summer Job Finding Guide” asks students to consider applying for employment at Planned Parenthood. In 2005, a controversy erupted...

Parents, often without even realizing it, have been teaching their children the following things about Santa Claus: SANTA IS OMNISCIENT He knows how children behave throughout the year. The familiar song says, "He knows if we've been good or bad." Also he knows exactly what children want for Christmas even if the child does not have an opportunity to tell him personally. SANTA IS OMNIPOTENT No storm is too great to hinder Santa from performing his annual miracle of delivering gifts throughout the world. He also defies the laws of nature by flying and by coming down the narrowest (and...

Victory Declaration – Pastors Vow That IRS Will Not Control Them In that my first article ever written for Freedom’s Phoenix did not appear until September 28, 2007, the Victory Declaration which appears below was never released to Freedom’s Phoenix when it was circulated to the media in February of 2006. Therefore we are making it available to FP readers on this occasion. It is an update of the Redress of the 1983 Chicago Declaration that appeared on December 5, 2009 in FP. VICTORY DECLARATION Unregistered Baptist Fellowship Meeting February 21, 2006 Victory Baptist Church Okeechobee, Florida PREAMBLE “Forasmuch as...

1983 Chicago Declaration by 100 Church Leaders Resubmitted Because of a computer glitch the Chicago Declaration of 1983 that was revived and submitted on December 5 (2009) did not hold its numbering and paragraphs which made it difficult to read. Due to the good graces of the Editors of Freedom’s Phoenix we are resubmitting it for the benefit of those readers who are interested in circulating the article. Again we give thanks to a loving God of the Holy Bible and our wise Founding Fathers who gave us the inalienable right of Freedom of the press along with the others...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Cardinal Cipriani invites woman repentant of abortion to become an 'apostle of life' Lima, Peru, Dec 2, 2009 / 11:09 am (CNA).- During a radio program this week, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima invited a woman who repented of having an abortion to become an “apostle of life “and help others who have experienced the same tragedy. During the program, Dialogue of Faith, the cardinal took a call from a woman who underwent an abortion four years ago and later repented and sought God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession. “God has forgiven you because He is...

Christians United for Israel (CUFI) seeks to support both Jews and the nation of Israel. One of the primary scriptures they stand upon is: "For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, til her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch." ~ ISAIAH 62:1 If you are unable to attend this event or you would like to do more to support Israel, CUFI requests you sign The Israel Pledge so your name will be joined with thousands of others from across the country and presented to our...

The comment by a Vatican spokesman followed criticism from across Europe. On Sunday voters in Switzerland voted yes to a referendum which bans the building of minarets on top of mosques used by the country's small Muslim minority. Earlier on Monday the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said he was "scandalised" by the Swiss decision and said it represented a "show of intolerance" by France's neighbour. He said it was a "negative" move because banning the construction of Muslim mosque towers amounts to "oppressing a religion". ...

Monday November 30, 2009 Send Jailed Pro-Life Heroine Linda Gibbons a Christmas Card November 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Supporters of Linda Gibbons are disseminating the following information to encourage support for the Canadian pro-life sidewalk counsellor: Linda Gibbons has been a “common criminal” for many years now.  For fifteen years, since 1994, this grandmother has been in and out of Ontario prisons. Her totally accumulated jail time is seven years.  What is her crime?  Linda prayerfully and quietly witnesses in front of Ontario abortion clinics, in violation of an unjust "bubble zone" law.  This past session has been particularly...

I knew it! I knew it. I just knew it. Even given all his florid protestations to the contrary, and all his glowing "at-a-boy!" praise for my own personal denunciation of torture notwithstanding, and in light of his constant grinding on literally anything that moved — if it had even the tiniest tincture of support for torture about it — all of Mark "Torture Is Eeeeeevil" Shea's claims about how he's all against torture and stuff have just gone up in smoke. . .

"Because we honor justice and the common good," it states, "we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide or euthanasia or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family."

Cardinal DiNardo gave the keynote at today’s session of the National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas City, while Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann led Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction at Sprint Center. Kansas City – St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn then led 22,000 High School students through his See City from Sprint Center to the Kansas City Convention Center. At some point, I should probably explain why there is an Archbishop of Kansas City who isn’t the Bishop of Kansas City. Here are some pics – story later – Be sure to see the last pic....

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' .. She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows: Getting Nancy Pelosi to accept a health care bill that bans federal funds for abortion was the greatest victory scored by U.S. bishops in a generation. It also unleashed an unprecedented attempt to censor them. Their latest enemy is Geoffrey Stone writing in the Huffington Post. Stone finds it troubling that the bishops are so vocal. He yearns for a time when JFK was president, a time when separation of church and state met his approval. Perhaps the Chicago law professor forgot about Rev. Martin Luther King, the minister who took to...

USCCB staffer's remarks are in (black, italics) and mine in (red). “Subsidiarity is a fine thing. That is the principle that has been at work since we first started talking about the need for health care reform, during the Truman administration. Subsidiarity has had over 50 years to work since then...” I do not agree that "subsidiarity" is "the principle that has been at work for the past 50 years"; nor do think that many of the critics of Pelosi-Reid are supporters of the status quo. A strong case can be made that it was not "subsidiarity," but poorly-crafted public...

On Friday, EWTN's Raymond Arroyo hosted, on his The World Over program, representatives of Reform CCHD Now, a coalition of Catholic groups calling for reform of the USCCB's domestic anti-poverty arm, Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Arroyo and his two guests presented strong evidence that the CCHD is funding groups that are subverting Catholic teaching. The interview was aired only 9 days before American Catholics will be asked to contribute to the annual CCHD collection on November 22nd. The effort to reform the CCHD began this year with a report in August from the Bellarmine Veritas Ministry (BVM), which...

You have seen my coming declared by many in many ways , yet now as mary knew and as Gideon saw me I shall not disappoint , for in this very day and time my appointed "yeah" my Apostles shall declare my promises in love for truly I have already come in and through my children of obedience and living zeal, My righteousness " Alive and unearthed " for truly It is heavenly and eternal for " I AM Risen in you as my great cloud of witnesses dressed in My righteousness" ! Yeah My majesty \o/ Rejoice and declare...

Real biblical Christians don't hate. That the Barack Hussein Obama administration does not get. That is because Obama is not a Christian. He may belong to a Protestant denomination, but that group is anti-God theologically liberal.

I began the Catholic Ping List to provide Catholics with news stories and articles of interest on topics that generally appeal to this group. Postings to the News/Activism forum include the following notice ... Catholic Ping Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list Over the years, as certain topics garnered more attention, freepers asked to be added to the list. The list grew through the sex abuse crisis and the failing health and ultimate death of our beloved Pope John Paul II. The list is now quite large. Freepers come and go and it's now time to trim...

Tell Belmont Abbey College: "I'm proud of you!" Help this faithful college resist the culture of death by signing an instant e-card:"I’m proud of you!" Notre Dame betrayed its Catholic identity, but Belmont Abbey College stayed faithful and now needs our urgent prayers and encouragement. Please let me explain:  This small liberal arts college in North Carolina with 1,600 students is holding firm to its Catholic identity by refusing to pay for abortion, contraception and sterilization in its healthcare plan. As a result, this brave college is now facing persecution.  In fact, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)...

The billion-dollar organization already receives over $300 million in taxpayer money, and stands to strike it rich if nothing is changed in the current health care legislation. So this week the nation’s biggest abortion provider sent out an urgent message to counter the growing opposition by Catholics to taxpayer-funded abortion contained in the current health care bills.  The Catholic Bishops sprung into action late last week, announcing their strong opposition to the current health care legislation because the bills include taxpayer support for abortion and fail to provide a conscience clause for doctors. The Bishops have asked all Catholics to...

Most Swedenborgians I know hesitate tackling a end times topic. Growing up, I was taught that the second coming of the Lord commenced on June 19th, 1771 and beginning then, many commenced building His New Church here on earth. From Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller, we have inspiring stories of Swedenborgians who went out in novel ways into the world to spread the message. I joined Free Republic at the end of 2003 interested in the election and found the religious forum full of committed folks that I respect talking about end times topics... lots of things on prophecy was...

Much has been made of the piety, or rather the lack thereof, of Charles Darwin. He has repeatedly been characterized on FR as an atheist, a fool, a demon, an agent of devil, and one on a vendetta to drive believers away from God. Some go so far as to declare him a false God and the science he suggested to be a false religion. Those that profess this are either grossly ignorant or intentionally deceiving so as to reinforce their personal beliefs and conclusions. Diminishing the messenger is often easier than diminishing the message. The Myth that Darwin was...

Orders are coming now for my chosen ones that have been waiting for the timing of my will . The sweeping of the penduluum's timing is poised before my throne as a gravitational pull holds you to earth , so the hearts of my children are laid before me and as no other time before my humble servants are about to enter into an opened door revealed only to the few( obedient) , the Chosen(overcomers) and this door is an entryway into not only the all of me but the paradise of my love abiding ,eternal , flowing yet existing...

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection is next month. CCHD might as well stand for Catholic Cash Helping Democrats. Thirty to 50% of the collection goes to community organizing and helped elect politicians like Lorretta Sanchez and Barack Obama. Please urge Catholics to BOYCOTT THE COLLECTION. Spread this YouTube video far and wide!

A petition to the Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) to investigate popular conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh for purported "hate speech" has caused a stir among Catholic circles after it was revealed that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) communications office is backing the initiative. One conservative commentator has even cited evidence that the religious coalition behind the petition, of which the USCCB communications office is a part, may be affiliated with the federal government's recent campaign against conservative media. "So We Might See," a group billing itself as a national interfaith coalition against hate speech in media,...

After pondering Cardinal Newman's insightful sketch of the hallmarks of a true gentleman, I can only say, "we need more gentlemen!" Gentlemen of this caliber are in very short supply these days. Newman says . . .

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and 10 members of the council are sponsoring a bill that Catholic leaders believe harasses pro-life pregnancy support centers. City Council Bill 09-0406, “Limited-Service Pregnancy Centers –Disclaimers,” would require pregnancy support centers to post a disclaimer noting that they do not provide abortion or contraceptive services. Centers that do not comply would be fined $500 per day. In an Oct. 16 letter to Rawlings-Blake, Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien said the bill targets non-profit organizations whose mission is to help women carry pregnancies to term. He said it is “well-known” that pregnancy support centers are...

Recent events at the University of Notre Dame are creating a great deal of moral confusion. Ever since the university decided to honor our pro-abortion president at its commencement ceremony earlier this year, it seems the institution is on a direct collision course with its long-standing Catholic identity. URGENT petition to Notre Dame: Please drop the chargesFor example: Notre Dame funded a student trip to the National Equality March in Washington, D.C, held on October 11. The pro-homosexual march demanded same-sex “marriage” and the abolition of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Notre Dame’s Gender Relations Center announces troubling activities...

The Alberta Human Rights Commission has accepted a complaint brought against an Edmonton-area Catholic school board by a substitute teacher who was let go after she announced she was 'becoming' a man. Janet Buterman, 39, had been employed by the Greater St. Albert Catholic School Board for about four months when, in June 2008, she informed deputy superintendent Steve Bayus that she was undergoing a 'sex change' and now wished to be treated as a man. The following October, Mr. Bayus responded with a letter indicating that Buterman had been removed from the substitute teacher list because the procedures she...

A manifold witness I have placed in you , All that is faithful and true , A oneness of The Father and I in one breath , Can you imagine this depth , For what once rested upon me , Was the one and the three in complete harmony , And so it is even now My fullness with you , For as you witness me all 3 come through ~ ~ ~ John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,...

This North Western Hawk is known as a rough-leg and reading from the KJV Bible was given by revski (o7jimmy) out of the New Testament 2 Timothy 2:19.

This video of inspirational singing was by o7jimmy and family! Presentation is given be creatures from wildlife.

Jealousy is not a condition but a choice and though some may seem as though they are deserving truly this is reproach before my spirit and my altar “ strange fire “ , so as to keep with the findings of their fleshly worship “true paganism “ , for to craft your own belief into existence as a god is truly blasphemy and reckless abandonment to the true foundation of my love . So vanity and this hideous nature create a stench to my nostrils and ways (Isaiah 30) for it is truly an empty sounding gong before my (...

I post this excellent video clip with gratitude to Patrick Archbold at Creative Minority Report for finding this beauty (I mean that literally and figuratively, by the way) and making me aware of her/it. Check it out . . .

CatholicVoteAction brings to our attention a duplicitous tactic being employed by homosexual activists in the lead-up to Maine's Nov. 4th marriage vote: CatholicVoteAction.org Calls on Maine Group to Pull ‘Catholic’ Gay-Marriage Ad Homosexual advocates have released a shameless new ad featuring a grandmother and two gay men urging Maine voters this November to approve ‘same-sex’ marriage. The grandmother in the new commercial speaks about her Catholic faith and the importance of the institution of marriage, but then urges voters to support ‘same-sex’ marriage.

By hiram569 at 2009-10-12 Something for Christians to think about Many people in the world have already declared Barack Hussein Obama to be their messiah. Obama has never refuted such claims and has made fun of the Bible and of Jesus Christ. Many people blindly follow Obama to wherever his teleprompter leads them. I am not a theologian, nor do I pretend to be anything but a simple man. Jesus however, plainly warned us that many would come along and say that they were Christ and what would occur because of that. Here is an example from the Bible, located...

There is a storm brewing and this storm shall not stop or deviate from its path and the name of this storm is " Righteousness " " for my name's sake " ! My name is on my priests as a placard upon their foreheads and I shall not be defamed ! Therefore now I shall work my outstretched arm over the nations to perform this " My Will ", for The Father has said "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased !" . So watch now as I " well up " in my children yeah...

I am calling you into a oneness of abundance and grace can you see it ?! For the children "know" ! This is not a work but a surrender \o/ \o/ \o/ Allow me alone to be and become your shepherd . Through times of darkness I am your light , Through times of division and hardship I AM The Love that brings " all " together . You see ?! See me in all things for I am your eyes and your submission to me must be complete that I may be resurrected in you ! Psalm 23 1The...

Numbers 13:30 30Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once and possess it; we are well able to conquer it. These are not "men" talities you are up against as the walls and Ezekiel but these are the strongholds I speak of to uproot and tear down ! So do not waiver or falter , do not feign awa y but stand ! Proceed ! and wipe off the dust of the earth for my will shall be done and my glory shall show and fall ! I AM with you , my angels...

Jordans (walls of resistance) are breaking wide open today , But not in the old fashioned way , For now not an Ark will hold troubled waters aside , But my very own overcomers will cause them to subside , So stand in the gap for my children I call my own , And do not move from this appointed place until I bring them all home \o/ 4) Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go,...

Please see link above for a reference and quick explanation. However, I have seen God do amazing things over the past month and a half and I believe when people pray in agreement anything is possible. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (New International Version) 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. I challenge everyone to the "14 day prayer" again. This is how it goes: The first thing...

Mike Matthews, editor of Answers magazine, spoke with Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, about one of the most pressing questions in the church today: “With so many children leaving the church by their twenties, what are we doing wrong, and what solutions can the church and parents implement?”...