Free Republic

New York City, N.Y., Feb 13, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA).- Questions are being raised over two U.S. foundations that have poured more than three million dollars into abortion rights, LGBT activist, and legal groups to push the message that exemptions based on religious beliefs are “un-American” and an abuse of liberty. The Arcus Foundation and the Ford Foundation have spent over $3 million in combined spending against religious liberty exemptions since 2013, according to a CNA review of tax forms and grant listings. John Lomperis of the Institute for Religion and Democracy – a D.C.-based ecumenical Christian think tank...

A Florida school board has made a controversial decision to ban the distribution of religious and political material in its schools. The Orange County School Board previously allowed copies of the Bible in their schools, but they decided to reconsider the policy after receiving a request from the Satanic Temple to hand out Satanic coloring books. The board decided that to avoid legal action, it had to ban Bibles and any other religious material from being passed out to students. …

On February 9th, Florida’s Yulee High School brought the hammer down on a student who offended some of his fellow classmates. The student was reprimanded for his actions after reading the morning announcements over the school’s intercom. Why? Upon finishing the announcements, the student added, ‘God Bless America.’ Two atheist students took offense to the statement. A school spokesperson for the Nassau County School District said that the student had gone off script and was being reprimanded: “It wasn’t part of the scripted morning announcements,” district spokesperson Sharyl Wood said. “The principal took the appropriate steps in speaking with the student...

After six years in office, there are few things that President Obama does that surprises me. Notwithstanding this, I was still shocked to hear his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. Using some misguided moral equivalency, President Obama reached back over almost a thousand years to compare a group of Christians then to current day radical Islamists killing innocents in the name of Allah, telling Christians not to get on their “high horse”. (Not to mention, he conveniently omitted the context of the Crusades, a response to Islamic conquest). At times during the speech, it appeared the President was taking...

At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama reminded attendees that violence rooted in religion isn’t exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well. ~snip~ “Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

The United Kingdom, like much of the rest of Western Europe, is in the midst of committing cultural suicide because of their overly tolerant policies towards radical Muslims and the Islamic faith. Due to hate speech legislation, Christians are being persecuted for speaking out against the dangers of radical Islam, resulting in people being arrested or losing their jobs. Apparently, being an outspoken Christian in the U.K. can even get you dropped from your car insurance coverage now too. Rev. Wena Parry recently told the BBC in Wales that she is being treated unfairly and discriminated against by her car...

"Elibiary...states that, “no matter xenophobia & hatefulness from this loud ‪#‎Christianist‬ subculture, we won’t abandon our vision for this nation.” [See other Tweets]

Obama administration Muslim adviser Mohamed Elibiary is no stranger to regular PJ Media readers. In September, Elibiary was unceremoniously removed from his fellowship position with the Department of Homeland Security, which he tried to spin as a “resignation,” but letters sent to members of Congress by DHS officials indicated he would not be reappointed. Undoubtedly, one of the chief reasons for DHS cutting ties with Elibiary was a long string of extremist statements he had been making on Twitter, including talking about the inevitability of the return of an ISIS-style caliphate — tweets that were subsequently used by ISIS supporters...

Ford, like most American car companies, is known for being pretty progressive. It's so progressive, in fact, that it was rated one of the best places to work in 2015 by the Human Rights Campaign. And working in such a place got one guy so upset, he vomited out a disgusting, hate-filled rant for which he was allegedly fired. And now he's suing. Of course, Thomas Banks says he was fired from both Ford and Ford subcontractor Rapid Global Business Solutions, Inc. (RGBSI) for his Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs. Those Beliefs being, apparently, his right to be a total jerk...

Americans support women in the pulpit and in senior leadership positions within the church. But they are more hesitant when it comes to supporting openly gay and lesbian religious leaders. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of American Adults favor women in the pulpit, while just 16% are opposed. Twenty-five percent (25%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Even more (74%) support women in leadership positions in their respective faiths. Just nine percent (9%) are opposed, with 17% undecided. Just 43% of Americans favor openly gay and lesbian individuals in the pulpit. Thirty-eight...

The co-founder and former guitarist of the popular world-famous Christian rock band the Newsboys has officially renounced his Christian faith and is calling members of the current version of the band hypocrites. George Perdikis, who founded the chart-topping Christian band in 1985 with his friend Peter Furler, wrote an op-ed on Wednesday published by the website Patheos explaining how he transformed from a guitarist in one of the most popular Christian rock bands of all-time to a cosmology-enthused atheist. "I always felt uncomfortable with the strict rules imposed by Christianity. All I wanted to do was play rock and roll,"...

Yesterday, Mormon leaders announced a kind of via media on gay rights. In a public statement, leaders agreed to …support legislation where it is being sought to provide protections in housing, employment and some other areas where LGBT people do not have protections, while ensuring that religious freedom is not compromised.In other words, the church proposes to give a little in order to get a little. If I understand their statement of principles correctly, they are now willing to acknowledge sexual orientation as a protected class along with religion, race, and sex. They are willing to do this in certain...

Here’s a simple algebra equation to describe what it’s like to grow up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Take the year, subtract 20, and that’s the year it really is inside the Mormon gerontocracy. When I was a child, I was told that black people couldn’t hold leadership positions until 1978 because it “just wasn’t their time yet.” To explain their opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, my parents cited some paranoid logic about unisex bathrooms. I had left my family’s faith by the time church members were supporting California’s Proposition 8 to the tune of...

It has become a scary time to be a Christian professional in Canada. In 2014, lawyers and doctors were targeted by their own professional associations for direct attack because of their religious beliefs. For Christian lawyers, the first salvo was fired at Trinity Western University’s law school. TWU, which exists to “develop godly Christian leaders” in a variety of marketplaces, requires its students and staff to sign a Community Covenant. This pledge, based on religious beliefs, to abstain from certain activities and behaviours during their time at TWU, includes the use of alcohol on campus, viewing pornography, and “sexual intimacy...

"Who do you say I am?" The question Jesus posed to Peter is the most important we’ll ever answer. Who is Jesus? What do we believe about him? Several years ago my friend Vince Han and I began a discussion about what we believed about Jesus. We knew we disagreed—we just weren’t sure exactly how we differed. I’m an evangelical. Vince is a Mormon.... We began by exchanging book recommendations. Vince suggested I read James E. Talmage’s Jesus the Christ, a book first published in 1913 and one of the handful of approved readings for full-time LDS missionaries. I encouraged...

"I support the right of people to believe what they do and say what they wish—in their pews, homes and hearts." So says an influential New York Times journalist. In other words, "Keep your religion in the closet." In his Jan. 10 Times editorial, "Your God and My Dignity: Religious Liberty, Bigotry, and Gays," Frank Bruni writes, "I've been called many unpleasant things in my life, and I've deserved no small number of them. But I chafe at this latest label: A threat to your religious liberty." He finds it "absurd" that the simple act of two men or two...

Fantastic video that you can see by clicking on the "Enza Ferreri Blog" link above, from ramzpaul. It has been the Christian cross and Christian Church that has defeated the invading Islamic armies again and again, throughout the history of Europe, let's never forget that. Now Europe is losing Christianity, and is losing to Islam: can that be only a coincidence? Wake up, people! The attacks on Christianity have come from various sources, but none of these sources have had European interests at heart. Sometimes these attacks are repeated by naïve, unaware, possibly well-meaning "useful idiots", but mostly they are...

A doorstep encounter with missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) may allow only a brief moment to make a hopefully lasting impression, so we must weigh our words carefully. Too many Christians make the mistake of introducing peripheral topics that can sometimes move the discussion toward an agonizing dead end. Many times Mormons are not familiar with their history or doctrines, allowing them sometimes to assume the Christian is either making something up or taking something out of context. But ask a Mormon, “If you were to die right now, do you have the assurance...

Check out this 2-part Viewpoint on Mormonism podcast series originally airing in October 2012 by clicking on the following links: Part 1 Part 2When the Constitution “Hangs by a Thread” – The White Horse Prophecy in Modern MormonismFollowing the Mormon expulsion from Missouri in 1838, Joseph Smith made a trip to Washington, D.C. “to present to the National Congress the petition of the Saints for a redress of their grievances, suffered in Missouri” (History of the Church 4:xxvi). Arriving in November 1839, Smith met with several powerful politicians of that day, including President Martin Van Buren, and left Washington in...

Houston's Lesbian Mayor Annise Parker is at it again after standing down on subpoenaing pastor's sermons. We had not heard from her for a few months after she got blasted by pastors and the public following the City Council's attempts to push through an unlawful "bathroom bill" and the city attorney's attempts to manipulate signatures in a petition against their illegal actions. However, that has changed. Now she is claiming that the pastors have no right to a jury trial and is calling for a "special master" to investigate. Though the city withdrew its subpoenas of the pastor's sermons,...