Free Republic

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore denounced reparative therapy at a conference here, saying the controversial treatment that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation has been “severely counterproductive.” Moore, who serves as president of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, spoke to a group of journalists Tuesday (Oct. 28) covering the group’s national conference. “The utopian idea if you come to Christ and if you go through our program, you’re going to be immediately set free from attraction or anything you’re struggling with, I don’t think that’s a Christian idea,” Moore told journalists. “Faithfulness to...

CHICAGO (STMW) – A federal judge has shot down former First Baptist Church of Hammond Pastor Jack Schaap’s motion to cut his 12-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano also denied Schaap’s request for a hearing on his motions and denied him a certificate to appeal to the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Schaap pleaded guilty in September 2012 to taking a 16-year-old parishioner, who was also a student at the church’s school and under Schaap’s care for counseling, across state lines for sex three times. Lozano sentenced him in March 2013 to 12 years in prison, two...

CONCORD, N.C. — A former Concord youth pastor was sentenced to at least 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to molesting young boys in his care. WECT-TV reported that Robert Price pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent liberties with a child.

Contractors have taken on the huge task of sheltering thousands of unaccompanied child migrants In the late afternoon of July 9, Air Force One touched down at Love Field in Dallas. President Barack Obama ducked into a private room at the airport for a discussion about the crisis of undocumented children crossing the southwest border. Assembled around a wooden table were top Texas officials, including Governor Rick Perry and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, as well as the leaders of several faith-based charities. One of them was a man so anonymous, the White House pool report misspelled his name. Kevin Dinnin...

President Barack Obama is replaying his turnout-boosting 2012 contraception fight against Christian groups by staging a pre-election fight over religion and new legal rights for gays.He’s expected to sign a regulation on July 21 that would force religious contractors to give up federal funding if they don’t submit to progressive claims that homosexuality and heterosexuality are morally equivalent, and that there’s no connection between biology and good sexual behavior.The regulation creates that fight by banning grants to groups that are reluctant to hire gay, lesbian and cross-dressing or transgender people who contradict the groups’ religious beliefs about sex.The regulation doesn’t...

The beautiful Palm Aire resort and hotel has an indoor Olympic sized pool and an outdoor pool.  Free Wi-Fi and cable TV are included in the simply decorated guest rooms.The Palm Aire Hotel and Suites is set to be sold to Baptist Child & Family Services (BCFS) operating under a federal contract, pending local government approval, according to reports from Weslaco, Texas where the hotel is located. Weslaco is a few miles north of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County.The resort hotel for illegal alien children is reportedly the ‘first in the nation’.Now this…Due to backlash the charity received after...

The story behind a case that made headlines a few months back, from The New York Times: Father and son had always been close, from the moment Tim Schaefer was born, six weeks premature, with blood poisoning, a weak heart and lungs, and a doctor who thought he would not make it through the night.His father, the Rev. Frank Schaefer, a United Methodist minister, thought of his eldest son as a miracle child, saved by some combination of medicine and prayer, saved for something special.“We couldn’t even touch him; he was in an incubator, and we had to reach in...

Via Pewsitter I learned of this from Liberty News. My emphases. EXCLUSIVE: HHS Bankrolled Catholic and Baptist Church from 2010 to 2013 to Prepare for ObamaÂ’s 2014 Invasion!A month or two ago news broke that ObamaÂ’s HHS was calling for private contractors to help transport illegal aliens throughout the interior United States. What made this already big news even bigger is the fact that the original call for proposals came out in January, long before the bulk of the illegal alien surge began. The breaking news youÂ’re about to read is ten times bigger, because the following proves the Obama...

Unaccompanied children are crossing at an alarming rate, and now many will be heading to Dallas. "We cannot turn our back on these children that are already here," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. Judge Jenkins announced that Dallas County would be the first county in the state to offer housing. Terry Henderson is in charge of disaster relief for the Texas Baptist Men. He's been waiting an announcement like this for more than a month. "I kind of had a heads up no matter where it was going to happen in Texas that we were going to be involved...

On June 30 the United States Supreme Court, in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, ruled that the religious beliefs of employers trump the free conscience and civil rights of employees.For traditional Baptists, the decision hearkens to earlier centuries when kings and popes mandated religious dogma, denying religious liberty and freedom of conscience to their subjects. Similar to that earlier era, the religious dogma of the Green family (the Southern Baptist owners of Hobby Lobby) is now legally binding upon employees.Baptists in Europe and America of the 17th to 19th centuries were routinely denied religious liberty and freedom of conscience by establishment...

I can't cut and paste right now, but the story says the "pastor" is invited to a reception with Obama on June 30.

President Obama designated Fort Sill, Okla., as one of the military installations that would house the surge of young illegal immigrants coming to the United States, and the decision could be a factor in the homestretch of another Republican primary, just two weeks after immigration helped sink House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, (R., Va.). Former House Speaker T.W. Shannon has primarily faulted Representative James Lankford for voting to raise the debt-ceiling, but the recent spate of border crossings by minors has given him another weapon to use against his campaign to replace retiring Senator Tom Coburn.

BALTIMORE, Md. – Southern Baptists elected Arkansas Pastor Ronnie Floyd on Tuesday to be the new president of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Floyd was elected by messengers during the Southern Baptist Convention's 2014 Annual Meeting, beating out SBC presidential nominees Dennis Manpoong Kim of Maryland and Jared Moore of Kentucky. Over 3,000 messengers voted and Floyd won on the first ballot, receiving 51.6 percent of the votes. Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological seminary, had praised the Arkansas pastor, whom he nominated, as "dependable" and "faithful" and someone who will "lead all Southern Baptists...

I believe that the show "19 Kids and Counting" is a very wholesome show, and more than worthy of watching. This said, after the book, "Growing Up Duggar" came out, and after perusing it, I do believe that parts that talk abut hair lengths, clothing choices, etc, do perhaps need some discussion, given that there are some scriptural references stated within the book. And in reply: 1.) 1 Peter 3: 3-13 says: "Whose adorning let it no be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel. But let it be...

Southern Baptists will be heading for Baltimore in just a few days, and the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention is to be held in a city that has not hosted the convention since 1940. This time, Baptists attending the meeting will face an issue that would not have been imaginable just a few years ago, much less in 1940 — a congregation that affirms same-sex relationships.Just days before the convention, news broke that a congregation in suburban Los Angeles has decided to affirm same-sex sexuality and relationships. In an hour-long video posted on the Internet, Pastor Danny Cortez...

A Baptist church in California has voted to welcome the gay community despite going against the Southern Baptist Convention's views on homosexuality. The New Heart Community Church in La Mirada, CA faced a difficult decision in early 2014 when lead pastor Danny Cortez told the congregation that his son, Drew, had come out -- and that he himself no longer agreed with the church's teachings on homosexuality.

Another victim has come forward in the case against a Tulsa pastor accused of molestation. Police say a second victim reported Damien Keith Bonner, 32, touched her inappropriately. The 15-year-old girl came forward May 15, a day after Bonner was arrested on six counts of lewd molestation.

Micah Brown HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Monday was the day that changed David and Ryann Brown's lives forever. Micah Andrew Brown, a 5-year-old boy who loved riding in fire trucks, the color blue and wearing his rain boots no matter the occasion, succumbed to injuries he sustained when his mother's SUV collided with an 18-wheeler and flipped on Old Highway 431 in front of Hampton Cove Elementary. Ryann and her youngest daughter, Noelle, 3, suffered minor wounds during the wreck, but 9-year-old daughter Sarah and 8-year-old Rebekah remain hospitalized with serious injuries at facilities in Huntsville and Birmingham. Hundreds of mourners...

The Alliance of Baptists has expressed support for a legal challenge launched by religious leaders in North Carolina to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage. At its annual meeting May 3 in Portland, Maine, the Alliance voted to “stand in solidarity” with a suit filed in a federal district court in Charlotte April 28 by the United Church of Christ. The UCC claims that North Carolina is unconstitutionally restricting religious freedom by barring clergy members from marrying gay couples. In a resolution, the Alliance, which has affirmed same-sex marriage since 2004, said “we rise today to stand in solidarity...

A former youth pastor has been charged with sex crimes involving young men at an Arkansas church. ... Berkley, 34, was arrested at a cemetery in Covington, Tennessee, Monday afternoon after finishing a funeral service. Police in Harrison say the investigation into the former pastor began March 28, while he was a pastor at Shiloh Baptist. They interviewed more than a dozen male victims—all between the ages of 14 and 18—through mid-April. One victim said he went to Berkley’s house believing it was a Bible study. While there, he was allowed to drink and smoke marijuana and a hookah. Several...