Free Republic

Now that he's out of office, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is stepping up his efforts to battle the National Rifle Association and expand gun control laws. Bloomberg detailed his plans in an interview with the New York Times published Monday — in which he predicted his crusades against guns, smoking, and obesity would serve him well in the afterlife. "I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close," Bloomberg said....

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice have announced that they are preparing to launch a new tour of hit show "Jesus Christ, Superstar." The musical started on Broadway in 1971 and is now being re-launched with an all-star cast featuring JC Chasez, Michelle Williams, and Brandon Boyd. The new production stars Brandon Boyd as "Judas Iscariot," JC Chasez as "Pontius Pilate" and Michelle Williams as "Mary Magdalene." Ben Forster, a relative newcomer to the U.S., takes on the daunting role of "Jesus Christ." The musical offers a unique interpretation of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, with Judas Iscariot,...

In British law, race and religion are increasingly becoming deliberately confused for the purpose of accusing critics of Islam of racism. A soccer fan was recently arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after allegedly ripping up pages of the Qur’an and throwing them at a match. While on bail, he was also banned from attending any football games, visiting St Andrew’s – the stadium of the incident -, and going to any city where his team Middlesbrough was playing.Insults against Islam are taken very seriously in Britain, and the world of soccer is particularly sensitive to them. After the...

It gets the morality of the story wrong, and in the process turns God into Gaia and morality into radical deep green environmentalism.

Miami-With just weeks left to sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act, Michelle Obama zeroed in on recruiting the crucial young adult demographic during a visit to a Miami community health center Wednesday. The first lady congratulated a handful of residents who had just enrolled during an intimate event, asking one woman whether she had gotten her son to enroll. “Tell him he could get hit by a car. It’s crazy. They don’t think about that kind of stuff,” said Obama, who moments later applauded another mother for signing herself and adult son up for insurance plans....

American leaders denounced the burning of a Christian leader's library in Tripoli, Lebanon, last Friday night as based on false pretenses and said it's a threat to religious liberty. "The really bad news is that this is not out of the ordinary," Robert P. George, chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told The Christian Post in an interview on Monday. George emphasized the need to advocate for religious freedom across the world to prevent attacks like this one. The Friday night fire burned two-thirds of some 80,000 books and manuscripts in the Al-Saeh library owned...

Was Mary Tempted to Doubt God? Featured Reality television is a genre of television programing that documents unscripted situations and actual occurrences, often highlighting conflict and drama. Typical reality programs involve survival situations, family feuds, repo companies, pawn stores and much more. The most popular reality program in the history of cable television is Duck Dynasty, which is watched weekly by millions of Americans and has brought in hundreds of millions in sales of merchandize. Duck Dynasty follows the everyday lives of a southern family that made a fortune in hand-made duck calls. Their company is called Duck Commander. Even...

John Zachary created a Nativity scene for Claremont United Methodist Church that employs a figure of Trayvon Martin as a commentary on gun violence. Previous scenes have had Mary and Joseph as a homeless couple and as war refugees. “You try to put it in a context of how it would be today,” Zachary said.Nativity scenes have a few standard elements: a manger, swaddling clothes, happy parents, sheep, maybe the Three Wise Men. They don’t generally include Trayvon Martin. But there he is, wearing a hoodie, a stream of blood pouring from his chest onto the straw-covered floor of the...

Outside the Claremont United Methodist Church is a nativity scene with a bleeding Trayvon Martin. The California Church has turned their nativity scene "into a piece of art that comments on our times" for the last seven years. John Zachary, the artist, told me the acquittal in July of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot the 17-year-old African-American in 2012, struck him as a worthy subject for Christmas comment. For one thing, the backdrop to the Christmas story is the slaughter by King Herod of all infants in Bethlehem, a barbarous attempt to kill the Messiah.

Most have taken for granted Jesus' nativity story as commonly related - that when Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem there was no room in an inn so Mary ended up giving birth to Jesus in a stable. But is this the true account in Scripture? See for yourself! A typical translation of Luke 2:7 says about Mary giving birth to Jesus, "And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (New King James Version). We've grown up hearing the...

After the wreath-laying, Obama walked up the stairs into the memorial building, and heard (what appeared to be HIS voice) "JEESUS!". I had to play it back a few times and was appalled. Anyone else make that observation?

The lawyer representing an atheist and another woman who sued to stop the practice of opening city hall meetings with sectarian prayers told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that devil worshipers might not be offended by prayers that include “the Almighty” if those worshipers believe that term applies to Satan. … Now the Supreme Court will issue a decision on whether prayers in legislative settings violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” …

The Department of Justice, on behalf of the National Security Administration (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has threatened to criminally prosecute a novelty store owner for selling mugs and t-shirts that say, among other things, “Department of Homeland Stupidity” and “The NSA: The only part of government that actually listens.” The novelty items are sold online at Zazzle.com, which is operated by merchant Dan McCall. The NSA and DHS sent “cease and desist” letters to Zazzle stating that the parody products violate statutes that protect their official seals from misuse. The NSA and DHS, through the Department...

The U.S. House of Representatives argued over Obamacare in a rare late-night session Saturday, and the late hour seemed to have a strange effect on at least one congresswoman. Politico reporter Ginger Gibson tweeted that a few members reeked of alcohol, but it would seem some of them don’t need any liquid courage to make questionable comments. U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., used a reference to the Bible to make her point against delaying Obamacare. But in paraphrasing Galatians 6:7, she deleted God from the scripture. “Mr. Speaker, be not deceived. The people are not mocked,” Moore said. “In 24,...

It was the Holy Spirit who directed Bill O’Reilly to write his latest book, “Killing Jesus,” he tells Norah O’Donnell in his first interview about the upcoming work. Though the book is not religious and its contradictions of biblical descriptions may upset some, the Fox News anchor and best-selling author believes that in writing it, he is using God’s gifts in a positive way. The interview with O’Reilly will be broadcast on the 46th season premiere of 60 Minutes on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. ET/PT. “All of the ideas come to me in the middle of the night...

He is said to move in mysterious ways and, at last, there may be an explanation why. For according to pensions minister Steve Webb, God is a Liberal Democrat. Although the party has been languishing in single figures in the polls, he argues that, in the long term, it has the support of the Almighty. Writing in a new book about the party’s relationship with Christianity, Mr. Webb says it is clear from the Bible that God shares the Lib Dems’ core beliefs. … Despite Mr. Webb’s eye-catching claims, the book is unlikely to feature on Nick Clegg’s reading list,...

Speaking at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., on Friday, Vice President Joe Biden said there are “only three women that I know who are close to perfect”—his mother, Sen. Bob Casey’s (D.-Pa.) mother and God’s Mother (the Blessed Mother)—before he caught himself and said the Blessed Mother was, in fact, perfect. Biden made the remarks while introducing President Barack Obama. … Vice President Joe Biden, like President Barack Obama, argues that women have a right to abort a child—from the moment of conception. …

There's a certain page on Facebook people of faith do not “like.” Created in February, the “Virgin Mary Should’ve Aborted” Facebook page originally included this controversial description, presumably speaking from Mary’s perspective: I'm here to explain what really happened in biblical times, since the bible is full of lies. My rapist's offspring has destroyed the planet and brainwashed millions. Rage-quitting is for loose buttholes. Bible-believing Facebook users who are members of the group, “Catholics & Protestants Against FB Religious Discrimination” led the online fight to have the page taken down -- and succeeded. But, they didn’t have long to celebrate....

A female CofE vicar yesterday insisted she has not sinned against God by putting an obscene bumper sticker reading 'WTFWJD' on the back of her car. The Reverend Alice Goodman stuck the sticker, standing for ‘What The F*** Would Jesus Do?', on the back of her red Subaru Legacy - sparking outrage from members of her parish. But the Reverend insists the sticker is harmless and even the former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams was happy to accept a lift in her car in the past. The sign - a play on the Christian motto ‘What Would Jesus Do?’...

Religion associate professor and MSNBC commentator, Anthea Butler said she blames God for the outcome of the Zimmerman trial, and adds that God is “a White Racist.” Known for attacking evangelical leaders, charter schools, and Ayn Rand, Butler has now attacked God in her capacity as a religion teacher.  In Religion and Dispatches, she wrote that “God ain’t good all the time. In fact," she continued, “sometimes God is not for us. As a black woman in an [sic] nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of...