Free Republic

Although the Catholic Church has taught since its inception that marriage is between one man and one woman for life, the new superior of the worldwide Jesuit religious order, Fr. Arturo Sosa Abascal, claims that despite Jesus Christ's words about marriage (Matthew 19: 3-9), "no one had a recorder to take down his words," which must be "contextualized," and that doctrine implies a "hardness" like "stone" while "human reality is much more nuanced" and "never black and white." Fr. Absacal, from Venezuela, was elected superior of the Jesuits, the Society of Jesus, in October. The Catholic religious order for men...

Despite polls showing that 71% of Canadians would not have voted for the measure, Canada's Parliament, with the strong backing of Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, passed a motion this week 201 to 91 that critics say singles out Islam for special protection. Tabled by Muslim liberal MP Iqra Khalid, M-103 urges the federal government to “condemn Islamophobia” and to “develop a whole-of-government approach to reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia.” The term “Islamophobia” is nowhere defined in the motion. A petition on CitizenGo asking MPs to stop the “restrictive ‘anti-blasphemy’” motion has been signed by 79,500...

Although these motions against "Islamophobia" are not legally binding, extremists have already started demanding them as laws. People in hostile societies put their lives at risk by speaking against the majority; meanwhile, shutting out any criticism against hardliner behaviour in the West actually means giving extremists a license to keep on committing atrocities. Motions such as these are how most Muslim societies -- and other authoritarian states -- were founded: by depriving citizens of the basic right to express a difference of opinion, and worse, on the pretense of "doing good." The blasphemy laws of Pakistan were introduced on the...

Ah, Denmark, once famous for free speech, now on the cutting edge of re-instituting prosecutions for blasphemy."Blasphemy." Etymologically, the word means "speaking evil," but to our enlightened ears it has a quaint ring to it. I mean, when was the last time you heard about someone being prosecuted for blasphemy? How old-fashioned.In Denmark, the last time a person was prosecuted for blasphemy was in 1971, when two people were hauled up before a judge for a song making fun of Christianity. They were acquitted. To find someone actually convicted of blasphemy (the statute against it in Denmark goes back to...

A recent guest lecture at Swarthmore College by a prominent homosexual seminary professor highlighted a growing argument among the so-called queer community that Jesus was bisexual. In particular, the Rev. Patrick Cheng, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts, told the students that Jesus was a subversive person and God’s way of “queering the world,” so to speak. Cheng said Christ was “always coming out in the gospels” and that “Christ is God coming out.” “At its heart, Christianity is queer,” Cheng told the students during the Feb. 7 talk. “It’s not just a matter of being tolerant....

The other day, I was channel surfing in the evening and came across Madonna's Rebel Heart tour video on Showtime. I always felt that Showtime is one of the most liberal cable channels out there, but this programming really epitomized it. I know Madonna has made her career pushing the envelope with the promiscuous sex, blasphemous uses of the crucifix and Catholic icons, and her liberal antics. This concert showed her strutting around the stage with her ass cheeks hanging out. Her female backup dancers were pole dancing on stripper poles that were crosses, and they were wearing what looked...

Go to the source for examples of persecution within European countries. https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9525/europe-illegal-criticize-islam Here's a summary: First, understand that prosecuting and sanctioning people who criticize Islam has become more common in Europe. This explains the seemingly pitiful willingness of the Europeans to silently watch their countries fill with muslim refugee-settlers. They are now prosecuted for free speech. The "cutting out the tongue" or "imprisonment" policies for criticism of islam was once restricted to only sharia law -Muslim countries where it is 100% forbidden. Now the European courts are submitting to islam and taking cues from sharia law. European governments are deliberately...

German bishops will soon publish guidelines allowing the divorced and civilly remarried to sacrilegiously receive Holy Communion while continuing to live in sin. Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann of Speyer, Germany announced on December 17 his intention to publish guidelines instructing priests how to give the sacraments to civilly remarried Catholics. The bishop professed that Pope Francis in his apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" (AL) has made this possible on a case-by=case basis. [T]he pope says that, without changing Church doctrine, we must distinguish between the different circumstances people live in. We priests are not here to replace a person's conscience. Francis wants...

Pointing out the errors perpetrated against Holy Scripture and Tradition by Pope Francis has become tiresome, due to the sheer volume of examples. But one homily, given by the Pope, as reported on June 15, 2013 by News.VA, the "official Vatican network", is so scandalous in its violence against the true teachings of Christ that it bears closer examination—especially now, three years later—as many are beginning to realize the damage this pope is attempting to inflict upon the One True Church. In his homily, Francis said: >>True reconciliation means that God in Christ took on our sins and He became...

A gay Christmas decoration showing a nativity scene with two Josephs has been slammed by outraged Christians. The colourful hanging tree ornaments – on sale for £13 - also have a lesbian version with two Virgin Marys sitting beside a baby Jesus Christ, who is lying in a manger. Campaign group Christian Concern has branded the decorations created by a California-based designer a 'blasphemous attempt to rewrite the Christmas story'. Chief executive Andrea Williams said: 'These decorations are a desperate and ridiculous attempt to pretend that homosexual relationships are pure and holy. 'They blasphemously portray the Lord Jesus being parented...

One of the countless attractions of Catholicism is the fact that it is the only religion to provide a truly satisfactory and lasting answer to the universal problem of human suffering. Whilst philosophies like Buddhism or post-modern Mindfulness techniques seem to be preferred by many today, these really only offer self-preserving - and ultimately selfish - attempts to avoid, offset or effectively deny the full brutal reality, and yet potential value, of suffering. In Catholicism, we are given the gift of God Who suffers with and suffers for us. Before each of us ever were, He had taken on all...

- While Geert Wilders was being prosecuted in the Netherlands for talking about "fewer Moroccans" during an election campaign, a state-funded watchdog group says that threatening homosexuals with burning, decapitation and slaughter is just fine, so long as it is Muslims who are making those threats, as the Quran tells them that such behavior is mandated. - "I am still of the view that declaring statistical facts or even sharing an opinion is not a crime if someone doesn't like it." - Finns Party politician, Terhi Kiemunki, fined 450 euros for writing of a "culture and law based on a...

What is happening? Jakarta’s governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known by his nickname Ahok, will face the first day of his trial on charges of blasphemy on Tuesday. Ahok, a Christian of Chinese descent, angered religious conservatives after he referenced a verse from the Islamic holy book, Al-Maidah 51 of the Qur’an, on the campaign trail in September. Ahok rather boldly told voters they should not be duped by religious leaders using the verse to justify the claim that Muslims should not be led by non-Muslims.An edited version of that speech was later posted online with several words omitted, making...

The Pope has offered a new list of Beatitudes at a Catholic Mass in Malmo, Sweden. At the Mass, which took place at the conclusion of his ecumenical trip to the country, Pope Francis highlighted the lives of the Swedish saints Elizabeth Hesselblad and Bridget of Vadstena. The best description of the saints, their “identity card”, the Pope said, is found in the Beatitudes from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, which begins, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” New situations require new energy and a new commitment, he said, and then offered a new list of Beatitudes for modern...

Europe is currently seeing the reintroduction of blasphemy laws through both the front and back doors. In Britain, the gymnast Louis Smith has just been suspended for two months by British Gymnastics. This 27-year old sportsman's career has been put on hold, and potentially ruined, not because of anything to do with athletics but because of something to do with Islam. Last month a video emerged online of the four-time Olympic medal-winner and a friend getting up to drunken antics after a wedding. The video -- taken on Smith's phone in the early hours of the morning -- showed a...

When Gov. Jerry Brown and his allies urged voters to adopt a temporary income tax on the wealthiest Californians and a statewide sales tax on everyone four years ago, the deal was billed as a short-term salve for a state mired in debt and on the verge of insolvency. The taxes were needed to stave off $6 billion in so-called “trigger cuts” to schools and social programs baked into the state budget by Democrats as a threat to voters. Lawmakers also threatened to cut three weeks off the school year if Proposition 30 didn’t pass. […] Now, with the sales...

A 16-YEAR-OLD Christian boy faces the death penalty after he was accused of insulting Islam in a Facebook post. The boy has been arrested and charged with blasphemy after a photo of the Kaaba in Mecca, one of the holiest sites in Islam, appeared on his profile. A Muslim man told police the image, which was part of an alleged derogatory post against Islam on the boy’s profile, was insulting and sacrilegious. The black cube-shape is built around an ancient stone at the centre of Islam’s most sacred mosque Al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Locals reportedly claimed the image...

Pastor Andy Stanley says the Bible is too hard to defend Evangelical pastor preaches that the Bible isn’t the foundation for the Christian faith by Lita Cosner and Scott Gillis Published: 22 September 2016 (GMT+10) Andy Stanley has a church network of over 30,000 people in the Atlanta area, and his church was rated the fastest-growing in America in 2014 and 2015.1 Recently, he has been criticized by many evangelicals for saying that we need to take the focus off the Bible and put it on the Resurrection, because he claims that gives us a firmer foundation for our faith....

Trump is jihad group’s worst nightmare. The fact is Trump’s comparison to the Cold War is spot on. Islam, like Communism, is a political ideology a with religious component. Groups like CAIR aid and abet terrorism and should be prosecuted. The Department of Justice is sitting on a “mountain of evidence” against CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood groups. Obama scuttled those prosecutions. Trump will right that wrong.

Today the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) under the First Amendment. Section 230 provides immunity from lawsuits to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, thereby permitting these social media giants to engage in government-sanctioned censorship and discriminatory business practices free from legal challenge. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and Jihad Watch. As alleged in the lawsuit, Geller and Spencer, along with the organizations they run, are often...