Free Republic

For two millennia, the birth of Christ has been seen as the greatest event in world history. The moment Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem, God became man, and eternal salvation became possible. This date has been the separation point of mankind's time on earth, with B.C. designating the era before Christ, and A.D., anno domino, in the Year of the Lord, the years after. And how stands Christianity today? "Christianity is in danger off being wiped out in its biblical heartlands," says the British think tank Civitas. In Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia and Nigeria, Christians face persecution...

I'm often asked, "What is the world's fastest growing religion?"Questioners are stirred both by hope -- that "our" religion is so evidently the best that it is sweeping the world -- but also by the fear that "they" (usually Muslims) are going to overwhelm us. Actually, that growth question crosses faith boundaries. Wikipedia's entry on "Claims to be the Fastest-Growing Religion" collects many such boasts, which variously claim the prize for Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Wicca, Deism, the Falun Gong, Scientology, and other competitors. Obviously, even compiling such a list has the tongue-in-cheek implication that most such claims are bogus or...

An international Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life poll has found that Christianity remains the religion with the most adherents worldwide, while roughly one-third of people around the globe have no religious affiliation. The comprehensive poll examined more than 230 countries worldwide, and asked respondents to identify which religion, if any, they belong to. The results determined that 32 percent of the world's population, 2.2 billion people, are Christians, 23 percent or 1.6 billion are Muslim, 15 percent or 1 billion are Hindu, and that 7 percent or 500 million are Buddhists. African, Asian, Native American and...

There has been a huge 13 percent drop in the number of people in Britain identifying themselves as Christian, according to new data released from the 2011 Census. The shocking statistics reveal that the number of Christians has fallen from 37 million to 33 million since 2001. Christians now make up only 59 percent of the population, as opposed to 72 percent in 2001. Meanwhile, the number of Muslims has risen from 1.5 million to 2.7 million - or 5 percent of the population - while the number of people describing themselves as having no religion rose by 10 percent...

Christian folks in the West are in the process of becoming a minority. With the contraceptive pill, the profanation of marriage, and easy abortion, we don't reach anymore the threshold required for the reproduction of our civilization. Our Christian nation is self-aborting. It's a phenomenon akin to a civilizational suicide. RUSSIA:

According to a new study by the Pew Forum, Protestants are, for the first time in history, not a majority in the United States of America. I don’t think that’s anything for evangelical Protestants, or anyone else, to panic about. Several years ago, I pointed out here that studies were showing a declining Protestant majority, and projections were being made for this very reality. Now, the surveys says we have a 48 percent plurality of Protestants. I wasn’t frantic about that several years ago, and I’m still not. When working toward our “God and country” badges, my childhood Boy Scout...

Pope Benedict XVI at the April 18, 2012 general audience. CNA file photo. Vatican City, Oct 9, 2012 / 12:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Arab Christians are reacting positively to the decision to include Arabic as one of the official languages used at the Pope’s weekly general audience. “In this way, in the wake of his recent trip to Lebanon and the publication of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation ‘Ecclesia in Medio Oriente,’ the Holy Father intends to express his perpetual concern and support for Christians in the Middle East, and to remind everyone of their duty to pray and work...

A few months ago we looked at a survey that showed that the vast majority of Americans have no idea whatsoever what percentage of the population is gay.Mainstream studies indicate that percentage is somewhere in the low single digits, but Americans believed — on average — that 25 percent of the population is gay. Yes, 25 percent. This includes data showing that 35 percent of Americans think that more than 25 percent of the population is gay.I’ve long wondered why it is that Americans are so wrong on this, but I can’t help but think that the mainstream media plays...

According to Grey Matter Research, Americans think our country is far more religiously diverse than it actually is. In a survey of 747 adults the research and consulting firm found that most underestimated the size of Christianity and over-estimated the size of atheists, Muslims, and other religious minorities. “The typical American adult pegs religious affiliation in the U.S. as follows:  24% Catholic, 20% Protestant, 19% unaffiliated, 9% Jewish, 9% atheist or agnostic, 7% Muslim, 7% Mormon, and 5% from all other religious groups. In reality, according to the 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Americans...

Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:(Proverbs 1:20)What a privilege and opportunity for any nation to be able to host an Olympics. The opening ceremony is a unique opportunity to display the glories of the host country. But that would presuppose that the presenters actually believe in the validity of their own national story. IÂ’ve been told that an unprecedented one billion people around the world witnessed this yearÂ’s London opening ceremony. I also was eager to see how the narrative of the nation of Shakespeare, Donne, Churchill, the Puritans, Wilberforce and countless other of the remarkable...

Though ostensibly dealing with a building, a recent report demonstrates how Turkey’s populace—once deemed the most secular and liberal in the Muslim world—is reverting to its Islamic heritage, complete with animosity for the infidel West and dreams of Islam’s glory days of jihad and conquest. According to Reuters: Thousands of devout Muslims prayed outside Turkey’s historic Hagia Sophia museum on Saturday [May 23] to protest a 1934 law that bars religious services at the former church and mosque. Worshippers shouted, “Break the chains, let Hagia Sophia Mosque open,” and “God is great” [the notorious “Allahu Akbar”] before kneeling in prayer...

For centuries the alleged ideal of communism had come to the world as a messianic and millennial creed. Various seers, notably Joachim of Fiore, had prophesied the final state of mankind as one of perfect harmony and equality, one where all things are owned in common, where there is no necessity for work or need for the division of labor. In the case of Joachim, of course, problems of production and property, indeed of scarcity in general, were "solved" by man no longer possessing a physical body. As pure spirits, men as equal and harmonious psychic entities spending all their...

WASHINGTON – The officially atheist Chinese government is surprisingly open to Christianity, at least partially, because it sees a link between the faith and economic success, said a sought after scholar who has relations with governments in Asia. China believes that Christianity is responsible for much of the historic success of Western Europe and the United States, said Dr. William Jeynes, senior fellow of The Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J., during a presentation at the Family Research Council on Tuesday. But while the Chinese government is open to Christianity, it also “wants to control Christianity.” Those in authority are very...

George Weigel, in his most recent column ("Christmas, Jews and Christians"), takes up a theme near and dear to my heart:Eastern Christian theology has long stressed “theosis,” or divinization, as the goal of the Christian life. It can be a somewhat startling theme for western Christian ears, formed as we are by Augustine’s sense of the distance that original sin created between humanity and God. Yet if, as theologians East and West have long insisted, Christianity is not about our search for God (as so much pop-spirituality these days insists), but about God coming into history in search of us...

[Quixicated emphases] "THE BRIDE Will LEAVE CHRISTENDOM"-Vision by Wayne Thomas. The following vision is probably one of the most well-known that hasever come out of my home nation of New Zealand. It is a key vision that has been acknowledged and read around the world. This vision was given to Wayne Thomas late in 1993. He told me that it was probably the most powerful he had ever seen. VISION of THE BRIDE LEAVING CHRISTENDOM-Wayne Thomas. Basically, it was a traditional wedding scene. The radiantly beautiful Bride had just stepped out of the Cathedral and was standing on the top...

[London/Rome] A few days from the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Scotland and England, the "Number two" in the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Direcoter of the "Foreign Office" of the Moscow Patriarchate, will make his visit to Great Britain. On the 9th of September he will meet [has already met] in Lambeth Palace with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the Primate of the Anglican Communion. In a certain way "he makes straight the way of the Pope", as the Pope's meeting on the 17th of September is described by Vaticanist Sandro Magister in the Weekly...

A group of more than 100 prominent Christians ranging from evangelical minister Jim Wallis on the political left to...Chuck Colson on the right released a document Thursday calling for an end to the fight club tone of the national political discourse. ...the "Civility Covenant"...says...churches have too often "reflected the political divisions of our culture rather than the unity we have in the body of Christ." SNIP ...the covenant...has 114 signatories from a broad swath of Christian traditions, including the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and the general superintendent of...

Breaking news as the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America has formally requested to enter the Catholic Church. All 99 parishes and cathedrals! Here is the complete text: Orlando, FL – 1 pm EST – Bp. George Langberg Released by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America, Traditional Anglican Communion 3 March 2010 We, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America of the Traditional Anglican Communion have met in Orlando, Florida, together with our Primate and the Reverend Christopher Phillips of the “Anglican Use” Parish of Our Lady of the Atonement...

“Contextualizing the Gospel in the New South.” That’s the title for this year’s Advance Conference, April 26-27 in RDU. Last year we called for a resurgence of the local church. This year we’re focusing on the major issues that are standing in the way of that happening here in the South. The South is changing. Urbanization and the vibrant growth of our cities have transformed the cultural landscape. Cities like RDU have become new centers of business and education, places where culture is being formed and made. And yet as our cities are advancing, the church is shrinking. For the...

he year is 732 A.D., and Europe is under assault. Islam, born a mere 110 years earlier, is already in its adolescence, and the Muslim Moors are on the march. Growing in leaps and bounds, the Caliphate, as the Islamic realm is known, has thus far subdued much of Christendom, conquering the old Christian lands of the Mideast and North Africa in short order. Syria and Iraq fell in 636; Palestine in 638; and Egypt, which was not even an Arab land, fell in 642. North Africa, also not Arab, was under Muslim control by 709. Then came the year...