Free Republic

Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Christian-owned bakery, closed its doors earlier this year after its owners Aaron and Melissa Klein were found guilty of violating gay people's rights by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.The Kleins refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2013, which resulted in the complaint against them.However, the bakery, now called "Sweet Cakes," continues to exist as an online business.According to The Advocate, the bakery recently posted a picture on its Facebook page of some goods that it recently made for the Restored Hope Network, an ex-gay organization, and added...

I would like to apologize in advance if this post comes off as angry. But I’m angry. I’m angry at all this unfair bloodshed and I’m angry at feeling betrayed by fellow Christians. I’m angry at ignorance. I’m angry at propaganda that shoves misconstrued realities down peoples’ throats. I am aware that most of the Christians I know are westernized, and thus, like myself, have been raised with Zionistic, anti-Islamic viewpoints. But I hope that if nothing else, then through this blog post you would at least consider the other side: there are Christians who love Jesus as much as...

ISIS’s rapid takeover of parts of Syria and Iraq and the creation of the Islamic State have gravely impacted the Arab-Christian populations that inhabit the region. Churches in the area can trace their origin to the time of Jesus Christ. Islamists, in the city of Mosul, issued an ultimatum to all Christians within the newly founded caliphate to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy (Zakat) or face death. The Christian community is escaping to Kirkuk and the relative religious tolerance and safety of the Kurdish zone. Origin During the First Council of Nicea that resulted in the first...

Meriam Ibrahim, the woman who was sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to renounce her Christian faith, arrived Thursday in Italy and met with Pope Francis in the Casa Santa Marta. (Vatican Radio) The Italian government was instrumental in arranging for Ibrahim’s release. Today the White House released a statement celebrating Meriam Ibrahim’s release. They did not mention Christianity once in their statement. The United States is delighted that Meriam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag is now safe and free and will soon be traveling to the United States. For months, Americans of all faiths kept Ms. Ishag in their thoughts...

Pope Francis met privately Thursday with Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who faced a death sentence for refusing to renounce her faith, blessing the woman after she was flown to Italy on an Italian government jet. The Vatican characterized the visit with Ibrahim, 27, her husband and their two small children as "very affectionate."

This entire Tony Dungy episode is a microcosm of a new slippery slope emerging in America. For the record, I truly don’t care if someone is gay or if they support gay marriage. What does it matter in a nation predicated upon freedom? However, if someone utters even a hint of negativity that can somehow be construed as the most infinitesimal slight against homosexuality, they are immediately barraged with contempt and scorn. I’m sorry, my apologies, I thought this was America where people are allowed to have an opinion without be conditioned? Tolerance and freedom of speech are not mutually...

They are marking the Christians’ homes with ن, a nūn, for Nasara, which is the Qur’an’s word for Christians: Nazarenes. Probably they are doing this so that they can know from which houses to demand the jizya, the tax that the Qur’an demands that the subjugated People of the Book pay in the Islamic state: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya...

Imagine being killed because of your religion. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a radical Islamic group, says this will start happening in Iraq by Saturday and the threat is sending shockwaves through the community of more than 50,000 Chaldeans in the San Diego area. At St. Michael Chaldean Church in El Cajon, locals are hoping for peace. Chaldeans visit the church in east San Diego by the thousands to pray for the thousands of victims killed in Iraq and people being persecuted because of their religion. One of the women praying there is Sister Francois. Though she’s...

US policy regarding the UN picks who becomes US refugees. Christians are being refused refugee status and face persecution and many times certain death for their religious beliefs under the sharia, while whole Muslim communities are entering the US by the tens of thousands per month despite the fact that they face no religious persecution. It is horrifying that Afghan Christians are being refused refugee status by the UN and many Western nations, including Britain. The UN claims that Afghan Christians do not meet the criteria for refugees under Statute 6B of the UN High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR), which...

CBS put on an anti-religion jeremiad early Thursday morning on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: a feminist musician who likes “wearing and making something Satanic since music is so not right now.” Piano-banging rock singer Kristeen Young made her late-night TV debut, accompanied by Foo Fighters stars Dave Grohl and Pat Smear. She sang the song “Pearl of a Girl” that criticizes Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, but most gratuitously proclaims about Jesus “I wish the virgin would’ve had an abortion.” [See video below. MP3 audio here.] It’s a bit hard to make out in Kristeen’s ranty performance on...

Excerpted from Campus Reform: The town of Salem, Mass., has pitted itself against Gordon College after the president of the private Christian school added his name to a public letter to President Obama asking for a religious exemption from a planned federal mandate. The expected executive order would force any organization receiving federal funds, including religiously based organizations, to hire people whose sexual conduct may not fall in line with their beliefs. Gordon says the mandate would be an “infringement on religious liberty” and “the rights of faith-based institutions to establish a set of standards and expectations for their community.”...

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. - A decade-old allegation accusing a local teacher is being re-investigated after the teacher was arrested for similar charges. Matthew Graziotti, who works at the Warner Christian Academy in South Daytona, was arrested on Monday for producing and distributing child porn. Graziotti had been accused of misconduct with minor children in 2004, according to Edgewater police, but no evidence was discovered at that time. With this new arrest, the past allegation is being re-investigated, police told Local 6.

A city in Massachusetts has opted to end a contract with a Christian college over the academic institution's opposition to homosexuality. The mayor for Salem recently announced that the city's contract with Gordon College for usage of the Old Town Hall, set to expire later this year, will be immediately terminated. Rick Sweeney, vice president of marketing and communications at Gordon College, told The Christian Post about the contract to use the Old Town Hall. "Gordon College had been in a contractual relationship with the city of Salem since 2008 to manage Old Town Hall, one of the most historic...

Saw the trailer for this the other night...it looks goooood. Opens July 18, 2014. Let's give it a big opening day.

Conservative Christians have generally been known for their enthusiastic support for the Jewish state. But a new movement of young activists is seeking to change that.In 2010, a film was released that perfectly encapsulated the erosion of Evangelical Christian support for Israel. The film, With God on Our Side, featured a young man learning about the Palestinian struggle and coming to see Israel not as evidence of God’s faithfulness, but as a mean and heartless nation enabled by American Evangelicals who have embraced Zionist ideology. The film’s narrative of peace-loving Palestinians mistreated by heartless Israelis and their Christian Zionist supporters...

CHINA GROVE State records indicate Rowan County has a drug problem. This week, residents learned that it extends to one of its best schools. Four faculty members from Bostian Elementary were arrested Tuesday and accused of being part of a ring that illegally obtained thousands of doses of the painkiller hydrocodone. China Grove police and state investigators say family physician Orrin Walker unlawfully wrote hundreds of prescriptions that were filled by his wife, Abby, her co-workers and friends. Orrin Walker, 48, operated Main Street Family Practice. Abby Walker, 44, was a second-grade teacher at Bostian. Both were charged with trafficking...

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Brown County Sheriff's Department reports the arrest of a 27 year-old Hobart man on suspicion of sexually assaulting a child. Wayne Makela was arrested Wednesday. The Brown County Sheriff's Department says he is a teacher and coach at Pilgrim Lutheran school in Green Bay. Investigators say the assault may have happened to a child under the age of 16. The suspect was in a position of trust at a church and school in Green Bay, according to a Sheriff's Department news release. Pilgrim Lutheran Church and School confirmed to NBC26 that the suspect teaches a...

SHELBY COUNTY, TN - A once trusted Hope Presbyterian Church music teacher is now at the center of a child sex investigation. Officials are releasing very few details about the investigation, but they do say that it involves multiple agencies. On Wednesday, Matthew Williams was charged with child sex abuse involving a family member. On Saturday, Hope Presbyterian Church found out and terminated Williams' contract immediately. Collierville Police Department confirmed there is an investigation, but that is all it would say. Williams taught piano lessons at Hope Music Academy at the church for almost a year. A spokesperson for Hope...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – ObamaCare's controversial HHS mandate suffered another setback on Thursday, as the Supreme Court voted to allow a Christian college to opt out of signing a form that would result in their insurance company providing employees with “free” birth control and abortifacients. Instead, says the high court, the coverage will kick in after they inform HHS of their religious objection. The 6-3 decision exempts Wheaton College from filing Form 700, which certifies its religious objection to providing abortifacient drugs to women, until the case has been fully adjudicated. In all likelihood, the matter will ultimately be decided by...

The media are poring over each and every detail of the life of U.S. soccer team’s heroic goalkeeper. Here’s one they probably won’t mention: Tim Howard is a Christian. Beating the U.S. soccer team in a 2-1 game, Belgium eliminated the U.S. from the World Cup, on July 1. Despite that, the U.S. team still boasted a win: goalkeeper Tim Howard made 16 goal saves during the match, the most in World Cup history since 1966 (when record-keeping first began). ABC, CBS and NBC noted the champion’s popularity – but failed to mention his faith. During the morning segments after...

Last night I listened to the new Reasonable Doubts podcast, which included a detailed account of the case of self-righteously Christian former major league baseball player and eventual sex abuse convict, Chad Curtis. The show is a gripping and revolting listen, and as usual the Doubtcasters bring to bear a lot of insight in the process both of telling the story and in analyzing it at the end. Doubtcaster Jeremy Beahan went to college at Cornerstone University where Chad Curtis was a prominent figure, earning his degree to go into high school coaching (where he would commit his sex crimes)....

Two years ago, I sat on a panel before Congress, testifying to the importance of religious liberty in America today. It seems like a long time ago. Since then, we have seen and heard a steady stream of news, from the church and the culture, about the Health and Human Services’ mandate and the Affordable Care Act, abortifacients and the conscience, religious freedoms and what this means for women. Thankfully, the wait is over. The Supreme Court has ruled, and the verdict is in: In a landmark case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of religious liberty, specifically in regard...

Ogden • A Plain City man accused of beating a fellow churchgoer last year at a Mormon baby blessing and mission farewell was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail. Wayne Dodge, 52, pleaded guilty last month in Ogden’s 2nd District Court to one count of class B misdemeanor assault. One charge of felony aggravated assault was dismissed, according to court records. Judge W. Brent West ordered Dodge to complete an anger management class as part of a 12-month probation. The judge also ordered Dodge to pay a $550 fine and have no contact with the victim. Dodge, who faced...

A Sudanese woman who was sentenced to death for renouncing Islam has been freed from detention for a second time. Meriam Ibrahim has now sought sanctuary at the American embassy in the capital Khartoum. Speaking exclusively to the BBC she thanked the Sudanese people for standing by her.

Last week the mainline Presbyterian USA Church decided to allow homosexual marriages. In doing so, PCUSA had to change its centuries old adherence to the Westminster Confession which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. The Confession, which in theory members of PCUSA are required to believe, has been altered to read a marriage is between “two people.” Of course, to get to two people PCUSA had to ignore the Confession’s scripture proofs, which clearly show a marriage is between one man and one woman. (Gen 2:24, Matt 19:5) The big question at this point is whether the...

The Christian Sudanese woman released from prison and then re-arrested at Khartoum airport Tuesday has now been charged with fraud and banned from leaving the country, according to authorities. Meriam Ibrahim, who has been held in a Sudanese prison with her son since February, was freed of her death sentence for practicing her Christian faith, after international groups and government officials put pressure on the Sudanese government. Ibrahim gave birth to a baby girl while in prison. Ibrahim was then re-arrested at the airport with her husband and two children. Now, new charges are being brought against her for allegedly...

The Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her Christian faith and released from prison yesterday was arrested with her family at Khartoum airport, according to sources. Meriam Ibrahim was arrested in February and gave birth to a baby girl while in custody. She was sentenced to death for apostasy, or renouncing Islam. Ibrahim was arrested today together with her two children and husband, Daniel Wani, an American citizen.

Reports today indicate the Sudan court has reversed itself and will free Meriam Ibraham, the pregnant Christian woman jailed and sentenced to be flogged and hanged for her Christian faith. Meriam was later forced to give birth in chains in a Sudanese prison as she awaited a death sentence ad brutal flogging by Muslim officials. “The appeal court ordered the release of Mariam Yahya [Ibrahim] and the cancellation of the [previous] court ruling,” Sudan’s SUNA news agency said on Monday. Although reports a couple of weeks ago suggested Meriam would be freed, they turned out to be false. Thesudan4se reports...

A private academic institution based in Colorado was granted an injunction from the Department of Health and Human Services' birth control mandate. Colorado Christian University will not have to pay a fee for refusing to provide certain types of birth control effective July 1, ruled a Denver federal judge. Filed last Friday, District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn concluded that Colorado Christian University could be unnecessarily burdened by the HHS mandate of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," and that CCU will likely win its suit against the Obama administration. "I conclude that there is a substantial likelihood...

Superintendent Jody Goeler released a statement today responding to the charge that a Woodbury school discriminates against conservative and pro-life websites by blocking them.Andrew Lampart, a senior at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, told his local Fox station that he discovered a clear political bias at his school, based on which websites are blocked. His initial discovery was that the National Rifle Association’s website was blocked, but not anti-gun websites. But the more websites Lampart tried to reach, the stranger it got.“I immediately found out that the State Democrat web site was unblocked but the State GOP web site was...

The arguments in favor of same-sex civil marriage are well known. Thrown into the ring are the buzzwords of “equality” and “discrimination”. So the typical argument goes: Discrimination is bad, and equality is good, so our government should give homosexual couples the recognition and subsidies reserved for heterosexual couples.But there are problems with those. For one thing, discrimination and prejudice are innate to our psyche. If I have a soccer ball, for example, I will only intend to use it for soccer, because that is its purpose. Since I refuse to use it for basketball, does that mean I hate...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Leading Republicans on Thursday insisted that America's leaders must do more to defend Christian values at home and abroad, blaming President Barack Obama for attacks on religious freedom as they courted social conservatives expected to play a critical role in the next presidential contest. "Those of us inspired by Judeo-Christian values...have an obligation to our country and to our fellow man to use our positions of influence to highlight those values," Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio said at a conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by long-time Christian political activist Ralph Reed.

“What do you do for a living, Donny?” “I’m a porn producer!” Whenever I had an exchange like this with one of my pastor-father’s parishioners, the initial response was usually laughter. But then I would make it clear that I was serious, and then neatly cut off the coming lecture with a question of my own. Although raised in a Christian home, I abandoned my faith to become a porn producer, a decision fueled by an intense hatred for the Church. For many years I confused God with the people who claimed to represent Him. This may seem like a...

Clint Dempsey at FUSE event With Three Days Grace in 2006. Credit: G. Gershoff/WireImage/Getty Images. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jun 17, 2014 / 12:55 pm (CNA).- U.S. soccer fans went wild on Monday as team captain Clint Dempsey scored a goal during the first minute of the club’s opening World Cup game against Ghana. The goal is among the quickest in World Cup history and the fastest scored by an American during the World Cup games, adding to numerous records help by the acclaimed player, who is also the first American to score in three different World Cups. Perhaps less...

There is an old Spiritual that says, My God is so high, you can’t get over him, he’s so low, you can’t get under him, he’s so wide you can’t get around him, you must come in, by and through the Lamb.

I’d heard of Nick Vujicic. I’d caught a glimpse of him on Christian television. But nothing prepared me for his recent appearance at my church. A mighty man of faith, Vujicic delivered one of most powerful, spirit-filled messages I’ve ever heard. I think the Australian-born evangelist the most inspirational Christ follower since Helen Keller. Keller’s life story was immortalized in the 1962 motion picture “The Miracle Worker.” Born in 1880, Helen was 19 months old when she contracted “brain fever,” as the Keller family doctor called it. She was struck blind, deaf and mute. Nearly feral as a child, Helen’s...

Jews defending Judaism with the best defense...

The facts just don’t add up. Our President secretly negotiated a deal to free a man who appears to have deserted his country and put fellow servicemen in danger while there are innocent American citizens being held in Iran, North Korea and Mexico. Why Bergdahl? Lawmakers and human rights groups have called out for the release of Pastor Saeed Abedini, the 34-year-old from Boise, Idaho, who left behind his wife, Naghmeh, and two young children to go back to his homeland on a mission to build a family orphanage. Abedini, who had traveled to Iran many times before, was pulled...

A California pastor is being extradited to Nevada on a murder charge in the death of a man outside a Las Vegas sports bar -- despite claims by witnesses that the father of two was acting in self-defense. Robert Cox, of Manteca, Calif., claims he did not throw a punch at Link Ellingson, knocking him to the ground and causing a mortal head injury. But prosecutors claim Cox changed his story, first telling officers he punched Ellingson after the man threatened him outside Four Kegs bar, and then later claiming in a written statement that he grabbed Ellingson by the...

Chapter 36 – Russia, North Africa, Italy, “D” Day Victory in the battle of Britain saved the country from invasion, but the enemy sought to recompense himself by heavier, indiscriminate night-bombing, which continued into 1941. The next prayer was greater still. We suppose nothing gave the world a bigger shock through the whole course of the war than when, without a word of warning, Hitler swung round and invaded Russia. God now began to turn the prayers of the College into yet another direction. With the Nazis marching through Yugoslavia and Greece and capturing Crete, and with the menace of...

Ann B. Davis, who played the beloved housekeeper Alice in The Brady Bunch, died over the weekend. New information is coming out about her faith and her life. The Associated Press reports: For many years after “The Brady Bunch” wound up, Davis led a quiet religious life, affiliating herself with a group led by [Episcopal Bishop William] Frey. “I was born again,” she told the AP in 1993. “It happens to Episcopalians. Sometimes it doesn’t hit you till you’re 47 years old. “It changed my whole life for the better. … I spent a lot of time giving Christian witness...

We Must Report Sexual Abuse of Children in the Church One of the most damaging forces against the witness of the evangelical Church today is the legal (in certain states) but unbiblical application of priest-penitent privilege, or the right of a minister to refuse to divulge confidential information received from a member of his or her congregation, to cases of sexual abuse of children. Again and again, ministry leaders are choosing to not report cases of sexual abuse of children to the congregation, law enforcement, or other congregations. The Adversary is smiling amidst the devastation. Twisting Scripture to support a...

Days after media reported that a Sudanese mother sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith was likely to be released soon, a spokesman from Sudan's Foreign Ministry as well as the woman's husband said only courts have the jurisdiction to decide. Daniel Wani, the husband of Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who is in a prison with her 20-month-old son and newborn daughter, told CNN that only the appeals court can free his wife. "I'm not aware that any release is imminent," he said. Foreign ministry spokesman Abubakar Al-Sidiq also said that only a ruling from an...

SUDAN has denied a Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for apostasy will be freed soon, saying quotes attributed to a foreign ministry official had been taken out of context. Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was sentenced to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in place since 1983 and outlaws conversions under pain of death. Abdullah al-Azraq, a foreign ministry undersecretary, told media outlets on Saturday that Ishag “will be freed within days in line with legal procedure that will be taken by the judiciary and the ministry of justice”. But the foreign ministry said...

My son just graduated from college and is moving to San Jose CA from North Carolina to work at Silicon Valley. He is a believer in Christ and would like to find a Bible-believing church as soon as he can after moving. He doesn't know anyone there so he's starting his new life at ground zero. Anyone know of a good church in the San Jose area?

Multiple international news reports Saturday indicate Meriam Ibrahaim would “be freed� after getting a death sentence from the government of Sudan for rejecting Islam. Meriam gave birth this week to a baby girl named Maya. The decision comes after the Sudanese government faced mounting pressure from the international community over her “barbaric” treatment. However, the London Telegraph newspaper reports “her lawyers say they will not believe it until they see her walk out of prison.�Meriam languishes in a notoriously rank Sudanese prison with her 20-month-old son and her newborn daughter. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions urging Sudan...

As I’ve mentioned before, the laws requiring Christians to do things like bake wedding cakes or do photography for homosexual weddings are corporate laws. That’s how these laws are implemented - corporations have privileges granted by the State for the benefit of the State, as the State sees fit. So if Christians sue, what they have to argue before the Court is how it benefits the State to allow their incorporated business to not do work for homosexual marriage. That’s the legal reality. That’s not my opinion, that’s what the Courts are actually ruling on. Given that, there is a...

Obama is saying he is contemplating arming and training Syrian rebels (just the 'moderates' which will be identified by their smiles). However, as the following PBS Frontline documentary exposes, the Syrian rebels themselves say they are already armed and trained by US in the use of sophisticated weapons and fighting techniques, including, one rebel said, "how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush." The interviews are the latest evidence that after more than three years of warfare, the United States has stepped up the provision of lethal aid to the rebels, as PBS notes "it appears the Obama...

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Five Christian families have been freed after being held for more than two decades as slaves in a Muslim-run brick kiln in eastern Pakistan, Christian officials involved in the rescue operation told BosNewsLife. The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), a major advocacy and aid group, said it provided two vehicles for the May 6 raids at the brick kiln in the industrial city Wazirabad in Punjab province. Nasir Saeed, a CLAAS director, told BosNewsLife that "a total of eight" Christians were found working as slaves in the area, representing five families.