Free Republic

1) Starting in the sixties there was an explosion of children born out-of-wedlock and kids who don't grow up in two parent families fare more poorly percentage wise on just about any and every scale imaginable including substance abuse, teenage pregnancies, suicide rates, criminality and homelessness. 2) Many people are becoming so childlike in their dependence on the government that they can't save for their own retirement, escape from an oncoming hurricane, or even purchase their own birth control without the government handling it for them. 3) Our legal system encourages frivolous lawsuits, is punitively expensive and because of the...

Hello fellow free republicans! I've been reading more and more online about how Atheists have started a movement to have Atheistic Churches the way doctrinal/theological religions do. Regardless of where you stand it's certainly a thought-provoking movement seeing as Atheism has long been an intellectual perspective of DOUBT in any religion. But I found an interesting video on youtube/cleantv.com about it. It's only 3 minutes so it is well worth your time. So check it out! I'm interested to see what others think about atheistic movements in our culture. http://www.clean.tv/Web/ProgramDetail.aspx?pid=670

The Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network is delighted to announce that Moe & Sana Maraachli will receive the 2013 Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Award at the first Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network Award Gala on Friday, April 5, in Philadelphia. In 2011, an international controversy erupted over Joseph Maraachli (Baby Joseph) after Canadian physicians refused to perform a tracheotomy, calling the procedure invasive and futile. This would have ultimately led to Joseph’s imposed death. The Maraachlis courageously fought to have Joseph, who was diagnosed with a neurologic disorder called Leigh’s disease, transferred to the United States, contending...

AT A NATIONAL MEETING of youth ministers, the key role of the local church is emphasized. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Love Jesus. Tolerate the church. At a time when Americans’ confidence in organized religion has hit a 40-year low, that mindset seems particularly prevalent among younger Christians. At the recent National Conference on Youth Ministries, Scot McKnight — one of the keynote speakers — challenged what he described as the modern tendency to lift up social justice efforts as “kingdom work.” “It’s like a tsunami, beginning to overtake the church, and the church is losing significance in local communities because...

've been asked more times than I can remember by secular people and the secular press if Christianity is now, truly...finally...a dying religion. The scenario plays out a bit like this. A reporter, after rattling off a steady stream of apocalyptic examples "supported by research," then asks something like: "Given the decline of Christian influence in our society, and around the world, is Christianity on a respirator?" At this moment, I think they expect me --us -- to jump on the blame bandwagon, and moan on about why Christianity is in danger of being relegated to history's dustbin. If you're...

Whittaker Chambers and Totalitarian Islam Playwright David Mamet recently acknowledged that he had been profoundly influenced by Communist apostate Whittaker Chambers’s 1952 anti-Communist memoir, Witness. Mamet described how reading Chambers’s opus inspired “the wrenching experience” of forcibly reevaluating the way he thought, particularly his confessed leftist-herd co-dependence. Also, echoing the delusive herd mentality of the Left’s ad hominem attacks in the 1950s on Chambers — whose allegations of Communist conspiracies have been entirely vindicated with irrefragable documentation from the captured Soviet Venona cables — Congressman Peter King’s staid initial hearings of March 10, 2011, on American Muslim radicalization engendered similarly...

Iraq's Christian population has been the target of violence for several years.The Christian community in Iraq has suffered great loss in the decade since the U.S. invasion of 2003. Is there a ray of hope now that Iraq's Assyrian, Chaldean, Armenian, and other Christians can find a secure future in the Kurdistan region? This was the possibility contemplated at a December 5 conference sponsored by Catholic University in Washington, DC. Since 2003, Iraqi Christian homes, businesses, and churches have been targets of repeated violent attacks-bombings, shootings, kidnappings, arsons-perpetrated by militias aligned with other religious and ethnic groups. The central government...

In my book, When the Crosses are Gone, I warn that when a culture abandons thinking and logic in favor of feelings and emotions, it is doomed to destruction. Although emotions are a very important part of the human psyche, when they control every aspect of life, morality becomes a victim. Today, there is widespread agreement that morality in America is deteriorating with breathtaking speed. On one hand, we face a belligerent and intimidating lobby that desires the breakdown of biblical morality. On the other hand, a docile public—as well as church leadership—is terrified to stand up for truth...

On Jan. 7, exactly two weeks before we are to simultaneously celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and inaugurate Barack Obama to his second term as President of the United States, sinister advertisements went up in dozens of subway stations around New York City, making evident that despite the undoubted strides our nation has made toward achieving justice and equality, bigotry and fear-mongering remain alive and well in America. The American Freedom Defense Initiative, headed by Pamela Geller, an inflammatory demagogue with a long history of anti-Muslim incitement, purchased space in 39 stations for ads with an...

Tim and I met a few years ago at a 24 watch party. His natural intelligence, unabashed geekiness, and “Snaps” skills made us quick friends. Plus, he managed a Starbucks so there was free coffee in it for me. Before long, I needed a new place to live and so did he. With a third friend, we rented a house together. Our friendship grew. Soon, I discovered that Tim is a serious Christian whose poignant reflections on faith and life set him apart from the pack. He was an usher in my wedding. One day, Tim told me that he...

Several years ago while shoveling snow outside of the business I worked for, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and was greeted by a gentleman who asked, “Do you believe in the existence of God?” “Absolutely!” I replied. He then asked “And, you believe that he created everything?” Again, I replied “Yes, absolutely!” This gentleman went on say, “So, of all of His creations, the universe, the stars, the oceans, the animals and so on… He, can reach out and have as much of His creations that He desires at anytime, except for one..” “And, this...

With deep condescension, my professors informed me that we live in a post-religious world. Religion, I was lectured, was the opiate of the people. I wondered, but never had the courage to suggest, that perhaps Marxism was the opiate of the elites.

Many of the same tactics used to weaken the Christian influence also worked to weaken the family. They introduced the ideas of divorce made easy instead of working out the problems or turning to Scripture. They taught situation ethics in schools where kids learned to blame their parents for all of their problems and then resent them for it. In the 1960s and 70s, the openness of sexual promiscuity flooded the families. Adultery and pre-marital sex permeated through the Church like yeast in a batch of dough. Even Christian leaders fell to the temptations that were hurled at them, causing...

A new chapter in America’s moral revolution came today as Atlanta pastor Louie Giglio withdrew from giving the benediction at President Obama’s second inaugural ceremony. In a statement released to the White House and the Presidential Inaugural Committee, Giglio said that he withdrew because of the furor that emerged yesterday after a liberal watchdog group revealed that almost twenty years ago he had preached a sermon in which he had stated that homosexuality is a sin and that the “only way out of a homosexual lifestyle … is through the healing power of Jesus.” In other words, a Christian pastor...

We were having lunch together, and I was praying like mad. My friend had been in a committed same-sex relationship for about 15 years. He was interested in Jesus; attracted to his teaching and message. But he wanted to know how becoming a Christian would affect his gay lifestyle. I had explained, as carefully and graciously as I could, that Jesus upheld and expanded the wider biblical stance on sexuality, that the only context for sexual activity is heterosexual marriage. Following Jesus would mean seeking to live under his word, in this area as in any other. He had been...

Has modern Christianity formed a new Church? I'll keep the journey into history simple. In the last 2000 years the churches large enough to survive the attacks by larger established churches could survive. They were not civil nor peaceful. They conducted massive wars against each other. However, over the last several decades, something different has happened, a new church has formed. All these churches that used to slaughter each other now accept the baptisms and membership performed by their one time rivals. Individual doctrines no longer matter. Their adherents now claim everyone is "saved" in the body of Christ. Modern...

As revealed last autumn, Warners are planning to add to the recent spate of proposed Biblical epics with its own yarn based around Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. Deadline now reveals that Brad Pitt is circling the lead role. Reports that it's because he wants to wash his hands of World War Z remain unverified. The familiar version of Pilate is more or less the one played - rather well - by Hristo Shopov in Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ, and by David Bowie in Scorsese's The Last Temptation Of Christ - although perhaps you prefer Telly Savalas in...

We have noticed many conservative Christians these days claiming to hold to a libertarian political philosophy. Libertarianism is the idea that government should allow complete freedom, except in the case when one person directly harms another. While this often sounds appealing to Christians, we see see a dangerous clash of worldviews in trying to mix Christianity with libertarianism. We think that “Christian libertarians” have been unwittingly duped into adopting a philosophy that has much in common with liberal secularists--and is contrary to the Bible at key points. Libertarianism and Christianity really do not mix like some think. Among the problems...

Some in the media have popularized the term “culture war,” giving the impression that the war being waged against Christianity is the same thing as a war against everything that is traditional. But in 2013, let’s change the term. Let’s call it what it is: “A war against Christ.” Certainly there are many American traditions rooted in Christian teaching and history. But mixing some traditions with what is purely Christ-honoring—although it may recruit support from non-Christian traditionalists or conservatives—dilutes the Christian dye. Take for example the ACLU’s war against Christians praying in public schools while obliging Muslims the ability...

When Jonathan Edwards described the awakening in his church, he had to use words like “surprising,” “extraordinary” and “astonishing.” The Bible says of the early church that “awe came upon every soul” (Acts 2:43). We can’t program that into our worship: 10:45 am – Awe comes upon every soul. Since revival is of God, we should pray for it. But how? The Bible teaches us how to pray; Isaiah 63:15-64:12 is a biblical prayer for revival.