Free Republic

DirecTV recently announced it will drop the Inspiration Network from its lineup, leaving its stable of profane and worldly channels untouched. Incredibly, reports indicate the provider also misrepresented the development by suggesting the network initiated the split. In reality, it appears the decision was wholly that of the provider. Perhaps the most baffling aspect of the decision lies in the fact that DirecTV did not gain anything – or save any money – by dropping the network. Unlike the majority of channels carried by the company, the Inspiration Network does not charge a license fee to providers. Many failing networks cost carriers...

Fiery Louis Farrakhan of Nation of Islam fame said during his weekly video sermon that white people have a history of stirring up trouble, and that Allah has chosen blacks “to give life” and sit at the “top of civilization.” He also “issued the final call,” as he termed it: “I say to the Pope and all the lovers of Jesus, if you desire, let’s have a showdown. You call the Jesus that you know, and I’ll call on the Jesus that I know, and let’s see which one of us really knows Jesus.” Mr. Farrakhan quoted widely from Elijah

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) -- God once used a donkey to alert a wayward prophet that he was on the wrong track. Could it be the Lord is using a bear, a Russian Bear, to do the same with the nations of the West, in particular the United States? "Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values," Russian President Valdimir Putin said in his state of the nation address in mid-December, The Washington Times reported. Putin continued, "Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in...

We used to characterize the Soviet Union as a godless, evil empire. Like many societies based on communism or socialism, the Soviets saw fit to minimize the importance of God and, in many cases, wreaked unimaginable persecution on religious people. Why is faith in God anathema to such states? It's because they need to remove any authority other than themselves as the arbiter of right and wrong. Interestingly, last year Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized Euro-Atlantic countries, including the United States, of becoming godless and moving away from Christian values. Some may bristle at such an accusation, but when you...

The pediment of The Cathedral Church Of St. Paul in Boston has stood empty for 190 years, as the builders of the impressive Greek Revival structure ran out of money during the initial construction phase. It was finally completed in May of 2013, but since then it's come under fire for its unusual design, which features a backlit nautilus sculpture.

If I asked you to describe the state of Christianity in Europe, you'd probably answer "not good." And there'd be ample reason to do so. Most of us are familiar with the depressing statistics regarding church attendance in Western Europe and Scandinavia. But there is more to Europe than Britain, France, and Sweden. And in Central and Eastern Europe, a different story is being written. This story was the subject of a recent First Things article by Filip Mazurczak. In it, Mazurczak reveals to readers what is going on in former communist societies such as Hungary and Croatia. For instance,...

Exclusive: Matt Barber explains how Jesus is both exclusive and inclusive You’ve heard it said that “We are all God’s children.” This rings flowery and nice. It’s an insidious lie. Indeed, God both created and loves – in a way most unfathomable – everyone who ever lived. He wove us together in our mother’s womb and numbered our every hair. But God the Father has only one begotten Son. The rest of us, in order to become one of God’s children, must be adopted – in, by and through – the One Who is the Son: Jesus Christ. Those who...

Restrictions, harassment, and intimidation towards people who practice their religion increased in every major region of the world in 2012 except the Americas, with Christians the major target, says a new report by the Pew Research Center. “Muslims and Jews experienced six-year highs in the number of countries in which they were harassed by national, provincial or local governments,” the study found, but Christians continue to be the world’s most oppressed religious group, with persecution against them reported in 110 countries. A recent report by the Christian group Open Doors noted that “North Korea remains the world’s most restrictive nation...

Some people are educated beyond their intelligence and others are educated way beyond their intelligence. Craig Considine a Ph.D candidate from Dublin, who describes himself as a Catholic, has written an essay about how wonderful the teachings of Muhammad are and thus proved himself part of the latter group. This dimwit gushes over what he has “learned” about how wonderful Mohammad was. He makes no mention of Mohammad’s “marriage” to Aisha who was 6 years old at the time, or that ole Mo told the little girl’s father Allah had come to him in a dream saying he should be...

Feb 6 2014 The Virtue of Being Suspicious As contrary as it runs to popular perceptions, Fundamentalists were not fools. In fact, their powers of discernment make contemporary Evangelicals, who have supposedly advanced beyond Fundamentalists’ defense of simple verities, look downright gullible. Fundamentalists knew they were in a battle, that the church is always being threatened with false teachers and members with “itching ears.” They took the New Testament seriously when its writers charged the early church to be on the lookout for those who would lead God’s flock astray. Fundamentalists also knew that the greatest danger to the church...

First published on New English Review. By Enza Ferreri The similarity between Muslims on one hand and feminist and homosexual activists on the other may superficially seem shocking, but in fact it is normal, indeed predictable. Their enemy is the same: the decency and morality deriving from Christian civilisation. Muslim mobs desecrate and burn churches, they break crosses. And so do feminists, with their LGBT allies. Last 23-25 November a horde of 7,000 lesbians and pro-abortion feminists tried to storm the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista (John the Baptist) in Argentina, to desecrate and ransack it. Since the church was...

While everyone was paying attention to the demise of the U.S. economy, the U.S. workforce, the checks and balances written into the U.S. Constitution, a terrible tragedy has ensued almost unnoticed. Yes, while the rest of were working to “save” the country from galloping Big Government, the most perfect game in the history of the universe has brought itself to the brink of extinction. The downfall of the National Football League is imminent There are many signs and symptoms of the NFL’s impending doom there for the thinking person to see. The NFL used to have the problem that...

That's why it's pretty chilling to hear Vladimir Putin hurling accusations at the West and pointing out that what's going on is identical to what went on when communism was established and religion was completely expunged from the Soviet Union. Between 1917 and 1937, almost a quarter of a million Christians were executed, and churches that survived destruction were converted into things like museums of atheism. Russian President Putin, who hasn't been shy about expressing his disapproval of homosexuality and has banned what he defined as "homosexual propaganda," had this to say: Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their...

Minarets instead of church towers, muezzins instead of churchbells. A different France.The secular and libertarian magazine Causeur asks: “Is this the end of the bell towers of France?”. Until last week, the church bells of Boissettes, a town of five hundred inhabitants in the district of the Seine, were ringing every half hour. Then, the Administrative Court of Paris has stopped the bells, as an alleged violation of the 1905 law on the separation of church and state. The story seems a perfect epitaph to an essay that appeared ten years ago by Danièle Hervieu -Léger, “Catholicisme, la fin d’un...

Life is short. Stay awake for it. So goes the tagline for the second largest coffee franchise in America. It’s catchy and practical. Drink our coffee, it suggests, not merely for its taste, but for its benefits, that is, to be awake to life. And the reason being — here comes the resonating connection — life is short. The clock is ticking. Our days are numbered. And we Christians agree (Psalm 90:10; 103:15–16; James 4:14). Life is too short to sleep all the time. But life is also too short not to sleep a large part of the time. The...

President Ronald Reagan once said, “Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.” Well, if Reagan was right, Chattanooga, Tennessee, will be solving their problems a little better than all the other cities across the nation. After interviewing more than 46,000 adults nationwide over a seven-year period, the American Bible Society, in conjunction with Barna, ranks Chattanooga as the number one most Bible-minded city in the United States. Providence, Rhode Island, and New Bedford, Massachusetts, share the dubious distinction of being the least most-Bible minded cities in America. “Bible-mindedness” was calculated based on...

On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a one-paragraph order in Little Sisters of the Poor et al v. Sebeluis et al. It told the Sisters that for the case to continue with no enforcement of the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate, they need only to inform the government in writing "that they are non-profit organizations that hold themselves out as religious and have religious objections to providing coverage for contraceptive services." That's easy, because that's what they are, and that's their position. As a result, the government has been "enjoined from enforcing against the applicants the challenged provisions of the...

For twenty years, Mr. Obama drank from a particular brand of religion—Liberal Christianity. To be sure, most Bible-believing Christians would not consider that brand to be Christianity at all. But liberal Christians would consider their brand to actually be the enlightened one. Over time, Liberal Christianity has developed a humanistic understanding of what the Christian faith is about. They claim that Christians who still believe the Bible is God’s perfect self-revelation are stuck back in the 1st century. Society has evolved, they say. And because society has evolved, God must be evolving also. After all, why else would He allow...

The Constitution is powerless against Satan. Earlier this month, the state of Oklahoma received a proposal from New York-based Satanists to build near the state Capitol a 7-foot-high statue of Baphomet, a goat-headed pagan idol. The Satanists' letter boasted that, "The statue will also have a functional purpose as a chair where people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan for inspiration and contemplation." Now, while the Satanists are real, there's a lot of fakery involved. It's a stunt -- a clever one -- exploiting the constitutional injunction against governmental favoritism towards religion. The Oklahoma Capitol has...

Today marks the 41st annual “March for Life” in which thousands of pro-lifers ascend on Washington D.C. to mark the Roe v. Wade decision and show their solidarity in opposition to abortion, many of them faithful Catholics. Not surprisingly, Pope Francis sent out an official tweet showing his support for the “March for Life” in which he said, “I join the March for Life in Washington with my prayers, may God help us respect all life, especially the most vulnerable.” Unfortunately for one MSNBC host, the fact the Pope would show support for one of the Catholic Church’s most sacred values, the...