Free Republic

Earlier this year, an event happened that did not receive wide notice. The last of the Von Trapp Family Singers, the last of the children—the real ones—died. Her name was Maria—not to be confused with the lady played by Julie Andrews, Maria Augusta Trapp, who died in 1987. Maria Von Trapp’s death in February 2014 marks the end of an era. The Sound of Music deserves its accolades as the Movie of the Year (1965) and one of the finest films ever made. Even my one-year-old granddaughter is mesmerized by the puppet scene. As a film it is an icon....

Liberals increasingly want to enforce a comprehensive, uniformly secular vision of the human good. And they see alternative visions of the good as increasingly intolerable.... Palmer... expresses "ambivalence," "suspicion," and "visceral discomfort" ... that these men and women are motivated to make "long-term commitments to address the health problems of poor Africans," to "risk their lives," and to accept poor compensation (and sometimes none at all) because of their Christian faith. The question is why he considers this a problem... Gordon College, a small Christian school north of Boston, is facing the possibility of having its accreditation revoked... In accordance...

Public Discourse recently published a very important essay titled “Breaking the Silence,” in which Janna Darnelle wrote with heartbreaking candor of what she and her children have suffered since her ex-husband abandoned their marriage, married another man under state law, and obtained joint custody of their children. When Darnelle’s essay was published, I had just finished reading Anthony Esolen’s new book Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity. As I read her essay, I realized that her story encapsulated nearly every one of the book’s arguments. Anthony Esolen is well-known to readers of Public Discourse, and his writings adorn many other...

The folks in the drama department at Cape Fear Community College are just fine with staging productions about rape and incest. But when it comes to staging a show with Christian themes – well, that’s a problem.So says Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious advocacy group that claims the school’s drama instructor ordered a student to “dumb down” the religious nature of an upcoming production because it might offend and anger people. ADF attorney Travis Barham wrote a letter to the college alleging that drama instructor Jack Landry told Justin Graves he “could not support the overtly Christian show” because the...

Christians in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley have begun arming themselves in preparation for an Isis (now known as the Islamic State) offensive as it seeks to expand its territorial control outside of Syria. Up to 3,000 militants from the Islamic State and other jihadists occupy the mountain range between Lebanon and Syria near the Sunni town of Arsal. As IS seek to grab land outside of the mountain caves and farms they currently control, Christian volunteers have now created village defence forces to protect against the Sunni militants who have taken up to 21 Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage. "We are...

Some people - and quite a few atheists - have made hay over Obama's comments, primary among them being Obama's comment that "No religion condones the killing of innocents." Inherent within Obama's statement is that no TRUE Muslim would ever kill innocent people, be they men, women or children. As such, this would fall within the parameters of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy. The only problem with this is that it leaves Christians open to the charge that true Christians have (for example) bombed abortion clinics, takes away from Christians the ability to say that "No true Christian would ever...

What do you think of when you hear the word soul? What exactly is it? What does it consist of? Why is it important? In this edition of “Making Sense with Rob Case,” we will explore the entity of the soul, study its working components, and consider how these components work in the backdrop of how we think, act, feel, and thrive in the world around us. Where does God fit in with all of this? Find out on this edition of "Making Sense with Rob Case." To access the podcast, click HERE, or click on the above link.

Note: In the following article, I refuse to refer to Campus Crusade for Christ by their new name. I find their removal of the words “Crusade” and “Christ” to be offensive and demeaning (and just incredibly silly).Nearly half of the abortions in this country are performed on college-age women. According to Students for Life of America, 70% of all abortion-providing and abortion-referring facilities are located within five miles of a college campus. Given those staggering numbers, it would seem that campus ministries would be positioning themselves to do something about the problem. But most are doing nothing at all. If...

It’s hard to imagine that any school would have a problem with a book about a Christian family that helped Jews escape the Holocaust. But Springs Charter Schools in Temecula, Calif., not only had a problem with “The Hiding Place,” they also took issue with any other book that was written by a Christian author or included a Christian message. “We do not purchase sectarian educational materials and do not allow sectarian materials on our state-authorized lending shelves,” Superintendent Kathleen Hermsmeyer wrote in a letter to attorneys at the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI). Pacific Justice Institute is representing a parent...

This jaw-dropping revelation is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest assessment of the homosexual lifestyle. The WSJ report further warns: “Gay and bisexual men represent an estimated 2 percent of the U.S. population but more than half of all people living with HIV and 66 percent of new HIV infections. They are the only population group in the United States for which HIV infections are rising.” What do you say of an adult or adults who, for selfish political reasons, encourage sexually confused children to adopt a sex-centric identity and lifestyle laced with a 50-50 chance...

The leaders of a new, Christian movement think they’ve solved a centuries-old mystery: why men are absent from church. But their answer isn’t politically correct. They believe Christianity has become feminized. There are generally more women than men in every type of church, in every part of the world, according to church growth experts like Patrick Johnstone, author of Operation World. A traditional explanation is that women are more spiritual than men. But the leaders of this new movement suggest that the church’s music, messages and ministries cater to women. One of the leaders is David Murrow, author of a...

You’ve seen this a lot in the last decade and a half: progressives asserting a moral equivalence between radial Islam and Christianity. The argument usually goes something like, “Yeah, sure, terrorists are bad, but they’re hardly the only people to kill in the name of their religion!” Then there’s the obligatory reference to the crusades. OK, sure, Christianity, like most religions, has had some less-than-flattering moments. But it’s history. If you can point me to the mass graves, severed heads or buildings for Christianity in our lifetime… no need to finish that sentence because there aren’t any. Christianity is an...

In one of the great epics of Western literature, the hero, confronted by numerous and powerful enemies, temporarily gives in to weakness and self-pity. “I wish,” he sighs, “none of this had happened.” The hero’s wise adviser responds, “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide.” The old man continues, “There are other forces at work in this world … besides the will of evil.” Some events, he adds, are “meant” to be, “And that is an encouraging thought.” Indeed it is. Perhaps, today, we are meant to live in these...

THE CARPENTER'S SHOP: Persecution of Christians affects millions worldwide By Dr. Barry K. Carpenter Published: Friday, September 19, 2014 at 11:03 AM. Christians around the world are experiencing unprecedented persecution. Reporter and news analyst Kirsten Powers, interviewed in the Daily Beast, said, “Christians in the Middle East and Africa are being slaughtered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, beheaded, and forced to flee the birthplace of Christianity. The silence has been nearly deafening.” It seems open season on Christians. It is more pronounced, more bold, more contagious, and in more numbers than at any other time in history. It may appear to...

The situation for Christians in the Middle East continues to get worse, but this time, it isn’t at the hands of a terrorist group or band of rebels. It’s from one of our supposed allies in the region: Saudi Arabia. As Fox News reports, this past Friday (September 12th), agents from the country’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice rounded up 28 Christians at the home of an Indian national in the city of Khafji, and several Bibles were confiscated as well.. Their condition and whereabouts are currently unknown. As Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute...

the leader of the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram has established the world's second Islamic "caliphate" this summer and is seeking to cement his bloody rule on a territory that is now roughly the size of west Virginia. While much of the world has been focused on the brutal reign of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the forces of Boko haram have been racking up victories in northern Nigeria and have been violently imposing an equally harsh version of Islamic law on approximately 3 million civilians - including beheadings, forced marriages and the forced induction of children into its military...

resident Obama is a Christian. What he means by that no one has ever been very sure. But it is what he claims nonetheless. When callers to my radio shows claim, "He is a Muslim." I remind them--quickly--that he has only ever said that he is a Christian. This usually then incites various discussion points about the validity of his claim vs. theirs. Frequently the conversation will dwell upon the fact that his name is Islamic. To respond to this I simply point out that many former Muslims still carry their given name upon conversion to Christianity. They may say,...

Men between the ages of 18-30 can now sign up for training with the Peshmerga forces, according to local officials. ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Kurdistan’s Peshmerga forces have opened doors to the region’s Christian population and recruit them to join the fight against the Islamic State (IS), an official told Rudaw. “Representatives of the ministry of Peshmerga visited Ainkawa to recruit Christians,” said Jalal Habib Aziz, the mayor of Ainkawa, a predominately Christian neighborhood in Erbil. According to Aziz, the Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry has answered a call by Christian leaders to recruit members of the community to “protect themselves and their...

Last week, Gary Cass, who drives defendchristians.org, contacted me asking if ClashDaily.com would run his piece titled, “I’m Islamaphobic, Are You?” I gave it a read and quickly said, “Heck yeah”, because Cass, like Clash, believes Islam is implacable and must be stomped on like a narc at a biker party. In his sensible screed Gary gave three powerful points on how we must deal with violent Muslim mayhem. Check it out: I confess, I’m “Islamaphobic,” but for very good reasons. My fear is not an irrational fear based on uniformed prejudice; rather it’s an historic, clear-eyed, informed, rational fear....

Appearing on Charlie Rose's PBS show this week, HBO's "Real Time" host Bull Maher rebuked him for linking Islam to Christianity, defending Christians by saying a vast numbers of them do not believe in violence or treat women as second class citizens. Maher, a self-proclaimed atheist, began by refuting former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's recent statement that vast numbers of Muslims are not like ISIS in Iraq and Syria, an al-Qaeda offshoot that seeks to form an Islamic emirate in the Levant region through "jihad." Interrupting Maher, Rose asked, "Behind every Muslim is a future member of some radical?"...