Free Republic

Eight years ago, I met the pastor of my brother's church in Northern Wisconsin.  Pastor Phil and his wife, Kathy, had answered the call when the church had entered some hard times.  His career had started in Chicago.  His parents were called to the ministry; his father had been a Marine.  The streets that he grew up on in Chicago had an international flavor.  There were Greek, Polish, and Germans, and they generally got along.  His family did not have any guns, and his lone experience with firearms was an informal couple of shots with a .22  at twilight,...

The people of North Carolina and the alumni of N.C. State University deserve an apology. Administrators at the school have implemented a patently unconstitutional policy, which forces students to apply for a permit in order to share the gospel on a public university campus they fund with their hard earned tax dollars. To make matters worse, the permit policy is being used to target Christians specifically while others are being allowed to exercise their rights unfettered. Now that a federal judge has called their bluff, the lawless North Carolina attorney general continues to defend the indefensible. Roy Cooper had the...

Mel Gibson is reportedly preparing a sequel to his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gibson is working with Oscar-nominated Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace to pen the sequel, which will tell the story of Jesus’s resurrection. “I always wanted to tell this story,” Wallace told THR. “The Passion is the beginning and there’s a lot more story to tell.” Gibson and Wallace most recently worked together on the upcoming World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge, which the former directed and the latter co-wrote. The pair reportedly began working on the Passion sequel in...

The people of North Carolina and the alumni of N.C. State University deserve an apology. Administrators at the school have implemented a patently unconstitutional policy, which forces students to apply for a permit in order to share the gospel on a public university campus they fund with their hard earned tax dollars. To make matters worse, the permit policy is being used to target Christians specifically while others are being allowed to exercise their rights unfettered. Now that a federal judge has called their bluff, the lawless North Carolina attorney general continues to defend the indefensible. Roy Cooper had the...

An overhead image of the monument photographed from a drone, and a detail overlay of the surface features in which the image is rotated 90 degrees clockwise. Photograph by I. LaBianca (Left) and Photograph by I. LaBianca; graphics by J. Blanzy (Right) ============================================================================================== Satellites and drones helped reveal huge ceremonial platform near the ancient city’s center. An enormous monument has been hiding in plain sight at the World Heritage site of Petra, according to a study recently published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Archaeologists Sarah Parcak, a National Geographic fellow, and Christopher Tuttle, executive director...

For many, there is a deep-seated political hatred, racism, and bigotry hidden behind the guise of Christianity. And I’m tired of keeping quiet. As a person born into it, baptized into it—I went every Sunday morning and every Sunday night, and if my mother finished worked early enough, I even went on Wednesday evenings—I should know. I’m not typically one to get into social media arguments or spend hours discussing political and religious discourse on a Facebook strand, but recently, one woman drove me to the point of no return. Of course, it began with: Trump vs No Trump. As...

An angry war of words has erupted between Greece and Turkey after Turkish authorities permitted a daily Koran reading to be broadcast from Turkey’s famous Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine cathedral. Turkish national broadcaster TRT Diyanet will broadcast the sahur or Islamic predawn meal along with daily readings from the Koran during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which began Monday. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the move in a statement calling it “bigotry” and “not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies.”

Those who deny the existence of their Creator are delusional.This is not an insult. It’s not a personal attack. It’s not a pejorative.It’s a fact.They’re also “fools.”God’s Word declares, “The fool hath said in his heart ‘there is no God'” (Psalm 14).When the Creator calls God-deniers “fools,” He’s not saying they’re stupid clowns. Merriam Webster defines “fool” as “a person lacking in judgment or prudence.”Psalm 19:1 observes: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”Romans 1:20 likewise notes, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since...

Ulaan Baatar (Agenzia Fides) - "We will soon have the first native priest of Mongolia: Joseph Enkh, who will be ordained a priest in Ulaan Baatar on 28 August 2016 by His Exc. Mgr. Wenceslao Padilla, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaan Baatar. This event is particularly important for our young Church, re-founded in 1992 and today has just over a thousand baptized. The ordination of a native priest will stimulate the enthusiasm and sense of belonging among the Mongols, towards a church that has long been seen as foreign", says Fr. Prosper Mbumba, Congolese missionary in Mongolia, a member of the...

A Kansas military base abruptly canceled an upcoming prayer breakfast that featured retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin after complaints were lodged that Boykin is anti-Muslim and anti-gay. Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein told Army Times that Boykin’s invitation had caused great angst among soldiers at Fort Riley – leading some to break down in tears. “I have clients of ours weeping on the phone about this,” he said. Weeping? Oh, please. “I sincerely doubt that America can expect to win wars if the people who are tasked to do so are frightened by an old retired general with...

The University of Miami has now announced a chair for the study of atheism. In another recent story, an atheist group is suing a sheriff because of his pro-God statements on his Facebook page (Constitution.com, 5/19/16). No one can deny the rise of the shrill atheistic voices of our time. But dare I say that the idea of state-sanctioned and in some cases state-mandated atheism is absolutely out of step with the traditions of America. Here are 10 reasons why: 1) At the time of our founding, 99.8% of the population was professing Christians. Ben Franklin, himself a bit of...

TRYING TO PLEASE EVERYONE Trying to please everyone is by far the worst disease the West contracted. Today, critiquing any other religion besides Christianity is considered a sin while mocking Christianity is applauded. I argue that anyone who tries to combat anything without using biblical concepts is an idiot no mater how ‘brilliant’ society thinks they are. A Christian will always be attacked no matter what they say. I as a Christian could type any sentence and instant objections will arise. I could even publish a single line article that says: “Mankind does good and evil” and someone will object....

When healthcare is expensive, the Amish culture of autonomy and thrift may be a way to balance communal support and individual responsibility. Sara Talpos finds out more. The Allegheny Plateau, sprawling across northern Pennsylvania and beyond, is an ecosystem of forested hills, with land that supports black bears, bald eagles and wandering turkeys, as well as a patchwork of wild herbs: burdock, jewelweed, chamomile and sheep sorrel. Cellphone reception is spotty and gas stations are few and far between. Tucked away among the streams branching from the Cowanesque river is a cluster of small white and tan buildings, including the...

Germany’s Bayerischer Rundfunk reports on the experience of an estate agent with experience selling homes in Hungary’s picturesque Lake Balaton who said the number of “disaffected” Germans seeking property there to escape their own country was on the rise. Estate agent Ottmar Heide said now eight in ten of his customers were leaving Germany and moving to Hungary because of the migrant crisis, and the potentially millions of non-Europeans who will move to Germany every year. The fact that there is already a large German speaking community around the lake, the country is Christian, property and cost of living is...

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”– John 15:20The answer had to be yes. The Holy Spirit made it crystal clear. When Tristan Emmanuel, managing publisher and CFO of BarbWire Books, called me and said it was time for me to put pen to paper and write a book on the anti-Christian left’s demonic war on religious liberty (and all things godly and good), I immediately agreed.And so with the tireless help of my project partner...

Moderate Malay­sians are making a stand against the unilateral conversion of children, urging that they be allowed to hold on to their original faith until they can decide for themselves at age 18. Businessman and moderation activist Anas Zubedy said a child’s religion must be agreed on by both parents. “Unilateral conversions should not be allowed for whatever religion, be it Islam, Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism. “Should a parent convert to a religion different from that at the time of marriage, especially during dissolution of the marriage, the children should remain in the original faith until they turn 18,” he...

Some thoughts I've been stringing together over the Labor Day weekend involve Heaven, the New Jerusalem, the Tabernacle, and the Temples. In the Old and New Testaments, the Hebrew and Greek etymology of the words that translate to atmosphere, space, and what we commonly, in our language, refer to as "Heaven", are the same.  In the Bible, Heaven is the sky, the stars, and the place where God dwells "behind the veil". "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know,...

When Australia's most successful Olympian, Ian Thorpe, came out as gay in an interview with Sir Michael Parkinson in July 2014, he was inundated with messages of support. At the time, some posed the question: does this even count as news? Is homosexuality today not a simple biographical detail rather than a sensational scandal? And yet, it is significant that on the same night that Thorpe came out, Australian Rules Football commentator Brian Taylor used a homophobic slur on air, referring to Geelong player Harry Taylor as a "big poofter." The two events accentuated perfectly why it remains the case,...

.....Despite the 1st amendment and his oath, Sen. Schumer (D-New York) says that religious Americans have a choice: hold their religious faith or go into business but, according to Sen. Schumer, religious people cannot both practice their faith and conduct business in America.... The first part of the answer is that...it became a given in the modern period that religion is an essentially private, theoretical matter. ....The second part of the answer is really a question. How did it come to be that, in America, a nation founded on the principle of the right of relatively unencumbered religious practice, in...

Like most people, the list of books I have read over the years is in the hundreds. The ones still to be read also in the hundreds. That said, of all the books I’ve read or planned to read, a book about “The End Times” had never made either list. Until now. While never a “Bible thumper,” I have always been a person of deep faith, and as outlined in the past, my personal relationship with Jesus Christ started when I was five years old, when a little plastic Baby Jesus became my sole comforter during a fairly violent eviction...