Free Republic

Critical self-introspection is necessary in order to be an effective leader, Bishop T.D. Jakes said during the 2014 International Pastors and Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla.. The megachurch pastor added that an individual's effectiveness can only be measured by how much they multiply their gifts and talents. "If God gave you two or five talents and He comes back and you still have what he gave you, you didn't lead…if you're not making any change, you're taking up space," said Jakes during the conference Friday. Aimed at helping leaders strengthen their church infrastructure, Jakes' message focused on reevaluating the qualities...

The Air Force Academy removed a Bible verse posted on a cadet's whiteboard after it determined the posting had offended other cadets, a spokesman for the academy said. The cadet wrote the passage on the whiteboard posted outside his room. "I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me," the verse from Galatians read. Mikey Weinstein, director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told me 29 cadets and four faculty and staff members contacted his organization to complain about the Christian passage. "Had it been in his room - not a problem," Weinstein...

Ulf Ekman The pastor of Sweden’s largest non-denominational megachurch shocked Christians in his own community and around the world this weekend, by announcing that he is entering the Roman Catholic Church.* * * * *Several times in the last month, I wrote about bold initiatives in ecumenism, most notably the exchange of greetings and blessings between Pope Francis and evangelical pastor Kenneth Copeland, brokered by Anglican Bishop Tony Palmer. Perhaps I spoke too soon, though—for this latest surprise is just as remarkable in the Christian world, once again pointing toward a quest for unity which would have seemed impossible just...

During his Sunday morning service, Ulf Ekman announced the he and his wife, Birgitta, are converting to Roman Catholicism.Ekman is the founder of Word of Life, a megachurch in Uppsala, Sweden. News reports and blogs coming out of the nation reveal congregation was “partially stunned” after hearing what was packaged as a “special announcement.” The theme was “follow the Lamb wherever He goes."“For Birgitta and me, this has been a slow process were we have gone from discovering new things, to appreciating what we have discovered, to approach and even learn from our fellow Christians,” Ekman says on his ministry...

The controversy around the concept of religious liberty — whether in the form of birth control mandates resulting from the Affordable Care Act, or nondiscrimination lawsuits related to same-sex marriage — can seem like a straightforward conflict between retrograde religion and the progressive state. But in truth the battle over religious liberty is a conflict within liberalism itself. In one corner are the liberal values of pluralism and tolerance. In the other are the liberal projects of egalitarianism and administrative efficiency. The quick and decisive defeat of Arizona's attempt to clarify its state version of the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration...

Whether you are paid agents, losertarian isolationis, or just dim wits who wouldn't know what conservatism and freedom are if they kicked you in the backside. Why are still here? The land of vodka and borscht awaits. If you hate this country so much, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. Go join your brothers in mother Russia. I served this country. I love this country despite all its faults. It is the greatest nation that has ever been or ever will be. Despite my disgust with the politicians I would never side with the...

Sen. John McCain warned that the United States and Europe should avoid allowing Russia to set a precedent in Ukraine that could be later used for an incursion into Poland. “If Vladimir Putin gets away with saying he’s defending the rights of Russian speaking peoples, that is the same thing — excuse that Hitler used,” the Arizona Republican said, invoking arguments made by Nazi Germany about the ethnic German population of the Sudetenland.

Vladimir Putin isn’t the Easter Bunny. On the other hand, he isn’t Joseph Stalin. It takes a truly fevered imagination to see Russian forces in the Crimea as a prelude to Russian tanks rolling across Europe toward Berlin and Paris. Putin is a power player who cares more about Russia’s national interests, and Russian minorities in his near abroad, than in that mythical force known as world opinion. Would that America had a president who cared more about our interests than in promoting globalism and the left’s social agenda. The Crimea’s population is 60% ethnic Russian. For most of the...

In 2013, we had Leonardo DiCaprio snorting cocaine off — well, if you saw “The Wolf of Wall Street” (a totally missable movie, regardless of what the vaunted Academy says), you know where. Cate Blanchett chomped Xanax like they were Tic Tacs, Matthew McConaughey did his yeoman’s share of coke, and “American Hustle” taught us all that drugged-out crime really does pay.But 2014 looks different. A lot different. Perhaps it’s five years of President Obama. The economy is worse, not better. All those 20-somethings whom millions of Americans have been putting through college the past half-decade are moving back home....

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike came to the United States in 2008 seeking political asylum. They fled their German homeland in the face of religious persecution for homeschooling their children. They wanted to live in a country where they could raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs. The Romeikes were initially given asylum, but the Obama administration objected – claiming that German laws that outlaw homeschooling do not constitute persecution. “The goal in Germany is for an open, pluralistic society,” the Justice Department wrote in a legal brief last year. “Teaching tolerance to children of all backgrounds helps to...

In case you missed it last night, Matthew McConaughey won the Oscar for best actor as a result of his work in "Dallas Buyer's Club." To kick off his acceptance speech, McConaughey thanked God for the blessings in his life and then he thanked his family. "First off I want to thank God, because he's the one I look up to, he's graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human kind. He has shown me that it's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late (British...

In an interview with Salon, the president of American Atheists reviewed the decision of the American Conservative Union (ACU) to rescind his organization’s invitation to CPAC. David Silverman charges that the ACU is both “pretending” that “atheists aren’t relevant” and that “Christianity still holds water in American society.”When asked about his reported “pledge” to “attack the very idea that Christianity is an important element of conservatism,” Silverman responded that while “I did say that I was going to attack the idea that Christianity and conservatism were inseparable,” he was not waging “an attack on people of faith.” “I wanted to...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)It took her a few (maddening) days, but Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) did the right thing. She vetoed that horrible bill that would have made it legal to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people by claiming that doing so violated their “sincerely held religious beliefs.” But this sensible and just end isn’t the best part of all this. Never before have I seen such full-throated tri-partisan opposition to a piece of anti-gay legislation. By tri-partisan I mean Democrats, Republicans and corporations. That Democrats were against the measure was a no-brainer. That Republicans and businesses joined them...

Israel’s Knesset on Monday signed into law a bill that legally distinguishes between local Christians and the bulk of the Arabic-speaking population, which is primarily Muslim. The stated goal of the law is to boost Christian employment rights by recognizing them as an independent minority, and thereby granting them separate representation on local councils and employment committees. Israeli Arab (mostly Muslim) members of Knesset blasted the new law, insisting it would undermine Arab identity in the Holy Land. But beyond the increased employment rights, that is precisely the point for many Arabic-speaking Christians in Israel.

The religious freedom legislation that gelatin-spined Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed wasn't controversial until the Left started lying about it.The state-level civil rights bill that Brewer mothballed Feb. 26 was killed by a media-led propaganda campaign that falsely characterized it as "anti-gay."  To no one's surprise, both of the GOP's last two RINO losers, Mitt Romney and John McCain, urged a veto. As Ed Whelan blogs at National Review, There has been a blizzard of hysterical misinformation about Arizona’s SB 1062.  As anyone who takes the trouble to consult the text of the legislation will readily discover, SB 1062 does...

Christian leaders in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, captured by an organization formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda, have signed a submission document this week banning them from practicing Christianity in public in return for protection by their Islamist rulers. The document, dated Sunday and disseminated through Islamist Twitter accounts, states that the Christian community in the province of Raqqa, captured last March by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), was recently given three options: to convert to Islam; to remain Christian but pledge submission to Islam; or to “face the sword.” They opted for the second of...

Catholic actress and star of the upcoming movie, "Mom's Night Out," Patricia Heaton has said that the media often falls victim to pejoratively stereotyping Christians, rather than portraying them as real people. "You know, my older sister is a Dominican nun, and nuns are always portrayed as weird, sexually repressed, old maids who are bitter. Listen, I went to Catholic school, there are a few of those, but the Dominican sisters that I know are lovely, lovely ladies," Heaton told The Blaze. "So I think there has been this idea out there and the media kind of runs with it,...

Returning home from a recent business trip, I flew over the city purported to have more churches per square mile than any other in America. As I gazed down sleepily at the numberless steeples checkering the landscape and dimly pondered their equivocal significance, I was suddenly startled awake by a strange transformation occurring before my incredulous eyes: The spires of the church buildings had morphed into so many cruciform chimneys belching skyward an almost palpable, smoke-like darkness. Only the darkness wasn't smoke. What I saw ascending to heaven from each sanctuary was praise—the grotesquely incongruous praise of Christians worshiping a...

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have allowed businesses that asserted their religious beliefs the right to deny service to gay and lesbian customers. Opinions have been sharply divided over the politically charged measure, with both sides ramping up pressure on Brewer after the state's Republican-led Legislature approved the bill last week. Brewer said she made the decision she knew was right for Arizona.

A jihadist group in Syria said Wednesday that Christians in the city of Raqa will have to pay taxes and hold religious rituals behind closed doors, under a set of rules. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), listed 12 rules which made up an "agreement" with Christians in the northern city to provide "protection." ... Christians must pay a "jiziyeh" tax, as imposed in early Islam on non-Muslim subjects. ... also demands Christians "do not put on display a cross or anything from their book, anywhere on Muslims' path or markets" and that they should not "use...