Free Republic

Child welfare services in Norway have reportedly removed five Christian children from their parents' home and placed them into foster care after the parents were accused of radicalizing and indoctrinating their children with Christianity. According to the British-based Christian Institute, Norway's child protection services, known as the Barnevernet, seized the three sons and two daughters of Ruth and Marius Bodnariu in mid-November. Although the family wasn't quite sure at the time why their children were being taken away from them, their lawyer discovered that the parents were being charged with Christian indoctrination. The family's ordeal began on Nov. 16 when...

FEAR: Jihadis are targeting Christians in Sweden -- like they did in Iraq The terror group's logo was daubed on the wall of a restaurant in Gothenburg, Sweden. Chilling messages such as "convert or die" and "the caliphate is here" were also found covering the outside of Markus Samuelsson's bakery. "I felt a sudden chill down my spine. It's terribly painful, we feel threatened," Samuelsson said. The Arabic letter for "N" -- which has been used to identify Christians and drive them out of their homes by ISIS fighters -- was also painted on the restaurant. Gothenburg is a hotbed...

Whether real or perceived, the stigma of unplanned pregnancy and abortion is an important issue for pro-lifers to address, especially in Christian churches, according to a new study. A report by LifeWay Research found that many women facing unplanned pregnancies go silently from the church pew to the abortion clinic because they are afraid of being judged rather than helped. “More than 4 in 10 women who have had an abortion were churchgoers when they ended a pregnancy,” according to the study, Baptist Press reports. Only 7 percent discussed their abortion decision with someone at church; and 76 percent said...

We told you the other day that concerned citizens have stepped forward in Redlands, CA to question their local elected government about any plans they might have heard about to resettle refugees in Redlands.  Of special concern are the Syrian Muslims now expected to arrive in large numbers in the coming months.This is new…. CAIR is the Council on American Islamic Relations and is active (and makes news) in demanding rights for Muslims in America.  However, it is only recently that they have become publicly involved in the Refugee Admissions Program of the UN/US State Department as we told you about...

In a high-level meeting on religious persecution in Brussels, the President of the European Parliament (EP) said that Europe cannot afford to continue ignoring the fate of Christians, who are "clearly the most persecuted group" in the world. In Wednesday's meeting, EP President Martin Schulz said that the persecution of Christians is "undervalued" and does not receive enough attention, which has also meant that it "hasn't been properly addressed." Schulz's concerns were echoed by EP Vice President Antonio Tajani, who warned that Europe sometimes "falls into the temptation of thinking we can ignore this task," referring to the protection Christians...

I have literally been telling people I talk to this morning to "...watch out for Christians" when they go about their daily tasks. Some have to think for a few seconds before laughing out loud. No record exists of a group of 2-3 actually faithful church-going people banding together and conspiring to murder people they don't even know. Now, if you see a muslim man and his wife in public with her head covered, are you comfortable, or nervous. Tell the truth...

In the wake of the Colorado Springs shooting, I read a great deal about so-called Christian terrorism from liberals. I don't think they've thought this through. We've spent years hearing how associating Islam with terrorism is outrageous and bigoted. President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton have all made the case that Islamic terrorism has "nothing whatsoever" -- Clinton's words -- to do with Islam. President Obama insists the Islamic State "is not Islamic." Even phrases such as "Muslim terrorism" are forbidden because they imply that Islam itself has something to do with terrorism. Better to talk...

While certain Republican presidential candidates have drawn the ire of reporters and evoked comparisons to the Holocaust for daring to discuss a national registry for Muslims, approximately one out of four Democrats support forcing Jews and Christians to register with the government. A recent YouGov poll asked 1,000 individuals if they would support a national registry requiring members of various groups to provide the government with their home addresses. The poll found 27 percent of self-identified Democrats either “strongly support” (18 percent) or “somewhat support“ (9 percent) a national registry for Jews. Democratic support for a national registry for Jews...

In a piece posted on BarbWire today, conservative columnist Paul Hair warns that "leftists" will soon "create and fund phony Christian terrorist groups so they can further their War on Christianity." As Hair explains, liberals are out to utterly destroy Christianity and since "the wickedness of leftists is now of comic-book-villain proportions," it is only a matter of time before they start carrying out false flag terrorist attacks that they can blame on Christians as a justification for wiping them out: And this is why society must now ask: Will leftists next create “Christian terrorist” groups? Leftists organizing and funding...

Which we don't yet know, but one of his victims was a pro-life Christian police officer Let’s say nothing else before we say this: We don’t know why Robert Lewis Dear shot up a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs on Friday, but it doesn’t matter why he did it. It’s a horrible, detestable act and everyone - regardless of their position on abortion or anything else - should condemn it. And almost all will. I believe Planned Parenthood is a monstrous organization, but those on “my side” of the issue simply cannot and must not resort to violence - especially...

A Syrian Catholic Church leader recently condemned both U.S. foreign policy and Western media for ignoring Christian persecution and worsening the conflict in Iraq and Syria. "Innocent people, especially Christians, have no support. The West has betrayed us," Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan told Egyptian Catholic magazine Le Messager last week.

Conservative Christians in America love Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. While other Republican presidential candidates, namely Ben Carson and Mike Huckabee, are also extremely popular with many Christians, particularly evangelicals, Cruz continues to pull in more and more of the conservative Christian vote. For the third year in the row, Cruz won the Values Voter Summit Presidential Straw Poll, "the largest gathering of evangelical voters from across the country." His national poll numbers among Christians continue to climb, and, most importantly, he is increasingly winning the hearts and minds of the conservative Christian leadership. So why do Christians gravitate toward Cruz?...

How Should We Then Live

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be endorsed Monday by a group of 100 African-American pastors and religious leaders after a private meeting at Trump Tower in New York. "I was looking for some subtle hints of racism," Darrell Scott, senior pastor of the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland, told the Times. He said he had met Trump personally and was convinced that he was best suited for the White House. "I didn't see it at all." Scott, a registered Democrat who voted for President Barack Obama, helped organize Monday's meeting, the Times reports. He has been helping to...

(AT THE SITE ARE THE FAITH-FRIENDLY BUSINESSES) It's time for a #ChristmasBUYcott! As Faith Driven Consumers, we will spend an incredible $30 billion over the holidays. Because major brands depend on our dollars to meet their goals for the year, collectively we have tremendous power and influence. When consumers like you and me agree to shop only with the companies that are more compatible with Faith Driven Consumers, we'll change the way brands treat us. That's why-right now-we're calling for a #ChristmasBUYcott! This is your chance to live out your faith by doing what you already do when it comes...

During the terrorist attack on a hotel in Mali last Friday, there were reports that hostages who could recite the Muslim profession of faith were set free; those who could not were killed. That the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, the Taliban or other fanatical Islamist sects measure the worth of a human life according to his or her religious belief is barbaric. Yet the impulse among American politicians like Jeb Bush and Senator Ted Cruz and Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, to offer refuge only to Christians fleeing war is as appalling.

The religious right may be yesterday’s news, but its signal accomplishment, the white evangelical voting bloc, remains the Republican Party’s most important constituency. And it’s moving toward Ted Cruz. The latest numbers from Iowa show Cruz neck and neck with Donald Trump thanks to evangelical support. According to Quinnipiac, it’s now Trump at 25 percent, Cruz at 23 percent, and Ben Carson slipping to 18 percent among all likely Republican caucus-goers. White evangelicals, who make up 60 percent of them, now favor Cruz over Carson, 27 percent to 24 percent, with Trump at 20 percent. And as white evangelicals in...

Well, it’s that time again – time to get out the Christmas list and start hitting the stores. The problem is – what stores? For any Christian who wants to spend hard-earned dollars with family-friendly, Christian-affirming retailers, restaurants and service providers, the list is growing shorter all the time. I stopped shopping at Macy’s in 2011 after learning about the retailer’s grossly unjust policy against women. Macy’s management said “yes” to a transsexual young man’s demand to change in the women’s dressing room and rejected a Christian employee’s attempt to block his inappropriate access, even firing her because of her...

Obama recently lashed out against the idea of giving preference to Christian refugees, describing it as "shameful:": "That's not American. That's not who we are. We don't have religious tests to our compassion," loftily added the American president.

Many Christians are torn between a desire to help those in need and a desire to keep our nation secure. Perhaps these reflections will prove helpful as we seek to navigate a difficult and divisive issue. 1) The government should major on security; the Church should major on compassion. I don't mean that the government should be harsh or that the Church should be foolish, but it is not the primary job of the government to care for the needs of refugees and it is not the primary job of the Church to provide national security. The government should do...