Free Republic

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's administration recently seized six churches as state property in the volatile southeastern part of Turkey. As World Watch Monitor reports: 'After 10 months of urban conflict in Turkey’s war-torn southeast, the government has expropriated huge sections of property, apparently to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir. 'But to the dismay of the city’s handful of Christian congregations, this includes all its Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches. Unlike the state-funded mosques, Turkey’s ancient church buildings – some of which pre-date Islam – have been managed, historically, by church foundations.' Because of this...

Brother Phil delivered the pre-race invocation on April 9th at the Texas Motor Speedway’s Duck Commander 500. And it was a mighty fine invocation, indeed. “I pray Father that we put a Jesus-Man in the White House,” he prayed. “Help us do that and help us all to repent, to do what is right, to love you more and to love each other. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.”

PJTN (Proclaiming Justice to the Nations), CUFI (Christians United for Israel) and Tennessee’s state legislators like Judd Matheny and Sheila Butt, pass strong pro-Israel resolutions. Meanwhile, political leftists seem to dominate the organized Jewish community in Nashville, Tennessee. Despite over 100 knife attacks on Jews in Israel, no matter how many calls for another intifada, no matter how many Jewish children are murdered while sleeping in their beds, politically left American Jews and their leadership, stand with the jihadist murderers. The rabbis in Nashville even have a slogan that justifies this resolve – “We may be opponents, we need not...

An elderly Christian woman has been caned in a conservative Indonesian province for selling alcohol, the first time someone from outside the Islamic faith has been punished there under strict religious laws.

Certain texts of the Bible may have been written earlier than previously believed, according to a new research based on the handwriting analysis of ancient inscriptions. It is dated to be at least 600 B.C. and the presumption is that literacy was prevalent and the texts were composed in the kingdom of Judah, a city with biblical reverence, according to researchers from the Tel Aviv University. They suggest that the educational infrastructure to support Bible writing presumably existed at that time.

A group of Christians in Iraq have formed their own militia to protect people from the so-called Islamic State group. The leader of the Babylon Brigade says they were left with no choice but to take up arms when IS fighters targeted Christians. There's a striking picture on the wall. It shows an untarmacked road, scorched by sunlight, leading to a small village with a mountain range behind it. And all along the side of the road there are crosses every 100m - taller even than lamp posts. "Christian village," a guard mumbles. "Near Mosul." We are in the Baghdad...

Al Qaryatayn (Syria), April 11, Interfax - The Russian Defense Ministry reports it has realized a unique operation on liberating Syrian town Al Qaryatayn populated by Christians from terrorist band Islamic State (banned in Russia). "From April 1 to April 3, Syrian governmental troops supported by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces carried out a unique operation on liberating Al Qaryatayn from ISIL militants," the Russian Defense Ministry official major general Igor Konashenkov said. He told that at the first stage divisions of the Syrian Army blocked all the roads leading to the town, then the attack started. The operation is...

In the city of angels a day for praise, worship, asking forgiveness and declaration of the Lord's goodness to America and the nations...in the way of thy will be done on earth (now, today)as it is in heaven. A coliseum of believers from many nations joining in spiritual warfare for good. 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM Pacific Time.

An Indiana state trooper is off the force after offering people he pulled over tips on their faith. Brian Hamilton, a 14-year veteran of the state' police force, was fired Thursday after a second public complaint that he was preaching while on duty. Hamilton asked a driver he pulled over if she had “been saved” and invited her to his church, even giving her directions. The second infraction came in January, and the motorist filed suit with the American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday. “Ms. Pyle was extremely uncomfortable with these questions,” the lawsuit says, adding the plaintiff felt intimidated by...

The Knights of Columbus, along with In Defense of Christians, released a comprehensive report Thursday documenting eyewitness accounts of Christians who have been killed, kidnapped, raped, or sold into slavery at the hands of ISIS. The report was presented to the State Department Wednesday. Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson said at a National Press Club briefing that the evidence contained in the report as well as other evidence “fully support and, I suggest to you, compel the conclusion that a reasonable grounds exist to believe the crime of genocide has been committed against Christians in the region.”

f you gave me a plane ticket and a visa to Germany, I’d go to the airport now.” Sitting in a dimly lit room crowded with fellow Christian refugees, Stephanos Giorgis could be forgiven for wanting a future outside the Middle East. This young man had escaped from his home town of Rableh in western Syria after a ransom was paid following his abduction by an Islamist group. The extremists had threatened to kill him and a number of others after they refused to abandon their faith. Almost all who made up Rableh’s large Christian community had fled for their...

The Tennessee House passed a bill on Wednesday allowing mental health counselors to refuse service to patients on religious grounds, the latest in a list of U.S. state measures that gay rights activists have criticized as discriminating against the LGBT community. A vote by the state House of Representatives protects therapists and counselors from civil lawsuits and criminal action if they deny services to clients whose religious beliefs conflict with their own. The bill passed by a 68-22 vote and sent to Gov. Bill Haslam for his signature. The state Senate passed the bill earlier this year. Supporters of the...

This current impasse over the "Bathroom Law" provides North Carolina with a unique opportunity to be a leader not only in standing up to the radical leftist agenda and the bullying of the gay lobby, but also in advancing liberty Recently, the state of North Carolina has found itself squarely in the cross hairs of the radical gay lobby and its social justice warrior (SJW) allies in business. The reason is a new law, passed by wide margins in both houses of the legislature and signed by Governor McCrory, which prevents local governments from passing ordinances allowing, among other things,...

ATLANTA — The Rev. Wayne Cofield says he’ll sit in a jail cell before he presides over a same-sex wedding. He would rather have the state’s legal protection in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that gays and lesbians can marry. But, he said, he will follow his convictions. “I would never — no matter what it cost — perform a same-sex marriage. Never,” said Cofield, pastor at Whitfield Baptist Church in Dalton. While it seems unlikely that Cofield will end up in handcuffs — or that a gay couple would ask him to officiate at their wedding —...

The Christian owners of an Illinois wedding venue have vowed that they will never host same-sex wedding ceremonies at their family-run bed and breakfast even after they were forced to pay over $80,000 in fines. Jim and Beth Walder, the owners of Timber Creek Bed & Breakfast in Paxton, Illinois, were fined by the state's Human Rights Commission on Tuesday for declining to host the wedding of Todd and Mark Wathen in 2011. After the Wathens reached out to Timber Creek to express interest in having their wedding there, Jim Walder responded with an email saying that they could not...

The motive behind the Islamic State prohibition of Christians leaving its stronghold of Raqqa, Syria, has now come to light: the Christians will be used as hostages and human shields in the event of a Russian-Syrian invasion of the Islamic capital. Breitbart News reported Thursday that leaders of the so-called Islamic caliphate in Syria had issued orders forbidding Christians from leaving their capital city of Raqqa, a decree that seemed counter-intuitive given the jihadists’ prior record of religious cleansing of Christians from the area.

Chris Pratt is more than a guardian of the galaxy, he’s also one of his faith. Pratt, 36, spent Easter building a simple yet enormous cross. He documented the journey of the giant structure on his Instagram. First, he picked the perfect locale. And a photo of his finger pointing down to the site, from the sky, has the look of the hand of God.

Two weeks ago the State Department officially declared the extinction of Christians and other minority religious groups by ISIS a genocide. Unfortunately, despite making the declaration Secretary of State John Kerry also announced the Obama administration wouldn't be changing military strategy in Iraq and Syria in order to stop it. Now, adding horror the the ongoing nightmare for Christians trapped in the region, ISIS is holding at least 43 Christian families hostage in Raqqa and will not allow them to leave.

The murders of four translators working to bring the Bible to obscure languages in the Middle East earlier this month won't stop the charity behind the effort from its work, officials said. The four unidentified translators, who worked secretly for Wycliffe Associates, a Florida non-profit dedicated to bringing the gospel to hundreds of obscure languages, were killed by suspected Islamist militants at an undisclosed location,Wycliffe officials said in a statement. “They shot and destroyed all the equipment in the office,” read the statement. “The invaders burned all the books and other translation materials in the office." The work is so...

Six Pakistanis baptized by members of Churches of Christ in December are among the dead after an Easter evening bombing in Lahore, ministers reported. In addition, 17 members of Churches of Christ were hospitalized after the suicide blast at Lahore's Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, one of the largest parks in the city of 5.1 million souls, minister Eric Masih said. Four of the church members died immediately in the blast, which killed at least 72 people, Masih said. Another minister, Asher Kaleem, told The Christian Chronicle today that two additional church members, also baptized Dec. 3, died in the hospital. "The explosion...