Free Republic

I think it’s been hard for people to understand how Islam can be a good religion, and yet the Islamists are evil. Those of us who have had experience with Islam understand this, just as we understand the difference between snake handlers and people going to church on Sunday morning.—P. J. O’Rourke In one of the most contemptible acts of the year, the California Legislature passed a House Resolution to create and celebrate “Muslim Appreciation and Awareness Month,” while at the same time passing legislation to strike down religious freedoms for Christians. Yes, this is what California has become under...

A prominent Christian group in Nigeria has accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of being “discriminatory...and divisive” during a recent trip to the West African country. Kerry was in Nigeria on Monday and Tuesday and was hosted by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, the most senior Islamic cleric in the country. The U.S. diplomat also met with 19 governors of Nigeria’s northern states and held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also a Muslim. The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, told reporters on Thursday that Kerry’s visit showed a “lack...

American policy in Syria has been marked by a long list of flip-flops and failures. Remember Obama's "red line" meant to stop the Assad regime from using chemical weapons? That was quickly erased when Congress made it clear there was little public support for using U.S. forces to topple another secular dictator in favor of rebel groups whose radical Islamist views made them no less dangerous to our interests. The "moderate" rebels to whom the U.S. was airdropping weapons proved to be virtually mythical creatures, and those weapons ended up in the hands of al Qaeda's allies. Then we learned...

An Air Force major, who was accused of civil rights violations for having a Bible on his work desk, has been cleared of any wrongdoing, according to military officials at the 310th Space Wing in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Maj. Steve Lewis, a supervisor at the Reserve National Security Space Institute, agreed to voluntarily remove the Bible pending a military review. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation had filed a complaint against Maj. Lewis -- accusing him of "harboring and encouraging a truly abhorrent example of First Amendment civil rights violations." But a public affairs spokesman told me late Tuesday that Maj....

CHICAGO, Illinois, August 19, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — A group of ministers is suing the state of Illinois over a law that makes Christian counseling for minors with same-sex attraction a crime. Pastors Protecting Youth has filed a lawsuit against the state's Youth Mental Health Protection Act, which makes it illegal to help teens overcome unwanted homosexual inclinations. The Illinois law states that "being lesbian, gay, or bisexual is not a disease, disorder, illness, deficiency, or shortcoming.” It bans "conversion therapy" and any counseling that "represents homosexuality as a mental disease, disorder, or illness." The language of the law is in...

"[Love] does not take into account a wrong suffered" (1 Cor. 13:5). If you love someone, you won’t keep a record of their offenses. It is reported that when the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they couldn't find a word in their language for forgiveness. They had to combine a series of shorter words into one compound word: Issumagijoujungnainermik. Although the word appears formidable, its meaning is beautiful, being translated: "Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore." You've probably noticed that unforgiving people usually have good memories. Some can hold a grudge for a lifetime. But love never keeps a record of wrongs committed...

Recently the Christian mega-charity World Vision was exposed and publicly shamed by the Nation of Israel for allowing diversion of donor money to the Hamas terror organization. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted the following report on its website: http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Issues/Pages/Behind-the-Headlines-Hamas-exploitation-of-World-Vision-in-Gaza-to-support-terrorism-4-August-2016.aspx Following is a summary of the report taken from an article by Caroline Kendal: “60% of World Vision’s annual budget for the Gaza Strip was diverted to Hamas. 40% of funds for civilian projects were given in cash to Hamas combat units. Funds for the needy in Gaza were diverted to Hamas for the construction of terror tunnels and...

"White Christian America is dying," proclaims the headline on a Monkey Cage blogpost by the perceptive political scientist John Sides. Like many headlines, it's an exaggeration of the thrust of the article that follows, which is an interview with Robert Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute, on his new book The End of White Christian America, based on PRRI and other research on religious beliefs and practices of Americans. Sides's questions and Jones's answers are pretty much neutral in tone, but many readers will detect a tone of triumphalism in the book's title and in the thrust of...

The late, great Father Ted Hesburgh used to tell incoming students, "Come to Notre Dame and lose your faith." Many would be confused by that line, given that Notre Dame is a Catholic university, but the point Father Ted was making was that faith is more than a list of ideas or concepts and that it needs to be challenged by rigorous thinking and translated into action. All talk and no action does not make for a faithful Christian, and that's why Donald Trump's condescending words to an evangelical audience in Orlando took my breath away.

In his speech Monday on national security and terrorism, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke out against the atrocities committed by ISIS toward Christians. Trump said: Only days ago, an ISIS killer invaded a Christian church in Normandy France, forced an 85-year-old priest to his knees, and slit his throat before his congregation.

Superstar swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, nearly committed suicide two years ago. His athletic prowess and success had brought him so much attention over the last decade that sports media nearly worshiped him as a kind of god, but Phelps was struggling to find peace in his heart. He felt empty inside and sought to fill his pain with drugs and alcohol, which sent him into a downward spiral. In 2009 he was suspended from swimming for three months after a photograph of him using a bong went viral, but that didn’t stop him...

(CNSNews.com) – In an August 10 letter to ABC, CBS, and NBC, more than 30 conservative leaders called on the networks, and the media overall, to seriously and aggressively cover the genocide of Christians in the Middle East and Africa, “and continue to do so until the civilized world puts an end to this evil.” “Christianity is on the verge of being wiped out in the Middle East,” the letter reads. “Ancient communities that have existed since the time of the apostles are being systematically eliminated. In Iraq alone, the number of Christians has plunged from one million to under...

Bundestag member Erika Steinbach and Iranian-born pastor Mahin Mousapour called for much stronger sanctions for Muslims who abuse Christians in Germany at a press conference on Monday. Highlighting the fact Christians suffer violence, harassment, and death threats in migrant lodgings, Ms. Mousapour criticised Germany for granting Islam “too much respect”. Declaring anti-Christian hate attacks an affront to German values, politician Erika Steinbach advocated the government deport migrants who insult or attack Christians. At the press conference Ms. Mousapour, who converted to Christianity more than 25 years ago, reported that Christians face various forms of persecution in migrant housing. Ms Mousapour...

Abortion is not an often-discussed issue in many religious services in America, but when it is, most clergy defend unborn babies’ right to life, a new survey found. The Pew Research Center released a new poll on Monday that examined how often Americans hear about political issues from the pulpit. Abortion was third on the list, with religious liberty and homosexuality ranking first and second. Other issues included immigration, the environment and poverty. According to the poll, 29 percent said their clergy member spoke out about abortion during a service. Most said their clergy spoke out against abortion (22 percent),...

A senior Syrian priest accused Western countries of abandoning their principles and allowing Islamist extremists to massacre Christians in the Middle East because they are blinded by their lust for oil, according to the Christian media outlet Crossmap. Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan of the Syriac Catholic Church of Antioch made the remarks to a meeting of the Knights of Columbus in Toronto. "We have to understand that totalitarianism based on Islamic creed is the worst among all systems of government. Yes, my friends, the very survival of Christians in the cradle of Christianity is quite in danger," the patriarch...

A leading psychiatrist has said that after working in the field for over two decades, he believes demon possession is real. Dr. Richard Gallagher, a professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College, says his opinion differs from most other professionals in the field. Gallagher has seen over one hundred people who appeared to have paranormal abilities. He deemed that most of these individuals suffered from mental illness. Still, he claims to have also seen the real thing. "For the past two-and-a-half decades and over several hundred consultations, I've helped clergy from multiple denominations and faiths to filter episodes...

Pope Francis' belief that Islam is a religion of peace was expressly contradicted by Boko Haram leader Abu Masab Al-Barnawi this week in an interview published in Al-Naba Newspaper. The Islamic terrorist vowed "to kill every Christian and blow up every church until all are for Islam in Nigeria and the world." Al-Barnawi cited Christian charities as "the aggressors in this battle for men's souls. They prey upon the victims of calamities, seducing them with food, shelter, and medical supplies. They insidiously tempt them with kindness and mercy to turn them away from Allah's command to submit to Islam and...

ROME (RNS) Despite intense bombing and severe food shortages, several Carmelite nuns are refusing to abandon the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo and have appealed for urgent aid. “The bombs are falling all around us, but we are not going to leave the people in their suffering,” said Sister Anne-Francoise, a French nun from a community of Discalced Carmelites in Aleppo. “The people here are suffering and dying.” The nun’s comments came in a statement released on Thursday (Aug. 4) by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. ACN has been trying to draw attention to the plight...

West's foundational faith, and the basis of their moral law the Ten Commandments. Islam's moral law is Sharia. And ne'er the twain shall meet The media and effete powers-that-be have been twisting themselves into Halal pretzels Islamsplainin’, rationalizing how a given Muslim terrorist attack isn’t really “Islamic” or isn’t significant. These contortions can become quite ridiculous, such as suggesting that recent Allahu Akbar-shouting Munich shooter Ali Sonboly might somehow have had “right-wing” motives because, among his violent passions, was an interest in Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik. A more common (un)intellectual contortion is the minimizing tactic of claiming, as is...

At a time when Muslims all around the world are terrorizing and slaughtering non-Muslims in the name of Islam, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, continues trying to distance Islam from violence. Last Sunday a journalist asked him about the recent and “barbarous assassination of Fr. Jacques Hamel” in France, and how the priest was clearly “killed in the name of Islam.”