Free Republic

If ever sober-minded folks thought that they could take refuge in the Christian church from the left-wing juggernaut that is our culture’s zeitgeist, they can think this no more. In the vestibule of the Lutheran church in which my son’s summer camp is held, I noticed that the most recent edition of The Lutheran is devoted to the topic of “economic inequality.” Norma Cook Everist, a professor of church and ministry, quotes Luther who wrote that “the poor” are routinely “defrauded” by the rich. Matters, she declares, are “no less” true “today.” Dividing, as it does, the world into...

My alma mater, The University of Chicago, was recently in the news for an overtly politically correct act for replacing its historic Bond Chapel's pews for Muslims to worship. This act is raising hackles reminiscent of the university's other, recent, tone-deaf decision to demolish the childhood home of former President Ronald Reagan, on its campus, and replace it with a parking lot and a commemorative plaque.The school, founded by the Rockefeller family in the late 19th century as a Baptist-affiliated institution of higher learning, with an English-style undergraduate college, and German-style graduate research school, today positions itself as completely non-denominational...

EPC religious organizations demand attention for other reasons than sheer numbers. First, EPC churches draw people together on a much more regular consistent basis than other types of civic organizations, such as ethnic advocacy groups. Some EPC adherents in our study attend services or Bible studies four times a week throughout the year. Second, an EPC pastor or religious leader is more than a trusted community to their church or temple members.

Photo gallery from the city's third 'Mass Mob' this summer. Nearly 2,000 people packed an historic Catholic Church for a regular Sunday Mass. It's the third time it's happened, with the crowds getting bigger each time. (Detroit Free Press had a great article on it here, but won't let folks post excerpts, so you'll have to read the article at the link: http://www.freep.com/article/20140713/NEWS05/307130141/Detroit-Mass-Mob-Sweetest-Heart )

FONTANA, CA -- Breitbart News has learned that 46 illegal aliens, mostly women and children originally destined for the U.S. Border Patrol station in Murrieta, CA, were bused instead Thursday to the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Fontana, roughly 45 miles north. The 46 are among several hundred Central Americans who were caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and have been transferred to California since. "The faith calls on us to do this," San Bernadino Diocese spokesperson John Andrews told Breitbart News. He said that the aliens would, in less than 24 hours, be driven from the church in...

Unaccompanied children are crossing at an alarming rate, and now many will be heading to Dallas. "We cannot turn our back on these children that are already here," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. Judge Jenkins announced that Dallas County would be the first county in the state to offer housing. Terry Henderson is in charge of disaster relief for the Texas Baptist Men. He's been waiting an announcement like this for more than a month. "I kind of had a heads up no matter where it was going to happen in Texas that we were going to be involved...

The orphaned Florida teen whose impassioned plea for a family to 'love him forever' prompted an outpouring of sympathy from around the country has been removed from his foster home following a physical altercation with another child and the father. After 16 years of floundering in foster care, after taking the pulpit at a St. Petersburg church last September asking someone - anyone - to adopt him, after his story was shared around the world and 10,000 people offered to help or take him home, Davion Only moved to Ohio in March to live with the parents who had promised...

Last night I listened to the new Reasonable Doubts podcast, which included a detailed account of the case of self-righteously Christian former major league baseball player and eventual sex abuse convict, Chad Curtis. The show is a gripping and revolting listen, and as usual the Doubtcasters bring to bear a lot of insight in the process both of telling the story and in analyzing it at the end. Doubtcaster Jeremy Beahan went to college at Cornerstone University where Chad Curtis was a prominent figure, earning his degree to go into high school coaching (where he would commit his sex crimes)....

Ogden • A Plain City man accused of beating a fellow churchgoer last year at a Mormon baby blessing and mission farewell was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail. Wayne Dodge, 52, pleaded guilty last month in Ogden’s 2nd District Court to one count of class B misdemeanor assault. One charge of felony aggravated assault was dismissed, according to court records. Judge W. Brent West ordered Dodge to complete an anger management class as part of a 12-month probation. The judge also ordered Dodge to pay a $550 fine and have no contact with the victim. Dodge, who faced...

Boz Tchividjian Says Churches Cause Damage by Failing to Take Sex Abuse Seriously video only on link

PLAIN CITY, Weber County — A man convicted of assaulting another man over saved seats at an LDS meetinghouse chapel was ordered Wednesday to serve 30 days in jail. Wayne Dodge, 52, pleaded guilty in May to assault, a class B misdemeanor. In exchange for his plea, an additional charge of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, was dropped. On June 30, 2013, Dodge, who regularly attended the Meadows Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Plain City, got into an argument with another family that was visiting. The church that day had a full house during...

Is the Church invisible? Well... WATCH ON YOUTUBE.(Alternate link, via Vimeo.) Follow me on Twitter, Like Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis on Facebook, Add Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis to your Circles on Google+, and Subscribe to my YouTube videos. TRANSCRIPT ——————— Is the Church only invisible? Many believe that "extra Ecclesiam nulla salus", the famous phrase of St. Cyprian in Latin, which translates to "outside the Church, there is no salvation", means that the Church teaches that one must be within what's called the "visible" Church in order to be saved. But this is untrue, of course. St. Augustine...

The nation’s capital is filled with huge, sanctuaries waving rainbow-colored banners outside proclaiming the congregations’ affirmation of homosexual lifestyles. Yet they are, largely, empty on Sunday mornings. On the other hand, new conservative churches-some with liturgy and others with praise bands-are busting at the seams with Millennial attendants. Trying to uncover the reason for this disconnect between affirming liberal churches and welcoming conservative churches, IRD is interviewing pastors of these new conservative churches. Our biggest question raised to each pastor is, “How do you balance traditional Christian teaching with a youth culture?” In case you missed it, there is a...

A Kentucky church that hired a pastor with full knowledge that he's a registered sex offender, is now the scene of an another alleged crime in which the minister is accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy who attended the church. Roy Neal Yoakem, who leads the New Gospel Outreach Church in Scottsville, Kentucky, allegedly raped a 14-year-old boy at the church and police believe that another incident occurred in a nearby town, reported WSMV. "He's a predator and he doesn't need to be on the street. I'm glad we got him," Detective Chad Keen told WBKO. According to Keen,...

A project named "The House of One," looking to create the world's first ever church, mosque and synagogue in Berlin, Germany, where people of different faiths can worship under one roof, is currently raising donations. "Under one roof: one synagogue, one mosque, one church. We want to use these rooms for our own traditions and prayers. And together we want to use the room in the middle for dialogue and discussion and also for people without faith," explained Pastor Gregor Hohberg, a Protestant parish priest, according to a BBC News report. "Berlin is a city where people come together from...

Attacks on two villages leave houses and church destroyed in area previously attacked by Boko Haram. Gunmen have killed at least eight people and burned down a church in attacks on two villages in Nigeria's central Plateau state, a security official has said. Officers said they were investigating who was behind the raids on Wednesday in Nigeria's "Middle Belt", where its largely Muslim north and Christian South meet - a common flashpoint for violence. Boko Haram rebels based in the remote northeast showed their reach in May by setting off bombs in Plateau state's capital Jos, around 450km from their...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 11, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Bishop of Copenhagen, Czeslaw Kozon, says he is worried that the Catholic Church in Denmark may be forced to perform “marriage” ceremonies for homosexual couples in the future. Bishop Czeslaw Kozon of Copenhagen Politicians in Denmark have voted to force churches in the established Evangelical Lutheran Church to perform same-sex “marriage” ceremonies inside their sanctuaries. Since 1997, when same-sex “marriage” was legalized, homosexuals have been able to get “married” in a blessing ceremony after the normal church service, but now the unions will be part of the service as they are...

Does the Bible really teach that premarital sex is wrong? (Of course it does! But with Sola Scriptura, that might be unclear!) http://youtube.com/watch?v=PsHMNPyI7iI(Alternate link, via Vimeo.) “Follow” me on Twitter, “Like” Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis on Facebook, Add Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis to your Circles on Google+, and “Subscribe” to my YouTube videos. TRANSCRIPT ———————- Does the Bible really teach that premarital sex is wrong? Well, as a Catholic, I know that it does. So, I suppose the real question should be: can a Protestant reasonably think that premarital sex is okay? I think that they can. And...

And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.( Deuteronomy 32:20-21)The most devastating calamity to befall the Jewish people, was predicted centuries before it happened by Moses, in the song God told Moses...

We Must Report Sexual Abuse of Children in the Church One of the most damaging forces against the witness of the evangelical Church today is the legal (in certain states) but unbiblical application of priest-penitent privilege, or the right of a minister to refuse to divulge confidential information received from a member of his or her congregation, to cases of sexual abuse of children. Again and again, ministry leaders are choosing to not report cases of sexual abuse of children to the congregation, law enforcement, or other congregations. The Adversary is smiling amidst the devastation. Twisting Scripture to support a...