Free Republic

This week, our beloved leader, no doubt in an effort to hide from the realities of his race-baiting policies, went to Alaska to lecture us about global warming…again. Carrying on with his usual doomsday rhetoric, President Obama warned of rising seas, more intense storms, abandoned towns, and climate refugees spread across the globe. Never mind that there has been no warming for the last nineteen years. That didn’t stop the president from making his trip as dramatic as possible as he climbed Exit Glacier in an effort to draw attention to the melting ice. At least the ice is melting...

Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, city officials have laid down the law to Christian pastors within their community, telling them bluntly via an ordinance that if they refuse to marry homosexuals, they will face jail time and fines. The dictate comes on the heels of a legal battle with Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post wedding chapel in the city, but who oppose gay marriage, The Daily Caller reported.

Please excuse the provocative title, and do not misunderstand. Obviously, neither the Pope nor anyone else can change Church doctrine normatively. That is, Church doctrine remains true and unchangeable whatever people--without or within the Church--believe or say. In the same way the teachings of Christ or the Commandments themselves remain true and unchanging. What the Pope can do, however, is to say that Church doctrine has changed or, more to the point, imply by his words or actions that it has. Or he can say or imply that Church doctrine wasn't what most people--including most people in the Church itself...

On a sunny morning earlier this year, a camera crew entered a well-appointed apartment just outside the 9th-century gates of Vatican City. Pristinely dressed in the black robes and scarlet sash of the princes of the Roman Catholic Church, the Wisconsin-born Cardinal Raymond Burke sat in his elaborately upholstered armchair and appeared to issue a warning to Pope Francis. A staunch conservative and Vatican bureaucrat, Burke had been demoted by the pope a few months earlier, but it did not take the fight out of him. Francis had been backing a more inclusive era, giving space to progressive voices on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aPXNsGw3ps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKu1K-O_TLI

Over the past few years as a minister there has been a growing narrative that, for many reasons, I haven’t been able to escape. It would seem that the statistics and facts all say that “church” is in decline. Don’t take my word for it either… there are plenty of other Huffington Post authors chiming in about this apparent trend too. Some say that it’s all about the lack of religion in our schools, laws and culture as if the country is devolving. Some say that the “immediacy” of God, also described as an apocalyptic culture, has been lost. You...

Dear Mr. Trump, Like millions of Americans, I am intrigued with your meteoric rise to the top of the polls. You have truly captured the imagination of this nation. Because I would love to see you succeed, I’ve got some unsolicited advice for you. And you’re going to love this. It’s free! If you’ll allow me to introduce myself, I’m a Jewish follower of Jesus (just like Peter and Paul and John and the rest of the apostles), an author, professor, minister, and national talk radio host. My wife, Nancy, and I have been married for almost 40 years, and...

On Sunday two criminals entered St. Cecilia’s Catholic Cathedral in Omaha. One of the men snatched the purse from a 76 year-old woman. The other man slugged her in the side of her head. The attack tool place in the back of a cathedral! snip UPDATE: One suspect was arrested today.

BAINBRIDGE, GA (WATE) – A 92-year-old woman is no longer allowed to worship at the church where she was a member for more than 50 years because she was not tithing. Josephine King said that was the reason she was kicked out of Bainbridge’s First African Baptist Church. Her family members said they hope the situation will bring change to churches across the nation. “Josephine King is no longer considered a member of the First African Baptist Church of Bainbridge, Georgia,” read Gerald Simmons, as he skimmed over the letter addressed to his aunt. The letter, signed by Senior Pastor...

August 16, 2015 FoxNews.com Praise the Lord . . . and pass the ammunition. An Alabama church has opened a gun range behind its sanctuary as an extension of its fellowship, WIAT reports. The red-clay dirt range behind the Rocky Mount United Methodist Church in Jemison began as an overgrown gully once filled with snakes and vermin, according to the station, and has turned into a ministry that includes guns, bullets and the Bible. Mount Union’s pastor, Phillip Guin, says the idea of a gun range came up because “we had quite a number of church members, some elderly ladies,...

Rocky Mount United Methodist Church decided what to do with the gully behind their church–they built a gun range and launched a gun range ministry “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

SYDNEY -- The abuse was meticulously catalogued. From 1950 to 2014, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society amassed some 5,000 files detailing sexual abuse of Australian children by 1,006 of its members, who believe only they -- the Jehovah's Witnesses -- proclaim the truth about God. Young girls were assaulted by neighbors. Teenagers were raped by their fathers. Victims were forced to pray with their abusers. When the children reached out for help, the church's obsession with secrecy and hostility to outsiders kicked in. Victims, ordered to keep quiet, were forced to confront their abusers in person. All complaints --...

On August 9, 2015 Planned Parenthood abortionist Savita Ginde was greeted by 50 members of Denver Bible Church outside her Colorado home condemning her practice of abortion and participating in a gruesome baby parts operation. Vice President and Medical Director, Dr. Savita Ginde does abortions at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and was recently exposed negotiating a fetal body parts deal with “buyers” from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). The group of protesters exposing Ginde’s horrific practices held a large sign which read, “Savita turn state’s evidence.” And “Planned Parenthood sells baby parts.” According to Leslie Hanks who...

TALLLAHASSEE – In what could become a rallying point for social conservatives next year, state Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, filed legislation Monday to prevent clergy members and churches from being sued because they refuse to preside over same-sex marriages. He filed HB 43 in reaction to this summer's landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling same-sex marriage legal throughout the country. "We think that this is something that people on all sides of the debate should at least be able to agree on is that pastors and religious practitioners should never be compelled to perform a ceremony that violates their sincerely...

As this article explains: "Though the New Evangelization has been a major effort in the Catholic Church for over forty years, it has failed to stem the disastrous losses of the faithful in the U.S. The New Evangelization is faltering: since 2000, 14 million Catholics have left the faith, parish religious education participation of children has dropped by 24%, Catholic school attendance has dropped by 19%, baptisms of infants has dropped by 28%, baptism of adults has dropped by 31% and sacramental Catholic marriages have dropped by 41%.[1] Something is desperately wrong with the Church’s approach to the New Evangelization....

On August 5, German Catholic author Mathias von Gersdorff posted some important information about an upcoming event in Rome on his own website: “In the meantime, the liberal camp prepares another conference in Rome, to be held on 10-12 September 2015, and which is to deal with the themes of the Family Synod of this Fall.” And he continues: However, this time, it is not organized by the Germans, the Swiss, and the French. They had already convoked and hosted a similar conference at the end of May 2015, which had caused noticeable irritations. One even considered it to be...

In June, Pope Francis released his first independent encyclical. It merely served to highlight the indifference to the plight of persecuted Christians around the world. The Pope warned about issues dealing with the environment, but he did not once mention the plight of persecuted Christians — even though he is well acquainted with it, and even though previous popes mentioned it when Christians were experiencing far less persecution than they are today. Encyclicals are formal treatises written by popes and sent to bishops around the world. In turn, bishops are meant to disseminate the encyclical’s ideas to all the priests...

I can't post this story direct because of copyright issues but the "Las Cruces Sun-News" is reporting TWO EXPLOSIONS NEAR CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH AND HOLY CROSS CATHOLIC CHURCH IN LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO THIS MORNING. THE EXPLOSION CALLS CAME IN BETWEEN 8 AND 9AM LOCAL TIME. NO APPARENT INJURIES WITH A POLICE SPOKESMAN SAYING THE EXPLOSIONS INVOLVED A LOT OF SHREDDED PAPER APPARENTLY FIREWORKS. SERVICES WERE GOING ON AT BOTH CHURCHES AT THE TIME OF EXPLOSIONS. CHURCHGOERS WERE EVACUATED AND TOLD NOT TO USE THEIR CARS TO LEAVE.......

If the Boy Scouts of America approve gay adult leaders, as they are expected to do late Monday (July 27), does that mean troops based at churches may end up in court if they ban gay Scoutmasters? Scout officials predicted that would be “unlikely” in a document they released earlier this month to BSA members and leaders. “We live in a litigious society, and frivolous lawsuits are threatened and filed every day,” reads the 14-page memo from the Boys Scouts’ law firm, Hughes Hubbard & Reed. “However, any lawsuit challenging the religious requirements in a Scouting unit chartered by a...

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) have confirmed that they have filed a petition to local politicians in St Petersburg to discuss the return of St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is currently an historical monument and a museum. Russian media sources report that the news of the proposal has generated heated discussion in Russian society. Maxim Reznik, the deputy of the St. Petersburg legislative, and who also chairs the legislature’s commission for culture, confirmed on Thursday that he had received information on a petition filed by Metropolitan Barsanuphius, the ruling hierarch of the diocese for the return of the city’s landmark cathedral....