Free Republic

Bishop Larry Wright had been preaching for about 20 minutes on New Year's Eve when he saw the front door of his North Carolina church swing open. In marched a young disheveled man whom he'd never seen before. In one hand the man had a semi-automatic assault rifle; in the other, a magazine. He wasn't. Wright, 57, is a City Council member. But he was also a career military man a former paratrooper and drill sergeant who retired in 1997 so his training kicked in as he descended the pulpit's three steps: Was there a bullet still in the chamber?...

DENTON (CBSDFW.COM) – Denton Police are investigating a bomb threat to a church. Police say a representative from Denton Bible Church told police Monday a letter came to the church which included a bomb threat for the Christmas Eve service. The Police Department is working with church staff in an effort to identify and locate the person or persons who issued the threats. Pastoral staff and elders of Denton Bible Church advised they will be having the Christmas Eve service. They will also be adding additional security. This investigation is ongoing.

Both people in the picture above are open carrying.A correspondent reports on open carry at a church in Northern Wisconsin.  There is a sign near the entrance that says that legal carry of guns is welcome. Here is the pro-carry sign.  It is a simple 8 1/2 by 11 sheet: Wisconsin is underrated as a pro-Second Amendment state. The state never outlawed open carry, even if the urban areas routinely violated Second Amendment rights of citizens before 2010. Wisconsin passed a strong amendment to the State Constitution in 1998, affirming the right to keep and bear arms for all...

Do you ever wonder if someone might come marching into your church one Sunday morning and start shooting? When I was growing up, I never even imagined that some mentally-imbalanced individual or a group of Islamic terrorists would ever attempt to attack a church service that I was attending, but times have changed. There have been more mass shootings in America during the presidency of Barack Obama than under the previous four presidents combined, and the primary target of the Islamic terrorists in San Bernardino was a Messianic Christian. The shooters in San Bernardino could have very easily decided to...

The force is strong in Berlin. A church in the German capital invited “Star Wars” fans to attend a special service Sunday themed on the sci-fi blockbuster in an attempt to attract more young people into the pews. About 500 people heeded the call and attended the service, some carrying light saber props or wearing Darth Vader masks. It was more than twice as many as usually come to Zion Church on a Sunday. “We were very happy to see so many people in the church today,” said Protestant pastor Lucas Ludewig said after the service. “It’s great that there...

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - A local family has filed a lawsuit to hold a Williamson County church accountable after their 3-year-old was sexually assaulted at the church. According to the lawsuit filed Monday, a teenage volunteer at Fellowship Bible Church of Williamson County raped the child in a church bathroom on August 24, 2014. The family of the 3-year-old had been members of the church for 12 years. They were baptized and married at the church and saw the church as a second home. On the day the sexual assault took place, the parents dropped off their two children at the...

Vandals targeted a Roman Catholic church in Lynwood, painting demonic symbols on the doors, statues and signs. ...cut off the hands of a statue and apparently spray painted "666" on a church sign.

The historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church known as the “Cathedral of the Confederacy” has begun removing all images of the Confederate flag from within its walls. The measure includes six plaques with various versions of the Confederate flag, the church’s coat of arms with the flag on kneelers at the high altar, and bookplates in some books in the church’s library. The coat of arms will be retired, and the church will start to dig deeper in its history, the role of race and slavery in that history, and how parishioners can engage in conversations about race in the Richmond...

I have never been more than an occasional viewer of Fr. Robert Barron's Word on Fire chats. His recent televised interview with EWTN's Catherine Szeltner put paid to whatever interest I had. Newly elevated to an auxiliary bishop in the sprawling L.A. diocese, now-Bp. Barron was in Baltimore for his initial appearance among the USCCB. Ms. Szeltner was on hand to ask how Catholics should respond to the slaughter in Paris. "How should they react?" she wondered, as if Catholics were dependent on guidance in their attitude toward carnage. This was hardly a spontaneous interview. Chairs had been set. The...

If you're not engaged politically, you're not much of a Christian. Standing aloof from the critical issues of our era is hardly Christ-like. And, failing to be engaged, informed, and active is failing to fulfill the law of Christ. These statements may sound intolerant, and certainly insensitive, but Christ wasn't someone who engaged in faux compassion. He loved enough to confront evil, even if it meant bruising ego or offending someone's sense of self or propriety. After all, the "wages of sin is death," and the compassionate don't stand idly by while an ocean of humanity cascades off a precipice....

A woman in Massachusetts is causing a stir on the Internet after a photograph of her wearing a colander on her head in her driver’s license photo have been circulating the web — all in the name of freedom of religion. On Friday, Nov. 13, Lindsay Miller of Lowell, Mass., told the Associated Press that she “absolutely loves the history and the story” of Pastafarians, a religious group that is otherwise known as the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. She opted to wear a strainer on her head as part of her religious observance, she added, much the same...

History hasn't looked kindly on the Catholic Church during WW II. The conventional narrative is not the whole storyAt six in the morning on Sunday, 12 March, a procession snaked toward the bronze doors of St. Peter’s. Swiss Guards led the line, followed by barefoot friars with belts of rope. Pius took his place at the end, borne on a portable throne. Ostrich plumes stirred silently to either side, like quotation marks. Pius entered the basilica to a blare of silver trumpets and a burst of applause. Through pillars of incense he blessed the faces. At the High Altar, attendants...

Europe is the Faith–so Hilaire Belloc declared in 1920. Nearly a century later, the faith burns as bright as it did then, but it is Africa, not Europe, that is carrying the torch of orthodoxy.Such is the unavoidable take-away from last month’s synod on the family. With prominent Western traditionalists like Cardinal Raymond Burke sidelined, the prelates from sub-Saharan Africa became the outspoken voices of orthodoxy.Cardinal Robert Sarah, a Guinea native and the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, made headlines in a floor speech (fittingly, in this context, they are called “interventions”) likening gender ideology and ISIS to...

Limitless and eternity walk in tandem, In other words they both speak I AM, The power and knowledge of all that is or can be, The the sum of which is infinity, to walk and breathe yeah exist in and through all, Understanding that there is no wall, Nothing can stop the synergy, Of The Creator for I AM HE, Job 38 38 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, 2 Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now your loins like a man, and I will demand of you,...

Christianity is under attack from a thousand different directions all at once, and yet many believers have turned their guns on one another. This war among Christians seems to intensify with each passing year, and believers are often fighting for some of the stupidest reasons you can possibly imagine. Meanwhile, people are leaving our churches in droves and church attendance is way down. This is especially true of younger Americans. According to an incredible new report that was just released by the Pew Research Center, only 27 percent of all Millennials (U.S. adults born since 1990) attend religious services on...

A former church secretary was sentenced Wednesday to six years of probation for stealing about $30,000 from the town of Burke church where she worked and had been a longtime member. Her lawyer, Joel Winnig, and Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey had agreed to recommend 90 days in jail as a condition of six years of probation, but Circuit Judge Ellen Berz did not order the jail time.

“Idolatry happens when we take good things and make them ultimate things.”  ~Tim Keller The following comparisons are meant to be provocative and evocative. Even if stark statements like these generalize and absolutize a bit too much, one thing I have learned from reading the reformers is that the discipline of "dialectic," as they called it (roughly, the practice of pitting ideas and statements against each other for the sake of disputation and dialogue), yields a lot of helpful clarifications. So, I encourage you to take these in that light.These observations have overflowed from the boiling pot of my own wayward heart and...

Here we go again: another liberal narrative burned to a crisp. Over a two-week period in October, an arsonist targeted seven churches in the St. Louis area -- including several in Black Lives Matter protest hotspot Ferguson, Mo. The Atlantic magazine, invoking the "long history of terrorism against black churches in America,” lamented that the crime spree had been "slow to get the same attention” in the local and national media as another string of church arsons that occurred earlier this summer. Reminder: Several of those hyped hate crimes against "black churches” had been committed by black suspects; a significant...

Dear Raymond: Thanks for your kind letter. I appreciate your willingness to reach out to me for advice concerning recent developments in your church home. Your question to me was pretty direct. Given your pastor's recent declaration that he intends to grow the church membership by 10,000 in five years, how should you express your concerns that numbers have now replaced the Gospel as the focal point of your church's mission? My answer will also be direct. In my view, you should not bother voicing your concerns to your pastor. You should leave your church immediately. That may sound extreme...

I was on Security detail at my church again.  They keep the temperature cool, so I was wearing a jacket.  One of the difficulties of open carry is that it becomes awkward when you are wearing clothes to keep warm.  So I was carrying casually concealed. Glocks are popular I did not mind the temperature.  I am acclimated to warmer temps; but it is easier to for me to put on a jacket than it is for someone who likes it a bit cooler to remove their skin. I noticed five open carriers, and at least one other concealed...