Free Republic

Southern Baptist churches in the United States will no longer display the Confederate battle flag.

Statement from Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted and Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo A. Nevares Regarding the Orlando Mass Shootings PHOENIX — We join the Holy Father in encouraging the faithful to pray for the victims, families and first responders of those involved in the tragic events of the Orlando mass shootings.We express our profound condolences for the victims of this senseless act of terror, and support the statements made by Pope Francis, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville and the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Orlando Bishop John G. Noonan, shared below:A statement from Archbishop Joseph E....

One year, that seems as if it passed in the blink of an eye. It can rush by in the day-to-day chaos that all too often defines our busy lives. One year can slip by unnoticed, as imperceptible as the beating of a heart, the flutter of a loved one’s memory through the mind. I know this because I have lived it. For me, it seems baffling, almost impossible to consider that it was a full year ago this week that nine innocent lives were cut down by a savage murderer inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South...

An angry war of words has erupted between Greece and Turkey after Turkish authorities permitted a daily Koran reading to be broadcast from Turkey’s famous Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine cathedral. Turkish national broadcaster TRT Diyanet will broadcast the sahur or Islamic predawn meal along with daily readings from the Koran during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which began Monday. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the move in a statement calling it “bigotry” and “not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies.”

This is the last in a series of essays on the duty of Christians in civic affairs, adapted from Kevin Kookogey’s weekly radio address and podcasts at www.advancingchurch.com 8. Which responsibilities of providing help to our citizens are the government's and which belong to the Church? The duty of government is plainly described in our founding documents. The Declaration of Independence establishes the philosophical and moral basis for our system of government, famously asserting that governments are instituted among men to secure their rights, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. The Constitution then enumerates those powers,...

Expecting the peaceful pastor to cave, they were shocked and enraged when he not only refused to remove it, but offered the perfect response. Belmont Drive Missionary Baptist Church in Oregon has caused a disturbing stir in self-important hypocrites who believe that Islam is a supreme religion that should never be criticized. The church in Hood River has caused the thought police to sound the alarm on bigotry, proving their own intolerance. WSBT rushed to the scene of a political correctness crime, in which the Baptist church displayed a message on their sign declaring, “Wake up Christians. Allah is not...

Last February, archaeologists unearthed a unique rock-carved underground church in Nevsehir, in the central Turkish region of Cappadocia. The church was decorated with never before seen frescoes depicting Jesus’ Ascension, the Final Judgement, Jesus feeding the multitudes, and portraits of saints and prophets.The discovery, made during excavations and cleaning operations in an underground city recently uncovered as part of an urban project in Nevsehir, is located within a castle that might date back to the fifth century. Authorities expect it will make Cappadocia an even more important pilgrimage center for Orthodox Christians. Semih İstanbulluoğlu, the archaeologist who heads the works for...

KERSHAW COUNTY, SC An Elgin woman was arrested Monday after deputies say she admitted to stealing more than $97,000 in church funds and using the money to buy drugs on the streets of Columbia. Debora Barfield, 53, was charged with breach of trust with fraudulent intent and forgery, according to a news release. Barfield served as church secretary for St. John’s United Methodist Church in Lugoff, and oversaw church funds. Investigators determined Barfield forged about 145 checks to steal the money. “Drug abuse makes no distinction on who it destroys – black, white, rich, poor, young or old,” Kershaw County...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – The pastor of a church in southeast Albuquerque says someone broke in, robbed and vandalized the building. It happened at the Sandia Church of the Nazarene near Central and Wyoming between Friday night and early Saturday morning. The church says the burglars broke doors and equipment, even making off with several laptops.

FOLEY, AL- Calvary Baptist Church on West Magnolia Avenue was hit by thieves last week. The burglars broke into the church office, damaged an A/C unit, stole $135 from the safe, took a laptop and destroyed a desktop computer. Pastor John Pratt documented the damage on his smart phone. Not only did the thieves steal from a house of worship, they also vandalized it. The crooks grabbed fire extinguishers off the walls and sprayed the chemicals all over the building, including inside the church nursery.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A central Arkansas church was targeted yet again by vandals. The vandalism took place at Christ Little Rock on South Hughes Street. The graffiti was spray painted on the church's electronic sign. This isn't the first time the church has been tagged. Pastor Dan Hauser says it happens every few months. In fact, it happened just last week, but he refuses to give up hope.

St. Anne's Catholic Church staff found disturbing signs of vandalism done to the statues outside of their building when they arrived to work this morning. The statues of St. Anne and St. Mary to the left of St. Anne church building and also an angel in front of the church were vandalized overnight. According to the Pastor of All Saints Perish, the statues were inappropriately painted red to symbolize blood, and one of the statues is also currently missing a hand. The staff quickly cleaned up the vandalism and by this afternoon, the paint was almost completely gone before many...

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) — A Jackson Church is working to bounce back after two of its vans were vandalized overnight. It happened here at Voice of Calvary Ministries in Jackson on Capitol Street. The church doesn’t know who did it, but we are told it’s going to cost hundreds of dollars to repair the vans. Their vans are used for several of their outreach ministries.When they got in Wednesday morning , they found several windows busted out. Someone even ruptured one of the gas tanks on one of those vans and took a battery. We talked to them today about...

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – A small Murfreesboro church congregation found it cleaning up broken glass after vandals busted out a side window. The vandals struck just before daybreak Tuesday but were scared away by the alarm system at the church. Another nearby business has also been the target of vandals, and now police have placed extra patrol in the area. It was a restless night for Path of Life Ministries Pastor Billy Brooks. “[I was] sound asleep,” Brooks said from his home in Tullahoma. “I got a phone call around 3:30 this morning.”

Here’s story about a church closure with a happy ending —and a church transformation that you don’t hear about very often: A Yonkers Roman Catholic church shuttered last year in a parish consolidation will celebrate its rebirth Saturday  as an Eastern Rite congregation.The Rev. Sunny Mathew, 43, the new congregation’s pastor, said the move to Yonkers realizes a longtime dream for his parishioners, who began their congregation in 1984 in New York City. Most Holy Trinity Church at 18 Trinity Plaza will be occupied by St. Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church, an Indian congregation that for 17 years worshiped in the chapel at Salesian High School in New Rochelle.“It...

The historic Manhattan cathedral that was gutted in a massive fire was one of four Christian Orthodox churches to go up in flames on Orthodox Easter Sunday — sparking fears of a coordinated attack on the religion. While FDNY officials said the blaze at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on West 25th Street does not appear suspicious, members of the Orthodox community have doubts. They are worried that the blaze — along with church fires in Australia and Russia — were set in retaliation for the religion’s role in blocking the canonization of Croatian Nazi supporter Cardinal Aloysius...

"Midtown Manhattan cathedral engulfed in flames: 'Irreplaceable' 160-year-old Orthodox Christian church is consumed by fire" A 160-year-old Orthodox Christian cathedral in New York has been completely destroyed after a huge fire tore through it on Sunday The blaze broke out at the Serbian Cathedral of Saint Sava on 25th Street in Manhattan's Flatiron district at around 7pm. It is not known how the fire started, though it is believed to have broken out on the first floor of the building before consuming the interior and roof. An FDNY spokesman said that nobody was believed to be inside the building at...

A churchgoer shot a fellow parishioner in a Pennsylvania church after a fight broke out over a seat in the sanctuary on Sunday, authorities say. The argument started when a churchgoer told Robert Braxton III, 27, he was sitting in seats reserved for two other church members during Sunday service at the Keystone Fellowship Church, district attorney Kevin Steele said.

Islamic State militants in Iraq have blown up the remnants of the prestigious Latin Church, dubbed the "Clock Church" for its prominent clock tower in central Mosul, according to the Patriarch of the Chaldeans, Louis Raphael Sacco. Militants cordoned off areas surrounding the church and looted the building for profitable artifacts and antiquities before destroying the remaining parts with explosives, an Iraqi Christian community leader confirmed to The Foreign Desk. The Clock Church, which had its clock tower gifted in 1873 to Iraqi Christians by Napoleon III’s wife, French Empress Eugénie, became a target of ISIS attacks in February 2015,...

Bevers, 45, had arrived at the Creekside Church of Christ in Midlothian, Tex., about 4:18 a.m. on Monday. She was there to set up for an early-morning fitness class she taught. About an hour later, police were dispatched to the church, where they found a grisly scene: Bevers dead and surrounded by broken glass. Surveillance footage showed that before she arrived, someone else was in the building: a suspect dressed up like a police officer on a SWAT-style raid. Flashes of footage show the suspect walking around the church dressed in dark tactical gear: a heavy vest, a heavy helmet...