Free Republic

On Thursday the Examiner provided an exclusive report indicating that the Obama administration had implemented a covert program beginning in 2009 that was intended to spy on conservative, evangelical Christian churches. That program involved infiltration -- sending in government operatives to join churches for the purpose of data collection. The government snoops would keep their eyes and ears open for criticism of the Obama administration, talk of Tea Party participation, conversations about gun ownership, and a number of other issues. But a special report issued today by Fox News indicates that the program went far beyond infiltration and snooping. The...

Liberal Christians have much that you can teach us conservatives. Your passion for loving thy neighbor is admirable. But, I’ve got a few questions for you: 1. Have you let the culture influence you rather than the other way around? If so, how is that biblical? 2. Are you offering a message of hope and forgiveness (from the pulpit) through repentance and faith to those who may have strayed—on these issues: Adultery, Homosexuality, and Abortion? Remember, there are two sides to sin—the sin itself, and the recovery and healing. 3. Do you care about the TRUTH of homosexuality (or just...

If you've ever had the great fortune of seeing the entrance to a mosque, you'll have noticed that there are two doors: one, the main, huge, is for men, another, small and lateral, for women (as in the picture below of the East London Mosque). Apparently we need "right-wing groups" now in England to protest sexism, because the Left totally condones it. The recently-formed England National Resistance (ENR) felt outraged that the North West Kent Muslim Association’s mosque in Crayford High Street has separate entrances for men and women. Particularly offensive is the fact that this was once a church,...

For the Rev. Ernest Easley, the decision to cut ties with the Boy Scouts was simple. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin. The Boy Scouts do not. “We are not willing to compromise God’s word,” said Easley, pastor of the 2,300-member Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta, Ga., which has sponsored Boy Scout Troop 204 since 1945. Easley, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee, said his church will shut down its troop at end of the year because of a recently adopted policy to allow openly gay scouts. He’s urging other Baptists to do the same. Roswell...

Leave Boy Scouts, pastor advises parents Posted on May 28, 2013 | by Art Toalston MARIETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Parents of Boy Scouts should remove their children from the organization, Atlanta-area pastor Ernest Easley advised in his Sunday sermon. Troop 204's affiliation with Roswell Street Baptist Church also will end, Easley said. "I never dreamed I'd have to stand up publicly and say to parents: Pull your kids out of the Boy Scouts," Easley told Baptist Press May 28. "If you would have asked me that five years ago, 10 years ago, I would have laughed," Easley said. "And even...

This is a request for information assistance. Last night, I received a disturbing email from a longtime friend and pastor from my hometown church, which is breaking from the corrupt, mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), like many others are doing. Apparently PC (USA) has asked the congregation for an exorbitant sum of money, and is threatening the church manse and other property in an effort to force the congregation back into the corrupted fold. I've been out of the Presbyterian loop for a while but want to help, and so I'm wondering if anyone has any specific information about what is...

Earlier this month news reports surfaced out of Saudi Arabia that raised the red flag for Christians, reports MNN. Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs USA, says, "The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia--the top Islamic official in the country of Saudi Arabia--has declared that it is "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.'" Nettleton goes on to note that the report hasn't surfaced anywhere except on the Council on Foreign Relations Web site, which was then picked up by The Atlantic. Ranked second on the Open Doors World Watch List (a compilation of the...

This is our heritage. This is what they want us to toss into the garbage.

Within moments of Pope Benedict’s announcement that he was abdicating the Chair of St. Peter, secularists began demanding that the College of Cardinals choose a less rigid, more progressive pontiff; in other words, a pope who would repudiate Church teachings on chastity, same-sex “marriage,” divorce, contraception, abortion, and priestly celibacy.Leading the charge was The New York Times, which devoted plenty of front page, above-the-fold space to castigating the Church and Benedict. The op-ed editor published, ad nauseam, the usual tired-old Catholic critics, including Garry Wills and Hans Küng.And the moment secularists realized that Pope Francis is not a South American liberation theologian, but...

Indonesian city officials destroyed a Christian church in front of its weeping congregation. Muslims stood around and egged on the destruction. ... Muslim protesters egged on workers and branded the Christians “infidels”. Dozens in the 100-strong congregation wailed as a digger tore down the brick walls, with worshippers accusing the government of “criminalising our religion”, in a sign of increasing intolerance in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. “My heart is aching and I feel numb watching my church collapse. I went to this church for 11 years,” worshipper Megarenta Sihite, 46, told AFP, wiping away tears as fellow worshippers, dressed...

In Germany, architecture is being "de-Christianized". Entire new neighbourhoods and urban areas are being built without a church in them: churches are just not planned in the projects, as if nobody even thought of them. The German Catholic news site Kreuz reports on this phenomenon with examples from an article by architecture critic Dankwart Guratzsch in the daily Die Welt. In Stuttgart, a large new district was built for 12,000 residents without a church. In Hamburg, another new neighbourhood for 12,000 residents was created without a church. Not only that: to realize this project, 19 churches were closed down, probably...

Three Wilmington churches were struck by graffiti vandals early Saturday morning, police said. The vandals stenciled the words "brain washed" on statues, exterior walls, doors and stairs, according to the Rev. Philip Early, pastor of Saint Thomas of Villinova and Saint Dorothy's Catholic churches. A nearby Congregational church was also damaged. Early said, "Acting out accomplishes nothing." The graffiti was discovered early Saturday morning as several funerals were about to get underway.

<p>Crumbling and abandoned, the last remnants of Russia's wooden churches lay dotted in the woodlands of the country's north-western corner.</p> <p>Forgotten by many and in the process of being reclaimed by nature, the few remaining churches are exposed to the harsh elements without any hope of being salvaged.</p>

The White House and the nation’s most prominent charities are embroiled in a tense, behind-the-scenes debate over President Obama’s push to scale back the nearly century-old tax deduction on donations that the charities say is crucial for their financial health. In a series of recent meetings and calls, top White House aides have pressed nonprofit groups to line up behind the president’s plan for reducing the federal deficit and averting the year-end “fiscal cliff,” according to people familiar with the talks. In part, the White House is seeking to win the support of nonprofit groups for Obama’s central demand that...

The city of New York continues to seek eviction of churches meeting for worship services in public school buildings on weekends, even after many of the congregations have ministered to the communities in which they meet in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose administration has also come under fire for banning food donations to homeless shelters, has not intervened to stop his Board of Education’s ongoing efforts to oust the churches. “Churches that have been helping communities for years should be allowed to continue to offer the hope that empty buildings can’t,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior...

Six churches in Buffalo were the target of a rock-throwing rampage and inflammatory messages about homosexuality regarding religion and sexual orientation. Police have arrested a 30-year-old man who said he hurled rocks and left offensive messages about homosexuality at several churches in one west metro community due to "his anger with God." Police in Buffalo say doors and windows were broken with rocks between noon and 3 p.m. Monday at four church buildings -- St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Seventh-day Adventist, Hosanna Lutheran (Missouri Synod) and Buffalo United Methodist. Posters with inflammatory messages dealing with religion and sexual orientation were...

More than 1,000 pastors will challenge the IRS on October 7 by preaching sermons that present biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates. In so doing, they will exercise their constitutionally protected freedom to engage in religious expression from the pulpit despite an Internal Revenue Service rule known as the Johnson Amendment that activist groups often use to silence churches by threatening their tax-exempt status.Groups such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State have taken advantage of the vagueness of the tax law and have reported churches to the IRS in an attempt to remove their tax-exempt...

A local church will close its doors after a final worship service on Sept. 30, less than two years away from its 100th anniversary. Oakland Presbyterian will join at least 28 other mainline protestant churches that have been disbanded or consolidated in Clark County since 1980, according to data from the Association of Religious Data Archives. The loss of mainline protestant congregations in Clark County mirrors trends at the national level, where rolls dropped by more than 7 million members between 1980 and 2010. Gloria Sesslar has been a member of the Oakland congregation since 1980. She said many current...

Gunmen have attacked a church and killed at least 19 people including the pastor in central Nigeria. Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, the assailants stormed the church in Kogi state, near the city of Okene, during a service. ... The attack comes amid a growing insurgency by the Islamist group Boko Haram in the north of Nigeria, which has targeted churches, schools, police stations and state institutions. The latest assault surprised security forces because Otite is in the south. The group wants Sharia law imposed

Jim Garlow is the pastor of a large Methodist Church in La Mesa, California. On October 7th, just weeks before the 2012 presidential elections, he plans to endorse a presidential candidate (and maybe congressional candidates) from the pulpit. While I cannot confirm that he will endorse Mitt Romney, I can confirm that he was an advisor to former Speaker Newt Gingrich. An initiative known as Pulpit Freedom Sunday began on a Sunday morning in October 2008, and has continued on that same Sunday each year since. In June, Garlow began meeting with other pastors across America to encourage them to...