Free Republic

It was bad enough, as I wrote here last August, that the Internal Revenue Service appeared to reach an agreement to monitor the pulpits of ill-favored churches. WhatÂ’s worse is that the IRS, directly counter to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements, steadfastly has refused to make public key documents pertaining to that decision. So the IRS, acting with the whole power of government behind it, seems to be saying it can monitor and presumably punish churches for the content of their sermons, but the churches canÂ’t know exactly if, how, and why they are being monitored. To fight this...

. 2015-04-04 Facts are facts. "Treason" is still "treason" (despite how Obama's Press Secretary Josh Earnest spins it) "Abject Defeat" is still "Abject Defeat" (despite how America's tax-exempt Christian Pastors in their beautiful Mega-Churches spin it) "Bribery" is still "Bribery" (despite how Al Sharpton and MSNBC spin it) ========================================== America's "Gay Gestapo" have virtually won the battle for America's spiritual soul. Except for a few scattered political leaders, America's Gay Gestapo is a political Juggernaunt that marches from Victory to Victory. Yes, these are occasional "minor moral victories" (Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and the $ 825,000 donations to the Memories...

Nine out of ten.That's a lot.Nine out of ten churches in America have an average worship attendance of less than 350. And that percentage has not changed significantly for many years. Yet the unchurched pool of persons is increasing in most communities. There are people yet to be reached.But most churches will never exceed 350 in attendance. Why? A Few CaveatsAllow me to preface my analysis. First, big is not necessarily better. A church with more people in attendance is not necessarily more faithful than a smaller church. Second, some churches are in very sparsely populated areas. There may not...

Gay activists and their leftist allies told us decades ago that same-sex marriage wasn’t on the agenda. All homosexuals wanted was the benefits of marriage, but not the title. That, of course, was a lie.

n what sounds like a chapter out of Orwell’s 1984, the city of Lake Worth in Florida has been involved in some disgusting deals of late. The city started down a dark and unconstitutional road when they began demanding that any church operating in their town acquire a business license to operate. The fact that this requirement quite obviously violates the First Amendment in multiple ways (freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly) did not deter the city from pushing forward in their persecution. The city didn’t stop with their draconian regulations though… they went much further. The...

Islamic State blows up Church of Immaculate Virgin FEBRUARY 6, 2015 9:42 AM BY RAYMOND IBRAHIM] According to Rudaw, an Iraqi news agency, on February 2, security sources from the Ninevah police district said that the Islamic State blew up the Church of the Immaculate Virgin—one of the largest and oldest Chaldean churches in the ancient section of Mosul. The security source said: “The organization finished wiring the church with explosives this morning and detonated it, leaving widespread destruction in the church and neighboring buildings.” Prior to this, the old church — which stood on the foundation of what was...

ISIS has opened a special market to sell property it looted from Assyrian homes and churches in Mosul. The market, called "Spoils Of The Nazarenes," sells televisions, refrigerators, microwave ovens and other electronic devices, as well as furniture and artwork. Prices range from 50,000 to 75,000 Iraqi Dinars ($42 to $63). ISIS captured the city of Mosul on June 10. Almost immediately thereafter it began to drive Assyrians out of Mosul and destroy Christian and non-Sunni institutions. It imposed a poll tax (jizya) on Assyrians, ordered unmarried women to 'Jihad by sex', destroyed the statue of the Virgin Mary at...

“Research indicates that by age 40 one in four women have had an abortion and the fact is that many of them are sitting in our church pews broken and silent. It is my position that the same can be said of the men. What about the post-abortive father’s guilt, anger and emotional scars? Many of these fathers are as hurt as the mothers. It’s time for the church to open its eyes as well as it’s hearts and arms to these wounded men. They need assistance to break their chains of secrecy, seek godly professional counsel and find true...

Europe News Europe’s Empty Churches Go on Sale Hundreds of Churches Have Closed or Are Threatened by Plunging Membership, Posing Question: What to Do With Unused Buildings? By Naftali Bendavid Jan. 2, 2015 7:36 p.m. ET ARNHEM, Netherlands—Two dozen scruffy skateboarders launched perilous jumps in a soaring old church building here on a recent night, watched over by a mosaic likeness of Jesus and a solemn array of stone saints. This is the Arnhem Skate Hall, an uneasy reincarnation of the Church of St. Joseph, which once rang with the prayers of nearly 1,000 worshipers. It is one of hundreds...

The Islamic State is turning Christian churches in Iraq and Syria into dungeons and torture chambers after stripping them of priceless artifacts to sell on the black market, according to reports. Ancient relics and even entire murals are being torn from the houses of worship and smuggled out through the same routes previously established for moving oil and weapons in and out of the so-called caliphate, a vast region the jihadist army has claimed as sovereign under Sharia law. "ISIS has a stated goal to wipe out Christianity,” Jay Sekulow, of the American Center for Law and Justice and the...

Several months ago, one of my co-workers was speaking with a Christian university campus minister about the issue of abortion, and he dismissed the topic with a wave. “Abortion isn’t prevalent at our school," he said. "Contraception is widely available, but our students also take sexual purity to heart.” I was a bit suspicious of his answer, so I spoke with a recent graduate of the same university about her thoughts. “I suspect one in three women on campus have had an abortion,” she said matter-of-factly. “It may be higher. Christian kids don’t want to deal with the shame a...

Have you noticed that nobody loves modern churches? Nobody. I mean NOBODY.Seriously. Have you ever met anyone who sees a church like this and and heard them whisper, “I just love that church! It is so inspiring!”.No. Never.Have you ever gone into a “worship space” like this and heard someone say how awed they were to be in the presence of God? I doubt it.  That’s because these buildings were not designed to inspire awe or to remind you about the presence of God. They are people centered, not God centered. They are auditoria not temples.There is a gut level...

From The Wall Street Journal: Americans aren’t building churches like they used to anymore.Construction of religious buildings in the U.S. has fallen to the lowest level at any time since private records began in 1967. Religious groups will build an estimated 10.3 million square feet this year, down 6% from 2013 and 80% since construction peaked in 2002, according to Dodge Data & Analytics. In terms of dollars, spending on houses of worship totaled $3.15 billion last year, down by half from a decade earlier, according to Commerce Department figures.As the economy heals, churches, synagogues, mosques and temples may move...

Test and fine-tune your modernist-church-detection abilities against your communist-architecture-detection skills! It's harder than you think...

A group called Alliance Defending Freedom organized a group of around 1,600 pastors who endorsed candidates from the pulpit in the weeks leading up to tomorrows election. Since the 1950’s the IRS has banned 501(c)(3) tax exempt churches from engaging in political activity, including endorsing candidates. The IRS has never enforced the law. Every few years the government sends out warning letters but it’s never actually taken the law to court. They likely know it wouldn’t be upheld by the Supreme Court. The Alliance Defending Freedom appears to be a conservative group and as such their 1,600 pastors appear to...

The Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic looks very normal on the outside... (see pics at the link)

All churches are open to the public. Sure, they lock their doors at times; I’ve yet to run into a place that doesn’t do that, but the idea of church of any denomination is that anyone is welcome to come in and pray. That applies to Christian churches, but that also applies to most other houses of worship I can list: Jewish synagogues, Buddhist temples, and Muslim mosques. After all, how is a church supposed to gain converts if they don’t allow those not already formally affiliated to enter? All churches, and other houses of worship also allow wedding ceremonies...

The Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) has sold its property at 35 Harris Road, Avon, former home to Christ Episcopal Church, to the Farmington Valley American Muslim Center, Inc. (FVAMC). The sale, for $1.1 million, was completed on Oct. 21. The building was vacated after the congregation voted in 2012 to dissolve as a parish and close by the end of that year. The following spring, Bishop Ian T. Douglas and other ECCT staff hosted a meeting of community leaders and interested residents to discern how the property could best be used “as an asset to God’s mission of restoration...

Life Legal Defense Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom filed a formal complaint Thursday with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Servicesover the California Department of Managed Health Care’s decision to force all employers, including churches, to pay for elective abortions in their health insurance plans. LLDF and ADF represent seven California churches that object to offering their employees insurance plans covering elective abortions and allege that DMHC’s coercion of abortion coverage violates federal law. Last month, LLDF and ADF filed a separate complaint with HHS on behalf of employees at Loyola Marymount University that also do not want a...

. 2014-10-15 Free Republic’s "Maelstorm" protested today that ... The government has no dominion over religious freedom period. The idea that nonprofit status disappears because a pastor speaks out on political issues is crazy and tyrannical. regarding the Mayor of Houston's campaign to "prosecute" Christian churches for political activity against the ever-growing Gay-Mafia-Agenda in America. Jesus Christ taught in parables. Using a parable that touches both baseball and Christian missionaries in China ... I will explain why Houston's Lesbian Mayor is LEGALLY CORRECT ... in wanting the IRS / Federal Government to "Shut-Down" or "Financially Destroy" ALL Houston-area Christian Churches...