Free Republic

President Donald Trump vowed Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast to “totally destroy” a provision barring religious groups from participation in politics. “I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution,” he said. “I will do that. Remember.”

A German court has found seven men guilty of burglarizing churches to financially support Islamic extremists fighting in Syria. Cologne’s regional court sentenced the men to between three years and 6 months, and four years and 10 months in prison for the robberies. Judges say that there’s sufficient proof the men — aged between 24 and 37 — broke into up to five churches and other buildings between 2013 and 2014. …

Police are hunting vandals after a series of chapels and shrines were desecrated within the space of a few days in northern Austria. Statues have been beheaded, prayer books burned and sacred images destroyed since the New Year in the Innviertel region on the Bavarian border. On New Year’s Eve, the vandals struck a chapel in the village of St Radegund, damaging a statue of the Virgin Mary before burning prayer books and wooden objects from the chapel in a nearby wood. That same day, another chapel at the nearby town of Auerbach was also attacked, with vandals smashing the...

A Canadian study found that conservative churches are still growing, while less orthodox congregations dwindle away.Mainline Protestant churches are in trouble: A 2015 report by the Pew Research Center found that these congregations, once a mainstay of American religion, are now shrinking by about 1 million members annually. Fewer members not only means fewer souls saved, a frightening thought for some clergy members, but also less income for churches, further ensuring their decline. Faced with this troubling development, clergy members have made various efforts to revive church attendance. It was almost 20 years ago that John Shelby Spong, a U.S....

“Now Is Time to Behead Unbelievers” The jihad on churches -- including those in America and Europe. Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Reports of Muslims torturing, raping, and forcing Christians to embrace Islam continued to mount throughout the month of October.   Alice Assaf, a Christian woman recounted the experiences of Christians—including her son’s execution for refusing to deny his faith—in a village near Damascus at the hands of the Islamic State.  She also told how the Islamic State massacres children in cruel and unusual ways—including by throwing them...

File this under “things that should be obvious,” but immigration control isn’t slavery. Nor is breaking a just federal law consistent with Christian ethics. Nonetheless, a network of “progressive” Christians is preparing to fight the Trump administration’s immigration efforts with an “underground railroad” for illegals. A recent story at The New York Times details how a network of 450 churches across the country are planning to break federal law and defy the will of the American people by sheltering criminal illegal immigrants against deportation.

FULL TITLE: FBI warns of possible Christmas ISIS attacks after list of US churches is posted on Islamic extremist website The FBI has warned state and city police of possible ISIS threats against the US after a list of churches across the country was posted online by fanatics. The bureau said while no one specific threat had been traced, officers should be more vigilant over the holidays given the amid 'aspirational calls for attacks'. In a memo it told how the Islamic extremist group had compiled a list of churches across the country and shared it online. 'The FBI is...

The Islamic State has published a list containing the names and addresses of thousands of churches in the United States, Canada, France, and the Netherlands, encouraging followers to attack them during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday season. http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/12/22/isis-lists-u-s-churches-attack-bloody-celebrations-christian-new-year/

The terror group threatened "bloody celebrations in the Christian New Year" The Islamic State published the names and addresses of thousands of churches in the United States and called on its adherents to attack them during the holiday season, according to a message posted late-night Wednesday in the group’s “Secrets of Jihadis” social media group. A user going by the name of “Abu Marya al-Iraqi” posted an Arabic-language message calling “for bloody celebrations in the Christian New Year” and announced the group’s plans to utilize its network of lone wolf attackers to “turn the Christian New Year into a bloody horror...

A Mississippi man arrested in the burning of an African-American church that was spray-painted with the words "Vote Trump" is a member of the congregation, the church's bishop said. Andrew McClinton, 45, of Leland, Mississippi, was charged Wednesday with first degree arson of a place of worship, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety. McClinton is African-American. McClinton was arrested in Greenville, where Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church was burned and vandalized Nov. 1, a week before the presidential election. Hopewell Bishop Clarence Green said McClinton is a member of the church. Green said he didn't know...

It's very likely Ohio Gov. John Kasich didn't see this kind of reaction coming when he decided to veto a legislative bill that would have outlawed abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. At a press conference held at the Ohio Statehouse on Thursday, a group of pastors urged Republicans to override the governor's veto. They said they represent "no less than 2,500 churches in the state of Ohio," and tens of thousands of registered voters who "care deeply about this issue." "We would like to make a declaration and to challenge our legislators that we're going to stand with...

Researchers looked at 22 Protestant churches in CanadaA study of Protestant churches in Canada has found that growing churches tend to be more orthodox, while shrinking ones are theologically liberal.Terry Mattingly, author of the Get Religion blog, covered the findings of the study, which appeared in the peer-reviewed journal, Review of Religion Research.The researchers, David Millard Haskell, Kevin N Flatt and Stephanie Burgoyne, looked at 22 mainline Protestant churches in Canada. Nine of the churches were growing in attendance, while 13 were declining. The researchers found that when other factors were controlled for, ”the theological conservatism of both attendees...

The rhetoric on immigration during the presidential campaign season has struck fear into the hearts of many foreign-born families, and a new network of Minnesota churches is mobilizing to respond. The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on St. Paul’s Dale Street already maintains 22 shelter beds for the homeless in its basement, where families with no other place to go often spend the night on a temporary basis. The Rev. James Erlandson said those beds may soon serve a different purpose: offering sanctuary to those facing deportation. “That’s a moral stand that we’ve taken,” Erlandson said. “We want to say: ‘Don’t increase...

The presidential election was so close that many factors were “but-for” causes of Donald Trump’s victory. One that’s been mostly overlooked is Trump’s surprising success with religious voters. According to exit polls, Trump received 81 percent of the white evangelical Christian vote, and Hillary Clinton only 16 percent. Trump did significantly better than the overtly religious Mitt Romney and the overtly evangelical George W. Bush. He likely over-performed among other theologically conservative voters, such as traditionalist Catholics, as well. Not bad for a thrice-married adulterer of no discernible faith.

A Canadian study has found that Mainline Protestant churches that have both modern worship services and teach a literal interpretation of the Bible grow faster. (Photo: Reuters/John Gress)A parishioner cries as he signs a song of worship in the 7,000-seat Willow Creek Community church during a Sunday service in South Barrington, Illinois, November 20, 2005. Institutions like Willow Creek and Houston's Lakewood Church, each drawing 20,000 or more on a weekend, offer not just a vast, shared attraction but a path that tries to link individuals on a faith-sustaining one-to-one level beyond the crowd, observers and worshipers say.The Canadian researchers who authored...

The Trump campaign is going all out to reach evangelicals by sending video messages from Donald Trump and his Vice-Presidential pick Mike Pence to churches across the nation for viewing on this Sunday, the last before the election on Nov. 7th. Trump's 30-second taped message warns Christians that they are under attack in America and across the world and claims that his opponent Hillary Clinton will make the situation worse. "This election will decide the future of life, liberty and faith in America. A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for tax-payer funded abortion on demand, a vote for...

"The new Barack Obama Bank" - Glenn Beck. From Fox Business News: Some of the nation's largest banks have agreed to contribute enough money to save Chicago-based ShoreBank, the community lenderwith strong ties to the Obama administration, FOX Business has learned. The bailout has been controversial. Here's the inside story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df_si1PnEcY

A new state law that prohibits discrimination against transgender people in public restrooms is “punishing” the protected religious speech of churches and pastors, a conservative Christian organization claims in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday. Alliance Defending Freedom, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, said it sued on behalf of four Massachusetts churches to protect their right to operate their facilities “in a manner that doesn’t violate their core religious beliefs.” The lawsuit names Democratic state Attorney General Maura Healey and members of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination as defendants. The law, which was signed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker in July and...

In 2016, holding to biological truths in America might get you in legal hot water – religious liberty, freedom of speech, and common sense notwithstanding.On Saturday, a Massachusetts law that could throw pastors in jail for using biologically correct pronouns took effect.But you wouldn’t know that from The Associated Press’ article on the matter. Quoting in part: Advocates for transgender people in Massachusetts say they can no longer be legally discriminated against in public places.A new law taking effect on Saturday bars discrimination on the basis of gender identity in public accommodations. Among other things, the statute allows transgender people...