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An attempt was recently made to vandalize a war memorial at an Oregon park at the center of a church and state controversy with an improvised explosive device. An unknown individual detonated the IED near the memorial, located at Mingus Park in the City of Coos Bay, sometime late night between last Thursday and last Friday.... Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/vandal-attempts-to-blow-up-oregon-memorial-embroiled-in-church-state-controversy-103128/#l4eKDdzkvpFj6zWq.99

Several Republican lawmakers are urging a federal district court in California to block the removal of a war memorial cross in a San Diego public park that was declared unconstitutional in 2011. "We're urging the court to permit a private organization to obtain and operate the war memorial – a remedy that would remove any constitutional questions and protect this longstanding tribute to our men and women in uniform," Sekulow said in a statement. The legal fight over the Mount Soledad cross began in 1989 when atheist Philip Paulson sued the city of San Diego.

Archeologists conducting excavations at the site of a church in Turkey have unearthed a stone chest containing a relic that may be part of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. The items were discovered during a large-scale excavation at the Balatlar Church, which was built in A.D. 660 near the Black Sea, Today's Zaman reported. Professor Gülgün Köroğlu, an associate professor at Turkey's Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and excavation leader, told the newspaper the artifacts are linked to Jesus' crucifixion.

Archaeologists digging around an ancient church in Turkey say they’ve made a startling discovery and unearthed a piece of the cross that used to crucify Jesus. The diggers found a stone chest this week and inside were several relics believed to be tied to the crucifixion. Among them was a piece of the actual cross upon which Jesus was nailed, one historian with Turkey’s Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts said in the Hurriyet Daily News.

Health insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross said it won't participate in California's new insurance market for small businesses. Anthem, a unit of WellPoint Inc., is California's largest insurer for small employers. This surprising move could hamper the state's ability to enroll businesses in its new exchange called Covered California that opens Jan. 1 as part of the federal healthcare law. Instead, Anthem said it will keep selling coverage to small firms outside the exchange in direct competition with the state-run market. Anthem also remains one of 13 health insurers that will offer policies to individuals in Covered California. Nonetheless, Anthem's...

A Sonoma State University student has filed a religious accommodation request after she said she was ordered to remove her cross necklace because it might offend other students. “It’s amazing in this day of diversity and tolerance on university campuses that a university official would engage in this type of obvious religious discrimination,” said Liberty Institute attorney Hiram Sasser. The Liberty Institute is representing Audrey Jarvis, 19, a liberal arts major at the northern California university. On June 27, Jarvis was working for the university’s Associated Students Productions at a student orientation fair for incoming freshmen. During the event, her...

Perhaps you saw the mention in Sunday’s Sports section about the Christian iconography on the mound at Busch Stadium. Apparently, somebody on the grounds crew etches a cross into the dirt.... Still, I look at photos of that cross etched on the mound and I get the same sort of uneasy feeling I get when I hear the phrase “homeland security.” It used to be “national security.” Why did “national” morph into “homeland”? It happened about the same time politicians started wearing American flag lapel pins. Besides, I’m scared about terrorism. I’m convinced that fanatical, dedicated people with access to...

The Mormon Church has an ambivalent history with Christianity’s most iconic symbol, the cross. For about 70 years, the cross was generally tolerated within the church’s cultural fabric. However, the first decades of the 20th century initiated a slow but steady expression of disapproval of the cross; a criticism influenced by LDS leaders’ willingness to publicly declare the Roman Catholic Church as the “church of the devil” described in LDS scripture. “Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo,” (John Whitmer Books) by Michael G. Reed, is a slim but valuable volume on the history of the Mormons’ relationship...

Cultural anthropology and genetic studies shed light on the etiology of the association of blood and rebirth or resurrection. The anthropological, linguistic and genetic evidence indicates that Abraham's ancestors were Proto-Saharan, probably Nubians. Nubians have their own genetic marker which indicates migration from the sub-Sahara to the Nile and there has been virtually no immigration into the lower Nubia area from Asia according to the Y chromosome study done by Lucotte. Among the Nubians the sun was a central symbol of life and often shown as a red orb. This lent the additional association with the red eye of Horus....

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.(Isaiah 52:13-15)The fourth Servant song is composed of three sections. First of all, we have this introduction in Isaiah 52:13-15. Secondly we have the great and...

It came on Good Friday, a gift from God and U.S District Judge Deborah Batts. The lawsuit by American Atheists seeking to ban the cross found at Ground Zero from being displayed in a museum has been tossed out, and the cross will be permitted to stay. The fact that this ruling came on the holiest week of the year for Christians is a delicious irony, one that I can bask in for months, possibly even years to come. I thank God for the sensibility of Judge Batts. Those fun-loving folks over at American Atheists – who despise any and...

I submit for your profit this poem and these songs, for edification and meditation on this Good Friday. Let us remember in this day of ever deepening darkness,that Jesus died for the sins of all men, even those who are currently pushing abominations such as “gay marriage” upon us all. He prayed for them as He suffered and died, “Father forgive them, they know not what they are doing…”- Happy Resurrection weekend everybody-He is risen! Pas Bill “Jesus of the Scars” by Edward Shillito a World War 1 Veteran and Free church Minister (1876-1948) If we have never sought you,...

Pope Francis celebrates Palm Sunday Mass on March 24 2013 in St. Peter's Square. Credit: Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images. Vatican City, Mar 24, 2013 / 05:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis declared on Palm Sunday that Christians must not be sad or discouraged but filled with joy because Jesus conquered evil and every sin “with the force of God’s love.” “Jesus on the Cross feels the whole weight of the evil, and with the force of God’s love he conquers it, he defeats it with his resurrection,” he said March 24. “Dear friends,” Pope Francis told the thousands of...

On the rear windows of cars, I have seen NOW with a cross superimposed over the "O" for a few years now. What does it mean or symbolize? I have searched the internet for an answer and can't find anything but the symbol itself without an explanation.

Free Republic can no longer post Salt Lake Tribune based threads...but we can still link to them. Just last week, the Trib ran this very significant article: Mormons increasingly drawn to Holy Week rituals In other words, Mormons are attending Christian church services during Holy Week! (And they love the services there!) To understand this, you have to understand the backdrop -- the vacuum of Jesus and the cross within Mormonism: 1. BYU study: Disconnect between Mormons and Easter In this article, published by the Mormon church owned Deseret News, it said that Easter has ”only 'lightly more planning than...

VICTORVILLE • As Easter approaches, some High Desert residents have wondered if the wooden cross that went missing in January would ever return to its rocky perch overlooking the Mojave Narrows Bridge. But the cross that greeted commuters along Highway 18 and gave hope to many senior residents at the River Ranch Mobile Park on Stoddard Wells Road near the bridge has been destroyed. Daily Press Staff Photographer David Pardo found the cross in pieces when he climbed the hill Friday afternoon on a photo assignment to investigate a report that it was missing. “I know that the cross to...

Actual title edited for space issues: United Methodist Seminary Ponders Removing Cross from Chapel To make the space more appropriate for Jain, Buddhist, and Islamic religious services After recently facing some financial challenges, the seminary decided to more or less literally sell itself for $50 million to a large donor who helped transform it from a Christian seminary into Claremont Lincoln University, devoted to jointly training Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Jain clergy. In celebrating the move, Claremont President Jerry Campbell bizarrely declared that Christians who seek to obey Christ’s command to evangelize non-Christians have “an incorrect perception of what...

The Baltimore Catechism Revised Edition (1941)Part One: The Creed   The Redemption Lesson 8 from the Baltimore Cathechism"I believe ... in Jesus Christ ... who ... suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead ..." 90. What is meant by the Redemption? By the Redemption is meant that Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer of the whole human race,...

Christians who object to aspects of their work on grounds of conscience will be “lawfully excluded” from some jobs, lawyers have warned - despite a landmark judgment upholding an airline check-in clerk's right to wear a cross.Campaigners claimed that “millions” of people who hold traditional “politically incorrect” views could now face new restrictions because of rulings against three other Christians involved in the European Court of Human Rights case. They claimed that the judgment actively increases the risk that those who dissent on the issue of same-sex marriage will not be free to voice their dissent. Their comments came as...

(CNSNews.com) – Europe’s highest court next week will hand down rulings in the cases of four British Christians who claim to have been discriminated in the workplace because of their religious beliefs. Two of the applicants, Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, said their rights were violated when employers barred them from wearing crosses visibly at work. They pointed to Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others...