Free Republic

THERE is a crisis coming—and it is already here—for our Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ. It was foretold by Jesus when He said, …everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined. (Matt 7:26-27) That is, whatever is built on sand : those interpretations of Scripture that depart from the Apostolic faith, those heresies and subjective errors that have divided Christ’s Church...

Writing for The Daily Beast Monday, a former Roman Catholic Priest, who left in November 2014 after "coming out" as homosexual, went on yet another dime-a-dozen rant against Catholic teaching on homosexuality, employing the all-too-common trope that bishops need to stop calling homosexual "love" wrong or sinful while still finding ways to maintain Church teaching, which essentially means "move the goal posts further back until you have nothing left to defend." Every point Bill Dickinson makes as to why the Catholic Church should change up their approach towards the LGBT community serve as basically a trojan horse to lower the...

The BBC announced enthusiastically Wednesday that “what may be the world’s oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham.” This news is not only of interest to scholars and Muslim intellectuals; it appears to buttress the Islamic claim that the Qur’an’s text has remained unchanged for 1,400 years – which is purported to be proof of its divine origin. There is only one problem with all this: the BBC article raises more questions than it answers, and reveals more about the wishful thinking of the academic and media establishments than it does about the...

Two universities that belong to the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, an organization dedicated to delivering Christ-centered education at all of its schools, will now allow the hiring of professors who are married to a partner of the same sex. Goshen College in Indiana and Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia announced on Monday that they will now hire faculty who are in same-sex marriages. "We have spent several years reviewing our hiring practices," said Goshen College's Director of Communications Jodi Beyeler to The Christian Post on Monday. "There's been prayer. We've listened to a variety of voices from our...

...The future of Christianity in the region of its birth is now uncertain. ‘‘How much longer can we flee before we and other minorities become a story in a history book?’’ says Nuri Kino, a journalist and founder of the advocacy group Demand for Action. According to a Pew study, more Christians are now faced with religious persecution than at any time since their early history. ‘‘ISIL has put a spotlight on the issue,’’ says Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives, whose parents are from the region and who advocates on behalf of Eastern Christians....

Pakistan’s Supreme Court today agreed to review the case of a Christian mother sentenced to death on a blasphemy charge, temporarily suspending her execution.Aasiya Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi, is the first woman to be sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan. The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court at the Lahore Registry admitted for hearing her petition challenging the sentence.Attorney Saif-ul-Malook told Morning Star News that he had a strong case for demanding Noreen’s acquittal.“Asia Bibi has claimed that she had not made any blasphemous remarks, and that rather her fellow villagers had leveled the allegation against her...

After five members of our military were killed in cold blood—and two others wounded—on our own soil in an act of domestic terrorism in Chattanooga, evangelist Franklin Graham dared to say what many in America were thinking:"We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad. We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the U.S. until this threat with Islam has been settled. Every Muslim who comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized—and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad," Graham said."During World War II, we didn't allow Japanese to immigrate to America,...

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision creating gay “marriage” nationwide, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is leaving it unclear for now whether they intend to allow employees in same-sex “marriages” and offer them same-sex spousal benefits. In a blog post on June 26, the day of the ruling, Cardinal Donald Wuerl indicated the archdiocese is struggling over the issue.“On a very practical level, there is a concern about the new definition of ‘spouse’ and its legal ramifications,” he said. “In this area for example, we must find a way to balance two important values, the provision of appropriate...

In a place called Magdala, along the sea of Galilee, something amazing has been going on for the past nine years.  The story begins in 2004 when Rev. Juan M. Solana, director of the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, a guest house for Christian pilgrims, was inspired to build a retreat center in the Galilee region where much of Jesus’ ministry took place.   Four plots of land were acquired on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee near the small Israeli town of Migdal and the destroyed Arab village of Al-Majdal—both named for the ancient town...

I would love to have an audio Bible recorded by Michael Savage. How about anyone else here?

Gallup has conducted a poll on the Pope's popularity, two months before he is due to visit New York, Washington and Philadelphia. Francis’ favourability rating in the US has dropped since February 2014 He is still popular, but not super-popular as he was a year ago. This is the picture that emerges from a poll conducted in the US between 8 and 12 July by consulting company Gallup. The results were published on Wednesday 22 July, just two months before Francis is due to arrive in the US, where he will be visiting New York, Washington and Philadelphia after his stop-over...

At last week’s annual NAACP convention in Philadelphia, one pastor protested the group’s support for legal abortion, using a huge, attention-grabbing poster of the confederate flag side by side with the picture of an aborted child. Under the confederate flag were the words: “Evil done to us?” while the words under the 10-week-old fetus were: “Evil done by us?” Rev. Clenard Childress, the black pastor of the New Calvary Baptist Church in Montclair, N.J, is campaigning to have the NAACP reverse its 2004 decision to endorse abortion, asking pointedly whether the black lives of aborted children matter to the NAACP....

It is really upsetting that top Democrats across the country are refusing to denounce Planned Parenthood’s abortion business, especially after the recent video showing their top doctor, Deborah Nutatola, discussing their negotiations with a business called Stem Express that purchases aborted babies’ body parts for experimentation. However, what’s even more upsetting and quite frankly unimaginable is Christians standing with Planned Parenthood. In an article posted on July 20th, writer Dan Wilkinson says he still supports the abortion giant even though he is a Christian . In summary, his reasoning is that there is nothing wrong with “donating” fetal “tissue” for...

If the role of religion in America today is to teach the faithful to bend over and kiss the ring of postmodernity and beg for forgiveness for actually believing something, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod just failed spectacularly, flubbed its lines, and fell off the stage. I, for one, am elated. Tuesday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed the grand faux pas with this somewhat ironic lede: “The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod recently carried out what various members consider the equivalent of a modern-day heresy trial.” My enthusiasm is, of course, mixed with sadness. The Rev. Dr. Matthew Becker (the hero/victim of the breathlessly...

At sundown each day during Ramadan, which ended on 17 July with the Eid-al-Fitr celebrations, observant Muslims customarily broke their fast at their evening iftar meal by eating dates. A week prior, on the evening of 10 July, 16-year-old Fawzi Osama was on the street in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria, handing out dates to those hurrying home before sundown. In a country that is 90 per cent Muslim, nearly every passer-by was, almost by definition, Muslim. Osama, however, is a Coptic Christian, and in each small plastic bag of dates he also had included a slip of paper...

Much has changed in America since the last year... since the last few months and weeks even! The hope and joy that once filled American has turned to great despair and dread concern. We have had many great challenges before in our nation's past but we have never experienced an inward hostile take over of our three branches of government as we have last week. The years of leftist preparation and incrementalism have finally paid off and they have seized the power and are now implementing their socialistic secular lawless tyrannical agenda full bore. This present state of helplessness and...

The Progressive coup has already taken place here in America and has won the day, and I challenge anyone anywhere to prove what I am saying is wrong. However the poetic justice in all this is that the Left's delusional godless Utopian visions are heading them straight into the Day of the Lord (Rev. 6-19) with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ready to greet them (Rev. 6). O Fools!! There can NEVER be a Utopia where lawlessness super abounds and apart from the saving grace of Jesus Christ and His RIGHTEOUSNESS (Dan. 2:43-44, 7:13-14, Rev. 21-22:1-5). While Conservative talk...

The remarks come from a "National Geographic" piece, which posits that Francis was elected by "more progressive cardinals" Pope Francis speaks to journalists aboard his flight from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, to Rome June 6. At left is Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) The August 2015 edition of National Geographic has a lengthy essay, "Will the Pope Change the Vatican? Or Will the Vatican Change the Pope?", that has some of the usual stuff—Francis emphasizes the poor over doctrine, he has lots of Protestant/Pentecostal friends, he lives simply—but also a few things of interest. For example, the...

On 16 July [column 766 ff] the House of Lords debated a motion moved by Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB), as follows: “That this House takes note of worldwide violations of Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the case for greater priority to be given by the United Kingdom and the international community to upholding freedom of religion and belief”. He began by quoting Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief,...

ROME – This morning, Pope Francis formally announced Father Robert Barron's appointment as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Bishop-Elect Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, host of the award-winning CATHOLICISM film series, and since 2012 has served as the Rector/President of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago, IL. His website, WordOnFire.org, reaches millions of people each year. His regular YouTube videos have been viewed over 13 million times. Next to Pope Francis, he is the most-followed Catholic leader on social media.