Free Republic

Kerala, India, Sep 11, 2014 / 05:03 pm (CNA).- A former Muslim imam who converted to Christianity believes that God protected him from death threats and torture at the hands of his family members. “The holy Quran converted me to Christianity,” said Mario Joseph, a former imam who shared the story of his conversion and subsequent persecution with the HM Television program “Changing Tracks,” broadcast by the EUK Mamie Foundation run by the Home of the Mother religious community. The English-language interview, first posted in April 2014, now has more than 250,000 views on YouTube. Mario Joseph grew up in...

Brendan Gleeson stars in a scene from the movie "Calvary." (CNS photo/Patrick Redmond, Twentieth Century Fox) St. Pope John Paul II said that a priest should have the heart of Christ the Good Shepherd. Far too many saccharine paintings of effeminate Jesuses in the midst of delicate lambs are conducive to a misconstrual of the image as something sentimental and harmless. But shepherds not only had the smell of their sheep (to use Pope Francis’ language), but they also wielded a stick, meant to bring back strays and to fend off threats. Real shepherding was, and is, a dirty...

Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo, the head of a Chaldean Catholic eparchy based in San Diego, will travel to the White House with a list of 25,000 Iraqi Catholics who seek entry into the United States. “Requests have been made to White House for an increase in the number of visas issued, to be granted to those who wish and desire to leave Iraq,” reported a California-based Chaldean news site. “In response to a request from the White House, St. Peter's Diocese has been compiling a list of names for our brothers and sisters in Iraq that want to escape persecution.”...

The Rev Ian Paisley, Protestant firebrand and former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, has died at the age of 88. The Rev Paisley served as First Minister of Northern Ireland for a year when power was first devolved in 2007. His deputy, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin, expressed sadness at the news of his death. “Over a number of decades we were political opponents and held very different views on many, many issues but the one thing we were absolutely united on was the principle that our people were better able to govern themselves than any British government,” he...

FULL TITLE: Satanists Sell Out Controversial Oklahoma 'Black Mass' Event, Will Stage Exorcism Despite Christian Protests (Photo: Facebook/The Satanic Temple) Satanic rights activists outside Harvard Square, after the "black mass" was cancelled by Harvard.The Satanist group that will stage a controversial "black mass" at an Oklahoma City civic center has said that all 88 tickets for its Sept. 21 event are sold out. The co-founder of the group revealed that the ritual will go ahead despite strong Christian protests and will feature a satanic exorcism, but will be "toned down" to comply with state health laws."One of the dictates of...

Radical Islamists seem intent on conquest. It has always been so. From the beginning and down through the ages, radical jihadists have attempted to convert people to their religion by force. “Convert” they cry “or we have nothing to offer you but the sword.”

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Questions surround a Washington, D.C. conference whose stated purpose was to gather lawmakers, Eastern and Western churches, community leaders and a variety of Christian groups to confront the problem of genocide being perpetrated against Christians by ISIS. According to Alana Goodman, writing at the Washington Free Beacon, In Defense of Christians (IDC) was funded by a controversial Clinton donor that featured pro-Hezbollah and pro-Assad speakers. Clinton donor and Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury, who pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009, reportedly provided funding for the IDC summit. Chagoury, says the Free Beacon, also has backed Lebanese politician...

This past Sunday, Charisma News published an article by Gary Cass, the CEO and President of DefendChristians.org. The article was entitled, “Why I am Absolutely Islamaphobic.” They subsequently removed the post, no doubt in response to a #takedownthatpost campaign. Because the article was focusing specifically on formulating a Christian response, and because of the gravity of the article’s proposal, I will persist in my response. The article can still be found on the defendChrstians.org website. Gary Cass’ Three Options The article surveys many examples of Islamic extremism around the world, including ISIS, and argues that Christians are faced with only...

Pope Benedict XVI lectured on faith and reason at the University of Regensburg in Germany in this Sept. 12, 2006, file photo. A quotation from a Byzantine emperor that the pope used in this talk provoked outrage in the Muslim world. Eight years ago this Friday, Sept. 12, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a lecture at the University of Regensburg in Bavaria in which he seemed to diagnose Islam as a religion inherently flawed by fanaticism. It was an undiplomatic assertion, to say the least — especially coming a day after the 9/11 anniversary — and it sparked an enormous...

Cardinal Francis George, head of the Catholic archdiocese of Chicago, said the levers of power in government, education, entertainment, and media are enforcing a “public creed,” a “fake church” that requires all citizens to approve of gay marriage and related sexual anomalies or be punished by the State, just “as Christians and Jews are fined for their religion in countries governed by Sharia law.” Cardinal George, who was president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 2007-10, made his remarks in his Sept. 7 column for the archdiocesean newspaper. In his commentary, the cardinal explains that America, despite...

Today ( thirteen years after 9/11), as the global events and the godless out workings of base (corrupt) man continue at a “breakneck” speed, the stage is being set for the horrific events on the horizon called “The Tribulation Period”, or “The Day of the Lord” (Matt. 24:21-22). The entire world - including America - will be absolutely oblivious to the realities and dire consequences of events to unfold during that time. Ever since the civilization of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9), the world has basically lived in a godless delusion of apathy and subjective narcissism. They have willfully rejected the eternal...

The Vatican yesterday published the names of participants for the upcoming Synod on the Family, but strangely absent from the list are experts from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family, despite the organisation having a faculty in Rome. Professors from the Institute have been some of the most vocal in criticising the possibility of changing pastoral practice regarding Holy Communion for divorced and “remarried” Catholics. Family life will be the focus of the extraordinary general assembly of the Synod of Bishops that will meet at the Vatican between 5-19 October 2014. The 150...

Cardinal George: US is adopting ‘official religion’ on homosexuality that is reminiscent of sharia Catholic World News - September 10, 2014 In an archdiocesan newspaper column, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said that American law has “taken upon itself the mantle of a religion and officially told its citizens what they must personally think or what ‘values’ they must personalize in order to deserve to be part of the country.” He writes: Since the biblical vision of what it means to be human tells us that not every friendship or love can be expressed in sexual relations, the Church’s teaching...

As summer turns to autumn, the most compelling storyline in Rome is a highly anticipated summit of Catholic bishops from around the world, which shapes up as a key test of how much the status quo in the Church has been upended by a charismatic pope from a foreign land who’s taken the world by storm. Called a “Synod of Bishops”, the meeting seems destined to grapple with the contentious issue of the Church’s ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Communion. Although the Vatican’s German doctrinal czar warns no change is possible, his admonition does little to stifle the...

Dear Joel and Victoria, I hope and pray that you will read this letter and that you take to heart the things I'm sharing. I write as a friend wanting to help, not an enemy wanting to hurt, and everything I write, I write out of love for God, love for you, and love for the church and the world. I have said many times that I'm glad to see your smiling faces on TV as you speak about Jesus rather than some stern-faced, joyless, angry Christian leader. And I believe you genuinely do care about people and want them...

My interest in homeschooling was first sparked nearly 20 years ago, when I was a socially awkward adolescent with a chaotic family life. I became close to a conservative Christian homeschooling family that seemed perfect in every way. Through my connection to this family, I was introduced to a whole world of conservative Christian homeschoolers, some of whom we would now consider “Quiverfull” families: homeschooling conservatives who eschew any form of family planning and choose instead to “trust God” with matters related to procreation. Though I fell out of touch with my homeschooled friends as we grew older, a few...

The Obama administration announced today it will continue its legal battle against the Little Sisters of the Poor, a religious order of nuns dedicated to serving the neediest elderly in society. This comes despite the fact that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby and another company in their bid to stop the HHS mandate

Homosexual activists in New York are pressing organizers of the St. Patrick's Day parade to include more gay-rights groups in the march. Following up on last week's announcement that Out@NBCUniversal would be allowed to enter the 2015 parade, a group called Irish Queers announced on September 9 that it was applying for a place in the parade. "We want to march up Fifth Avenue as an Irish diaspora that has finally joined Ireland in rejecting religion-fueled bigotry," said a spokesman.

Moscow, September 10, Interfax - ISIS militants control about 40% of Iraq and 30% of Syria and affiliated structures are seizing lands from Somalia and Sudan to Nigeria and inner districts of Sahara, Institute for Middle East Studies President Yevgeny Satanovsky said. "ISIS is not just a radicalized organization, it is also rich. It controls oil fields and gains $2 million daily from oil contraband. It makes tens of millions of dollars in abducting foreigners for ransom. It robs banks and plants on seized territories; it is also involved in trafficking in human beings and sells women whose husbands have...

Resign Cardinal Dolan. Resign now for the sake of your soul.