Free Republic

Photo: uoj.org.ua      Turks are gradually dismantling an ancient Armenian church of the Varagavank monastic complex on the slopes of Mt. Varag, in Yukarı Bakraçlı in Eastern Turkey, using its stones to construct a mosque, reports the newspaper Yeni Özgür Politika. The church was initially constructed in the 7th-8th centuries. During the period of the Armenian Kingdom, it was the place of residence of the Archbishop of Van. The monastery was abandoned after the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Kingdom in 1915. The head of the Union for the Protection of the Environment and Cultural and Historical Monuments of...

'To suggest gender diversity is an antidote to child abuse is both offensive and absurd'The head of a public body responsible for the arts in Scotland has been condemned as “poisonously anti-religious” after calling for the Church to be compelled to ordain women as priests. Ben Thomson, who chairs Creative Scotland, said greater “gender diversity” in the Church would have helped to prevent the abuse crisis. In a private submission to a government consultation, Thomson said: “The lack of women as part of the leadership in religion leads to wider problems in society … Most of the religions practised in...

Evangelical advisers to Donald Trump are requesting a meeting with Pope Francis after Vatican-backed condemnation aimed at the White House and at the political leanings of American Catholics. It comes after a prominent Jesuit journal published a criticism of US Catholics for forming an alliance with Trump-supporting conservative evangelicals to promote a 'nostalgic dream of a theocratic type of state' and a 'xenophobic and Islamophobic vision that wants walls'. The article in La Civiltà Cattolica accuses evangelicals and their Catholic supporters of misreading the Bible to promote conflict and warns against using anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage rhetorics for political mobilisation....

A nation has come before my courts attention, Its leader creating his own ascension, The cries of the innocent brought before me, Torture and murder with blasphemy, Turning his back to My very Throne(Jeremiah 17:13), Creating a temporal one of his own, Causing his subjects through fear to give him fame, Trying his best to erase My Name("Jesus Christ"), No fear of The Creator has he, So now he shall meet the angel of death and catastrophe, A boy attempting to become a man, But very soon will lose his land, The hand "is" writing on the wall, This man's...

Join with Fellow FREEPERS to Pray for our PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE and AMERICA: Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, and the Media. 'And this is the Confidence that we have in Him, that, if we Ask Anything According to His Will, He Heareth us.' 1 John 5:14 Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind.

* In the last 30 years, more mosques and Muslim prayer centers have been built in France than all the Catholic churches built in the last century. * The Church of Santa Rita used to stand in the fifteenth arrondissement of Paris. A few weeks after Father Hamel was murdered by Islamic terrorists, the French police cleared the church. It is now a parking lot. Police dragged the priests out by their legs as a Mass was being celebrated.* In France there are laws protecting old trees. But the state is free to flatten old Christian churches. The vacuums...

Pastor J.D. tries a unique approach concerning Christians and Bible prophecy with the hopes that all of us will examine ourselves by way of what Jesus had John write to two churches in the Book of Revelation.

John Haller is in Denver speaking at the Denver Prophecy Summit (www.DenverProphecySummit.com). Today's update is a 30-minute interview with Brian Schrauger of the Jerusalem Journal (www.JerusalemJournal.net) and the Chaim Report.

A Psalm for Donald Trump Psalms 31 In You, O Lord , I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me. Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me. For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me. You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength. Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O Lord , God...

President Putin has slammed Pope Francis for “pushing a political ideology instead of running a church”, and warned that the leader of the Catholic Church “is not a man of God.” “Pope Francis is using his platform to push a dangerous far-left political ideology on vulnerable people around the world, people who trust him because of his position,” Putin said. He dreams of a world government and a global communist system of repression. “As we have seen before in communist states, this system is not compatible with Christianity.” “If you look at what he (the Pope) says it’s clear that...

Catholicism was introduced in Eastern India in the late 19th Century in the State of Jharkhand as it is called now by Pioneer Belgian and Dutch Jesuit Missionaries. The most prominent of them was Father Constant Lievens S.J. -- The Apostle of Chotanagpur. He arrived in Ranchi -- The Headquarters of the Chotanagpur Plateau in 1885. He did not know at that time what the future held for him in terms of evangelization and as a Missionary Pastor too. With strong faith in God, he started educating and evangelizing Animist Oraon Tribals in Ranchi and in the surrounding areas too....

EU, George Soros acting against the will of the peopleBUDAPEST, Hungary (ChurchMilitant.com) - The leader of Hungary is warning that an effort to de-Christianize Europe is underway. Speaking in Romania in July, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke of a deliberate plan to transform Europe into a "mixed, Islamicized" society. "In Brussels," he warned, "an alliance has been forged against the opinion of the people." Orbán said Europe is being prepared to surrender its heritage and identity: We are observing the conscious, step-by-step implementation of this policy. In order for this to happen, for the territory to be ready to...

At a memorial Mass this week for a Cameroon bishop who died under mysterious circumstances, a cleric who's taken over as the administrator of the diocese charged that the authors of the murder were in the church, "pretending to sympathize," and that the bishop died for standing up against gays in the priesthood.YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon - Ever since the body of Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala of Bafia, Cameroon, was discovered in a local river about four miles from where his car had been abandoned, questions have abounded about his death - was it suicide, as the police allege, or a...

The Christian population in nine Middle Eastern states is 14,526,000, down from 14,740,000 in 2010, according to a report published by the Vatican newspaper. The total population of Cyprus, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey is 258 million. The report draws on a recent study by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association on Christians in the Middle East. The study documented sharp recent and historical declines in Christian population: * in Syria, from 2.2 million (2010) to 1.2 million * in Egypt, from 19% of the population (1910) to 10% * in Lebanon, from 53% (1932) to...

Staff at Felbrigg Hall refused to wear the badge in protest at a film that 'outs' the estate's last ownerThe National Trust has told workers at a historic house they are barred from meeting and greeting visitors if they are not wearing a rainbow badge or lanyard symbolising gay rights. Mike Holmes, 72, is one of ten volunteers at Felbrigg Hall facing relegation to back-office tasks for refusing to wear the badges. “There’s a group of about ten of us that have volunteered for more than ten years, and we have now been told that if we don’t toe the...

07/31/2017 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern) - The liberation of Mosul came after nine hard months of fighting and three brutish years of occupation. All eyes have fixated on this noteworthy event; however, just south in Baghdad, eight churches have been closed due to the significant loss of the Christian populace. The eight Baghdad churches were closed in May of 2017, after nearly seven years of low to no attendance. After the regional Catholic Church authority visited the churches, the Vatican decided that it was best to close the doors for good. While this makes logistical sense, it represents a...

Relics of Fr Solanus Casey, who fed the hungry during the Great Depression, were collected and sent to RomeThe remains of Fr Solanus Casey were exhumed on Tuesday as part of the canonical process that precedes the saintly Capuchin Franciscan friar’s beatification Mass in November. The purpose of the exhumation, according to the Capuchin Province of St Joseph and the Archdiocese of Detroit, was to both officially identify the body and to collect relics that will be used to venerate Fr Casey after he is beatified on November 18. Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit presided over the private exhumation service,...

A 5-day international cross procession to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra in Western Ukraine ended on August 3, with the Pochaev Mother of God Icon to be celebrated on Saturday, August 5. Pilgrims report that upon the entrance to the lavra, at the end of the trek, they saw a cross in the sky, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists. A similar phenomenon took place on May 19, when believers gathered outside the Verkhnova Rada in Kiev to protest two religious bills that were to be considered by the Ukrainian parliament. A cross was seen in the sky, and a...

Let's take a moment to celebrate a religious liberty victory. It doesn't happen often so let's cherish it. In the most unexpected news of the day, the state of Wisconsin cannot legally force Christian photographer Amy Lynn to photograph same-sex weddings, a court has said. Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs said, “The court’s announcement has important implications for everyone in Wisconsin who values artistic freedom. It means that government officials must allow creative professionals without storefronts anywhere in the city and state the freedom to make their own decisions about which ideas they will use their artistic expression...

Two people close to Pope Francis have accused ultra-conservative American Catholics of making an alliance of “hate” with evangelical Christians to back Donald Trump. Catholic priest Antonio Spadaro and Protestant theologian Marcelo Figueroa published a joint article in La Civilta Cattolica, a journal published by Jesuit priests in Rome and overseen by the Vatican, in which they denounced US Catholics for supporting the extremist positions of the American right, saying the world view of hard-line Catholics is “not too far apart” from that Islamist jihadists.