Free Republic

FULL TITLE: Illinois Law Allowing Abortion Up to Birth Faces Legal Challenge Over Forcing Christians to Fund Abortions The new Illinois law allowing abortions up to birth faces its first legal challenge — in part because it forces Christians to fund abortions. As LifeNews reported this Spring, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law allowing abortions for any reason up to birth and forcing every state insurance plan to cover them. That last part is what is earning the law its first legal battle. Today, the the Thomas More Society filed a complaint against Illinois’ Reproductive Health Act with the...

A Lehigh Valley man admitted he sent messages threatening to harm members of the Little Sisters of the Poor, an organization of nuns that provides shelter and charity to elderly people. Jaan Kruus Jr., 55, pleaded guilty in federal court Friday in Allentown to sending a threatening message to the organization in Washington, D.C. As part of a plea deal, a second charge was dropped. The Emmaus resident admitted he emailed this message Feb. 3, 2017. The capitalization and punctuation are verbatim: “Get out of my country now or else. We know where you live and work!! And are coming...

Glenn Davies’ blunt words come at a critical moment for Australian churches amid demands for religious freedomFor a man renowned for his civility, the language was blunt. During his annual speech to the Anglican Church’s Sydney synod, Archbishop Glenn Davies told supporters of same-sex marriage to “please leave us”. “My own view is that if people wish to change the doctrine of our church, they should start a new church or join a church more aligned to their views,” he said. “But do not ruin the Anglican Church by abandoning the plain teaching of scripture.” In a report published on...

ROME - Some 40 bishops participating in the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon gathered Sunday in the Catacombs of St. Domitilla in Rome to renew a pact signed in 1965 by 42 prelates at the Second Vatican Council calling for a poor church. Though both “Pacts of the Catacombs” were inspired by a commitment to building a poor church for the poor, there are striking differences between the 1965 original and the one signed this time around, including length. This week’s pact is rooted in the Amazon, and some elements may be harder to embrace by the universal Church,...

MADRID (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Spanish therapist and professional coach has been charged with committing a "very severe infraction" against an LGBTI law passed in 2016 and fined 20,001 euros. Elena Lorenzo has been sanctioned for helping people overcome unwanted same-sex attraction and promoting "homosexuality healing therapies." The therapist has responded by saying that she has "never" offered homosexuality healing therapies, but serves as personal 'coach' for people who have expressed a desire to "leave same-sex attraction behind." Lorenzo describes herself as a "victim of a political persecution," saying the sanction represents "a very serious warning to those of us who...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet with His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, the Chairman of the Russian Church’s Department for External Church Relations, in Washington D.C. today. The public schedule published on the Department of State’s website reads: “3:30 p.m. Secretary Pompeo meets with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, at the Department of State. (CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE).”Met. Hilarion was in New York City over the weekend for the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the beginning of the ministry of St. Raphael (Hawaweeny) in North America and the centenary of St. Nicholas Cathedral of the Antiochian Orthodox...

From time to time, interest in the long-ago made prophecy of the end times by Roman Catholic Archbishop Malachy will flare up again, and people will write in and ask what we think about it. Well, there is no trustworthy prophecy outside of the Bible, it begins with Genesis 1 and ends with Revelation 22, and honestly that is that. That said, Malachy at the very least was astute in his consideration of the Roman system on many levels. Things he got right in his “prophecy” is that the Roman Catholic Church does indeed sit on 7 hills, and it...

A few days ago men removed some female figurines (centerpieces for several weird ceremonies in Rome the last few weeks) from a church and tossed them into the Tiber River. Vatican spokesman Paolo Ruffini dismissed the act as a “stunt”. Regardless of how one assess this act, however, I think it not accurate to describe it as a mere “stunt”. A “stunt” is a gesture that calls attention to a problem but does not itself solve the problem. For example, chaining oneself to a lamppost could call attention to the plight of the unjustly imprisoned but does not itself free...

Kanye West brings Sunday Service to Salt Lake City outside of Gateway Center, Oct. 5, 2019. | Screenshot: Youtube/PARIS WORLD Hip Hop artist Kanye West declared himself a born-again Christian while visiting Washington, D.C. on October 12. “I’m not here for your entertainment,” West said during Howard University’s Homecoming. “We’re here to spread the Gospel.”In a video published by the entertainment site TMZ, West is heard directing the audience’s attention to Philippians chapter 2 before adding, “Excuse me if I mispronounce anything, I’m a recent convert. Means I recently got saved within this year.” One clip shows West reading Ephesians...

(RNS) — Evangelical pastor John MacArthur, speaking at a celebration of his 50th year in pulpit ministry this week, weighed in on an ongoing debate in the Southern Baptist Convention over women preachers, claiming the nation’s largest Protestant denomination has lost faith in the authority of the Bible. He claimed the SBC had taken a “headlong plunge” toward allowing women preachers at its annual meeting this summer. That, he said, was a sign the denomination no longer believed in biblical authority. “When you literally overturn the teaching of Scripture to empower people who want power, you have given up biblical...

Early this morning, some Catholic men entered St. Maria in Traspontina, near the Vatican, grabbed several of the wooden idols involved in the recent sacrilegious ceremonies and tossed them into the Tiber River.

The People’s Republic of China destroyed a church that reportedly could seat 3,000 people and detained its pastors, according to a human rights organization.China Aid, an international nonprofit Christian human rights group based in Texas, reported the incident in a statement released Saturday. According to the group, Chinese authorities provided no legal papers to justify the demolition.The church was located in Funan, Anhui province. Its pastors, Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao, were detained under suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.”China Aid President Bob Fu said in a statement that the incident was “yet another clear example showing...

A US fast-food chain will cease trading at its first UK outlet amid a row over donations to anti-LGBT groups. Gay rights campaigners called for a boycott of Chick-fil-A, which opened its first branch at The Oracle shopping centre in Reading on 10 October. A spokeswoman for the centre said "the right thing to do" was to not extend the restaurant's lease beyond the "six-month pilot period". Chick-fil-A said its donations were purely focused on youth and education. The family-owned company, founded in Atlanta in 1967, is one of the biggest fast-food chains in the USA and boasts about 2,400...

ROME - Some 54 years ago, 42 bishops participating in the Second Vatican Council signed what’s known as the “Pact of the Catacombs,” committing to living simply like the poorest of their parishioners. Early Sunday morning in Rome, some of the 180 bishops participating in the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon will make a pilgrimage to the Catacombs of Domitilla on the outskirts of Rome to renew that promise. The information was first published by the Brazilian news site Dom, and Crux confirmed it Saturday with Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimenez, who said the gesture is not...

Moscow, October 17, Interfax - The Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate has warned the bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church about the consequences that the recognition by them of the non-canonical Church of Ukraine (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine - OCU) may have. "The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church authorizes the Holy Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia to stop mentioning His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and All Greece in the diptychs if the head of the Greek Orthodox Church starts mentioning in his services the head of one of Ukraine's schismatic groups or takes other actions...

According to reports, the 2020 General Conference of the United Methodist Church meeting in  Minneapolis will consider how to structure what is hoped to be an amicable and orderly breakup of the second largest Protestant church in America.  But of course, the breakup is not news since the Methodists have been anything but united when it comes to how to deal with the LBGTQ+ issues.  of what church leaders hope can be an amicable, and orderly, breakup of a worldwide church that is the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States. When the conference earlier this year failed...

The American Center for Law & Justice represents the Everett, Washington, chapter of The Church at Planned Parenthood. The Church at Planned Parenthood-Everett (“TCAPP”) is an organization that hosts a “gathering of Christians for the worship of God and the corporate prayer for repentance for this nation, repentance for the apathetic church and repentance of our blood guiltiness in this abortion holocaust.” In April 2019, TCAPP began holding monthly worship services in Everett, near the Planned Parenthood Everett Health Center. In June, TCAPP was approached by City of Everett law enforcement officers who stated that the City of Everett had...

The best summary and explanation you will see or hear on the president's decision to withdraw some troops from Syria. A necessary adjunct to all the popular media you have been watching or listening to on the subject. There is a lot of deception out there, some of it intentional as all freepers know. Do not be dismayed by events, and here's why.

Theodore McCarrick, a former D.C. archbishop and cardinal who was defrocked this year amid allegations that he sexually abused two minors and sexually harassed seminarians, is facing new accusations that he abused at least seven boys from about 1970 until 1990, according to three sources, including a person with direct knowledge of the claims U.S. church officials sent to the Vatican in January. In addition, six allegations of sexual abuse by seminarians and former seminarians also were sent to Rome, according to this last person. In an interview, an accuser told The Washington Post that many of the boys knew...

Moscow, October 18, Interfax - The liberal idea is foreign to the Russian mentality and is no good for Russian people, the first deputy head of the Synodal Department for Church's Relations with Society and Mass Media, Alexander Shchipkov, said. "Liberalism is not beneficial for Russians, neither in a conservative package, nor in a social one. The societal caste model and the ability of some to survive at the expense of others do not coincide with what is written in the Gospel. We need a value-based traditionalism, which corresponds to our identity," Shchipkov said at a meeting of the World...