Free Republic

In the new climate of liberal intolerance, conservative Christians can’t even find refuge by agreeing with Elizabeth Warren. Just ask Michael Lindsay, president of Gordon College. On July 1, 2014, he signed a letter to President Obama — writing as an individual rather than in his institutional capacity — exercising his most basic First Amendment right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The letter, signed by a number of Christian leaders and scholars — including the CEO of Catholic Charities and Rick Warren, famous pastor of Saddleback Church — dealt with the president’s then-imminent executive order banning...

Over the past few weeks, I have received no less than three inquiries regarding the early church’s celebration of the Lord’s Table and its implications for the evangelical church today. Two of these inquiries have come from Roman Catholics, each of whom has suggested that the Roman Catholic practice of transubstantiation best represents the way the Lord’s Table was observed in the first few centuries of church history. Over the past few weeks, I have received no less than three inquiries regarding the early church’s celebration of the Lord’s Table and its implications for the evangelical church today. Two of...

Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney have gotten much of the attention in these early days of the Republican race for president, but as they court the party’s elite donors in private phone calls and meetings, a group of likely candidates to their right are just as eagerly chasing support among Christian evangelicals and social conservatives. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal led a prayer rally that filled the basketball arena at Louisiana State University on Saturday. Called “The Response,” organizers billed the event as a national call to pray “for a nation that has not honored God in our success or humbly...

efore Mike Huckabee ran in the 2008 Iowa caucuses, Lori Jungling, a mother of four in Altoona, about 15 minutes outside Des Moines, had never been involved in a presidential campaign. Actually, Jungling had never even bothered to vote. But in 2007, the message from the Baptist minister-turned-Republican Arkansas governor made its way to Jungling’s personal faith-first foundation, and soon enough she was volunteering—a lot. Calls, emails, tweets, events. She even served as state director for Huck PAC, Huckabee’s 2008 grassroots political action committee. She didn’t take one dime. “He believes what I believe,” she told me. That’s the kind...

Evangelical Christian Republicans would have a serious problem with Charlie Hebdo were it to mock Christians in America, says former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele. “It would be a real, real problem for a lot of grassroots evangelicals out there, particularly with respect to the sense of attack on them personally,” said Steele, appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “It’s a real balancing act,” he continued, “between . . . that feeling of expression and wanting to be free to do that, and then the personal feeling I have when you express yourself, and I feel like...

If evangelical Christianity is famous for anything in contemporary American politics, it is for its complete opposition to gay marriage. Now, slowly yet undeniably, evangelicals are changing their minds. Every day, evangelical communities across the country are arriving at new crossroads over marriage. My magazine story for TIME this week, “A Change of Heart,” is a deep dive into the changing allegiances and divides in evangelical churches and communities over homosexuality. In public, so many churches and pastors are afraid to talk about the generational and societal shifts happening. But behind the scenes, it’s a whole different game. Support for...

If evangelical Christianity is famous for anything in contemporary American politics, it is for its complete opposition to gay marriage. Now, slowly yet undeniably, evangelicals are changing their minds.Every day, evangelical communities across the country are arriving at new crossroads over marriage. My magazine story for TIME this week, “A Change of Heart,” is a deep dive into the changing allegiances and divides in evangelical churches and communities over homosexuality. In public, so many churches and pastors are afraid to talk about the generational and societal shifts happening. But behind the scenes, it’s a whole different game. Support for gay...

His coalition of evangelicals could be broken up by new alternatives like Ted Cruz.Mike Huckabee loyalists still believe their guy was screwed in 2008. After pulling off an impressive upset of the better-funded Mitt Romney in the Iowa presidential caucuses, the former Arkansas governor eyed a second Republican primary win in South Carolina. His allies are convinced the Palmetto State should’ve been his for the taking – if not for the peculiar, lethargic candidacy of former Sen. Fred Thompson, a friend of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who siphoned conservative voters from Huckabee in South Carolina. Thompson’s 16 percent slice of...

With Reformation Day coming up, this is a good time to recall why the Reformers departed from Roman Catholicism. In our day especially, it seems that many Christians have history-amnesia when it comes to the importance of what God did through the Reformers. During the Reformation, great confusion existed regarding what was, and was not, the true church of Christ. Rome had asserted itself as the true church for centuries, and continues to do so today. However, as the Reformers recognized then, Christians must follow in step today by recalling that joining hands with Rome is a departure from Christ....

There’s no doubt the Huck will need bucks if he’s going to make a successful run for the GOP nomination, but that’s not the only challenge he faces.Last night, Mike Huckabee bid adieu to his show on Fox, and made his interest in the 2016 Republican presidential nomination a matter of public record. Unlike former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Huckabee is not immediately forming an exploratory committee. Still, the prospect of a Huckabee candidacy should be taken seriously. He finished second in 2008 behind John McCain, and maintains a reservoir of good will among...

Newsweek is back and this time it is fully a leftist rag. It’s latest is Christian troll bait written by non-religious scholar Kurt Eichenwald of Vanity Fair who, if you’ve ever paid attention to him, holds Christianity in disdain to begin with. So of course a guy who hates Christianity is going to attack it. His attacks, for knowledgeable Christians, are silly fabrications and half-truths. But then Eichenwald is not really writing for Christians, but against them. He’s writing to the secularists trying to buttress their faith in their gods. Al Mohler has a well written rebuttal as does Michael...

One of the reasons that Republicans won the midterm elections is because white evangelicals turned out, while Democratic-leaning groups stayed home. For good and for ill, white evangelicals are one of the most effectively organized groups in American politics, and they reliably vote Republican. We should all be asking what we can learn from conservative evangelicals about how to energize voters in midterms. Back in October, pollster Robert Jones argued that white evangelicals were declining as a percentage of the population, even in the South. This could have been bad news for Republicans, who counted on loyal support from white...

Much more than a single article could be written detailing all the ways in which American evangelical Protestantism looks very different from the early church. Certainly not all of the developments in our external circumstances or internal practices have been for the worse. But one key way in which American evangelicals have not been closely hewing to the faithful biblical example of our spiritual forefathers and foremothers is in the basic attitude and response we often have towards what to do about blatant unfaithfulness within the church itself. People often romantically long for the purity of "the New Testament church."...

In a new video, megachurch leader and author Rick Warren is calling for Christians to unite with Roman Catholics and “Pope Francis,” who Warren recently referred to as the “Holy Father”—a move that is raising concerns among Christians nationwide and is resulting in calls for Warren to repent. Warren made the comments following his visit to the Vatican last month, where he spoke at an interfaith conference on the “Complementarity of Man and Woman.”...

In a new video, megachurch leader and author Rick Warren is calling for Christians to unite with Roman Catholics and “Pope Francis,” who Warren recently referred to as the “Holy Father”—a move that is raising concerns among Christians nationwide and is resulting in calls for Warren to repent. Warren made the comments following his visit to the Vatican last month, where he spoke at an interfaith conference on the “Complementarity of Man and Woman.” “We have far more in common than what divides us,” he said in the two-minute video released by the Catholic News Service on Wednesday, described as...

Rob and Linda Robertson did what they believed was expected of them as good Christians. When their 12-year-old son Ryan said he was gay, they told him they loved him, but he had to change. He entered “reparative therapy,” met regularly with his pastor and immersed himself in Bible study and his church youth group. After six years, nothing changed. A despondent Ryan cut off from his parents and his faith, started taking drugs and in 2009, died of an overdose. “Now we realize we were so wrongly taught,” said Rob Robertson, a firefighter for more than 30 years who...

NEW YORK – Sen. Ted Cruz is in a crowded ballroom full of Zionists this Sunday evening, headlining an annual Zionist Organization of America dinner. “Standing with Israel and strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance is critical for our nation and has been a key priority from the very first day I arrived in the US Senate,” he said at a VIP reception beforehand. “The threats to Israel right now have never been greater, and now is a time when we do not need leaders who simply speak empty words of support for Israel,” he said in a well-received speech. “We need...

Throughout November, The Huffington Post UK is featuring its Beyond Belief series, chronicling those who've taken on faith to create a force for change."You’re the anti-Christ, you will be destroyed,” screamed an incensed heckler during a speech by Barack Obama in June this year. It was not the first time Obama had heard this very pointed line, nor was he the first President to hear it. Anti-Obama rallies are often decorated with signs or t-shirts carrying overtly religious messages, whether it’s likening him to the Devil, demanding that Christian prayers be returned to schools or suggesting that America has a...

Warren Cole Smith is the associate publisher of WORLD Magazine. He is the author or co-author of several books, including A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church and Prodigal Press. We asked him to give us 10 things he wishes everyone knew about evangelicals.1. Evangelicals share a common belief. Being an evangelical actually means something doctrinally and theologically, namely that salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Evangelicalism is not, or not merely, a demographical subset or sociological tribe. An evangelical is someone who both believes and wants to share with others this evangel, this...

What’s Christian about evangelical authors using shady business tactics in a bid to boost visibility on bestseller lists? In January 2012, former megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll’s book Real Marriage went to the top spot on the Hardcover Advice section of The New York Times best-seller list. In March 2014, it was disclosed by evangelical magazine, World, that Driscoll’s publishing success was aided by a consulting firm called ResultSource, which purchased books on behalf of Driscoll in a coordinated effort to spike sales and give the impression that the book was popular with thousands of book buyers. Driscoll recently resigned from...