Free Republic

The Bible is the ultimate lesson giver. This is certainly true in the story about Jephthah’s tragic mistake, which confirms Robert Service’s truth: A promise made is a debt unpaid. In Robert Service’s poem, “The Cremation Of Sam McGee,” one line reads, “A promise made is a debt unpaid,” which reminds me of a story told to me by my boyhood best friend and mentor, Jaybird, by far the best storyteller I have ever known. The old black man had a powerful memory, and never forgot any of the Biblical tales read to him by his children or me, and...

A seventh grade student in Katy, Texas says that her reading teacher instructed her class that God is a “myth” and that any student who says God is a “fact” or an “opinion” is wrong. Jordan Wooley, a straight-A student at the West Memorial Junior High School–part of the Katy Independent School District (ISD)-said she and her classmates were told by their reading teacher that God is not real and that answers to the contrary would warrant their grades being docked. According to a report in Covering Katy, Jordan and her class were administered a test on the existence of...

EAG – A Texas seventh-grader is standing up for her religious beliefs after she alleges her teacher forced students to deny that God is real, and threatened them with failing grades if they don’t agree. Jordan Wooley, a seventh grade student at West Memorial Junior High School in the Katy Independent School District, testified at a school board meeting last night about an assignment in her reading class that caused a serious controversy, and expressed frustration about her teacher’s atheist indoctrination. “Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith and told me that God was not...

Citizens in the West are just not educated to this truth. The secular humanists among us are becoming very powerful. Teacher's unions like the NEA have a monopoly on education in the West. They brainwash our children in their Nature worship and force upon them their "faith" that this cosmos created itself. As "true believers" evolutionists insist that organic life sprang up fully functional from inorganic chemicals. And how did that happen? The evolution faithful say it happened by a "Big Bang" and other random meaningless non-intelligently designed completely accidental acts of cosmic kindness. These secularist elitist set the curricula...

Mankind’s enduring “culture war” is nothing new. It first began in a garden long ago and today has reached a fever pitch worldwide. The battle lines are drawn, not so much between conservative vs. liberal, as many presume, but, rather, between biblical vs. unbiblical, truth vs. deception. In its most distilled form the culture war signifies the worldly manifestation of an otherworldy spiritual battle between good and evil. African Cardinal Robert Sarah, a man many view as a potential future pope, recently made news by boldly drilling down into this reality. During the Vatican’s ongoing Synod of Bishops, Sarah noted...

Never has there been a time in history requiring that an individual be equipped with critical thinking skills more than now. The biggest problem that America is facing today is the inability of the vast majority of the citizenry to think critically. Matt Drudge went so far as to say that Americans are sick. Lack of the ability to think critically is a mental symptom that affects all people regardless of their level of education, economic status, age, race, ethnicity, sex, or political party (although it appears that liberals are more likely to lack such skills). If we are to...

Darkness abounds. Nonetheless wisdom beckons, reminding those who'll listen to make the very best of the dark days we're in rather than allowing these dark days to get the best of us. However, that's not easy. Darkness is easier to adapt to than light. Here in Alaska, summer's glaring midnight sun is pretty offensive at bedtime. But the extra light is good, providing lots of time for healthy activities, leaving a healthier, better you at summer's end. In sharp contrast, winters up here offer minimal light. The lack of light makes it feel almost natural to do what's in reality,...

Editor's Note: The following column is satire.To the limited extent they actually do, have you ever wondered how so-called “progressives” think? The progressive mind – let’s call it, “Progressy” – collectively hovers, like the Hindenburg, in that fantastical realm, that manmade utopia in waiting, that “fundamentally transformed” world that might only be, if … Hitler got it mostly wrong, Stalin, somewhat right, and Mao, with his “Great Leap Forward,” warmer still. Marx and Engels were red-hot-close, but, they, too, missed the mark, if only by an inch. Today’s hipper, gentler, more progressivish progressives are confident that, if we’d only give...

Obama may not be willing to stand up for Christians, but God is. I don't always know how He's going to do it, but I'll take His protection over that of Vladimir Putin any day - and you should too. A friend of mine responded to the headline as follows: “Hitler said the same thing in 1933.” Lest you get concepts confused, I don’t think Putin is talking about riding in shirtless on a horse to defend the rights of Christian bakeries and florists, nor to save the would-be victims of Christian-hating gunmen. But the threat he references is not...

 There’s nothing necessarily wrong with children learning about Islam. But learning about Islam to the exclusion of Christianity, and that Allah is the same God worshipped by Jews and Christians, has a lot of parents angry. Several Walton County parents say their children are being forced to learn about Islam, and want the option to exclude their children from these lessons. The teaching of Islam has banded together a group of upset parents. “My daughter had to learn the Shiad, and the five pillars of Islam, which is what you learn to convert, but they never once learned anything...

I am looking for a good study Bible that will really help the reader understand God's Word. I prefer it in NKJV. I currently have the Tyndale Life Application Study Bible. That may be the best out there but I'm doubting that as the notes will skip swaths of scripture or not really explain well enough to grasp. So, being as freepers ARE the smartest, most resourceful bunch in the whole wide world, I would really welcome your input and direction on this.

God “saw all the things that he had made and they were very good” yet EPA policies imply God’s creation, especially CO2-exhaling humans, is very bad. Who’s right? Today, I’ll use science to prove God right and the EPA wrong in its war on men—and the energy, safety and jobs men extract from refining natural resources like coal and oil. In Genesis 1:26-31, God makes men in His “image and likeness,” and tells men to “fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that...

There is an old, simple story that teaches a profound lesson: “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of the shoe, the horse was lost. For want of the horse, the rider was lost. For want of the rider, the message was lost. For want of the message, the battle was lost. For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost.” What would have happened in the history of the world if Jacob had not given Joseph a colorful coat? No coat, no jealousy. No jealousy, no treacherous sale of Joseph to Midianite traders. No sale...

Watch for yourself how he answers. The Federalist translates it as “God’s Great, But Let’s Talk About My Amazing Business Deals.” I mean this in all sincerity: As an atheist, I respect Trump for not even trying to BS his supporters with a smoothly rehearsed answer about the extent of his Christian devotion. It’d be the easiest thing in the world for him to call up a socially conservative friend and ask for pointers on how he should respond to questions like this to impress evangelicals, then script a tidy 30-second response. He doesn’t even need pointers, really; anyone...

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers insisted throughout the week that he wouldn’t be thinking about anything that had happened in past games with the Seattle Seahawks as the two teams prepared for a rematch. But after the Packers beat the Seahawks 27-17 in Green Bay Sunday night, Rodgers made a comment that appeared to show some of the history with the Seahawks was on his mind. Specifically, comments Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson made after the NFC Championship game crediting the Seahawks’ comeback to God. Asked after the game a question about the Packers have been able to create and deal...

Let's get something straight. America has never been a "Christian nation." Those who believe otherwise have an obligation to say what part of our history was uniquely Christian. Was it when slavery was legal? How about when women were denied the vote? The Gilded Age? The Roaring '20s? America is a nation in which Christians -- and every other religious and nonreligious person -- have the right to practice their beliefs in private and public free of government intrusion, except in some cases of life-threatening medical conditions in which the courts have occasionally intruded. It may make some evangelicals feel...

America, and the West, seem to be sinking into the abyss, and itÂ’s time to ask: Is GodÂ’s judgement now inevitable? In contemplating the answer, we should consider some of the obvious reasons why judgment could come soon: The blood of millions of innocent lives is shed and body parts are sold for profit in this country, while our government supports and funds such monstrous activity.GodÂ’s purpose in Creation, and His declared purpose for marriage, has been ignored and ruled against by the highest court in the land.Police authority is devalued by a great many people and undermined by political...

As a defiant Kentucky clerk sat in jail Friday, choosing indefinite imprisonment over licensing gay marriages, her lawyers approached the microphones outside and compared her to Dr. Martin Luther King. Around the country, other supporters reached for Biblical heroes, comparing her to Silas and Daniel, imprisoned for their faith and rescued by God. It's precisely the narrative gay rights advocates had hoped to avoid. But as Davis' mug shot rocketed around the Internet, it became clear that the gay rights movement must battle this idea that Christianity is under siege, said Kenneth Upton, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, a law...

Pun intended. It’s been four months today since my dad was killed in a hit-and-run crash. He was cycling near his home on May 4 and was hit from behind by an intoxicated motorist (who was later apprehended). Dad was killed instantly. As I wrote a month after the crash, my dad was my rock, and our whole family is trying to pick up the pieces of our lives and figure out how to go on without him.