Free Republic

What 'culture war'? At the conventions, they'll try to stir up red-blue divisions. But most Americans hold un-partisan views. By Dick Meyer August 27, 2008 As the nation's attention reluctantly turns to the political parties' conventions, with their scripted suspense and stage-managed sentiment, it is important to keep in mind that these are phony representations of American political life. But the slick video profiles, the teary appearance of a beloved party elder -- these are not what is most phony about the conventions. This gathering of America's civic tribes -- and the reporters who love them -- in separate cities...

New PBS program says Bible isn't true, stories made up Your tax dollars helped fund "The Bible's Buried Secrets" The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), probably the most liberal network in America, will present a program this fall that says the Old Testament is a bunch of made-up stories that never happened. "The Bible's Buried Secrets" says the Bible is not true. It is scheduled to air on November 18. Archaeologist William Dever said: "...It's (The Bible's Buried Secrets) designed for intelligent people who are willing to change their mind. …it will give intelligent people who want to read the Bible...

Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church are threatening to picket the funeral of Tim McLean, the young man decapitated on a Greyhound bus last week. The Kansas-based church - a small fundamentalist sect led by Fred Phelps - is reviled in the United States for protesting the funerals of hundreds of soldiers killed in the Iraq war. The sect gained notoriety in the 1990s by picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man beaten to death in Wyoming. Seven members of the church originally planned to picket theatre performances in Toronto and Red Deer, Alta., later this...

Black Republican leader Frances Rice runs against the grain of most Democrats when she calls them racist. She doesn’t care. That is her belief and she isn’t backing down. Her “Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican” (Rice article on why MLK was a Republican) billboards angered many on both sides of the aisle. She is still waiting for the Democrats to prove her wrong on the MLK billboards without any challenge to the contrary yet. She is one woman I respect because she admits the truth about her race’s racist history and it’s connection to the Democrat Party without...

<p>In a little intramural joshing in the magazine world, Vanity Fair today posted a send-up of the by-now infamous New Yorker cover meant to be a satire of attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism.</p> <p>The New Yorker's version showed Democrat Obama in Muslim garb fist-bumping his wife Michelle while the American flag burned in the fireplace under a portrait of Osama bin Laden.</p>

Given Barack Obama's historic run for the Oval Office, African American-themed cable network "TV One" plans to break from its usual entertainment programming to provide extensive coverage of the Democratic National Convention in August. "Sen. Barack Obama running for president is a huge deal for TV One as it is for the African American community," said Johnathan Rodgers, president and CEO of TV One, a channel in about 40 million homes. "African Americans have fallen in love with his candidacy, his family … we will be covering the democratic convention all the time." But John McCain shouldn’t expect the same...

The atheist Freedom from Religion Foundation has taken its anti-faith message to Denver, the site of the Democratic National Convention. Their "Imagine No Religion" sign demands Denver residents and Democratic Party officials preparing for the convention to envision an America without people who believe in God. In response, Bishop Council Nedd, chairman of the In God We Trust has asked Senator Barack Obama to condemn the sign's message. The Freedom from Religion Foundation President, Dan Barker, has called Christianity "and enemy to humanity" and "the antithesis of freedom." In his letter to Senator Obama Nedd states, "By placing their billboard...

Hi everyone, I'm just wondering if anyone had this experience before. I wrote a column about the proof of the existence of a Divine Creator (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2029192/posts ) and am now getting google stalked by an Atheist Group in Austin, in addition to phone calls and emails. I'm not going to stop saying/writing what I believe or stop speaking out against these tactics, but was wondering if anyone here had experience and knows what to do about google, etc. I know some of us may disagree on the issues, but I don't think there's much debate about these tactics. The...

An Ohio county public library has closed its meeting rooms to the public rather than allow them to be used by a Christian group. George and Cathy Vandergriff wanted to host a Crown Financial Ministries "Financial Freedom" workshop in a public meeting room at the Clermont County, Ohio, public library. Tim Chandler, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says the couple was told that, because the class would be quoting from the Bible, they could not hold it at the library. "The Supreme Court said, more than 25 years ago, that once you've opened up meeting space, you...

The Ohio branch of the leading player in the nation's abortion industry, Planned Parenthood, is blaming the callers for a fiasco in which a local official was caught on tape agreeing to take a donation designated to eliminate blacks.WND has reported previously on the work of Lila Rose, editor of the Los Angeles-based Advocate, who has conducted several undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood.In one taped interview, an Idaho official for Planned Parenthood said it was "understandable" that a donor would want to contribute to abortions targeting blacks so that his own, presumably white, child would have less competition in...

Probably one of the most slanderous, incendiary statements I've read from a history-ignorant liberal in a long time. This from Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker, speculating on John McCain selecting Condoleezza Rice as his vice presidential running mate... To deal first with the obvious: Rice may be “only” the second woman and the second African-American to be Secretary of State, but she is indisputably the highest-ranking black female official ever to have served in any branch of the United States government. "Only" because no Democrat president ever considered appointing one. Her nomination to a constitutional executive office would cost...

 DEMOCRATS WANT TO FUND ACORN, LA RAZA WITH STIMULUS BILL By Ed Morrissey The Democrats reacted in anger when Senate Republicans blocked their latest economic stimulus bill. Harry Reid said that bankers and lenders were high-fiving each other in hallways after the GOP torpedoed the bill, but perhaps a better explanation of Reid's disappointment comes from Bob Casey (D-PA). The beneficiaries of the bill turns out to be somewhat different than advertised:   Mr. CASEY: “We want to do a couple of things with this legislation, which we know is the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008. Our Majority Leader,...

West Virginia boils at 'inbred' epithet; movie casting director fired By David M. Brown and Mike Wereschagin TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, February 27, 2008 The producers of the horror thriller "Shelter" have fired the Pittsburgh casting director who outraged West Virginians by publically seeking odd-looking -- even physically deformed -- people to portray residents of a West Virginia "holler." The reaction from West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin and others was swift after a story appeared in the Tribune-Review with a comment from Donna Belajac Casting of Pittsburgh indicating the script for a movie being shot here needs actors with an inbred look...

Film's casting call wants that 'inbred' look By David M. Brown TRIBUNE-REVIEW Tuesday, February 26, 2008 A movie about to be filmed in Pittsburgh is casting Gothic characters -- including an albino-like girl and deformed people -- to depict West Virginia mountain people. "'Regular-looking" children need not apply.

I ran across the Phelps clan a few years ago when they were protesting a church I was attending in Wichita Kansas. I had never heard of the group before and I suddenly found myself within swinging distance without any context of who I was dealing with. I assumed from their colorful “GOD HATES FAGS” signs that they were a pro-homosexual advocacy group possibly angry about a bible lesson on Sodom and Gomorrah that they might have heard at the church that did not fit their lifestyle. I later found that the Westboro Baptist Church was a small, crazy, dysfunctional...

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian church leaders have condemned a play shortly to open in Sydney depicting Jesus as a gay man who is seduced by Judas, a report said Sunday. The play, named Corpus Christi, is due to open next month as part of the city's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper reported. A senior Sydney churchman called the play "historical nonsense". "It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it," Robert Forsyth, Anglican bishop of South Sydney, was quoted saying. Apart from the relations between Jesus and Judas, the play also...

A politically progressive friend of mine always seemed to root against baseball teams from the South. The Braves, the Rangers, the Astros -- he hated them all. I asked him why, to which he replied, "Southerners are prejudiced." The same logic is evident in the complaint the American political left has with conservative voters. According to the political analysis of filmmaker Michael Moore, whose perception of irony apparently does not extend to his own words, "The right wing, that is not where America's at . . . It's just a small minority of people who hate. They hate. They exist...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Two separate Eugene families whose Nativity scenes were desecrated last week when a vandal replaced the baby Jesus figures with severed pigs' heads say they were targeted because of their religious faith. The culprits left other, more secular decorations untouched and focused only on the families' religious displays. "To me, they definitely wanted to make a religious statement," said David Stahl of Eugene, who discovered a pig head in his front yard Thursday. "This takes definite thought and too much anger." Eugene police are investigating the cases as possible bias crimes, a classification that could lead to...

Media watchdog website Honest Reporting has awarded their annual Dishonest Reporter Awards. Some of these stories you know and some you don't--probably because they were ignored by the media. Some were even covered here at NewsBusters. The "winners" included Christiane Amanpour for “God's Warriors,” the BBC for covering up an internal investigation into its Mid East reporting, US government funded Al-Hurra TV's former 'director Larry Register for dhimmitude, a UNC Daily Tar Heel article about breaking up with a boyfriend because of Israel and of course Charles Enderlin and the Mohammad Al Dura Fautography that launched the Second Intifida. See...

E-mails offer Polk school officials a view of the origin of life they say is just as valid as intelligent design. LAKELAND | The Flying Spaghetti Monster has stretched its noodles to Polk County. The Flying Spaghetti Monster, or FSM, is a satirical group that pokes fun at intelligent design. It first emerged in 2005 during the debate in Kansas over whether the belief should be taught in science classes. The group has sent dozens of e-mails to Polk County School Board members demanding that the idea of a Flying Spaghetti Monster creating the world receive classroom equal time with...

AN Osborne Village church has been desecrated with pro-choice abortion graffiti, but the pastor says the vandalism is just a cry for attention and will not lead the church to remove a controversial statue outside. The graffiti -- a spray-painted message outside the church reading "My Body, My Choice" -- has been on the south side of Holy Rosary Church at 510 River Ave. since at least earlier this week. It's located behind a stone statue outside the Catholic church dedicated to the lives of unborn fetuses, which was installed in 1998, according to a metal plate affixed to the...

Contact: Kevin P. McVicker, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, 703-739-5920, 800-536-5920, 703-727-9537 cell, kmcvicker@sbpublicaffairs.com FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- As Christians around the country are met with violence and marginalization, Dr. Gary Cass, has founded the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC) a new organization that aims to counter threats to millions of Christians' First Amendment rights. While the overwhelming majority of Americans are professed Christians, it has become routine for the media and elites to openly mock and trivialize Christians because they choose to express their faith.In his new book Christian Bashing and the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, Dr....

(the button reads: War isn't working")

The protests against the forthcoming anti-religious film, "The Golden Compass," are "fundamentally ridiculous" and are perpetuated by "America's religious fear-mongers." That's according to Laura Miller in an opinion article in the Los Angeles Times (Sun., 12/2/07). But that's not all. Writing about the various e-mails that Christian groups have sent to warn the public about the disturbing themes in "Compass," Miller spews: [Y]ou have to wonder how much actual reading goes on in the sort of household that welcomes e-mails like the ones denouncing 'The Golden Compass' ... Good ... grief. Just when you thought the level of condescension could...

British police mascot 'too white, too male' November 20, 2007 08:35pm LONDON'S Metropolitan Police has been forced to spend £15,000 ($34,855.35) creating "ethnically diverse" mascots after complaints about a model deemed too white and too male. Met chief Sir Ian Blair ordered the new politically correct (PC) models after an Asian officer complained about...Steve, the mascot produced to visit schools to promote the police force. ...Steve was white, with blue eyes and blond hair... leaving Asian and women officers "isolated"... Blair, in a written response to the London Assembly, said the Met's diversity unit would be tasked with creating new...

The war being waged by the quasi-establishment and quasi-government Left in Britain against the nation's own traditions, values, identity and, perhaps most of all, religion, has been escalated and its battle-lines redefined with a report by a leading Labour Party-aligned think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, recommending that Christmas, which cannot be obliterated, should be down-graded to promote multiculturalism. The report says that because it would be hard to "expunge" Christmas from the national calendar (although this would apparently be desirable), public organizations must be made to give non-Christian religious festivals equal footing. Now, the Institute is not some...

LONDON, November 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Like the wicked Sherriff of Nottingham in the 1991 film “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves”, a Labour party think tank wants to cancel Christmas on the grounds that it is a “white” holiday which offends Britain’s immigrants. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), described as the ruling party’s “favourite” policy office that has shaped many Labour policies, says Christmas “should be downgraded to help race relations.” The IPPR also proposes secularised “birth ceremonies” in which the state and parents agree on the best way to rear children; the abolition of sitting Anglican bishops...

Abstinence advocate calls on CBS to apologize Program ridicules Christians, has hypocrites stone club member The leader of an organization that advocates abstinence is demanding CBS apologize for portraying Christian members of an abstinence club as sexually active hypocrites who stone another member to death. "CBS should apologize to America for its reckless episode," said Leslee Unruh, president of National Abstinence Clearinghouse. "With visibility comes responsibility, and CBS didn't take that into account when airing this tainted show. Abstinence education works." The episode at issue is of the CBS crime show "Cold Case," which depicts presumably devout Christian teens in...

Zimbabwe's last white farmers face final push By Peta Thornycroft in Harare Last Updated: 2:05am BST 01/10/2007 Farmer Charles Lock is determined to fight for his land in the courts Ringed by a clutch of Zimbabwean soldiers clicking automatic weapons, Charles Lock handed over the keys to his farm and drove off his land for the last time. Scores of white farmers, the last survivors of President Robert Mugabe's land grab, and thousands of their black workers are going through similar agonies. They now face the final deadline. As from today, any white farmer still on his land will be...

Those who have been closely following the politics of the Democratic primaries may have noticed that someone is missing -- and I'm not referring to Bob Shrum, the Rev. Al Sharpton or an as-yet-undiscovered "Gravel Girl." I'm talking about the white male voter, or at least a certain long-coveted variety thereof. He is variously known as "NASCAR dad" -- that shirt-sleeved, straight-talkin', these-colors-don't-run fella who votes his cultural values above all else -- or "Bubba," as Steve Jarding and Dave "Mudcat" Saunders affectionately call him in their book, "Foxes in the Henhouse." Start looking on milk cartons for Bubba because...

“Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America.” Perhaps you remember that pearl from Rosie O’Donnell, the perpetually agitated former co-host of The View. While few had put it quite so brusquely, O’Donnell’s sentiment was hardly a novel one. A steady stream of books and films had for years demonized conservative Christians, attacking their rising influence in politics and on broader American life as heralding the establishment of a Christian theocracy. It was against this backdrop of anti-Christian paranoia that CNN recently aired “God’s Warriors,” a mini-series that investigated what animates the most fervent...

Campus Dhimmis by: Bethany Stotts, August 24, 2007 New evidence has brought greater credibility to the old truism that multicultural tolerance excludes the campus’ greatest religious pariah, the Christian evangelical. While some students-rights advocates, such as the Foundation for International Rights in Education (FIRE), have long argued that evangelicals face religious persecution on campus, a new study released by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR) reinforces these claims. IJCR found that 53% of college faculty reported neutral or negative feelings toward evangelicals, making evangelical fundamentalism the most stigmatized faith on campus. What is surprising about the May 2007...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In her first major solo role without her twin sister, Mary-Kate Olsen is returning to series television for the first time since 2002 with a co-starring role on Showtime's dark comedy "Weeds." Olsen will play Tara, a devoted Christian girl living in the newly developed megachurch community Majestic who becomes a love interest for Nancy Botwin's (Mary-Louise Parker) son Silas (Hunter Parrish). Olsen will appear in 10 of the 15 episodes of the show's third season, which premieres August 13. Since their debut on ABC's hit comedy series "Full House" at age 9 months, Olsen...

Jack Kinsella - Commentary The Omega Letter Hating Christ . . . I was reading the comments posted by readers of the Huffington Post in response to a column posted by Max Blumenthal about the "Christians United For Israel Tour" Washington summit meeting, hosted by San Antonio pastor John Hagee... The column was entitled, "Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United For Israel Tour." Blumenthal's column fairly dripped with hate for Christians in particular, but reserving some for Jews who collaborate with them. "CUFI has added the grassroots muscle of the Christian right to the already potent Israel lobby. Hagee and...

As if we were back in eighteenth-century France, atheist tracts are abroad in our land, their flamboyant titles defiant. The God Delusion, God Is Not Great, Letter to a Christian Nation, Atheist Manifesto, Atheist Universe: These are not subtle insinuations against God, requiring inferences from readers, but open opposition inviting readers to join in thumbing their noses. The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, newly published, offers comfort and scholarly reassurance, if not consolation, to atheists who might otherwise feel lonely--as, believing what they do, they surely must. Atheism isn't what it was in the eighteenth century. Now, the focus of the...

A new comedy spoof on the Ten Commandments portrays Jesus Christ deflowering a sexy virgin, and is raising some eyebrows in the Christian community. "The Ten," rated R for pervasive strong, crude sexual content, language and some drug material, stars Jessica Alba, Winona Ryder, Gretchen Mol and Liev Schreiber among others. The movie which opens Friday features ten separate stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments from the Holy Bible. One storyline has Gretchen Mol playing a virtuous librarian "who has a sexual awakening in Mexico with a swarthy local" who is really Jesus, according to Wain. .....In...

A Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada is upset by a long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names. Tarvinder Kaur, who is pregnant, said her husband Jaspal Singh's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name. He has no choice but to legally change his name in India so he can get to Calgary before she gives birth next month, she said. CBC News has obtained a copy of a letter sent from the Canadian...

Last month three cartoons appeared in Quebec's francophone media that many Jews found offensive. The cartoonists were apparently ridiculing Action Democratique du Quebec leader Mario Dumont for meeting unannounced with Jewish leaders in the Montreal home of former Sen. Leo Kolber, a prominent Liberal fundraiser. This on the same day the fate of Quebec's budget, introduced by the minority Liberal government, was being decided. In theory, the budget, which Dumont opposed, could have been defeated, forcing an election, had not the Parti Quebecois decided to back the Liberals. Somehow though, cartoons supposedly intended to mock Dumont for showing poor political...

A tenured math professor at an Arizona community college will not be fired after being threatened with termination for sending college employees a link to a conservative website. The Maricopa County Community College District has reportedly reached a settlement with Walter Kehowski, a professor at Glendale Community College who was placed on administrative leave for sending an e-mail linking to former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan's website and a transcript of a Thanksgiving proclamation by George Washington. Kehowski transmitted the e-mail using the district's "announcements" listserv the day before Thanksgiving 2006. Over the next few weeks, five employees filed harassment charges...

The rape of a name can be as vicious a crime and as destructive an act as the rape of a body. Sometimes the rape of a body is worse, sometimes the rape of a name is worse. But they are both rapes. And morally likening the two is in no way meant to lessen the horror of rape; it is meant only to heighten awareness of the horror of intentionally destroying the name of an innocent person. These words are written in the aftermath of the destruction of three young men's names by a lying woman whose name is...

New York Times photographers, fair and balanced. How the New York Times sees the world -- and, more importantly, how the New York Times presents its view of the world to the public. Amnesty supporters: Amnesty opponents: Even liberal writer Nicholas Von Hoffman noticed: The other day The New York Times did a piece on the grass-roots opponents of the great compromise immigration bill. The accompanying photos showed a bunch of snaggletoothed retards living in trailers on the outskirts of town near the dump. Thus the message is conveyed that if you want to identify yourself with right-thinking mainstreamers, you...

Hablas Espanol? Jessica Alba doesn’t. Is there anything wrong with that? Apparently so. The third-generation American and actress is under fire this week from fellow Latinos for comments she made to Para Todos magazine: Alba is my last name and I'm proud of that. But that's it. My grandparents were born in California, the same as my parents, and though I may be proud of my last name, I'm American. Throughout my whole life, I've never felt connected to one particular race or heritage, nor did I feel accepted by any. If you break it down, I'm less Latina than...

Here’s something a little more light for a Friday afternoon, but demonstrates the mainstream media’s biased view of the world.Among the "Quick Hits" on CNN’s "American Morning" on Friday was a brief on how the drought in the Southeast is affecting the production of Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey in Lynchburg, Tennessee. The water levels in the cave spring that supplies the Jack Daniels distillery are "dangerously low" according to the brief by co-host John Roberts.After giving the brief, Roberts and substitute weather forecaster Reynolds Wolf began the weather report with the following exchange: JOHN ROBERTS: "Reynolds Wolf is here with a...

Vatican City - US President George W Bush drew gasps at the Vatican on Saturday by referring to Pope Benedict XVI as "sir" instead of the expected "His Holiness", pool reporters said. They could clearly hear the US leader say "Yes, sir" when the pope asked him if he was going to meet with officials of the lay Catholic Sant'Egidio community at the US embassy later during his visit. A handful of pool reporters were on hand as Benedict greeted Bush at the door of his private library ahead of a private audience of about half an hour. On his...

The top three Democratic presidential candidates participated in a forum Monday on the connection between their religious faith and political positions. The unusual gathering, broadcast live by CNN, was co-hosted by Sojourners, a Christian social justice network. The Rev. Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, and an organizer of the forum, has been telling Democrats not to cede religion to Republicans. He has spoken at several Democratic Party retreats, teaching Democrats how to speak about faith. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois mentioned faith in a generic way, baptizing their liberal politics...

A Kansas woman was arrested Tuesday after she had her 10-year-old son stomp on an American flag. Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, 49, of Topeka, was protesting at the Bellevue funeral of Spc. William Bailey with a group from Westboro Baptist Church. The church, founded by her father, has protested at the funerals of numerous soldiers. Bellevue Police Capt. Herb Evers said an officer saw a young boy stomping on an American flag. Phelps-Roper was then cited for contributing to the delinquency of a minor and desecration of a flag. Both are misdemeanors. She was released from Sarpy County Jail after posting...

It's been eight weeks since Time magazine redesigned itself, and part of that refurbishment is handing over the "Ten Questions" interview inquiries to the readers instead of Time's reporters. In the June 11 edition, Time's interviewee was Rep. Tom Tancredo, a presidential contender and one of the nation's leading opponents of illegal immigration. Among the questions Time selected for Tancredo was a whopper from Ubaldo Padilla of Oroville, California: "Why do you hate Mexicans?" It wasn't the only snotty question Time picked. There was also James Smith of Phoenix, who asked: "I recently found out my family came from Holland...

The Knoxville News Standard has a story by Jamie Satterfield on the Christian – Newsome rape/slayings and the hurt feelings of the MSM show through. The story is all about the gruesome details that turn out – according to unnamed “authorities” – not to be true. For example, the story that “Christian was held captive and repeatedly gang-raped for four days before her body was found inside a garbage can in one of the suspect's Chipman Street rental house. “ According to Satterfield’s unnamed sources that’s not true at all. “As it turned out, Christian, though repeatedly raped, was dead...

My spouse was watching "Adult Swim" on the Cartoon Network this past week. They ran a commercial promoting their web site, complete with fun little games a visitor can play. One particular game they promoted was called "Bible Fight". The video clip of the game they showed depicted an 2-D animated Jesus Christ "fighting" against his mother Mary and the baby Jesus. Mary fought with kicks, and Jesus Christ used his cross to hack Mary and the baby Jesus up. I couldn't find a good pic of that, but here is one of Jesus getting ready to fight "Noah" OR...

On May 9 and 16, PBS will air a four-part docudrama called “The Secret Files of the Inquisition.” Catholic League president Bill Donohue raised some concerns today: “PBS will not air a movie that its officials say paints Muslims in a bad light, ‘Islam vs. Islamists,’ but it has no qualms about showing a flick that Catholics have every right to question. This film is advertised on PBS’s website with an eerie black background depicting all the ‘T’s’ as crosses. All that is missing is Dracula’s voiceover. ‘For over half a millennium a system of mass terror reigned,’ it says, and...