Free Republic

Democrat Bill de Blasio defeated Republican challenger Joe Lhota last Tuesday in the New York City mayoral race by nearly 50 points (73-24), giving Democrats their first mayor elected on the party line since 1993. De Blasio is a self-described “social democrat” in the mold of Europe’s socialist parties, and may turn out to be the most leftwing politician to ever sit in Gracie Mansion. He campaigned on an agenda to turn away from the policies of the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations and usher in an era of “substantial change” in the city. Whether he can turn his overwhelming victory...

A Charismatic Response to “The Growing Crisis Behind Brazil’s Evangelical Success Story” Julio Severo addresses misconceptions and missed targets on article by Brazilian Presbyterian theologian By Julio Severo In his The Gospel Coalition blog, Brazilian Calvinist theologian Augustus Nicodemus Gomes Lopes said, “When Paulo Romeiro wrote ‘Evangelicals in Crisis’ in the mid-1990s, a book that has remained a bestseller among Brazilian evangelicals, he addressed just one of the many ways in which evangelicalism had collapsed in Brazil, namely, its inability to halt the spread of prosperity theology.” (Link: http://archive.is/hjNXb) He mentions “Prosperity Theology” three times. Strangely, Liberation Theology and its Protestant...

THE Vatican has begun a historic move to rehabilitate the leftist Catholic movement known as “liberation theology” as the Pope refocuses the church on the poor. L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper, devoted its centre spread to defending the virtues of liberation theology, which had been anathema since the Cold War. “With a Latin American Pope, liberation theology could not remain for long in the shadows to which it has been relegated for some years, at least in Europe,” wrote Ugo Sartorio, a priest and editor of a Catholic magazine. Father Sartorio even argued in his piece yesterday that, while...

UPENN PROFESSOR SAYS GOD IS A WHITE RACIST I didn't think it could get any more bizarre, rediculous...or ultimately dangerous...and then you have this. A University of Pennsylvania Professor, Professor Anthea Bulter (shown above), who is an associate professor of Religion at the University of Pennsylvania, blogged the following to her readers and students regarding her thoughts after the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict: "God ain’t good all of the time. in fact, sometimes, God is not for us. As a black woman in an nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a...

Liberation Theology and Neo-Pentecostalism: A Leading Challenge to the Evangelical Churches in Brazil By Julio Severo Traditionally, major theological trends — good or wicked — came from Europe and America. The single major theological trend originating outside Europe and America is Liberation Theology, which is prevalent in Latin America, especially Brazil. In this original and exclusive e-booklet, I trace this movement in Brazil and how its leaders recognized openly that the only force capable of challenging Liberation Theology was neo-Pentecostal churches. In fact, the Brazilian Left admits today that neo-Pentecostal churches are the only hindrance to the advance of its...

Every once in awhile WILLIAM RIVERS PITT publicly puts on a very showy display of supposed faith for either political and/or showboating purposes. We already saw Pitt showboating himself as a KENNEDY CATHOLIC upon the death of Teddy Kennedy in which he recited Latin prayers in DUmmieland which he never utters in real life except, perhaps, when on a huge Bukowski's bender. And now that a new Pope has been chosen, the expected Catholic bashing went full force in DUmmieland which led the Pittster into full blown showboating in which he pretends to be indignant about attacks on his...

We have a new pope! Pope Francis I, formerly Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, is the first Latin American pope, and indeed the first pope not from Europe or Northern Africa. While considered a long shot in the betting markets — correcting for bookie profit, Paddy Power gave him a 2 percent chance, and Betfair a 0.7 percent chance, last I checked — he was widely considered the runner-up in the 2005 race for pope, a fact confirmed by leaked diaries after the fact. He also has one of the more interesting political records of any of the...

Mexican Narcoterrorist Region May Abandon Catholicism for Islam It would seem as if Bishop Ruiz’s brand of Liberation Theology has had the same effect on Chiapas as on Europe. Chiapas is poor, but it’s now also appearing to trend Islamic as any region under the influence of the left eventually does. When you kill the local religion and replace it with social justice, foreign religions eventually take its place. In the mid-1990s, a leftist resistance group which calls itself The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) made Chiapas its home. Its attempts to fight the Mexican Army repeatedly failed, but...

Disobedience and preaching against the teaching of the Catholic Church about women's ordination led to his excommunication, dismissal and laicization. Then Fr. Bourgeois engaged in an obstinate crusade which involved public and direct defiance of the Holy See and a repudiation of the unbroken teaching of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church concerning sacred ordination. MARYKNOLL, N.Y. (Catholic Online) - The short Press Release from the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers confirmed some sad news on Monday, November 19, 2012. The priestly ministry of Roy Bourgeois has come to an end: ***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThe Congregation For The Doctrine Of The...

He blasted big business, Wall Street, big oil, General Motors, “excess profits,” “millionaires” and the “wealthy.”He called out the “corporation executive” for not paying his “fair” share.He attacked “GOP” tax cuts that “spare the rich” and “benefit millionaires.”He advocated wealth redistribution from greedy “corporations” to “health insurance” and “public works projects.”He described himself as “progressive,” while his detractors accused him of being a communist.He adopted slogans like “Forward” and “Change.” He wanted to transform America through what he called “fundamental change.”He was skeptical of preachers and their effect on God-and-gun clinging Americans, and saw the Catholic Church as an obstacle...

(Church & State Magazine) — The movement known as the Religious Right is the number-one threat to church-state separation in America. This collection of organizations is well funded and well organized; it uses its massive annual revenue and grassroots troops to undermine the wall of separation in communities nationwide.Americans United staff members have carefully researched this movement, and here are the 10 Religious Right groups that pose the greatest challenges to church-state separation. Most of these organizations are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, but the financial data includes some affiliated 501(c)(4) lobbying organizations operating alongside the...

I just listened to Bill O'Reilly discuss Michelle Obama's comment that "there is no place better than church to talk politics." My first thought was to agree with the First Lady and to ask why she doesn't do something about her Democrat party which believes the First Amendment's so-called "separation" of church and state means, among other things, that churches cannot take a political stance. The IRS disallows politics in the pulpits and pews across America. Why? Because some Americans oppose tax-exempt faith-based-religions and find it distasteful when they are forced to fund a politically religious ideology. It is necessary...

Acts of faith are performed each day in this country, and we are all the better for it. But sadly, Barack Obama does not seem to have faith in the American system, nor does he believe in American exceptionalism, nor does he believe that Americans can make it on their own without government handouts. In short, Obama doesn’t have faith in us. Faith has become an inflammatory topic in the 2012 election. In policy, speeches and campaign ads, the president has used faith as a means to demagogue his Republican opponent. Faith has been used by the left-wing extremists as...

In 2008, Barack Obama took aim at the “pew gap,” the overwhelming Republican edge among voters who regularly attend church. The Democratic presidential nominee came nowhere near closing it, but he didn’t have to. He just needed an extra percentage point or two among traditional GOP constituents, and he got it. The Democratic National Committee is promising a repeat performance in 2012. But some religious leaders and scholars who backed Obama in 2008 are skeptical. They say the Democrats have, through neglect and lack of focus, squandered the substantial gains they made with religious moderates and worry it will hurt...

Civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson defended Monday controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright, saying that it was a “source of pain” to see him criticized in the media. “I know it’s a source of pain for me to see him used as an object of degradation and manipulated the way he’s been used the media as if he’s some sort of enemy of the state. It’s not fair and it’s not true,” said Jackson on MSNBC’s “Daily Rundown.” “It pains me to see him used as an object of degradation.” Jackson said that Wright had developed an influential ministry, one that...

In a shocking interview yesterday on the Sean Hannity Radio Show, author Ed Klein said Barack Obama’s former pastor helped Obama accept Christianity without having to renounce Islam. The Daily Caller reported: Klein also said Wright told him he “made it comfortable” for Obama to accept Christianity without having renounce his “Islamic background,” which Klein said he has on tape. -snip- Klein spoke more on this in a separate interview with NewsMax: Klein says Obama originally sought out Wright to discuss community activism. “Quickly the conversations turned from picking up garbage on the street and getting streetlights put up on...

Staggering under an avalanche of bad news regarding the economy, Obama’s presidential campaign took another hit over the weekend as the New York Post detailed divisions amongst Democrats and radicals, including charges that Obama tried to buy the silence of his controversial Chicago pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Author Edward Klein in his new book The Amateur writes that Obama offered his long-time radical preacher and pastor $150,000 in hush money for staying out of the spotlight during Obama’s 2008 run for president. I might add that I have a feeling that radical association with Obama was a booming cottage industry...

<p>When sermons of Obama’s Chicago pastor, Jeremiah Wright, surfaced during the Iowa primaries, it threatened to derail Obama’s campaign. ABC aired one where Wright screamed, “Goddamn America!” Edward Klein interviewed Wright, who told him Obama’s team tried to buy his silence.</p>

Jim Jones’ sinister grip on San Francisco How the Peoples Temple cult leader ensnared Harvey Milk and other progressive icons “Season of the Witch,” the new book by Salon founder David Talbot, tells the story of the wild and bloody birth of “San Francisco values.” The following excerpt – Part 1 in a three-part series -- recounts one of the darker dramas before the ultimate triumph of those values. Jim Jones, the strange and charismatic leader of Peoples Temple, proved a master at politically wiring San Francisco in the mid-1970s. The driven preacher had begun his climb up the political...

UNITED NATIONS — A former Nicaraguan foreign minister who once called President Ronald Reagan “the butcher of my people” has been appointed to represent Libya at the United Nations after its delegate was denied a visa, the Nicaraguan government said on Wednesday. Nicaragua said the former minister, Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, 78, an outspoken critic of the United States and a Catholic priest, would replace the Libyan diplomat Ali Abdussalam Treki, who had been unable to obtain a visa to enter the United States. Libya’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgam, defected in late February after denouncing Col. Muammar...