Free Republic

A 60-year-old Church of Sweden pastor faces a remand hearing this Friday for the alleged sexual abuse of two children during an overseas trip with a group of candidates for confirmation. The pastor is suspected of three sex offences carried out over the course of the confirmation group's trip to a major European city in October. Friday's remand hearing at Varberg district court will determine whether the public prosecutor's case is sufficiently strong to warrant detaining the cleric in custody for one charge of child rape and two of child sexual abuse. As of Thursday, the pastor remained active at...

TULSA, Okla. — Hundreds of people are waiting to get into the memorial service for evangelist Oral Roberts. Among the early arrivals for the afternoon service at Oral Roberts University were husband and wife Mark and Paula Sterns, alumni who flew from Dallas for the event. Mark Sterns says Roberts changed their lives forever, adding that 19 members of their families attended the university at some point. Roberts died last week in California at age 91. Roberts chartered ORU in 1963 as a place where Pentecostals could live, study and pray together. The school became the first Pentecostal university in...

J.P. Hale usually stands behind a pulpit, but this week he was standing in front of a police camera as they snapped mug shots. The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office says this week the 73-year-old pastor was arrested and charged with one count of indecent liberties with a child. It’s a class six felony. Thursday afternoon we showed up at Hale’s house to talk to the accused religious leader, but he had been advised by his attorney not to talk. The Pulaski County Sheriff won’t give any details on the alleged crime or when it happened, but Sheriff Jim Davis did...

<p>TULSA, OK -- Dr. Oral Roberts died Tuesday in Newport Beach, California due to complications from pneumonia.</p> <p>According to a news release from the family, his son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. The founder of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University was 91.</p>

A Little Rock pastor steps down after police say he had inappropriate contact with a 15-year-old boy. Members of The River Church, which recently ran "bar church" this past Easter Sunday, say they're saddened by the news. Police are investigating 42-year-old Shane Montgomery. The pastor made headlines earlier this year when he held church services at a Little Rock bar. Now, he faces charges more controversial than that concept.  "We choose to listen to the people that Jesus called us to reach," Montgomery said in a pre-Easter interview with FOX16 News. The former pastor of The River Church is facing felony...

Here are the main reasons I am not signing the Manhattan Declaration, even though a few men whom I love and respect have already affixed their names to it: • Although I obviously agree with the document’s opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and other key moral problems threatening our culture, the document falls far short of identifying the one true and ultimate remedy for all of humanity’s moral ills: the gospel. The gospel is barely mentioned in the Declaration. At one point the statement rightly acknowledges, “It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus...

The black pastor who leads Bond Action Inc. in support of "family, traditional moral values and positive, honest race relations" says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., should be ashamed of comparing opposition to President Obama's plans to socialize medicine in the U.S. to support for slavery. "Reid's comparison of legitimate Republican opposition towards the Democrats $2.5 trillion health care plan to segregationists is deplorable," Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson said today. "This was an attempt to smear Republicans as racists in order to take the focus off the details of this awful socialist health care bill. Reid's remarks are a...

came across this Spiritual retreat place strictly for pastors and their spouses. Please tell your pastor about it. The best thing is that it is free. This could be a nice Christmas gift for your pastor to hear about. Welcome to Broom Tree Ministries Providing 5-day Spiritual Retreats for full time Christian pastors and spouses Free of charge Free from interruptions Free from TV - radio - newspapers Free from schedules and telephones Just time to spend with God and your spouse in a beautiful natural setting. Food and lodging included. Jesus said; "Come away with me to a quiet...

A new unauthorized biography of "America's pastor" Rick Warren uncovers a marriage with an unconventional beginning and a time of depression that later gave Warren the strength to become who he is today. Jeffery L. Sheler, religion correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, delves into the world of Warren in his latest book, Prophet of Purpose: The Life of Rick Warren. The book portrays the affable yet confident megachurch pastor who calls presidents and billionaires his friends in a much more vulnerable light. In a live Web discussion with Christianity Today editor-in-chief David Neff on Wednesday, Sheler talked about...

President Barack Obama’s past continues to haunt him. A friend e-mailed me this revealing post by Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., pastor of The Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Virginia. Bishop Jackson wrote it last June, but I have not seen it circulated or mentioned before now. Now, someone found it and put it on their own blog. Like so many of us, Bishop Jackson describes himself as once a leftist Democrat; an African-American who grew up in a black urban community in Pennsylvania, and a man who is disturbed about what he calls “a strain of anti-Semitism in the black...

Friday December 4, 2009 Pastor Boissoin Exonerated: Judge Rules Letter on Homosexuality Not "Hate" Speech By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiCALGARY, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Christian pastor who was hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal (AHRT) for writing a letter to the editor on homosexuality has been exonerated by a Court of Queen's Bench judge who ruled the letter was not a hate crime but legitimate expression allowed under freedom of speech.Pastor Stephen Boissoin told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that he was "overjoyed and relieved" that the lengthy, stressful and expensive seven year legal battle over his letter to the...

LOWELL -- Members of a Gaston county church are vowing to support their pastor after he was accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl. Keith Pettis, pastor of New Life Christian Center, was arrested in August on several charges, including statutory rape, taking indecent liberties with a child, and first-degree sex offense with a child. The girl, now 14 and living in another N.C. town, said the abuse started in August 2006 and continued until March of this year, according to Gaston County Police. Pettis, 42, was surrounded by parishioners and his family Tuesday evening as the church held a...

(watch video) Rev Manning was just visited by the CIA regarding his outspoken claims as to Obama's ineligibility to serve as POTUS in not producing not just his BC, but most of his professional and personal records.

Police are searching for a Gaston County pastor charged with raping and molesting a teen girl. Robert Lee Adams, 46, began sexually abusing the girl when she was younger than 13 and got her pregnant about three years later, according to the Gaston County Police Department. Authorities have been searching for Adams for nine months. The girl gave birth in the summer of 2008, and an investigation led police to Adams, said Gaston County Police Capt. Joe Ramey. Ramey said Adams was pastor of Mount Calvary Tabernacle at the corner of Linwood Road and Camp Rotary Road in west Gastonia....

Pastor James David Manning, one of President Obama’s most vocal and outspoken critics, has just released a video in which he claims that on the afternoon of November 16th, 2009, while at his ATLAH World Missionary Church, he was visited by two CIA agents. Manning says the agents claimed that they were from Homeland Security and were accompanied by two NYPD Detectives. Pastor Manning also said he expects to be arrested within the next few days and charged with “the threat against the life of a U.S. President”, and that he believes that his arrest is “imminent”. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6OEDFCvNns Church...

Herb Brokering, Lutheran Hymn Writer, Author, Poet, Dies CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Herbert F. Brokering, pastor, author, lyricist, speaker and hymn writer of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), died Nov. 7 of congestive heart failure at his apartment in Bloomington, Minn., according to his son, Mark. A memorial service is planned for Nov. 21 at Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis. Brokering, 83, was a member of St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Bloomington. "Herb Brokering's legacy includes carefully crafted words on the lips of believers gathered around the means of grace. He has helped us bring our faith to rich...

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” – Mary worshipping God in Luke 1:46–47 Mary was simply a very godly young woman who loved the Lord and trusted in Him despite great risk to her own reputation. She repeatedly appears as a devout woman who loved God and was a loving mother to Jesus. Contrary to some aberrant teaching, she did not remain a virgin, but mothered other sons such as James and Jude, who visited Jesus with Mary during His ministry (Matthew 12:46; Mark 3:31–35; Luke 8:19–21) and later became pastors who penned...

A new video has surfaced of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's speech at the 60th anniversary celebration of the independent socialist magazine, the Monthly Review, in which his antagonsim for the United States is on display. In the New York City speech Sept. 17, 2009, Wright, President Barack Obama's pastor for about 20 years, once again reveals his disdain and lack of respect for the United States of America as he identified his belief in black-liberation theology with the Marxist ideology that is central to the Monthly Review. Calling the United States, "the land of the greed and the home of the...

A new video of Jeremiah Wright has surfaced, showing Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years praising Marxism and discussing his ties to communists in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the Libyan government. Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the U.S. In an article in the socialist Monthly Review, "Journalism, Democracy, and Class Struggle," McChesney declared, "Our job is to make media reform part...

A new video of Jeremiah Wright has surfaced, showing Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years praising Marxism and discussing his ties to communists in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the Libyan government. Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the U.S. In an article in the socialist Monthly Review, "Journalism, Democracy, and Class Struggle," McChesney declared, "Our job is to make media reform part...

Pastor Paul Blair was reviewing his sermon notes before one Sunday evening service when he looked up to see Aunt Bee and the church budget committee squabbling over the best use of an unexpected budget windfall.You may remember this episode of the Andy Griffith Show — the choir ladies wanted to buy new choir robes, the building committee to repair the church. Andy, as always, intervened with his characteristic common-sense compromise, and all was well as the episode ended in a happy church service. In juxtaposition only television could accomplish, the next image on Blair’s set was an ad for...

THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST JEREMIAH WRIGHT RETURNS thelastcrusade.org The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is drawing criticism for selecting President Barrack Obama’s former pastor as the principal speaker at an awards dinner in Maryland. Perry Ealim, a black businessman who is scheduled to receive an award at the November 20 event, says many of his friends and associates refuse to attend the dinner because Rev. Jeremiah Wright is going to be the speaker. "I am happy for your honor, however, I cannot support an organization that would have a racist/bigot such as Mr. Wright...

Two churches in Little Falls are learning just how polarizing the topic of gay clergy can be among its members. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's decision to allow homosexuals in monogamous relationships to serve as church leaders even resulted in one Little Falls pastor's resignation. The Rev. Nate Bjorge's last day as lead pastor at First Lutheran Church in Little Falls is Friday. On Oct. 11 the church held a congregation-wide vote on whether the church should remain in the ELCA or join Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ, another Lutheran body. The church voted to stay in the...

Pastor in India Lured into Violent Trap [Photo] Pastor Paasu Ninama Hindu extremists entice preacher into house, beat him unconscious. NEW DELHI, October 21 (CDN) — A group of Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month beat a pastor unconscious and chewed off part of his ear, pelting him with stones after he fainted from the pain. Paasu Ninama told Compass that the six attackers first lured him into a house in Malphalia village, Jhabua district with an offer of water on Oct. 4. The 35-year-old resident of Pipal Kutta village said he was on his way back from...

More than a year after he was forced to disown his Chicago pastor, President Obama has begun to attend services led by a Christian chaplain who views Islam as a violent faith. Mr Obama has been an irregular church attender since becoming President, but has expressed a fondness for Carey Cash, the navy chaplain at the Camp David presidential retreat who has been criticised for proselytising in the military and his mistrust of Islam. The White House insists that the Rev Cash, the great-nephew of the singer Johnny Cash, has not become Mr Obama’s new pastor, but it appears that...

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - Eugene Robinson said sex was the last thing on his mind as he drove the pretty young woman who had asked for a ride to her motel. "I was waiting for God to send me the one that's supposed to be my Christian wife," he said. "That's what it says in the Bible." Yet within minutes of taking the woman to a cheap motel in neighboring Absecon, the 67-year-old Atlantic City Councilman and Baptist minister was receiving oral sex. "I was so surprised," he testified Wednesday in an Atlantic County courtroom. "I, um, hadn't really had...

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is long gone; Rick Warren, just an Inauguration Day memory. The hordes of ministers around town who were hoping they'd somehow wind up with the first family in their pews have (mostly) given up. The president has been pastorless for quite a while now. Well, sort of. Seventy miles from Washington's prying eyes, Barack Obama has been attending church from time to time at Camp David, where services are led by a 39-year-old Navy chaplain with a famous last name, a compelling life story and a fervent belief in a God who works miracles. Carey Cash,...

The Kentucky pastor who drew notice earlier this year for hosting a God-and-guns event at his church is giving up his flock for his Glock. Pastor Ken Pagano resigned his post last month at the New Bethel Church in Louisville, Ky., after nearly 30 years in the ministry, saying he wants to focus on Second Amendment and church-security issues. "Thirty years was a good, long run, but it's time for a change," Mr. Pagano said in an interview with The Washington Times. "If I can write my own ticket, I want to get involved more in Second Amendment issues as...

Pastor Benny Hinn is being investigated by the Senate Finance Committee and was recently denied entry into the United Kingdom. And talking he is, about the finance probe, his lavish lifestyle and accusations that his faith healings are fake because he offers no documentation or verification that he has, in fact, helped the blind see and the crippled walk. “They question me on why I don’t verify,” Hinn says. "I answer, ‘God never called me to verify. I’m not a doctor.'” Hinn says, his ministry created a department to handle verifications and follow up on the "miracles." "The staff would...

Pastor Benny Hinn: Charlatan or Man of God? October 09, 2009 Lauren Green. Pastor Benny Hinn is being investigated by the Senate Finance Committee and was recently denied entry into the United Kingdom. The press has been bad, he says, because the media doesn't understand him. But the Texas-based faith healer, whose "Holy Spirit Miracle Crusades" pack sports arenas across the United States, is fielding questions about his controversies nonetheless. He says he needs to voice his concerns over the land of his birth, Israel, and the threat to it posed by a nuclear Iran — which he talks about...

7:28 PM Sunday, October 4, 2009 HAMILTON — Pastor Greg Andrews paid a price trying to protect his parishioners from a menacing pit bull. The 53-year-old leader of the House of Deliverance Church on Millikin Street was attacked late last month by a neighbor’s pit bull in the church parking lot. Around 200 parishioners, including children and elderly, had gathered inside the church for a concert. The dog was loose in the parking lot. Andrews said he asked the owner to take the dog away and secure it. “I turned around and the next thing I know the dog’s on...

Thousands who travelled to see Mr Hinn perform at a London rally have been were left disappointed after officials at Stansted airport would not let him in the country. Border Agency officials turned back Mr Hinn, who landed by private jet, because he had failed to bring a valid sponsorship certificate from his church, required under rules introduced last November. The Pentecostal preacher, who was due to perform at a three day rally in a Docklands exhibition centre this weekend, flew on to Paris, and attempted – and failed – to regain entry to Britain via Luton. Thousands of evangelical...

<p>Thousands who travelled to see Mr Hinn perform at a London rally have been were left disappointed after officials at Stansted airport would not let him in the country.</p> <p>Border Agency officials turned back Mr Hinn, who landed by private jet, because he had failed to bring a valid sponsorship certificate from his church, required under rules introduced last November.</p>

Pastor Lawrence Adams knows how to handle a gun after spending 25 years as a Detroit police officer, many at the department’s training academy. That experience helped Sunday evening when the retired lieutenant was confronted by a burglar at his Detroit church. When the intruder began swinging an object at him, Pastor Adams pulled a handgun and shot the man in the abdomen. Police say the pastor was not injured and is licensed to carry the handgun.

Butternut Squash Soup is calling, but Joel Hunter stands glued to CNN in his living room in rainy Orlando. Lunch can wait another minute, because details about President Barack Obama's meeting with a foreign leader might be coming. When the news anchor switches topics, Hunter, satisfied, quickly joins his wife, Becky, at their glass dinner table. One of Hunter's megachurch staffers gleefully picks on his boss, recalling when Hunter sat next to boxing legend Muhammad Ali at Obama's inauguration: "You should've given him a little nudge on the shoulder, just to say you've been in a fight with Ali." "Oh...

A group of pro-life black pastors are showing their support for President Obama’s health care plan, though conservative public policy experts note that such a plan remains nowhere in sight. Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr., who heads the six million-member Church of God in Christ, and the group of black ministers endorsed the president’s controversial health care overhaul Thursday but was careful to reiterate Obama's no-abortion-funding pledge while cautioning the White House against breaking its promise. "In accord with our commitment to Christian teaching, we wholeheartedly affirm the president's position that medical costs related to the abortion of fetuses shall...

Hon. James David Manning Speaks about how Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly have not said a word about the birth certificate .

The suspicion that President Obama was born outside of the United States has been written off as a conspiracy theory, but that hasn't stopped the so-called "birther" movement from keeping their theories alive. A fundamentalist Christian Web site LivePrayer.com has produced a 28-minute infomercial dedicated to questioning where the president was born. It has run at least once on a CBS affiliate in Lubbock, Texas. LivePrayer.com was founded by Christian minister Bill Keller, who committed his life to God after spending time in prison for insider trading, according to his site. The infomercial is also the work of attorney Gary...

Between comments left on my site and the articles that I have read, I have literally not seen one Muslim show an once of concern for the life of 17 year-old apostate of Islam Rifqa Bary. Even the Arab News has decided to attack her and try to provide a smokescreen for the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Ohio. As usual Muslims will say anything to defend Islam. Hate groups use teen to defame Islamic center Sameen Khan | Arab News COLUMBUS, Ohio: At only age 17, Fathima Rifqa Bary has already managed to create one of the most controversial...

PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona pastor has triggered protests after preaching a sermon last month titled "Why I Hate Barack Obama." Dozens of demonstrators gathered Sunday outside Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe to protest the message preached by the Rev. Steven Anderson.

Hon. James David Manning says we must have a revolution in order to get back this nation. Recorded on 3 Sept 2009. Watch video HERE

London, Sep. 4 : British hate preacher Anjem Choudary has controversially demanded capital punishment for Koran-bashing author Sebastian Faulks if he is found guilty under sharia law. “Mr Faulks was extremely naïve for what he said and it could have some grave consequence for him. Someone like this needs to be assessed in an Islamic court of law and if he’s found guilty then there would be capital punishment,” the Daily Express quoted him, as saying. “Just as we chopping the hand off a thief and stoning the adulterer, we have for the one who insults the Prophet the death...

Developing story in Georgia, where church pastor Jonathan Ayers was shot and killed by undercover narcotics officers during a botched drug sting on Tuesday afternoon. Ayers was not the target of the investigation. Police were apparently after a woman Ayers had dropped off just prior to stopping at the convenience store where police confronted him. Surveillance video shows a black SUV pulling up to the store, and plain-clothes officers jumping out with their guns drawn before the vehicle has stopped. Ayers' car then backs into the picture, and the officers fire into his car as he drives off. Ayers was...

LAVONIA, Ga. (ABP) -- Members of a Southern Baptist church in Northeast Georgia want answers about the police-shooting death of their 29-year-old pastor in a drug-sting operation gone wrong. Jonathan Ayers, pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia, Ga., died during the night of Sept. 1, hours after being shot by undercover police officers outside a gas station where he had just gotten money from an ATM machine. The Stephens County Sheriff's Office initially identified the shooting victim as a suspect involved in a drug transaction. Later officials clarified that drug enforcement agents were not investigating Ayers, but a...

(Sept. 4) -- Plainclothes officers shot and killed a small-town pastor when the 28-year-old father-to-be resisted efforts to question him about a passenger in his car who was the target of a drug sting, authorities said. Jonathan Paul Ayers of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia wasn't targeted in the probe that ended in gunfire at a gas station Tuesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said. But drug task-force agents opened fire on him after he tried to avoid them, putting his car in reverse and striking one of the officers.

Plainclothes officers shot and killed a small-town pastor when the 28-year-old father-to-be resisted efforts to question him about a passenger in his car who was the target of a drug sting, authorities said. Jonathan Paul Ayers of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia wasn't targeted in the probe that ended in gunfire at a gas station Tuesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said. But drug task-force agents opened fire on him after he tried to avoid them, putting his car in reverse and striking one of the officers. Bankhead said agents approached Ayers after he dropped a woman...

Protestors have started voicing their opposition outside the congregation of a Phoenix-based pastor, who tells his parishioners that he prays for President Obama's death. Phoenix-based Pastor Steven Anderson attracted widespread attention after he delivered a sermon titled, "Why I Hate Barack Obama," and encouraged his parishioners to join him in praying for the president's death. "I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today," Fox News quoted him, as saying. He called his message "spiritual warfare" and said he does not condone killing. However, some protesters...

One week later, investigators continue to look into the case of Pastor Carol Daniels, who was found dead inside her church in Anadarko. KSBI-TV's Kealey McIntire gives us a closer look at what documents released by the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office are telling investigators. An eight page document released by the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office confirms that Carol Daniels died from multiple sharp force injuries, but many questions still remain. We took the report to Dr. Howard Kurtz, Professor of Criminology at Oklahoma City University to see what he thinks it reveals. "To do this kind of damage...

Oklahoma police found the naked, mutilated body of a murdered pastor stretched out in a "crucifix position" behind her church altar last Sunday, sources close to the investigation told The Oklahoman. The bloodied corpse of 61-year-old Carol Daniels appeared to have been left in the form of a cross with both arms outstretched at her sides. Her head was nearly decapitated by the force of deep stabs to her neck and throat, according to forensic pathologist Dr. William Manion, who reviewed her autopsy report. Daniels' clothing had been removed, possibly to hide evidence or as a kind of trophy from...

Here is video of Pastor Stephen Broden on Glenn Beck discussing Obama's socialist agenda. Broden said "What we are seeing is an orchestrated attempt to radically change this country from what the founders had in mind." Broden also said "There is a deliberate attempt on the part of Marxists, socialists, and atheists who are attempting to change this country." (Watch Video)