Free Republic

Christian Arabs Persecuted for Joining IDF By Julie Stahl CBN News Mideast Correspondent Tuesday, December 10, 2013 The 17-year-old son of a Greek Orthodox priest who encourages Christian Arab youth to integrate into Israeli society and join the Israel Defense Forces was brutally beaten in Nazareth over the weekend. Nazareth, the boyhood home of Jesus, has the largest Christian Arab population in Israel. Nazareth-based Father Gabriel Nadaf founded the Forum for Christian Community more than a year ago. Since then the number of Christian Arabs enlisting in the IDF jumped from 35 to 120, with another 500 opting to volunteer...

On Saturday, Nov. 16, approximately a dozen Chinese police officers walked into the Nanle County Christian Church in Henan province, a government-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic church, and "tied up" the church's pastor, Zhang Shaojie. Authorities then spirited him away to a secret location. Three weeks later, no one is quite sure where exactly pastor Shaojie is or if he's even still alive. The pastor's arrest sparked an immediate outcry from family and church members, who proceeded to gather in front of the local police station in protest. According to ChinaAid, a religious rights group based in Texas, authorities reportedly threatened the...

An elementary school in Frisco, Texas is believed to be the first in the state to violate “The Merry Christmas Law” after they banned Christmas trees and the colors red & green from an upcoming “winter” party. Boys and girls who attend the Nichols Elementary School “Winter Party” will not be able to make any reference to Christmas or any other religious holiday. Christmas trees are also banned—along with the colors red and green. … Ironically, the school is located in the district of state Rep. Pat Fallon, the author of a bill signed into law in June that codifies...

The persecution of Christians tells us that Christ's over evil "is near", over "worldly powers " for whom religion is a "private matter " and who forbid worship of God. At Mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis spoke of the final struggle between God and Evil, which the end of year liturgy offers us in these days.Vatican Radio reports that the Pope spoke of a great danger: "universal temptation ." The temptation to give in to the lure of those who want to defeat God, have the better of those who believe in Him. But he who...

A federal judge has found unconstitutional a law that lets clergy members avoid paying income taxes on compensation that is designated part of a housing allowance. The decision Friday by U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb could have far-reaching financial ramifications for pastors, who currently can use the untaxed income to pay rental housing costs or the costs of home ownership, including mortgage payments and property taxes.

When Sandy swept across the Jersey shore in October 2012, the coastal town of Ocean Grove was spared the worst. Sure, half the town’s boardwalk was destroyed and its pier was swept out to sea. And yes, sand, trees, and concrete benches were carried two blocks inland, while entire buildings were picked up and moved across town. But Ocean Grove’s crown jewel, an ornate and beautiful 6,250-seat auditorium, built in 1894, survived. It only had a third of its roof torn off. The auditorium’s foundation was intact and, most important, its 11,561-pipe organ was unscathed by the wind and rain....

The Vatican has done more to counter the Islamic threat than people think. If we in the West now know that Syrian "rebels" are in their majority bloody jihadists and not innocent victims of Assad, it is due to the Vatican news-gathering agencies in the region. At first the Western media were totally biased and were unquestioningly transmitting the propaganda they received from local reporters on the rebels as bona fide news. It was the Vatican agencies that eventually managed to correct this bias. And the Syrian case is just an example. The Vatican is one of the major...

Last week, the Pentagon made it clear that it plans to take action against former SEAL Matt Bissonnette. It says he violated a signed nondisclosure agreement by writing “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden.” snip A reporter noted that Mr. Bissonnette also was part of the operation that saved a U.S. cargo ship captain from the hands of Somali pirates. Hollywood turned the 2009 rescue into the feature film “Captain Phillips,” with the Navy’s help.

Grocery Store Owner Ordered to Pay Unemployment Benefits Over ‘Unacceptable’ Biblical Counseling TABOR, IA – A grocery store owner in Iowa has been ordered to pay unemployment benefits to a former employee who quit her job after she was questioned about her personal lifestyle and exhorted to read the Bible.Tyler Stille owns Tabor Market and Deli and is known for his strong Christian beliefs. He told reporters this week that he is up front with prospective employees about his faith before they are hired.“We have a Christian fish symbol on our sign,” Stille explained. “Before we hire anybody, we tell...

The daughters of Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi hold a photo of their mother outside their residence in Ittanwalai, Pakistan, in November 2010. (CNS photo/Adrees Latif, Reuters) In his 18th-century classic The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, English historian Edward Gibbon famously attributed the fall of the Roman Empire primarily to the rise of the Christian religion. The Christian belief in eternal life, paired with the gospel teachings on love of neighbor and the demand to turn the other cheek, were responsible, Gibbon believed, for the weakening of the Roman peoples’ concern with this earthly state. In...

The Family Research Council (FRC) released a video in time for Veterans Day that warns Americans about the persecution of U.S. troops who express their Christian faith. The four-minute-and-44 second video, “A Clear and Present Danger,” features active duty members of the U.S. military sharing their concerns about the “tremendous culture of intimidation and fear in the ranks of the American military right now.” … In the video, soldiers tell Americans they need to speak out on this issue. “American Christians have to understand that this is not going to stop with the military,” a soldier says. “It’s not going...

Christians can learn from Jews. We can learn how to thrive in the secular world that no longer regards faith as central. So argues Rabbi Jonathan Sacks at the 2013 Erasmus Lecture. Speaking to more than five hundred people on the evening of Monday, October 21st at the Union League Club in New York, Sacks outlined a vision in which religious communities—Jewish and Christian—can function as creative minorities.

... Around 3,000 people flee Eritrea every month, despite a "shoot to kill" policy targeting escapees. Earlier this month, two boats carrying refugees sank off the coast of Italy. One was carrying around 500 people, mostly from Eritrea and Somalia, when it went down. Some 30,100 asylum-seekers arrived on Italy's coastline between January and the end of September. According to a BBC report, 7,500 of them were Eritrean. Release International, a VOMC partner in Eritrea, says 185 believers gathered recently to pray about the exodus. Suddenly, police broke into the house and arrested them all. Church leaders fear this may...

The World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva claims to represent and serve 345 churches worldwide. What has it done to help the persecuted churches in Iraq, Syria and Egypt? Or the flood of Syrian refugees into Jordan and Lebanon? Answer: it has devoted the whole of 2013 to promoting a World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel (September 22-28). That is, it has poured its Swiss francs into stirring up the one corner of the area that is currently almost calm. … The excuse for this absurd imbalance is that the WCC has maintained for decades, and insists on...

Four Iranian Christians were reportedly sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking wine for communion, a shocking punishment meted out even as a new United Nations report blasted the Islamic republic for its systematic persecution of non-Muslims. The four men were sentenced Oct. 6 after being arrested in a house church last December and charged with consuming alcohol in violation of the theocracy's strict laws, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. They were among several Christians punished for their faith in a nation where converting from Islam to Christianity can bring the death penalty. According to a new October UN report by...

Department of Homeland Security adviser Mohamed Elibiary has warned the tea party movement against attempting to change the U.S. political landscape through “Christianist Xenophobia.” In Twitter messages, Elibiary further charged some “white identity/privilege types” have a problem with a “black president” and “brown Mexicans.” “If #TeaParty wants US revived then we must swing Blue seats Red & that is only achievable thru Libertarianism, not Christianist Xenophobia,” Elibiary tweeted.

FOX Sports Southwest hired former NFL running back Craig James as an on-air analyst only to fire him days later. The move came after statements he made on gay marriage while campaigning for the Senate resurfaced. "People choose to be gay," he said during an April 2012 campaign stop. "I think it's a choice, I do. Same-sex marriage, if someone chooses to do that, that's done. And God's going to judge each one of us in this room for our actions. And in that case right there, they're going to have to answer to the Lord for their actions." James...

Have you noticed that radical Muslims attack Christians in countries where Christians are in the minority.....and they attack Christians in countries where they are in the majority. Christians living in majority Christian countries, have abandoned Christian minorities in majority Muslim nations, to be slaughtered like dogs. But, guess what? Christians in majority Christian countries are not doing a good job protecting themselves from violent Muslim minorities, either. We are not just talking about massive terror attacks in Madrid, London, New York, etc. But Christians living in majority Christian countries no longer have the right to publicly criticize Islam. Danish cartoonists...

"Christians and Muslims had always lived in an atmosphere of mutual trust; the attack on Maaloula has created a lot of distress." Islamists have invaded homes and continue to threaten the village, site of ongoing clashes between rebels and the army. The families who fled to Damascus and Beirut tell their story. The goal is to drive out Christians in order to eliminate Christianity.Beirut (AsiaNews) - According to families who fled Maaloula (Syria), some of their Muslim neighbours were involved in the attack that devastated their village located about fifty kilometres from Damascus, dispersing its residents. Perceived as a betrayal...

The last month and a half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly focussed on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks. Last week at the National Liberal Club there was a discussion asking why the American and British press have ignored or under-reported this persecution, and (in some people’s minds) given a distorted narrative of what is happening.