Free Republic

The 21st century is supposed to be a time of liberal enlightenment. But the reality looks very different. Instead of a world of mutual understanding and tolerance, people around the globe face spreading violence and human rights abuses. Religious persecution continues to rise. The latest report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom documents the worst manifestations of this attack on the most basic liberty of conscience. Now in its 15th year, the Commission reflected on the importance of religious freedom, which “means the right of all human beings to think as they please, believe or not believe...

The majority party and its leader Narenda Modi have ridden the wave of religious fanaticism. Minorities are appealing to the legacy of democracy and pluralism India is officially in the hands of the Hindu right wing. The Catholic Church and other religious minorities are concerned but they are grinning and bearing it, grasping onto the old and deep-rooted legacy of democratic values and pluralism that characterizes the Indian nation. Their concerns stem from the contiguity of India’s leaders with groups of Hindu fanatics. This is the landscape that has been emerging in the Indian sub-continent since the official general election...

Georgia health officials on Friday retracted a job offer made to Pasadena's former public health director, who had come under fire for controversial remarks he made on homosexuality and evolution. Dr. Eric Walsh, a Seventh-day Adventist preacher, interviewed for the position about two weeks ago and had received an offer letter with a start date of mid-June. But Walsh never mentioned that he had recently been placed on leave from his job in Pasadena because of controversial sermons he gave on homosexuality and evolution, Georgia officials said. The sermons were discovered during a background check that happens as the last...

Pregnant woman to be flogged, hanged for marrying Christian By Post Wire Report May 15, 2014 | 9:19am KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Sudanese woman doctor who married a Christian man and who was convicted earlier this week on charges of “apostasy” was sentenced to death on Thursday, judicial officials said. According to the Sudanese officials, 26-year-old Meriam Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim, was convicted on Sunday and given four days to repent and escape death. She was sentenced after that grace period expired, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

A pregnant woman in Sudan was sentenced to death by hanging Thursday because she refused to renounce Christianity for Islam, a leading human rights group said, in a case that has drawn international condemnation. Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who is eight months pregnant, was convicted under the Islamist-led government on charges of apostasy - the crime of abandoning or criticizing Islam - which is punishable by death in several Muslim-majority countries. The U.S., Canada and the U.K. have decried the verdict. Her lawyers told Amnesty International that religious clerics in court had asked the 27-year-old Thursday if she would recant her...

Professor Lennart Bengtsson - the leading scientist who three weeks ago signalled his defection to the climate sceptic camp by joining the board of the Global Warming Policy Foundation - has now dramatically been forced to resign from his position. His views on the weakness of the "consensus" haven't changed. But as he admits in his resignation letter, he has been so badly bullied by his alarmist former colleagues that he is worried his health and career will suffer. Bengtsson's recruitment by the GWPF (the London-based think tank set up by former Chancellor Lord Lawson) represented a huge coup for...

Virginia Gun Owner Being Unfairly Prosecuted In NJ For Accidentally Bringing A Gun Into The StateVirginia Citizens Defense League Covington VA --(Ammoland.com)- A Virginia CHP holder, Guy Ackerman, inadvertently brought a handgun with him into NJ.He discovered the gun in his car and rather than leave it in there with valet parking, he took the unloaded revolver to his room and locked it in the room safe. The valet had noticed the gun when it was in the car and told the police, who arrested Guy and charged him with unlawful weapon possession – a felony in NJ.The prosecutor is refusing...

In 1999, Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Hauge, a Democrat, was prosecuting a legal gun owner for using his gun to defend himself.  Hauge was also a guest instructor on gun laws at the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club in Bremerton, Washington.  The gun owner was found innocent of all charges and that did not set well with Hauge who took up two class periods lecturing the students about the case.Hearing what Hauge was saying about the case and gun rights, Marcus Carter, Executive Officer for the gun range, knew that the students did not get the full story.  The...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today posted this Status Update on Facebook: Liked Sarah Palin Politician · 4,124,012 Likes · 57 mins · Edited ·  Thank you, Jake Tapper, for covering this shocking story about anti-Semitic propaganda distributed by pro-Russian militants in Ukraine demanding Jews “register” their religion and property. Our U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine confirmed the story. The rest of the media must pursue this story and demand answers from the Obama administration as to what our President’s intention now is in light of this atrocious development that harkens back to frightening times for Jews.Our government’s priorities are so skewed. The Middle East is...

This is the text of a speech given by Lord Alton of Liverpool at a Vigil for Syria held at Farm Street Jesuit Church on Tuesday, just a day after the murder of Fr van der Lugt in Homs. In a talk at the beginning of Lent at Brentwood Cathedral I cited the heroic and faithful work of a 75-ear-old Dutch Jesuit, Fr.Franz van der Lugt who, in the face of extraordinary danger and acute suffering, refused to desert the suffering people of Homs.Father Frans van der Lugt was born on April 10, 1938 in the Netherlands and entered the Society...

Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock, you’ve noticed the growing clash between religious freedom and issues like same-sex marriage and forced funding of abortion. Last week, the Supreme Court heard a landmark case on whether the federal government can compel a business to fund abortion drugs in defiance of the religious beliefs of the business owner. It’s merely one such case amid a flurry of lawsuits that even includes the Little Sisters of the Poor. Or, consider these situations involving gay marriage: In Oregon, a couple that owns a bakery, the Kleins, are being sued and called before the...

Liberals are always spouting that they practice tolerance and that mean old conservatives are all bigots who would round up undesirables into internment camps if given half a chance. We know that such views are nonsense, and that progressive liberals prove themselves on a daily basis to be festering mounds of hate and anger. If there's one thing I despise, it's rank hypocrisy and many of our Jerk of the Week winners are guilty of practicing it. Our winner this week is also guilty of this charge and they're becoming increasingly emboldened. Their actions have hit the internet this week...

Far from being repentant of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey, under the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan, is again targeting Armenians; is again causing their death and dislocation.In the early morning hours of March 21, al-Qaeda linked Islamic jihadis crossed into Syrian territory from the Turkish border and launched a jihad on the Christian/Armenian town of Kessab. Among other thing, “Snipers targeted the civilian population and launched mortar attacks on the town and the surrounding villages.”  Reportedly eighty people were killed. The jihadis later made a video touring the devastated town; no translation is needed, as the main phrase shouted throughout is...

A great evil is sweeping our nation through judicial decree. In states all over the country, bans on homosexual marriage are being overturned by Federal Courts. In most states these bans were voted on by the people, usually by large majorities. The latest state to see its law overturned by judicial decree is Michigan. Within minutes of the Court overturning the Michigan law dozens of sodomites and lesbians got married at liberal county buildings all with the media present and cheering. To believe this wasn’t coordinated with the Court is to suspend rational thought. Homosexuals wouldn’t be marrying but for...

An atheist group has come unhinged over a tweet posted by Wisconsin Gov.Scott Walker and are demanding that he uphold the “godless” Constitution by deleting it. Walker tweeted “Philippians 4:13” from his official Twitter account Sunday — the Bible verse reads: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation took exception to the tweet, saying it’s religious in nature and a “misuse of gubernatorial and state of Wisconsin imprimatur,” according to The Christian Post. “This braggadocio verse coming from a public official is rather disturbing,” the group wrote in a letter. “As...

The Salvation Army on Tuesday settled a decade-old lawsuit that charged it with engaging in religious discrimination by requiring its government-funded social service employees to reveal their beliefs and to agree to act in accordance with the Christian gospel. As part of the settlement, approved by a federal judge in Manhattan, the Salvation Army will distribute to its New York employees who work in programs that receive government financing a document stating that they need not adhere to the group’s religious principles while doing their jobs, nor may they be asked about their religious beliefs. The Salvation Army, which is...

Welcome to the official website of the Freedom From Atheism Foundation (FFAF)! Our oranisation exists in order to raise awareness of militant atheism and atheist atrocities around the world. In addition, we seek to stand for religious freedom on a global scale. The Freedom From Atheism Foundation holds firm in its faith in God and defends the rights of those whose religious liberty is infringed upon. Through our social media, victims of militant atheism are free to share their experiences without fear of harassment. Members of all faiths are welcome!

1804 GMT: The Economist’s Edward Lucas has posted a statement from Bishop Borys Gudziak that provides more information on the kidnapped Greek Catholic Priest: Fr. Kvych was seized by two men in uniform and four men in civilian clothing. The young chaplain for the Ukrainian Navy was taken to an undisclosed location where he is being held captive. A parishioner who called Fr. Kvych’s cellular phone heard abusive language on the line directed at the priest before the call was cut short. Sources confirm that Fr. Kvych is alive. Earlier this week at the direction of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic...

Mr. Dershowitz thinks the federal campaign fraud charges against the conservative filmmaker and author are an example of “selective prosecution.” Weighing in on the case Friday in an interview with Law Blog, Mr. Dershowitz was withering in his opinion of the Manhattan U.S. attorney office’s prosecution of Mr. D’Souza, who pleaded not guilty last week to making illegal campaign contributions to a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in 2012. “The idea of charging him with a felony for this doesn’t sound like a proper exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” Mr. Dershowitz said. “I can’t help but think that [D'Souza's] politics have something...

Last week, 33 individuals who were attempting to establish an underground church were sentenced to death. The missionary who was assisting them has been imprisoned for months, and his fate, like all of those he has come in contact with, is still perilously undetermined. Officially, their crimes are related to “attempting to overthrow” the regime of dictator Kim Jong-un. But in North Korea, where the lines between state-allegiance and cult-like devotion to government leaders is so blurry that it may no longer exist, the crimes of being a Christian and opposing the regime are one and the same. A growing...