Free Republic

Mid the cacophony of police sirens, low-flying helicopters and rifle fire, there was another sound during the attempt to overthrow president Recep Tayyip Erdogan: The wailing of Turkey’s imams. From the nations’s 85,000 mosques, their amplified voices were heard calling upon the faithful to take to the streets and defy the plotters. The people listened. Some bravely stood in front of tanks as they defended the democratically elected president. Around 240 from both sides died and 1,400 were injured. For others the night presented different opportunities as hardline Muslim Sunnis, whipped up to a frenzy, targeted Turkey’s Christian community. In...

Freddie Gray case: Charges against three remaining officers dropped Prosecutors dropped all remaining charges against three Baltimore police officers accused in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray in a downtown courtroom on Wednesday morning, concluding one of the most high-profile criminal cases in Baltimore history. The startling move was an apparent acknowledgement of the unlikelihood of a conviction following the acquittals of three other officers on similar and more serious charges by Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams, who was expected to preside over the remaining trials as well. It also means the office of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J....

Were you in Olympia, Washington, and wanted to buy an abortifacient drug, there would be a multitude of places ready to sell you one. Ralph's Thriftway, a local family-owned grocery store and pharmacy, would not be one of them. "Petitioners are Christians who believe that life is sacred from the moment of conception," lawyers representing Stormans, Inc. (the family corporation that owns Ralph's) and two individual pharmacists (who do not work at Ralph's) wrote in a January petition to the Supreme Court. "Because of their religious beliefs," said the petition (co-authored by attorneys from the Beckett Fund and the Alliance...

The owner of online dating site ChristianMingle.com has agreed to let gay and lesbian users search for same-sex matches under a judge-approved settlement of discrimination claims. Two gay men filed class-actions claims against Spark Networks Inc. in California courts in 2013 alleging that ChristianMingle.com and several other sites in the company’s portfolio of niche dating services excluded users looking to meet singles of the same sex. ChristianMingle, billed as the largest online community for Christian singles, required new users to specify whether they’re a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man. The lead plaintiffs, two gay men...

Much of my wife Mary's and my time is spent traveling the country, helping to elect conservatives to the House and Senate. I am chairman of the Conservative Campaign Committee. On a rare stop back home in Florida, we decided to enjoy a day at our favorite, New Smyrna Beach. After multiple stops for gas, banking, and Walmart, we were finally on our way. It brought back fond childhood memories of hot summer family trips to the beach; mom, dad, fat Aunt Nee, and five kids all crammed into a station wagon with no air conditioning. The ritual included picking...

ChristianMingle.com, an online dating service for Christian singles, must start allowing people to seek out same-sex relationships under a judge-approved settlement. ChristianMingle only required new users to specify whether they’re a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man. Two gay men filed class-actions claims against the site’s owner, California-based Spark Networks Inc., claiming that the site’s limited options violated California’s anti-discrimination law, The Wall Street Journal reported. State law requires businesses to offer “full and equal” accommodations and services to people regardless of their sexual orientation.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh recently joined 16 other state Attorneys General to launch, in their own words, “an unprecedented, multi-state effort to investigate and prosecute the ‘high-funded and morally vacant forces’ that have stymied attempts to combat global warming—starting with holding ExxonMobil and other industry giants accountable for fraud and suppression of key climate science.” In explaining his support of “AGs United for Clean Power,” Frosh said: “There is no doubt that climate change is an existential threat to our society and to our entire planet….I am deeply troubled that oil companies have contributed to the problem by intentionally...

People used to expect that attending something sponsored by religious organization required abiding by mores and behavior that religious body professes. There was a simple option for avoiding the ideas or practices of a belief system you don’t agree with: don’t frequent their space. This courteous expectation naturally applied to all religions and expressions of faith. California is now attempting to end this system of free association that allows people to define their local and religious cultures. California Senate Bill 1146 (SB 1146), which is slated for a vote Tuesday, seeks to limit the religious exemptions from federal Title IX...

In a state ruled by a former Jesuit, perhaps we should not be shocked to find ourselves in the grip of an incipient state religion. Of course, this religion is not actually Christianity, or even anything close to the dogma of Catholicism, but something that increasingly resembles the former Soviet Union, or present-day Iran and Saudi Arabia, than the supposed world center of free, untrammeled expression. Two pieces of legislation introduced in the Legislature last session, but not yet enacted, show the power of the new religion. One is Senate Bill 1146, which seeks to limit the historically broad exemptions...

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear a case challenging a Washington state law that forces a family-owned pharmacy to dispense emergency contraceptives is an “ominous sign” for those who value religious freedom, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said. “If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern,” Alito said Tuesday in a critical dissent. Alito was joined in his dissent by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas, falling one justice short of the four needed for the...

The US Supreme Court today denied to hear a case involving pharmacists in Washington state who, for religious reasons, declined to dispense RU-486Plan B, the “morning-after pill,” which causes abortion. Effectively this means that Christian pharmacists who refuse to sell drugs that intend to exterminate life in the womb cannot work in the new society. More: The Supreme Court will not review Washington state’s requirement that pharmacies dispense emergency contraceptives to women, prompting a complaint from conservative justices that it was an “ominous sign” for religious liberty. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued a sharp dissent Tuesday to the court’s...

It started out with hints of official, United States governmental oppression of Christianity as soon as same-sex “marriage” became a bullet point for activists – little things like “discrimination” complaints that those choosing alternative sexual lifestyles somehow weren’t applauded as they thought they deserved. Then it became confrontational for Christians who were simply choosing to live by their beliefs – beliefs similar to those held by the nation’s founders. Bakers were penalized for not promoting homosexuality, ditto for photographers and venue owners. Government officials publicly vilified their Christian faith and ordered them, in some case, re-educated. Now two rulings have...

A mob of over a thousand Islamic extremists attacked a Christian village destroying property and setting the homes of over 80 families ablaze over rumors that a Coptic man was converting a home into a church. The attacks, which took place Friday in Egypt’s Qaryat Al-Bayda village, near Alexandria, left two Copts seriously injured and resulted in thousands of dollars worth of damage, according to a Coptic activist. "A great deal of fanatic Muslims gathered in front of the new house of my cousin," Mousa Zarif, a Christian who witnessed the events, told Christian advocacy group International Christian Concern.

One way to measure the left-wing bias in academia is by looking at the degree to which those who don't subscribe to that point of view go to camouflage their outlook on life. "Approximately a third of the conservatives we interviewed, for example, concealed their politics prior to tenure by 'passing' as liberals," Jon A. Shields and Joshua M. Dunn, Sr., write in their book, Passing On the Right: Conservative Professors In the Progressive University. Shields teaches at Claremont McKenna College. Dunn is an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. They traveled extensively in order to...

'Could open Christian and other religious schools to a blizzard of lawsuits' California state lawmakers are poised to advance legislation they say will promote greater equity at the state’s colleges and universities, but religious freedom advocates say it’s just another attempt to advance the LGBT agenda by removing the ability of schools to determine their own criteria for selecting students and personnel and establishing codes of conduct. The legislation is known as SB 1146, which amends the California Equity in Higher Education Act, or EHEA. As it currently stands, the statute forbids discrimination based on religion, sexual orientation, gender identity...

A conservative professor who speaks openly about his opposition to gay marriage after having been raised by a lesbian couple has announced that he will be resigning his tenured position following a long battle with liberal activists. Robert Oscar Lopez, former associate professor of English and classics at California State University at Northridge, recently resigned his position with the academic institution. In an interview with The Christian Post, Lopez explained that the decision to move on came as a result of longstanding mounting pressure from activists on and off campus.

The people of North Carolina and the alumni of N.C. State University deserve an apology. Administrators at the school have implemented a patently unconstitutional policy, which forces students to apply for a permit in order to share the gospel on a public university campus they fund with their hard earned tax dollars. To make matters worse, the permit policy is being used to target Christians specifically while others are being allowed to exercise their rights unfettered. Now that a federal judge has called their bluff, the lawless North Carolina attorney general continues to defend the indefensible. Roy Cooper had the...

Istanbul Bomb Attack on Police Bus Kills 11, Wounds 36, Russia is 'paving the way' for a major re-escalation in Syria, Arab League won't accept any changes to 2002 peace initiative, says chief, Netanyahu: No one will remove us from our land, Rice promises Israel 'largest military aid package in history', Flesh-eating tropical bug sweeps the Middle East after thriving in ISIS-stronghold, Christian grocer hacked to death in latest Bangladesh attack, Episcopal Priest: LGBTQ People Will 'Revitalize Christianity' and Faith in the spotlight as Australians tipped to lose their religion.

Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God . And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For...

A mob ransacked and torched seven Christian homes in a province south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, after rumors spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman, according to a statement by the local Orthodox Coptic church. Released late Wednesday, it said that during the May 20 attack, the mother of the Christian man, who had fled the village, was publicly stripped of her clothes by the mob to humiliate her.