Free Republic

As American troops prepare for possible military action in Syria, "Duck Dynasty's" Uncle Si tells Beltway Buzz why America's troops have a special place in his heart. “A lot of these people have gave their lives, a lot of them have gave their limbs, okay, you know, that's a, that's a, that's a heap you know, that's might near like, you know, like the son of God, okay that gave Himself for us all okay. That's a great sacrifice, okay, giving up life and limb you know just for your freedom and my freedom. So, they, you know, they've got...

I am not a huge fan of Utopian visions, but I have always had a fond place in my heart for the dreamers who have invested time and money in the movement known as New Urbanism. I love older neighborhoods that are close to shopping areas, especially those that have retained their old trees, wide sidewalks and other evidence that human life existed before automobiles.So I read with great interest that recent news feature on the front page of the newspaper that lands in my front yard (here in a classic blue-collar community well inside the vast ring of Baltimore...

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Rev. Billy Graham turns 95 next week, and Sarah Palin and real estate mogul Donald Trump are among the 800 people planning to attend his celebration.---snip---Graham spokesman Jeremy Blume says there are ties between the Graham family and Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican presidential candidate. Relief aid headed to Russia provided by Samaritan's Purse, the international charity run by Franklin Graham, is staged in Alaska....

VATICAN CITY — Claims of eavesdropping on the Vatican are nothing new. But it’s hard to imagine any current foreign snooping could match the spying frenzy of the Cold War when the communist “East” and democratic “West” were locked in an ideological battle. After Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II in 1978, the Vatican did come under increased scrutiny as it was seen to be a decisive player in the anti-communist chess game. Apparently double agent priests infiltrated the upper echelons of the Vatican and Czechoslovakian spies reportedly bugged the private studio of then-Vatican Secretary of...

Moscow, November 1, Interfax - Victims of political persecutions suffered for faith were commemorated at the Butovo firing range, the Moscow Patriarchate reports at its official website. Names well-known today (of about thousand people) killed in Butovo in the years of Great Purge were declared near the funeral ditches for several hours. The NKVD "shooting list" was voiced in compliance with the days when verdicts were carried out, photos of the killed people were shown at a special display. Rector of the Novospassky Monastery and other clerics read out the first names, then parishioners continued the reading. Several dozens of...

The Conservative movement in America - much like those who fought valiantly at the Alamo - will shortly be overrun and butchered at the hand of a godless and lawless world (Matt. 24:12, Gal. 1:4; Eph. 6:12, Rev. 13). These sobering realities are too much for the majority of American conservatives to think on and understandably so, they do not want to retain this reality in their thoughts. These individuals have put ALL of their trust in this sound and crucial ideology for fallen humanity and rightly so, true conservatism is key for a healthy society and beneficial for obtaining...

Psalm 7:10 My Defense is in God, Who Preserveth the Upright in Heart.

Martin Luther “did more than any single man to make modern history the development of revolution,” declared Lord Acton. (Lectures on Modern History) The Protestant Reformation profoundly changed the trajectory of Western Civilization. While the Reformation changed every facet of society, it is important to remember that the Protestant Reformers were of course, primarily theologians. In their view, they believed they were recovering truth about God’s Word and revelation to the world. Today is Reformation Day and many Protestants around the world already have or will celebrate the roots of their churches. But there is also a crisis going on...

R&L: In what way did the Reformation reshape education in the modern world? Herman J. Selderhuis: Fundamental was the insight that there was no distinction between nature and grace as a lower and an upper level. This means that theology is not seen any longer as higher and more important than other subject matters and faculties, which caused a re-evaluation of other fields of employment, and of other educational tracts.The development of the universities, like the academy in Geneva, University of Leiden, and many other institutions focused on the broad spectrum of creation, natural science. That imparted an impulse by...

It's been said that the ideas of 16th-century church reformer John Calvin helped shape modern democracy and capitalism. Now, 500 years after his birth, the German Historical Museum in Berlin is taking a closer look. With more than 360 historical documents, works of art and liturgical objects, the Berlin show is the largest exhibition in Europe during the Calvin Year, which marks half a millennium since the reformer's birth on July 10, 1509, in Noyon, France. The exhibition focuses on Calvin as a person and his influence on Europe. It also touches on issues like expulsion, migration and minorities --...

Yale historian George Fisher wrote: “How is it, then, that Calvinism is acknowledged, even by foes, to have promoted powerfully the cause of civil liberty? The reason lies in the boundary line which it drew between church and State. Calvinism would not surrender the peculiar notions of the Church to the civil authority. Whether the church, or the Government, should regulate the administration of the Sacrament, and admit or reject the communicants, was the question which Calvin fought out with the authorities at Geneva…” This idea was institutionalized in the Puritans of the Presbyterian Church and Congregationalist settlers on the...

"In front of Pilate, Christ affirmed three times that He was a King in the same sense that Pilate understood it. 'Then you are a King?' Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a King,' in other words, 'You are correct.' It is true that He told him, 'My kingdom is not of this world,' but He did not say, 'My kingdom is not here.' He used the adverb 'hinc' (Regnum meum non est hinc) which indicates movement and does not exist in English. This adverb 'hinc' meant three things at the same time, 'My Kingdom does not proceed from...

Moscow, October 31, Interfax - Russia should choose aspects consistent with its traditions when borrowing world experiences, Russian Presidential Administration head Sergey Ivanov said. "Russia cannot and will not copy alien models blindly and thoughtlessly. We do not accept the absurd degree of Western-type political correctness and multiculturalism or the narrowly liberal market devoid of special mutual commitments," Ivanov said at the opening ceremony of the 17th meeting of the World Russian People's Council. "When borrowing international economic and political experiences, we should choose [the aspects] which do not disagree with but develop our traditions and national identity," the chief...

Reformation Day is a public holiday in Slovenia. It's dedicated to the Reformation and Protestant movement which gave the first printed book in Slovenian language. In 1550 Primož Trubar, a Protestant priest, published his Abecedarium spelling book and Catechism in Slovenian language. The day has been observed as a bank holiday since 1992. The main ceremony ahead of the event was held yesterday in Kranj. On the eve of the holiday another one of Trubar's most important works was revealed. The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts presented pictures of a preserved copy of Primož Trubar’s "Cerkovna ordninga". It was...

Last month, after being sure to get his caffeine fix at Starbucks, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land went where few evangelicals had dared to go before: the Provo campus of Brigham Young University, the intellectual heart of Mormonism. After lecturing on "family, faith, freedom and America," Land attended a BYU football game with LDS leaders and joined them to hear James Taylor sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Days later, George O. Wood, the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God, also visited BYU, followed by the Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptists’ flagship seminary. Is there...

The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday. The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13. The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the...

My dear friend's, once America's restraint is totally and fully removed in this present world, what is to stop the global lawless march to Doomsday (2 Thess. 2:2-8, Rev. 6-19). My friends, a very sobering NOTHING! That is right, NOTHING! A blind man should see it... and deaf man should hear it... but yet America is sleeping while the Titanic is minutes from going down. It is time for Americans and the world to recognize that The Day of the Lord is closer than it ever was and its horrific shadows linger over our heads as the dark storm clouds...

Considering anti-Christian persecution in the 21st century.‘Many Christians experience daily affronts and often live in fear because of their pursuit of truth, their faith in Jesus Christ, and their heartfelt plea for respect for religious freedom,” Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his 2011 message for the World Day of Peace. “This situation is unacceptable, since it represents an insult to God and to human dignity; furthermore, it is a threat to security and peace, and an obstacle to the achievement of authentic and integral human development,” he continued. This “global war on Christians is in many ways the greatest story...

The first person Monsignor James P. Farmer defended when he served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps in the early 1970s was a man from Puerto Rico who spoke no English. The future priest, then a young lawyer who knew no Spanish, received the case on appeal after his new client had already been convicted. The Puerto Rican had been previously represented by another man who also wasn’t bilingual. Remembering that a criminal law professor at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law had once told him that lawyers have a right not to defend someone,...

CATHOLICISM & THE ROOTS OF NAZISM: Religious Identity & National Socialism, by Derek Hastings. 290 pages, illustrated. Oxford Although numerous Catholic apologists have been concerned to deny it, it goes without saying that a mass political party organized in 85% Catholic Bavaria must have been, in some sense, compatible with Roman Catholicism. And so it was. In “Catholicism & the Roots of Nazism,” Derek Hastings shows precisely how this worked and, following the failed putsch of 1923, how Nazism left Catholicism behind. Bavarian Catholics before 1914 were deeply divided between “politicals,” allied to the Center Party and the Vatican; and...