Free Republic

I'm going to follow up on yesterday's posting with some observations and questions - mostly questions, for there seem to be many questions that aren't being asked.  Who know?  Perhaps these questions are being actively stifled.  Well, I'll ask them (in no particular order) and hope that this serves to wake some folks up. Today I received my newsletter from Help Save Maryland, a conservative organization in Maryland.  They in turn reprinted a National Review article, called "The Moral Crisis On Our Southern Border" by Victor Davis Hanson.  He rightly points out that the bulk of these children are...

This is by Zac Morgan, a staff attorney at the Center for Competitive Politics writing at NRO.  My emphases and comments. Does Religious Speech Threaten Democracy? It could be restricted or banned under a constitutional amendment Democrats have proposed.The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday approved by a 10–8 vote a constitutional amendment that, if passed, would functionally eliminate the political rights of speech and association. While the committee made the language more succinct than in its original iteration, the law still poses a profound threat to fundamental liberties. [Mind you, a constitutional amendment doesn't happen over night, but... it has to start...

“There are more witnesses, more martyrs in the Church today than there were in the first centuries,” said Pope Francis last week. He decried the persecution but added “The Church grows thanks to the blood of the martyrs. This is the beauty of martyrdom.”His words are proving true around the world.ChinaChina used to be an example of the triumph of atheism — atheists came to power there and in the Soviet Bloc, in the 20th century but China is fast becoming an example of the triumph of Christianity in the 21st.The government is not taking it lightly.You may have...

Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay thrust the college into the spotlight a week ago by signing a letter to President Barack Obama requesting that he exclude religious institutions from an executive order barring organizations that take federal money from discrimination in hiring based on sexual orientation. Now the Christian college on the North Shore faces scrutiny from the body that accredits colleges and universities in New England. Gordon’s action — and the ensuing media coverage — has put the college on the agenda for the September meeting of the New England Association of School and College’s higher education commission....

I read this at NRO: Senate Democrats’ Religious-Freedom Deprivation BillUnder the guise of “protect[ing] women’s health from corporate interference,” the bill that Senate Democrats are proposing in response to the Hobby Lobby ruling would deprive religious entities of all religious-liberty protections against having the HHS mandate directly imposed on them. Specifically:1. The bill would apply to employers generally, not just (as the bill’s short title would suggest) to “corporate” employers. Subsection 4(a) would make it unlawful for any “employer that establishes or maintains a group health plan for its employees” to “deny coverage of a specific health care item or...

Baltimore Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden is enthused by the fruit that came from recent discussions between U.S. bishops and Iran’s religious leaders. “When you build a certain sense of trust and respect, then you can move forward and deal with the issues,” he said. The faith leaders announced June 14 that they oppose actions that endanger the life, health, dignity and welfare of others, including the creation of weapons of mass destruction. That declaration was the result of a March dialogue between a delegation from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Supreme Council of the Seminary Teachers...

"In order to avoid future clashes with the citizens of Murrieta, Calif., over attempts to transfer illegal immigrants there, the Obama administration has turned to an unusual bedfellow: the Catholic Church. Deacon Luis Sanchez of the Diocese of San Bernardino tells National Review Online that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent approached the diocese on July 2, 2014, and “expressed his desire for the Church to help in helping these families reach their destination.” Since that time, he says, diocesan officials have spoken on the phone with ICE, and they held a planning meeting on Monday. John Andrews, the diocese’s...

Muslims advocates gathered at the California state capitol. Photo courtesy of the Council on American-Islamic Relations CA. Sacramento, Calif., Jul 10, 2014 / 04:07 am (CNA).- Proposed California food safety rules for butchering animals have raised concerns among the state’s Muslims, who say the rules would prevent them from practicing their religious beliefs. “Religious freedom is an important issue for all Americans. It is at the core of the freedoms our country was founded on and a value we pride ourselves on,” Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council of Islamic Relations’ San Francisco Bay Area Office, told CNA July...

“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” Deuteronomy 10:18 (ESV)Christians are used to hearing people say “it’s the Christian thing to do.” Most often, it is by people deeply hostile to Christianity who say it. I get this all the time — even more so since I announced I am going to seminary. Liberals with no sense of Christianity want to tell Christians how they must behave and, by and large, hate us when we behave as Christians. Now, I know many of you do not share my faith....

The Catholic Church in the Philippines is encouraging members who are medical workers to refuse to implement a newly-approved birth control law, an official said on Thursday.MANILA: The Catholic Church in the Philippines is encouraging members who are medical workers to refuse to implement a newly-approved birth control law, an official said on Thursday. It is the latest move by the powerful church hierarchy in the largely Catholic Philippines against a law that took effect this year, compelling the state for the first time to provide free condoms and contraceptive pills. "Pastoral guidance" issued by bishops this week explains how...

Most Americans are deeply appreciative that our nation has welcomed millions of immigrants throughout our history. But is it possible to sustain a practice whereby social services are freely provided to anyone who can sneak across the border? Does such a practice ever reach a tipping point where it becomes self-defeating and detrimental to everyone in the nation? What does a community look like when there are not enough federal, state or local funds to meet the basic needs of the poor? Should limits ever be set on who gets to come across the border to America? Compare it to...

U.S. government officials were caught off guard by the recent rapid rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and its plan to establish a sharia-ruled caliphate state.Either they weren’t getting enough intelligence from their agents in the field, or else they lacked the framework for processing the information. Since the American Embassy in Baghdad has some 15,000 employees and since we can assume that this includes a sizeable contingent of intelligence gatherers, a problem with the framework is the more likely explanation. The framework is built around the assumption that Islam is a religion of peace, and that the...

"World Congress of Families" Ambassador Tells ZENIT Faithful Must Be Visible and in the Public Square to Defend Our CivilizationThe day may come when U.S. citizens actually have to resist the nation's radically-changing forces, set to limit religious freedom - just one of the views shared with ZENIT by an ambassador of the World Congress of Families, Fr. Marcel Guarnizio. An expert on the region and Russia having ministered there extensively, Fr. Guarnizio warns that hope disappears when populations don’t see a need to have families. He believes Russia now has a new vitality, needed to help Western Europe resist...

It was just another high school graduation in one more streamer-bedecked gym, with all the usual trappings, the procession, the band, the beach balls, the decorated caps, the parents, the dignitaries. Except it wasn’t ordinary at all: it was as powerful a statement of faith from both a student and from the crowd itself as you will ever see.

Following the details of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes--biographical, Jesus walking on the sea--biographical, Jesus reacts to the crowds' need for signs. Jesus takes them from manna, bread from heaven, to "true bread from heaven (v. 32)" ... "I am the bread (v. 35)." "I am the bread that came down from heaven (v. 41)." This is God saying this: "I am the bread that came down from heaven." If He was not really the bread that came down from heaven, His omnipotent and creative Word would then have made it so.

SINGAPORE – In a pastoral letter addressed to Catholics with same-sex orientation issued on July 3rd, the Archbishop of Singapore William Goh apologized if he had hurt anyone with the way he expressed himself in a previous pastoral letter on the family, which had also addressed homosexuality. However, he again strongly reaffirmed the Church's teachings on sexuality, and announced the formation of a new ministry dedicated to helping individuals with same-sex attraction to live a sexually chaste lifestyle. "I apologize if my initial statement conveyed insensitivity as, from your feedback, I have come to realize that there is much...

Eight state constitutions include restrictions on people who don’t believe in a supreme being. In Arkansas, denying the existence of God means you can’t hold civil office or testify in court, while in Tennessee there are also guidelines about belief in the hereafter. However, the Supreme Court ruled in a 1961 case that a Maryland man appointed as a notary public didn’t have to declare his belief in a supreme being to hold office, arguing it violated his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Since then, these restrictions haven’t been enforced, said Dave Muscato, a spokesman for American Atheists....

Margaret Atwood wrote a gripping novel back in 1985 called The Handmaid’s Tale. The main character, Offred, is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian and theocratic state that has replaced the United States of America. Handmaids are walking wombs, child bearers for elite couples. Offred services the Commander and his wife Serena Joy, who is a former gospel singer and advocate for “traditional values.” Every month in her fertile period, Offred is required to have impersonal, wordless sex with the Commander while Serena sits by, holding her hands. The Republic of Gilead is what America has...

A town has banned Christians from using publicly funded facilities. When people talk about Christian persecution, most people picture the Middle East, Asia, or Africa. Most people don’t expect something as shocking as this right in the Northern Hemisphere. Most people think of British Colombia as a beautiful place to vacation. I must admit, I spent some time there myself when I lived in the North East. Nobody would expect the tourist rich town of Nanaimo to pull a stunt like this, so full of hatred and arrogance. Just days before a Christian Convention was to be hosted at this...

From shoebat.com: Muslims Rape Christian Women, 600 Christians Take Up Arms And Make One Final And Heroic Stand Against Muslim Jihadists After so much rape has been done against Christian women in Iraq, 600 Christians in Iraq have now taken up arms to make one final stand against Muslim Jihadists, members of the ISIS terrorist group, at the frontiers of the Christian settlement of Bartella on the outskirts of Mosul.These 600 Christians, “all mighty men of valour” (1 Chronicles 12:21), are led by Capt. Firaz Jacob, a Christian warrior who has himself declared with the utmost of apostolic zeal:I stand...