Free Republic

I love Passover. It's one of my very favorite Jewish holidays. For more than 3 score years I have enjoyed the richness of the rituals, the exotic and tasty food, and the story about a struggle for freedom, some would say a never-ending struggle, and I won't argue the point. The ceremonial Haggadah, the book that is the guide through each step of the Seder, is spiritually uplifting, and I have learned something new every year. This year my attention was caught by the dictate to "lean to the left" while dining. While there are both religious and medical reasons...

In a stunningly blunt brief, a team of lawyers acting on behalf of a number of Christian and liberty-focused organizations has told the U.S. Supreme Court that to mandate same-sex marriage is to invite God’s judgment. And that’s probably not going to turn out well. The brief was filed by the William J. Olson law firm and the U.S. Justice Foundation on behalf of Public Advocate of the U.S., Joyce Meyer Ministries, the Lincoln Institute, the Abraham Lincoln Foundation, Institute on the Constitution, Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund and pastor Chuck Baldwin. The Supreme Court is to hear arguments...

France, one of Europe’s most staunchly Catholic countries – 88% of the country belongs to the Roman Catholic Church – has appointed Laurent Stefanini, an openly gay man, as its ambassador to Vatican City. Stefanini will be the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as an ambassador to the Vatican, if the Roman Curia (the administrative arm of the Holy See) approves his appointment. Before being appointed, Stefanini served as France’s Chief of Protocol. In recent years, under Socialist president Francois Holland, France has gradually become more pro-LGBTQ, though not without a strong negative response, mostly from the country’s religious...

In America, Christians are nearing the dark part of a familiar cycleThe “national freak-out” about Indiana’s religious freedom law is telling. It shows where Christians in America stand in an age-old cycle that the world has put us through repeatedly. Indiana’s law did nothing but apply a common principle: If I want to print anti-abortion pamphlets that a printer doesn’t like, the printer can decline my job. If Aryan Nations wants to hire me to make white supremacist pamphlets for them, I can decline their job. But many cultural elites think Christians (and Orthodox Jews, Muslims, and traditional Hindus, by...

Yesterday, humorist Andy Borowitz published a piece at the New Yorker with the headline “Cruz’s Constant References to Jesus Drive Millions to Atheism“: The Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s constant references to Jesus Christ in his speeches and campaign ads are sparking a strong interest in atheism among millions of Americans, atheist leaders report. … “It’s been amazing,” [executive director of the American Society of Atheists Carol] Foyler said. “We’re getting calls from people who are curious about atheism for the first time in their lives. And when we ask them what got them thinking about it, they all say...

Some readers have asked me what I think about the Indiana RFRA controversy, as an academic who studies law and religion. To my mind, opponents of the law have succeeded in creating a false sense of crisis about the evil this allegedly unprecedented law would unleash in America. In this, they have been greatly assisted by the media’s framing of the issue and and by the support of corporate titans like Apple and Walmart, which have decided to intervene in the dispute—incidentally proving, as Justice Alito argued in Hobby Lobby, that for-profit corporations sometimes do express goals other than merely...

Psalm 69:16 O Jehovah, Answer my Prayers, for Your Lovingkindness is Wonderful; Your Mercy is So Plentiful, So Tender and So Kind.

When I was young, and passionate about all things, I’d take great joy in arguing loudly at parties or poker games, often and about everything. Living in New York City, I was the token conservative for so many people that it was easy to find disagreement. People would save up what they’d been planning to say to me. They’d spot me at parties and hustle across the room to debate me. As recently as a month ago a friend told me he had been waiting to get my opinion of something stupid Sarah Palin said in Iowa. Sarah Palin! The...

Black and white added stack of newspapers. Credit: Jason de Villa via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). Washington D.C., Apr 1, 2015 / 05:22 pm (CNA).- The editor of Religion News Service has denied that a grant from a wealthy LGBT advocacy funder has biased its coverage of traditional religion, which includes a recent controversial story on Cardinal Raymond Burke. The Arcus Foundation dispenses millions of dollars in grants every year to support LGBT activism. Its 2014 grants included $120,000 to the Religion Newswriters Foundation, the owner of the widely syndicated Religion News Service. The Arcus Foundation’s grant listing said the...

Catholic and Baptist leaders have joined in a statement calling for a serious national discussion of religious liberty in the US. Two Catholic archbishops, two spokesmen for the Southern Baptist Convention, and a prominent Catholic scholar addressed their statement to the current controversy over public acceptance of homosexuality. They observed: “When basic moral convictions and historic religious wisdom rooted in experience are deemed ‘discrimination,’ our ability to achieve civic harmony, or even to reason clearly, is impossible.” The statement was signed by Archbishops Charles Chaput of Philadelphia and William Lori of Baltimore; Rev. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of the...

If you went looking for the Apostle Paul an aeon ago, you might expect to find him mumbling platitudes in a dusty monastery, fumbling beads in some inane act of farcical devotion, locked for all time in a dingy prayer closet lit only by the nimbus of sainthood; or maybe, having assumed a vow of poverty, laboring in “full time Christian service,” whatever that means—in practical obscurity. If this is your idea of Pauline Christianity, you are profoundly wrong, and are among the majority of those who claim the nearly meaningless appellation of “Christian.” It is fashionable among those who...

While conservative Christians have long fought for the religious freedom of religious minorities, they have become increasingly concerned about their own religious freedom in recent years. Here are 8 reasons that is happening. 1. Same-Sex Marriage Some conservative Christians have long been warning that same-sex marriage presents a danger to the religious freedom of those Christians who believe true marriage can only be between a man and a woman. Those who sounded those warnings were accused of sensationalism; they were only making those claims to fan the flames of opposition to SSM, it was said at the time. We now...

Bombing, beheading, hijacking, mosque sermons — these are just a few of the instances where the proclamation “Allahu akbar” is shouted. But what does it really mean?The mainstream media tells us that the Islamic statement is a pledge of allegiance to the god of the Prophet Muhammad and is an admirable demonstration of faith and piety. It’s portrayed as a humble utterance of praise that is too often misused by jihadists during acts of terror. However, the real meaning behind the most controversial term of our time is much more sinister than the liberal left would have you believe.Recently,...

Those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but do profess an overwhelming belief in the constitutional separation of church and state, may soon have to round up their lawyers and head to Arkansas under the banner of the organization known as American Atheists, Inc. Arkansas state politicians have approved legislation to build a Ten Commandments monument, which would be paid for with private donations, on the grounds of their state Capitol in Little Rock. American Atheists, Inc. does not have a problem with the Ten Commandments or building monuments, per se, to immortalize the basic...

As I expected, the leaders of the Catholic Church have done everything they can to avoid saying anything in response to the furor over the Indiana RFRA. Their counsel is “dialogue,” an unfortunate weasel word long used by administrators who don't want to take a stand. On its face, the wording of this bland statement suggests the bishops believe the Indiana law could permit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. (They're calling for “dialogue” to make sure that doesn't happen.) But this is an over-reading of the statement. It's really just a political evasion of responsibility searching for words....

The editor of Religion News Service has denied that a grant from a wealthy LGBT advocacy funder has biased its coverage of traditional religion, which includes a recent controversial story on Cardinal Raymond Burke. The Arcus Foundation dispenses millions of dollars in grants every year to support LGBT activism. Its 2014 grants included $120,000 to the Religion Newswriters Foundation, the owner of the widely syndicated Religion News Service. The Arcus Foundation’s grant listing said the one year of support was intended “to recruit and equip LGBT supportive leaders and advocates to counter rejection and antagonism within traditionally conservative Christian...

AFTER watching the debate about religious freedom unfold over the past week, I decided to subject myself to an interview by an imaginary — but representative — member of the press. Here is our conversation: Happy Easter!Thank you. O.K., enough pleasantries. You’re a semi-reasonable Christian. What do you think about the terrible Indiana “religious liberty” bill?I favored the original version. Based on past experience, laws like this protect religious minorities from real burdens. As written, the Indiana law probably wouldn’t have protected vendors from being fined for declining to work at a same-sex wedding. But I would favor that protection...

Pope St. John Paul II said many times during the 26 years of his pontificate that we are living at the time of the greatest battle between good and evil that the world has ever seen. He would often make the observation that one of the worst things about this spiritual battle is that relatively few people even seemed to know that it is even taking place, precisely because the spiritual blindness so characteristic of this age is so pervasive, growing wider and deeper with every passing year. The late Father John A. Hardon, S.J., whose cause for canonization has...

A few years ago, while visiting family in Maryland, I attended church with my brother. It was a very hip contemporary church. The pastor, who looked in his early forties, wore a shirt and jeans. I saw a parishioner with a Mohawk haircut and others with tattoos. This is not a judgment, merely an observation that the congregation was very racially diverse, as well as in their attire. The topic of the pastor's sermon was homosexuality. He disclosed that his sister is a homosexual. Folks, filled with national statistics and documented facts, the pastor delivered the most loving and compassionate...

Conservative leader Pat Buchanan is urging Christians to fight the “LGBT fanatics” who are demanding they betray their faith, even if it means civil disobedience. And the conservative grassroots is showing signs it is ready for a showdown, supporting a pizzeria targeted by left-wing activists with donations rapidly approaching $1 million. In an exclusive interview with WND, Buchanan, the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” and other bestsellers, spoke on the controversy over the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Buchanan forcefully condemned defeatism among social conservatives and rejected retreat or even compromise. Instead, the one-time...