Free Republic

After four years of U.S. churches heading for the exits, United Methodists are rethinking ministry expenses at all levels of the denomination. That includes the general church — with the denomination’s financial leaders having met Feb. 19-20 to shrink further what was already going to be the smallest proposed denominational budget in 20 years. At the same time, the financial leaders agreed on a plan to shore up the faltering fund that supports the work of United Methodist bishops as the episcopal leaders gradually reduce their numbers. Retired Bishop Michael McKee, board president of the General Council on Finance and...

A Connecticut church pastor charged with dealing crystal meth out of his church's rectory fled court on Thursday and local police are seeking his re-arrest. Herbert Miller, 63, the reverend of the Woodbury United Methodist Church, was arrested earlier this month after being pulled over by state troopers in Woodbury. The reverend attended Waterbury Superior Court court on Friday morning for his arraignment but walked out of the court around 10am during a break. When Miller could not be located the prosecutor re-issued a warrant for his arrest. Miller was stopped by state troopers who observed he was operating his...

Lutheran Church of the Cross is a Canadian congregation that “affirms and celebrates human diversity in God’s creation.” Led by Lyndon Sayers and Lyle McKenzie, they are an ELCIC (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada congregation, the canuck version of the ELCA) that is populated by senior citizens, lesbians, and a host of other ragtag goatlings. We covered them after a recent sermon argued that the baby Moses’ trip in a basket on the Nile river has some queer themes, and is actually about kinship outside of heteronormative family structures, as well as a metaphor for the turbulence that trans folk...

The unholy trinity of Jesus-hating denominations recently colluded at Fort Hays State University, putting on a celebration of Ash Wednesday where glitter was mixed in with the ashes to celebrate, “center,” and foster inclusion within the LGBTQ community. The event was put on by Us4U, a faith-based service organization sponsored by the United Methodist Campus Ministry and supported by the Trinity Lutheran Church of Hays and St. John Lutheran Church of Russell. While protestants shouldn’t even be celebrating Ash Wednesday to begin with, this service was particularly garish, with anyone of any belief invited to participate, with Us4U advisor Cheryl...

A Connecticut church pastor was arrested last week and charged with dealing crystal meth out of his church's rectory, say local police. Herbert Miller, 63, the reverend of the Woodbury United Methodist Church, was arrested Friday after being pulled over by state troopers in Woodbury. He was found to be in possession of crystal methamphetamine in both rock and liquid form, the latter of which was discovered in a hypodermic needle, ready for injection. A police report says that Miller was 'observed operating his vehicle with a suspended registration for failing to maintain insurance requirements.' When police found the vehicle,...

A McLean County pastor has been convicted of embezzling from a church where she served. Erin Gullickson, 45, was found guilty of felony theft of property Tuesday following a two-day trial in Washburn and faces up to 10 years in prison. A judge ordered a presentence investigation. Sentencing will be scheduled later. Charges against Gullickson were filed in February 2023 after funds totaling nearly $80,000 were allegedly misappropriated from Our Savior Lutheran Church in Max. Gullickson served as pastor at Our Savior and also at Concordia Lutheran in Benedict. Both McLean County churches are congregations within the Evangelical Lutheran Church...

The ELCA Youth Ministry Network, or ‘The Network,’ is the demonic denomination’s flagship ministry, which supposedly “exists to strengthen and empower adult leaders in children, youth and family ministry, in service to Christ” but in reality serves to drag them to hell. They recently held Extravaganza 2024, the Network’s annual conference, which drew over “1,000 leaders in children, youth and family ministry, along with teachers, resource providers and leaders” for four days of “renewal, education and networking.” Along with workshops that explore “what could be if we were to reimagine the invitations of the Lord’s Prayer through a womanist lens,”...

In 2014, Russell Moore, then president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) advised Southern Baptists to attend a “gay wedding” reception as a gesture of affection towards a homosexual friend or relative. Moore was criticized for this stance, and rightly so, yet this stance was quickly adopted by the progressive stream of Southern Baptists and Evangelicals and has become the norm within movements such as Revoice. Yet, Moore’s advice is inextricably entangled with a fundamental flaw—it tacitly endorses what Scripture explicitly identifies as an ungodly union. The Bible’s portrayal of marriage as a sacred covenant...

We have seen where the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will be in 30 years, and it’s in the form of herchurch, a heretical church in San Francisco within the Sierra Pacific Synod, the most progressive entity of the ELCA. Founded initially as Ebenezer Lutheran Church by Swedish immigrants in 1884, the church served the community for many years until Rev. Stacy Boorn took over. Ordained in 1987, Boorn describes herself as a “Pastor & Priestess of Ritual” and claims that her “malestream theological education opened the door for her to build a Goddess-inclusive congregation and ministry.” Inhabited by...

Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo, Jr is the President of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, one of the 12 seminaries belonging to the heretical Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Previously serving as the Associate Dean of Institutional Diversity and Community Engagement at Princeton Theological Seminary (PCUSA), Aloyo recently preached a barnburner of a bad sermon at Saint Luke’s Presbyterian Church in Dunwoody, Ga. Here, Aloyo ripped into the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew 22, explaining, “If what we hear in today’s gospel is really what the kingdom of heaven is like, friends, then I am not interested.” Describing it as...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is one of the vilest denominations in America. Pro-homosexuality, pro-choice, and posessing a preternatural hatred for the Bible, it’s populated almost exclusively by spiritually decrepit senior citizens and virtue-twerking LGBTQ twenty-somethings. Less than 1% of the congregants in the denomination are saved, as you can only submit to a satanic pastor for so long without getting a little demonic yourself. We’ve written about them before, in Lutheran Pastor Promotes Hookups, Polyamory, and Premarital Sex , ELCA Leader in a Polyamorous/’Ethically Non-Monogamous’ Relationship, the time where After Annual Meeting, Lutheran Leadership+ Pastors Celebrate in...

Allendale United Methodist “Church” is already under fire for allowing minors to attend a drag queen show during its worship service, blatantly disregarding Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s legislation that prohibits exposing children to sexualized performances. One particularly egregious instance in 2022 involved Isaac Simmons, also known as drag queen “Ms. Pennycost,” who is now an ordained “pastor” or “priestess” or whatever in the UMC. Simmons openly challenges the authority of Scripture and adopts a heretical view of God, evident through his sacrilegious writings. Simmons was notably featured at this “church” delivering a “children’s sermon” that grossly misrepresented Romans 12:2, twisting...

This coming summer in New Orleans the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will hold another Youth Gathering. The last time this happened was in 2018 when 31,000 Lutheran teens were told to support transgenderism by an 11 year-old-boy who thinks he is a girl. Also, ELCA pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber led the teens in a kind of mock baptismal vow, saying “I renounce the lie that queerness is anything other than beauty.” For 2024, the Teen Gathering theme will be “Created to Be”. “We are created to be free—to work for justice for all our siblings”. You will notice the ELCA...

The Scriptural recounting in the Gospel of Saint Matthew of the mysterious wise men who visited the baby Jesus bearing gifts is one of the most enduring and compelling scenes in Sacred Scripture. The rudimentary nature of St. Matthew’s description of the Magi’s arrival has encouraged a flowering of apocryphal literature across the centuries which has added depth and detail to the occasion of the Epiphany. There are numerous references to the Magi in early post-Scriptural literature. Saint Justin Martyr mentions them prominently in his debate with Trypho (Chapter 78) in the mid-second century AD. Magi were of the priestly...

The Methodist Church in Great Britain released an "Inclusive Language Guide" this month advising Methodists to avoid using gendered terms such as "husband" and "wife" because such allegedly assumes what is not "the reality for many people." "As Christians, we need to have the courage for conversations that can sometimes be difficult, to recognize that we sometimes exclude people, to listen with humility, to repent of any hurtful language and to take care with how we listen and what we say or write, in the Spirit of Christ," says the guidance, which will be updated every six months. The guidance...

The United Methodist Church in the United States has lost one-fourth of its churches in the last four years over their acceptance of same-sex marriage, in what has become the most significant denominational divide in the country in the last 150 years. According to United Methodist News, 7660 congregations have disaffiliated from the demented denomination, including 5642 this year alone. The UMC has over 30.000 churches in the United States and is the second biggest denomination behind the Southern Baptist Convention. In many cases, however, the UMC did not let them leave on peaceful terms but rather requested huge fees...

Several stories have been published about people getting arrested for publicly praying in the UK. Actually, that’s not quite right because some forms of prayer are more equal than others. If you are a Muslim, you are perfectly fine praying, or for that matter, calling for the murder of Jews and the elimination of Israel as a state. So, more appropriately, I should say that praying as a Christian is becoming illegal in Great Britain. Praying for the spread of Sharia law is just fine and dandy.But according to @metpoliceuk, this is just fine. pic.twitter.com/5iF1Nc08M8— Annette Jals (@AMJalsevac) December 18,...

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) is a simmering cauldron of blasphemy and mephistophelean angst, where sitting through an entire church service at one of their pagan temples is a foretaste of the hell that awaits them if they don’t repent. Some of the denomination’s greatest hits include: Woke Church Newsletter Invites Congregants To Help Pay for Abortions and Abortion Pills Pastrix Says Jesus Called Syrophoenician Woman a ‘B*****’ + “Jesus Screwed Up, She Redeems Him” Lutheran Pastor Promotes Hookups, Polyamory, and Premarital Sex Queer ELCA Pastrix Ordained With Drag Queen Nuns While Jennifer Knapp Serenades The denomination is...

The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church approved the official separation of 74 churches during a special conference session that was held virtually December 2. This was the final opportunity for Florida churches to request disaffiliation before the Dec. 31 deadline and the global denomination meets in 2024. Two previous disaffiliation votes in the late spring and early summer totaled 120 churches. With this most recent vote, the Florida Conference has ballooned to 249 churches leaving the UMC since last year. Nationwide, the UMC has approved more than 2,400 church departures since 2019. The swell of disaffiliations have come,...