Free Republic

The Gospel According to ‘Man of Steel’ By Kevin Williamson Superman is an object of dispute — at least comic-book-nerd dispute — between Judaism and Christianity. One camp sees Superman as Moses in tights: an infant sent away by his parents to avoid certain death, discovered by members of an alien culture who adopt him as their own, who eventually discovers his true identity, whose characteristic activity is delivering his people to safety. They note that Superman was created by Jewish artists (writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster) at a time of Jewish crisis (1933), and that as an...

Earl Walker Jackson, Sr Speaks at The Faith & Freedom Coalition, the 3rd day of its "Road to Majority" conference, June 15, 2013.

The Obama Administration “strongly objects” to a proposed amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday that would have protected the religious rights of soldiers – including evangelical Christian service members who are facing growing hostility towards their religion. The amendment was authored by Rep. John Fleming, R-La. It would have “required the Armed Forces to accommodate ‘actions and speech’ reflecting the conscience, moral, principles or religious beliefs of the member.” The Obama Administration said the amendment would have a “significant adverse effect on good order, discipline, morale, and mission accomplishment.”

SBC doesn’t call for Boy Scout exodus A highly anticipated resolution condemning the Boy Scouts’ new membership policy affirms churches and individuals that sever ties, while calling for greater engagement by those that don’t. By Bob Allen The Southern Baptist Convention stopped short of urging churches to sever ties with the Boy Scouts of America in a June 11 resolution condemning the organization’s recent decision to drop its ban on Scouts who are openly gay. The non-binding resolution expresses “continued opposition to and disappointment in the decision of the Boy Scouts of America to change its membership policy” and called...

Breitbart News reported last week that Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) passed an amendment in the House Armed Services Committee protecting religious speech of service members in the military. President Barack Obama has now threatened to veto the bill if it passes the full House and Senate. SNIP In other words, Obama says he will veto any bill that forbids his appointees or officers from telling a soldier that he cannot mention Jesus during prayer or have a Bible on his desk, or that keeps those appointees from telling a chaplain (who is an ordained clergyman) what religious teachings he is...

Nicole Weider never did make it big as model. She hated schlepping all over Los Angeles, where she moved from her hometown of Salem, Oregon. Her Elite Model Management agent made her quit the high-school team because her legs were too muscular. The other aspiring models seemed catty and rude, and she wasn’t landing many jobs. The work she did get made her miserable: A shoot for Maxim as one of its “hometown hotties” made her feel “humiliated.” A dream job as a stand-in for Adriana Lima at a Victoria’s Secret shoot was disillusioning: The women, Weider’s idols, were shockingly...

If you were a Christian minister who was given the opportunity to write an op-ed piece for the Washington Post, what subject would you choose? War and peace? The decline in faith among America’s young people? The increasingly empty pews in mainstream Protestant churches? The ethical decline in society? Or any of myriad other morally and religiously troubling issues? Well, not if you were a Methodist minister named James P. Marsh Jr. For this man of the cloth, the issue troubling him so much that he had to write about in the Washington Post was . . . people standing...

Editor’s Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. Mikey Weinstein and his militant atheizers in MRFF (the so-called Military Religious Freedom Foundation) are boasting of their ability to crush any outbreak of Christian expression in the military. Mikey and MRFF proudly call CAIR their "allies." CAIR is the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR, as the former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy has noted, has close ties to Hamas. [The Grand Jihad, by Andrew C. McCarthy, p. 160.] Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the international group, Muslim Brotherhood. These ties were exposed in the Holy Land Foundation trial, in...

The latest in a string of audience-of-none, end-is-nigh indie dramedies, “Rapture-Palooza” strains to find comedy in the book of Revelation, tracking a contempo young couple besieged by CG locusts, rains of blood and a horny Beast obsessed with booty sex. More irrelevant than irreverent, the unworthy script from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’s” Chris Matheson might play to apocalyptically stoned college kids, but offers nothing in the way of broader social satire, suggesting the waste of a perfectly good Reckoning — not to mention the talents of a cast far funnier than the doom-and-gloom results suggest.

The press room podium in the European Union’s headquarters is usually the domain of men in conservatively-cut dark suits. Last week, however, the stage was a profusion of flowing robes, broad-brimmed fedoras, gleaming gold chains, turbans, ecclesiastical dog collars and a shimmering blue-grey sari, as the EU’s leadership sought to take the continent’s spiritual pulse at their annual meeting with religious representatives. With its popularity battered in the midst of the economic crisis, the EU was seeking some solace and support. … Europe’s crisis goes beyond the economic, speakers at the meeting agreed. Disillusioned citizens are questioning the values of...

Having watched the news coverage and read numerous emails from concerned Baptists and Scouters, I contacted the Membership Impact Department at the National Office of the Boy Scouts of America, proposing an interpretation of the changes in the membership guidelines. Below is the text of what I offered as my interpretation. First, it is my understanding that the resolution clearly states that sexual activity among Scout-aged youth is contrary to Scouting virtues, and I take that to mean that so long as it is uniformly and equitably applied, a unit could have in its statement a list of behavioral expectations...

A veteran member of the U.S. Army Band said he is facing retribution and punishment from the military for having anti-Obama bumper stickers on his car, reading books written by conservative authors like Mark Levin and David Limbaugh, and serving Chick-fil-A sandwiches at his promotion party. Master Sgt. Nathan Sommers, a 25-year Army veteran and conservative Christian based at Fort Myer in Washington, believes his outspoken opposition to gay marriage prompted higher-ups to take a closer look at his beliefs. The recipient of an Army Commendation Medal and a soloist at the funeral of former First Lady Betty Ford, Sommers...

A group of ultra-Orthodox men attacked a police car in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Yisrael on Thursday, shattering its front and back windshields. Police were called to the scene after the neighborhood’s so-called “modesty patrol” beset a car in which a group of ultra-Orthodox women were traveling, claiming that they were dressed immodestly. Several ultra-Orthodox men broke the car’s windows, punctured its tires and poured fish oil on it.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation blasted what it called the “open defiance” of a valedictorian who delivered The Lord’s Prayer during a high school graduation ceremony last Saturday in South Carolina. Roy Costner, a senior at Liberty High School in Pickens, created national attention when he ripped up his pre-approved graduation speech and instead led the crowd in a recitation of The Lord’s Prayer. A video of the speech was posted on YouTube and has since gone viral. It shows the 18-year-old setting aside his speech. “I think most of you will understand when I say, ‘Our Father, who art...

A Bastrop priest who was found by police last week standing in the doorway of his Southtown motel wearing only his underwear, the victim of an apparent assault, left authorities with several unanswered questions about why he was there. Father Rafael Padilla, 42, was unable to tell police who may have caused the swelling, cuts and bruises on his face and arms. Padilla also couldn't explain to police why there was a cold, unopened beer, condoms and lubricating jelly inside the motel room or who the items could belong to, according to the police report. He checked into the Relax...

Muslim desecration of British World War II Cemetary in Libya

Vladimir Putin will ban foreign homosexual couples from adopting Russian children, the government has confirmed. An amendment restricting foreign adoptions to 'traditional' families will be submitted to parliament in its autumn session by the government, Alexei Levchenko, a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, said on Saturday. The ban underscores a growing rift between Russia and the West over gay rights. Vladimir Putin will ban foreign same-sex couples from adopting Russian children Putin said in April that a French law allowing same-sex marriage went against traditional Russian values and signalled Moscow would take steps to ensure gay couples from...

(Newser) – The Boy Scouts of America's decision last month to allow gay members was made with the blessings of many churches and religious groups—but not all of them. And here's a pretty significant opponent: The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America with 45,000 congregations and 16 million members, says it will now urge its followers to leave the Scouts, reports CNN. The Boy Scouts says Baptist churches currently sponsor nearly 4,000 units, containing more than 100,000 kids. The Southern Baptist Convention will vote on a resolution to disaffiliate with the Scouts this month, and a spokesperson...

An inspirational painting that referenced a Bible verse has been removed from a dining hall at Mountain Home Air Force Base after an anti-religion group filed a complaint. The painting featured a medieval crusader and referenced Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

We are presently at a time when we are constantly seeing Israel’s border enemies ever more emboldened to stir up strife and lash out against Israel. As this present conflict in the Middle East intensifies and Israel sees it self ever alone in this big bad evil world DO NOT expect them to just idly sit by and watch their nation be wiped off the map of planet earth. With Iran and Syria ever breathing threats at Israel and Israel's border enemies doing like wise the tentisons are high in the Middle East and in the world. We as Bible...

In 1889, an Italian librarian's faulty identification sentenced to archival obscurity an antique Torah scroll that has turned out to be the oldest complete such scroll in existence. This week, University of Bologna Professor Mauro Perani announced the results of carbon-14 tests authenticating the scroll's age as roughly 800 years old. The scroll dates to between 1155 and 1225, making it the oldest complete Torah scroll on record. Like all Torah scrolls, this one contains the full text of the five Books of Moses in Hebrew and is prepared according to strict standards for use during religious services. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------snip------------------ At...

Actress Alley Mills, perhaps best known for her role as Norma Arnold, the mother in the coming-of-age TV series "The Wonder Years," is unashamed to talk about Jesus Christ. However, while she was still a Buddhist working in Hollywood, she was more concerned about what people thought about her than she does now, she told The Christian Post in an exclusive interview. "This town is driven by ego," said Mills, who currently plays Pamela Douglas in the soap, "The Bold and the Beautiful." She adds, "The more confidence you have when walking into a room, which is really about ego...

Christians are targeted—by independent groups or governments—in some 131 countries world-wide. At the height of the Nazi Holocaust, the wretched human cargo spilling out of cattle cars onto the platforms of Auschwitz was immediately subject to a brutal selektion by the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, whose flick of a finger to the left meant immediate death in a gas chamber; to the right, slave labor and slow death from starvation or disease. Fast forward to 2012 Nigeria, where a latter-day incarnation of selektion has been used—this time not against Jews, but against Christians. Nigeria is the most populous black nation...

Over three-quarters of Americans (77%) say religion is losing its influence on American life, while 20% say religion's influence is increasing. These represent Americans' most negative evaluations of the impact of religion since 1970, although similar to the views measured in recent years. Americans over the years have generally been more likely to say religion is losing rather than increasing its influence in American life. In addition to the previous peak in views that religion was losing its influence measured in 1969 and 1970, at least 60% of Americans thought religion was losing its influence in 1991-1994, in 1997 and...

Leave Boy Scouts, pastor advises parents Posted on May 28, 2013 | by Art Toalston MARIETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Parents of Boy Scouts should remove their children from the organization, Atlanta-area pastor Ernest Easley advised in his Sunday sermon. Troop 204's affiliation with Roswell Street Baptist Church also will end, Easley said. "I never dreamed I'd have to stand up publicly and say to parents: Pull your kids out of the Boy Scouts," Easley told Baptist Press May 28. "If you would have asked me that five years ago, 10 years ago, I would have laughed," Easley said. "And even...

It is impossible to understand the Obama administration's uniquely hostile treatment of Fox News without understanding the self-image of the Obama team. On the one hand, the targeting of Fox News for isolation and surveillance suggests an administration so lacking in competence that it cannot tolerate criticism or scrutiny. On the other, the attacks suggest hubris, a confidence that few would ever object to its conduct. That contradiction has a religious quality to it. Indeed, President Barack Obama has led an administration that has, at times, been more of a religious movement than a governing body. Obama has made miraculous...

REFLECTION ON SUNDAY READINGS ON THE FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY READING 2: Roman 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through...

WHAT'S AN INFIDEL ? The author, Rick Mathes, is a well-known leader in prison ministry. The man who walks with God always gets to his destination. If you have a pulse you have a purpose. The Muslim religion is the fastest growing religion per capita in the United States , especially in the minority races. Last month I attended my annual training session that's required for maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths, who each explained their beliefs. I was particularly interested...

Hi, I'm not the most devout of folks out thee, but am a believer and do believe God answers prayer. Several verses have become popular over past years because of the hope they evoked...remember the Prayer of Jabez and 2Chron 7:14 with Promisekeepers? Well, I have been praying for another promise to be seen in our time, that of Job 5:12. I read it and wrote it down and pray it every day...it sure reads like a promise. Any believers out there let's see if we can get it to catch on in this really troubled time in our nation's...

An atheist, Buckner believes that no religious literature should be provided in government-owned lodging, and he presented that concern to management at the Amicalola Falls State Park. Officials told Buckner they would remove the Bibles from all state park resorts while the state attorney general looked into the matter. Not long afterward, however, the AG issued a ruling saying the state was on firm legal ground because it hadn’t paid for the books. On Wednesday, Gov. Nathan Deal ordered the Bibles returned. Deal argued that if the state didn’t pay for them, it can’t be seen as endorsing them. He...

Is the Christian faith intellectual nonsense? Are Christians deluded? “If God exists and takes an interest in the affairs of human beings, his will is not inscrutable,” writes Sam Harris about the 2004 tsunami in Letter to a Christian Nation. “The only thing inscrutable here is that so many otherwise rational men and women can deny the unmitigated horror of these events and think this is the height of moral wisdom” (p. 48). In his article “God’s Dupes,” Harris argues, “Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence. The...

1.) IF John Hagee, Perry Stone, and/or anyone else on TCT, TBN, INSP, WCT, etc, accept women as being able to occupy the positions of apostles, and/or prophets, and/or evengelists, and/or pastors and/or teachers (with such examples such as Paula White and Joyce Meyer (whom I believe operate as a pastor and teacher respectively)), and... 2.) IF they believe that women can occupy these positions within the sphere of the New Testament/New Covenant, and... 3.) IF they believe that the office of Rabbi (Messianic or otherwise) has been carried over into the New Testament/New Covenant, (with such examples as Kurt...

MOSCOW – A delegation of American lawmakers will travel to Russia next week in part to investigate last month’s Boston Marathon bombings, ABC News has learned. The group, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., wants to find out why a 2011 Russian request that the United States investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspected Boston bombers, did not raise more red flags. The Russians offered a vague warning that Tsarnaev planned to link up with extremist groups abroad, but an FBI investigation yielded no evidence to support those claims at the time. The lawmakers also want to know why subsequent...

To further help Christians know what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it, from today the eBook editions of R.C. Sproul’s Crucial Questions series will be free forever. Can I Be Sure I’m Saved? (Kindle) (iTunes)Can I Have Joy in My Life? (Kindle)Can I Know God’s Will? (Kindle) (iTunes)Can I Trust the Bible? (Kindle) (iTunes)Does God Control Everything? (Kindle)Does Prayer Change Things? (Kindle) (iTunes)How Should I Live in this World? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Can I Do with My Guilt? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Does It Mean to be Born Again? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Is Baptism? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Is Faith? (Kindle) (iTunes)What Is the Trinity? (Kindle) (iTunes)Who Is Jesus? (Kindle)...

Pretty cool if you've never been then. If you have a wheel on your mouse it zooms it in or out. Virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel

The flamboyant YouTube star renounced his association to homosexuality and, once again, got in front of the media to discuss "praying the gay" away. Antoine Dodson -- of "hide your kids, hide your wife" fame -- says that he "renounces homosexuality" and now wants a wife to be in his life. Choosing to get back "to who he is," Dodson's many statements painted a confusing picture about his intentions behind his self-discovery. On Facebook, he wrote in full, "I have to renounce myself, I'm no longer into homosexuality. I want a wife and family, I want to multiply and raise...

Alice Area Alliance of Christian Churches introduced The Power Team to the community Wednesday night at the Alice High School Auditorium.

My dear friends, I know I'm going to get it for this post but in love I must say it (2 Cor. 12:15). Someone has to and it might as well be me. For the past 5 years I have been feeling the spiritual temperature at Free Republic and other conservative forums and have found that moral and biblical relativism, biblical ignorance, conservative optimism, Christian ecumenicalism and the outright rejection of the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12, Rom. 10:2-4, 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Eph. 2:8-9) nearly dominate this and other conservative forums. Thank God for Free Republic, they do...

Franklin Graham calls IRS probe of ministry finances ‘un-American’ Adelle M. Banks | May 15, 2013 (RNS) Evangelist Franklin Graham blasted the Internal Revenue Service probe of conservative nonprofit groups as “un-American,” saying both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the relief group Samaritan’s Purse were audited by the IRS. In a Tuesday (May 14) letter to President Obama, Graham said the two organizations he leads were notified last September that the IRS would review their records for the 2010 tax year. The IRS inquiry, he noted, occurred months after the BGEA ran ads in April 2012 supporting a North...

The defeated North Miami mayoral candidate who claimed that Jesus Christ endorsed her now says that the city chose Lucifer over the son of God. In a post-election statement on her Facebook page, Anna Pierre questioned Tuesday's results, in which she finished last among seven candidates. She also re-affirmed her Christian faith.

Full Title: “Gay Marriage” Shows Us Why Theology Matters. Three ways Biblically sound theology will help in the same-sex marriage debate To invite homosexuals to embrace themselves so that they are no longer lonely is agreeing with those on the left that God was wrong in ordaining the family as one man and one woman together in marriage. It is agreeing with those whom God is pouring out His wrath. It is agreeing with those who have cast off any notions of holiness, purity and piety in the church. It is, as I have said, theological suicide. Over the weekend...

People like Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion (Amazon USA) , (Amazon UK) , and Christopher Hitchens, who wrote God Is Not Great (Amazon USA) , (Amazon UK) , et al, when attacking “religion”, play on various ambiguities. They create ambiguities in their choice of terms and then these ambiguities are convenient for them. The first instance of ambiguity is the use of the term “religion”. It puts together all sorts of people and doctrines which may have very little in common. To give an analogy, the flat earth theory is undoubtedly a theory of physics. It says something...

A mayoral candidate in North Miami claims she has received an endorsement from a higher power. Campaign posters for Anna L. Pierre tout that she was endorsed by Jesus Christ. "It's a spiritual endorsement. Why? Because everything I do I always get God involved," Pierre said.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY is being redefined in America, or at least many would like it to be. Our secular establishment wants to reduce the autonomy of religious institutions and limit the influence of faith in the public square. The reason is not hard to grasp. In America, “religion” largely means Christianity, and today our secular culture views orthodox Christian churches as troublesome, retrograde, and reactionary forces. They’re seen as anti-science, anti-gay, and anti-women—which is to say anti-progress as the Left defines progress. Not surprisingly, then, the Left believes society will be best served if Christians are limited in their influence on...

In early April, Army Reserve soldiers in Pennsylvania were told in a redeployment briefing that evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics were "extremists," the same category as al Qaeda. Later that month, the Southern Baptist Convention's website was blocked on Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps bases due to what the military's software filter told Web users was "hostile content." And in early May, news reports said that an anti-Christian crusader had proposed new rules for the Pentagon so that military-service members could be court-martialed for sharing their faith. But the initial reports on these matters were exaggerated, taken out...

As a journalist who has consistently experienced the wrath of Tebow Nation — mostly for passing along the slings and arrows voiced by various NFL players, coaches and talent-evaluators — I'm well aware that many devotees of the world's most celebrated unemployed quarterback carry a heavy persecution complex. Yet as Tim Tebow's career wheezes to an underwhelming halt, with less apparent interest in his services than Massachusetts funeral parlors have in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's remains, something strange is happening. Against all odds, I'm starting to wonder whether the man who helped the Denver Broncos become one of the league's most stunning...

Do any Freepers know anything about a group called Disciple Makers? They basically hang around college campuses.

Editor's Note: This column was coauthored by Bob Morrison. President Obama's choice to be Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was approved by the Senate on a vote of 63-34, with thirteen Republicans voting to confirm him. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) created quite a stir with his 13-hour filibuster against the Brennan nomination. Not until he received written assurances from Attorney General Eric Holder that U.S. citizens would not be targeted for killing by drones on U.S. soil would the doughty Kentuckian stand down. Good for him. John Brennan then proceeded to take the Oath of Office, as administered by Vice...

Former megachurch pastor Rob Bell appeared in a recent radio discussion with Christian British minister Andrew Wilson to discuss his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, and grew frustrated when pressed by Wilson to explain his theological reasons for affirming homosexuality and same-sex relationships. Bell and Wilson appeared on the U.K. faith debate program "Unbelievable?" hosted by Justin Brierley on Premier Christian Radio. Wilson is a published theologian and elder at Kings Church in Eastbourne, East Sussex. The men, moderated by Brierley, started the discussion by debating various issues during the hour-plus program, but it...

In a huge victory for pro-life advocates taking on the controversial HHS mandate, the Obama administration is giving up its effort to force a Bible publisher to obey it. The mandate has generated massive opposition from pro-life groups because it forces employers, regardless of their religious or moral convictions, to provide insurance coverage for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception under threat of heavy penalties. The Obama administration opposed an order a judge gave temporarily stopping enforcement, arguing that Tyndale House Publishers isn’t religious enough for an exemption from the mandate, a component of ObamaCare that forces employers, regardless of their...