Free Republic

"Theodicy" Part 1: Carl's Choice "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."Watch and comment on Part 1. (Part 1 introduces Carl, the main antagonist in the story.) Since the death of his fiancée, Carl has become a drop out, heavy drug user and, most recently, a homeless street performer in Washington, D.C. Recovery seems possible after he saves the life of a congressman's relative and gains access to her wealth, but hidden enemies and his own inner turmoil threaten to drag him to new lows.

Has anybody read A.N. Wilson's "biographies" Jesus and/or Paul: The Mind of an Apostle I was just cruising around Amazon books and spotted these. I wondered if they were any good.

Last week's clash between Dr. James Dobson and Barack Obama is but the latest skirmish in a war that dates back to the time of Christ. At issue: What is Christian truth? Does the true Christian put social peace ahead of his duty to make God's Law man's law? In a speech in June 2006, Obama, citing the Book of Leviticus, which declares homosexuality an abomination, noted that Leviticus also says the eating of shellfish is an abomination and condones slavery. Moreover, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is "a passage so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department...

Barack Obama called "active faith" an obligation of religious Americans and a chief agent of societal change in a speech yesterday at the national meeting of a black church group. Stopping for about two hours in St. Louis, the Democratic presidential nominee implored thousands of members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the nation's largest and most politically active black denominations, to help fix national and local ills. He preached individual responsibility, saying he knew he risked criticism for "blaming the victim" by talking about the need for parents to help children with homework and turn off the...

ST. LOUIS Sen. Barack Obama declared Saturday to a roaring crowd of religious African-Americans at the America's Center that they should have no doubt of his commitment to his Christian faith, his nation or his political principles. In an address filled with religious and patriotic imagery, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president told delegates attending a national conference here of the African Methodist Episcopal Church that his career and his life revolved around his belief that "I won't be fulfilling the Lord's Will unless I'm doing the Lord's work.'' That commitment would continue to influence his performance and his politics...

Islam Factor is a bold experiment in Muslim freedom of expression, freedom of speech and cooperation with people from all walks of life. Some who follow, agree with or are amicable to Islam and some who are opposed. Whether you agree with or follow Islam or not, whether you oppose Islam or not, no matter the nation, race, religion or creed we are from, we all have one thing in common. We all are human-beings with the same basic needs, hopes and emotions. Our forum hopes to promote an almost unheard of tolerance (that eludes many Muslim groups) that transcends...

Map takes approximately 90 Seconds to see. Interesting History of Religion in the world.

Two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and 'pray to Allah' during a religious education lesson. Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped. They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent - which included wearing Muslim headgear - was a breach of their human rights. One parent, Sharon Luinen, said: "This isn't right, it's taking things too far. "I understand that they have to learn...

Democrats would maintain the same old secularism, but shoehorn it into religious packaging. Now they have an ideal candidate in Barack Obama. Unlike John Kerry, whose respect for religion extended to calling defrocked Haitian strongman Aristide "Father," Obama has perfected this con job.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The nation's largest Presbyterian denomination on Friday (June 27) cracked open the door to ordaining non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy, though the decades-old fight is far from over. Delegates at the Presbyterian Church (USA) meeting here voted 54 percent to 46 percent to remove a clause in their constitution that requires clergy to be either married and faithful or single and chaste. But the action still needs approval by a majority of the denomination's 173 regional bodies, called presbyteries, and similar moves in recent years have twice failed to win ratification on the local level. In...

News Release OFFICE OF MEDIA RELATIONS 703-413-1100 x5117 and 310-451-6913media@rand.org FOR RELEASE Tuesday June 10, 2008 Virginity Pledges May Help Postpone Intercourse Among Youth Making a virginity pledge may help some young people postpone the start of sexual activity, according to a new RAND Corporation study. Researchers found that adolescents who made pledges to remain virgins until they are married were less likely to be sexually active over the three-year study period than other youth who were similar to them, but who did not make a virginity pledge, according to the study published online by the Journal of Adolescent...

Sen. Barack Obama did patriotism yesterday, today it is faith and by the end of the day both speeches will have been done in back-to-back states that swing: Missouri and Ohio. The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator plans to go to Zanesville, located in eastern Ohio, to visit a church program that provides food and clothing assistance to those in need.

The crevo threads typically degenerate into name calling. Recently, the Religion Moderator declared that "science is not religion", and did not publish the criteria for such consideration. My suggestion to the evolutionist community has been to acknowledge that Scientism is a religion and start to utilize the protections offered under the religion tags that are different than other threads (due to the intensity of feelings over religious issues). So this thread is intended to be an ECUMENICAL thread under the tag of SCIENTISM. The intent is to keep discussion civil. I would like to see a straightforward discussion over the...

A dying newspaper industry views a Christian denomination that's growing, and breaking away from its colonial masters, and disapproves. The NY Times is in critical condition and may soon be on life support, but as part of it's death struggle it has time to view an anti-colonial development with disdain. JERUSALEM — Anglican conservatives, frustrated by the continuing stalemate over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion, declared Sunday that they would defy historic lines of authority and create a new power bloc within the communion led by a council predominantly of African archbishops. The announcement came at the close of an...

VIRGINIA, June 27, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a research brief this month, Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, analyzed three national studies in order to discover if "there is any evidence that religion is playing a role in encouraging a strong family orientation among contemporary American men?"   His research led him to conclude that men who regularly attend Christian services are engaged in happier and stronger marriages and are more involved in the lives of their children than men who do not. "70 percent of husbands who attend church regularly report they are 'very happy'...

But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Psalm 66:19,20

Three years after a scandal at the Air Force Academy over the evangelizing of cadets by Christian staff and faculty members, students and staff at West Point and the Naval Academy are complaining that their schools, too, have pushed religion on cadets and midshipmen.

Just a thought. It occurred to me that those on FR need a place to discuss religion, religious thought, denominal issues all things religious without worrying about hurt feelings or bruised egos. This would be a bare knuckle discussion. If you have thin skin or are easily offended it would be better not to participate.

Rumor Mill opens: Obama is Amish! So he is. Central Pennsylvania, land of Paper Mills, Windmills, and now, the Obama rumor mill. DotPenn writers are currently collecting and--what the hell--creating their own rumors about presidential candidate Barack Obama to keep Obama's Fight the Smear site busy. Obama's site is designed to respond to smears, rumors, and whitey lies. Sven Waring, DotPenn correspondent, said opening up the Rumor Mill will give thousands of central Pennsylvanians something better to do than going to church and expending shells at the local gunnery. "We want to make sure that both the residents and members...

Messianic Jews say they are persecuted in Israel Members of tiny community who believe Jesus was the Messiah complain of threats, harassment and police indifference. 'It is their right according to freedom of religion to maintain their religious lifestyle,' rights group says Associated Press Published: 06.22.08, 22:15 / Israel Jewish Scene Safety pins and screws are still lodged in 15-year-old Ami Ortiz's body three months after he opened a booby-trapped gift basket sent to his family. The explosion severed two toes, damaged his hearing and harmed a promising basketball career. Police say they are still searching for the assailants. But...

In recent years, anti-Semites around the world stepped up their attempts at banning Jewish religious books. A number of criminal complaints has been filed alleging racist incitement, notably in Russia. Rabbis seem to recognize that side of our books, as during the Knesset debate on anti-racism law designed to ban the Kach Party, religious parties insisted that theological writings be excluded from the definition of racism. That, by the way, didn’t help Kahane who presented Israeli Supreme Court with abundant evidence that all his sayings are within the halacha; the court banned his party no matter what. No doubt, Jewish...

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) – Barack Obama told supporters that Republicans will “try to make you afraid of me” in remarks he made Friday at a Florida fundraiser. "The choice is clear. Most of all we can choose between hope and fear. It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy. “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run,” said the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. “They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and...

Interfaith Power And Light "Spotlight On Global Warming" Event Media Tool Kit Main Messages & Talking PointsSuggested Answers to Myths and Possible Reporter QuestionsMedia Training ManualMedia Advisory TemplateWriting & Placing Op-EdsPlanning a Press EventPress Event ChecklistScience on Global Warming Report SummariesQuotes From Major Religious Organizations & LeadersScripture SheetMedia PitchAd Template State Media Lists

Blogs bring out the base in us. The medium is primarily anonymous and the people who post or comment feel freer to tell others what they think. For a good example of what academics think about Christians, the Volokh Conspiracy has demonstrated that much of the academic world is inhabited by people who are the mirror image of Fred Phelps, right down to bigoted rants. It’s very revealing, yet the participants on that website keep on exposing the rotten underbelly of academia without any apparent self-consciousness. Theophobia Academics and Hostility to Religion Academia and Religion More on Academics and Hostility...

A seven-year-old boy was kept chained in a closet as relatives hacked off pieces of his flesh to eat, a court has heard. In a case with echoes of the Fritzl family horror in Austria, Ondrej Mauerova was partially skinned in the closet in a cellar at his home in Kurim near Brno, in the Czech Republic, according to reports. The abuse – involving members of a religious cult – was uncovered by chance last May when a neighbour's television baby monitor picked up graphic pictures of what was happening next door. Ondrej and his nine-year-old brother Jakub were locked...

In my most recent column, I introduced you to "Beyond Opinion," a Christian apologetics book, edited by Ravi Zacharias, that offers suggestions on how to approach the skeptic, depending on the skeptic's background or reasons for doubt or non-belief. Before leaving the subject, let me give you a stronger flavor of this interesting apologetics method and this fascinating book. Ravi tells us an effective apologetic "pays very close attention not just to the question but to the questioner. That, in turn, leads to the relevance of the answer." He cites Jesus' walk on the Emmaus road as an instructive example....

STRASBOURG, France, JUNE 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- As European Union member states consider the quandary created by Ireland's "no" vote to the Lisbon Treaty, the Holy See's representative at the Council of Europe says it's a sign that Europe needs to rediscover its roots. Monsignor Aldo Giordano, named earlier this month as the permanent observer of the Holy See to the Council of Europe, spoke Sunday with Vatican Radio about Ireland's June 12 referendum that put the Treaty of Lisbon in limbo. The treaty needs unanimous approval from the Union's 27 member states for it to go into effect. The prelate...

It is by now a well-documented fact that liberal Protestant denominations in the United States have fallen on hard times. In the mainline churches that once dominated American religious life—and from which emerged the country’s political and cultural elites—the pews have been emptying since as long ago as the 1960’s.1 As the average age of churchgoers edges ever upward, the challenge of recruiting both members and qualified clergy looms larger still, adding to the general sense of demoralization and desuetude. In the meantime, membership in conservative Christian denominations, particularly the evangelical churches, has been swelling. Against this backdrop, the seeming...

- Snip- Evidence from previous and pending cases indicates that the court tends to take an extremely narrow view of people's "free exercise and enjoyment of religion" when they clash with another group's need for equal protection. This would seem particularly true following the In re Marriage Cases ruling, in which the majority equated the ban on same-sex marriage to the now discredited (and unconstitutional) ban on interracial marriages. Religious liberty claims rarely, if ever, have prevailed in the face of complaints about racial discrimination. Conflicts about the rights of gays and those of religious believers demonstrate that these are...

The great celebration that has been going on today in the media over the impending commencement of gay marriages in California has left me fearful for this beloved country. Every time I heard the news or clicked on main news items, there it was: "At five o'clock, Pacific time, the State of California will permit gay marriages, etc..." Each time I saw it or heard it was like the tolling of a bell, which reverberated deep in my heart setting off a slight quiver of fear. My fear is, in large part, based on my religious beliefs. I am an...

President Bush may follow in the footsteps of his brother Jeb and convert to Catholicism, several European papers are reporting. In the wake of the president’s visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Italian newspapers, citing Vatican sources, said Bush was open to the idea of converting to Catholicism. The Italian newspaper Il Foglio referred to such talk about Bush’s possible conversion and stated that “anything is possible, especially for someone reborn like Bush.� Noting that Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving office as Britain’s prime minister last year, the paper also stated that “if anything happens,...

New blood: Violent gang life is passed down from parent to child BY VERONIKA BELENKAYA DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, June 15th 2008, 2:13 AM Warga/NewsA longtime member of the Lating Kings, here with his 4-year-old, says he wants to be a peacemaker and hopes his son follows suit. Newborn Blood, known as a Blood drop, is draped with beads and flanked by guns. Police later seized the pistols from the parents.  The images as chilling as they are heartbreaking: An infant with a semiautomatic handgun next to each tiny shoulder. A child no more than a year old...

Two weeks after breaking with his long-time church after pastors there made inflammatory and anti-American sermons, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama went to a new church on Sunday to discuss fatherhood. Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia, took part in Father's Day services near their house at the Apostolic Church of God -- a large, predominantly black church in the South Side of Chicago. This was Obama's first time attending a church service since he announced last month that he had quit Trinity United Church of Christ, which he had attended for 16 years,...

George W Bush and Pope Benedict XVI have held an intimate meeting in Rome as rumours mounted in Italy that the president may follow in Tony Blair's footsteps and convert to Catholicism. The two men spoke for half an hour in the 12th century Tower of St John, a private area in the Vatican gardens which is used by the pope for private reflection. The usual protocol for heads-of-state is a meeting in the pope's library in the Apostolic Palace, but a spokesman for the Vatican said Benedict wanted to reward Mr Bush for the "warmth" of his reception at...

Bay Ridge’s so-called “Faith Avenue” is losing its religion. Leader of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church say that by this fall they may choose a developer to demolish their 80-year-old house of worship to make room for private residences atop a smaller ground-floor house of worship, joining a number of Fourth Avenue religious institutions that are downsizing to generate cash for struggling congregations. Rev. Craig Miller, pastor at Our Saviour’s, says that even with the help of the church’s popular pre-school, his dwindling congregation of about 40 cannot afford the $100,000 annual upkeep on the 80th Street church, not to mention...

You might have heard about the Colorado "Restroom Chaos" law signed by Governor Bill Ritter a couple of weeks ago. It allows men who "think" they're women or "feel" like women to use the ladies restrooms and locker rooms. But apparently the law had some more bad stuff in the fine print: politically incorrect Biblical truth has been outlawed in Colorado outside the walls of the church.

In a clash of conservative traditions and society’s modern laws, two Amish men may spend 90 days in prison for refusing to pay fines over the use of an outhouse. District Judge Michael Zungali on Thursday ordered Sam Yoder and Andy Swartzentruber to serve 90 days in the Cambria County Prison beginning July 21. The men had refused to pay $1,000 fines each for violating state sewage-disposal laws at the sect’s Barr Township school.

Thursday, June 12, 2008 YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK WorldNetDaily Exclusive Biblical message now criminalized Penalties created for those criticizing homosexuality outside church walls Posted: June 12, 2008 12:45 am Eastern By Bob Unruh WorldNetDaily A new Colorado law is helping homosexual activists achieve their goal of forcing Christians to teach biblical condemnation of homosexuality only behind the closed doors of their sanctuaries. The as-yet untested state law promotes sexual identity "perception" to the level of skin color under state discrimination laws. Some opponents are calling it a "bona fide censorship law," and top analysts for Focus on the Family, the...

Israeli on Arab TV: J'lem Was Ours When Moslems Worshipped Idols ...Israeli on Arab TV: J'lem Was Ours When Moslems Worshipped Idols ... Jerusalem is our city forever and is not an issue for you, for Al Jazeera or for anyone ...Dr. Kedar: "Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran even once. You can't rewrite the Koran on air on Al Jazeera."... http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126403

What appears on the surface to be an innocent distribution of Qur'ans is far from it; the devil is always in the details. The facts surrounding this case should be alarming, and certainly would be alarming to Americans if the Chicago Tribune had not been derelict to its duty to inform its readers. To ignore the facts, without one iota of analysis, is to leave our nation exposed to a grave threat without a challenge. A non-profit organization based out of Chicago, the Al-Furqaan Foundation, received national attention a few weeks ago after the Chicago Tribune profiled their "noble" endeavors...

Religious Boom in China after Quake JUNE 10, 2008 08:31 As religious gatherings for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake are being held in large scales, the Chinese Communist Party is worrying about a possible explosive increase in religious population. The party is tolerating such religious events in consideration of public sentiment for now, but is known to be jittery about the possibility of uncontrollable trouble. â–½ Worships and Buddhist service for earthquake victims The Buddhist Association of China held a large-scale service for those who were killed or displaced by the earthquake on May 14, two days after the...

At one point in his career, Doug Kmiec may have been a worthy professor of law, whose instincts were based on sound judgment and impeccable logic. Then the poor man took a flyer on Barak Obama. Having read the logical contortions Kmiec finds himself forced into while justifying Barak Obama’s position on abortion, I find the man more qualified to win The World Twister Championship. He starts his latest effort by making us wonder why anyone, as a practicing Catholic, would care what the idiot behind the pulpit was saying during a sermon. "As a matter of Catholic teaching, who’s...

Members of a moderate Muslim sect were ordered by the government Monday to return to mainstream Islam or face possible imprisonment for insulting the country's predominant religion. Critics may see the step as a failure by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to uphold the young democracy's secular values as it struggles to define its Muslim identity after decades of dictatorship. The vast majority of Indonesia's Muslims are moderate, but in recent years an extremist fringe has grown louder. The government, which relies on the support of Islamic parties in Parliament, has been accused of caving in to their...

Victor Davis Hanson points out that Obama's past has, thus far produced two reactions. There are two disturbing—and now predictable—patterns to Obama's serial distancing from prior intimates. First, the post facto embarrassment is personalized in terms of "I" and "me," as if a Wright or Rezko is somehow doing something out of character aimed at Obama, rather than persisting in entirely predictable behavior that offends society at large. Thus in reaction to the racist Wright, we get "That's a show of disrespect to me," while Pfleger's venom prompts, "I am deeply disappointed in Father's Pfleger." But the issue is racial...

Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he'd take personal responsibility if Texas "stepped across some legal line" in the April raid on a West Texas polygamous sect's ranch, but he also defended the state's action.

"Don't believe in God?" a bright blue billboard with images of puffy white clouds asks. "You are not alone."The 20-by-60-foot sign alongside I-95 was designed by a group of area atheists as an invitation to join the Greater Philadelphia Coalition of Reason, or PhillyCoR, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports."If you don't ... [h]undreds of thousands of your neighbors in the Delaware Valley feel the same as you do," the organization's website declares.Steve Rade, president of Wireless Accessories, Inc., gave the $22,500 to fund the billboard May 1, and he plans to keep it there until the end of August."Our mission is...

The very left-wing Catholic clericalism from which Obama hopes to derive votes in the fall served as the pretext for his leaving the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Just as Jeremiah Wright's over-the-top sermons could not have come as a surprise to Obama, so Father Michael Pfleger's hyper-partisanship would have been known to him as well. But Father Pfleger's timing and choice of a target were poor: his antics hit the Internet just as the Wright furor had begun to dissipate and instead of attacking a Republican for racism he selected Hillary Clinton. Maybe at another moment in...

VIRGINIA - The objective of a new video game is to stop the spread of Christianity and Islam by brutally killing biblical prophets, says the game’s atheist creator. A graduate student at the University of Virginia created the game --which has not yet been released-- in order to give a voice to atheists, according to WSLS Television News. The grad-student wishes to remain anonymous for “fear of his safety.” His request is understandable --considering at one point in his game players win by beheading the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Nearly a year ago, an even less bold stunt resulted in death...

Within the perspective of the nation’s Cultural War, Americans felt the full force of two actions favoring the homosexual movement in May 2008. Same-sex "marriage" is now being imposed upon the nation by government fiat. On May 15, 2008, California’s Supreme Court declared the unconstitutionality of Proposition 22—ignoring the voices of 61% of California voters who approved the measure in 2000—and all other California statutes restricting marriage to the union of one man and one woman and imposed homosexual "marriage" on the Golden State. Concomitantly, New York Governor David Patterson unilaterally ordered all government agencies... to same-sex "marriages" contracted outside...

June 5, 2008 Spirituality for kids: a Kabbalah project supported by Demi Moore How Hollywood's A-list stars are bringing the cult of Kabbalah to inner-city schools in London. Is it sinister or safe? Karen Bartlett The room is dark. Giant oversized pencils hang from the ceiling. It's a crazy upside-down world full of crayons that are 3ft long, Lego bricks bigger than loaves of bread and huge geometry sets. Then there is the light. Demi Moore is on stage with two candles. She spreads the flame from one candle to another: “About ten years ago I was in an enviable...