Free Republic

Ancient society morality was based on concentric circles, with the free male of that tribe at the center, females and children farther out, foreign and slaves at the bottom. Christianity held that all were equally valid before God, even if not necessarily the same in real life. You may have a master in the world, but your soul was equally valid. That was revolutionary at the time. Liberalism has brought back the old concentric rings of value. The woman is worth more than a man, hired first, her opinion more valid from her experience. The non-Caucasian is worth more; that...

Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said "deep-seated … religious beliefs" have to be changed before the world's women will get full access to abortion. “Far too many women are denied access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth, and laws don’t count for much if they’re not enforced,” Clinton said, according to The Daily Caller. “Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper,” she argued about abortion. “Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will." “And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be...

A controversial US pastor has defended trying to buy a $65million private jet with worshippers' donations and responded to critics by claiming 'the devil is trying to discredit' him. Reverend Creflo Dollar, 53, launched an appeal last month for 200,000 people to each donate '$300 or more' so that he could purchase a Gulfstream G650 to replace his current damaged aircraft.

Tabletalk: Your book is titled The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. Could you explain some of your “secret thoughts,” and why you were an “unlikely convert”? Rosaria Butterfield: I considered myself an atheist, having rejected my Catholic childhood and what I perceived to be the superstitions and illogic of the historic Christian faith. I found Christians to be difficult, sour, fearful, and intellectually unengaged people. In addition, since the age of twenty-eight, I had lived in monogamous lesbian relationships and politically supported LGBT causes. I coauthored Syracuse University’s first successful domestic partnership policy while working there as a professor...

Perhaps it’s the Jewish state, but the state of Judaism in Israel might raise a few eyebrows: according to an international Gallup poll, Israel is now one of the world’s least religious countries.

Just over six percent of Americans plan to buy an Apple Watch this year, according to an online poll of 1,829 US adults conducted by Reuters/Ipsos. If accurate, that means Apple could sell as many as 15 million Watches this year, or more than double the total number of smartwatches sold by all manufacturers in 2014. Who are these Watch watchers? Reuter’s interactive polling tool offers an in-depth and occasionally surprising look at the demographics. According to this poll, Apple Watch fans are democratic leaning and college educated, largely male, but not necessarily Caucasian. They own their own homes and...

An 86-year-old nun was reportedly gang-raped before being murdered in her bedroom at a South African missionary. Gertrud Tiefenbacher's hands had been tied with a typewriter cord and a towel placed over a face, say local police. Her body was found by other nuns at the Sacred Heart Missionary in Ixopo, a small town 85 miles south-west of Durban. Police in KwaZulu-Natal are waiting for the results of forensic tests to confirm that Sister Gertrud was sexually assaulted. They say she was suffocated but they are unsure how many men attacked her. A small sum of money - thought to...

Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme, head of the Diocese of Maiduguri in Nigeria's Borno State, was in a chapel praying before the Blessed Sacrament last December when, he says, something extraordinary happened: Jesus Christ appeared holding a sword, which He offered to the prelate. According to Bishop Dashe, the moment he took the sword from Jesus' hands, it transformed into Rosary beads. He then heard Christ repeat three times, "Boko Haram is gone." The bishop recalls, "I didn't need any prophet to give me the explanation. It was clear that with the Rosary we would be able to expel Boko Haram."...

Almost 20 years ago, the journal First Things published an article by a famous German theologian named Wolfhart Pannenberg titled “How to Think About Secularism.” In the article, Pannenberg outlined the nature of secularism and how it threatened the church, also explaining how the church should not respond to the challenge. Looking back, it’s clear that many of our pastors and leaders have done the opposite of what he counseled, and we are paying the price for it today. Pannenberg himself was orthodox in some of his beliefs and unorthodox in others, but I’m focusing here on his observations about...

he Apple Watch is, first and foremost, an iPhone accessory. It might be even more than that eventually, a truly independent gadget, but a vast majority of its current core functions -- making calls, sending messages, getting information, even playing any third-party games -- require your iPhone to be on, have Internet service, and be paired with the Watch via Bluetooth or a shared Wi-Fi network. If you're thinking about getting one, make sure you know that. It requires an iPhone 5 or later, and it can't even be set up without one. Still, the Apple Watch can do a...

This Season of Unreason will end with the elections of November 2016, but its consequences – validation of the idea that belief without evidence is a virtue, that religion, and especially Christianity, deserves a place in our politics, our Constitutionally enshrined secularism notwithstanding – will live on and damage the progressive cause. But it does not have to be this way. There will almost certainly be no (declared) atheist or even agnostic among the candidates. This is scandalous, given the electorate’s gradual, relentless ditching of religion. A survey just out shows that 7.5 million Americans have abandoned their faith since...

Here is an Interesting Top Ten List. Did you know of these Secret Societies that existed throughout our history? Ever since recorded time, secret societies have fascinated and frightened us. Since mystery is encoded into their DNA, secret societies are easy fodder for conspiracy theorists or lazy students who seek simple explanations for history’s many catastrophes. These secret societies, however, did indeed influence the world around them, and the reverberations of their teachings and actions are with us to this very day. 10. The Secret Six Because it was one of the most glamorous moments in the history of American...

On Tuesday night, Franklin Graham announced he will embark on a 50-state tour of the United States next year. He made the following announcement on his Facebook page: America is in trouble. At 62 years of age, I’ve lived long enough to learn that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can turn this country around; no political party or politician is the answer. The only hope for this country is Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ. Next year I am planning to travel to all 50 states to conduct prayer rallies—we are calling this the Decision America Tour. I...

The event is co-hosted by Palau Mission.

The Supreme Court issued an order today preventing the Obama administration from forcing religious groups in Pennsylvania to obey the HHS mandate that requires them to pay for abortion-causing drugs for their employees. This is the fifth time the Supreme Court has rebuked the Obama administration and prevented it from making such a mandate. In an order issued last night, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito prevented the federal government from enforcing its contraceptive mandate against a range of Pennsylvania-based religious organizations including Catholic Charities and other Catholic schools and social service organizations connected with the Diocese of Erie and the...

The Apple Watch is on fire: KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimates that Apple's debut smartwatch has sold more than 2.3 million units since preorders opened, MacRumors reports. Apple hasn't released any sales data on Apple Watch sales, and it most likely won't until the company's quarterly earnings report. But this 2.3 million figure echoes what others have estimated — the research company Slice believes there were about 1 million US preorders on launch day, for example. Ming-Chi Kuo has a good track record on Apple: He was spot on with his predictions about the iPhone 5S, for example. If...

“I know people who get out, officers and chaplains, who’ve said, ‘I can’t serve the way I want to in this environment,’” said Mr. Lee, who also served as an Army chaplain. “People who’ve said, ‘Because of the religious liberty challenges I see, I think I’ll serve somewhere else.’” Not being able to recruit or retain these individuals is very dangerous from a national security standpoint, said Mr. Berry, because they could be the military’s next group of leaders, but will never serve because they don’t think they’re welcome. “We all used to sit around and talk about planning on...

The first mention of shame in Scripture actually celebrates the absence of it: Adam and Eve were naked and felt no shame (Gen. 2:25). The final destination of Scripture is the New Jerusalem, where nothing shameful will ever enter (Rev. 21:27), a place where the redeemed from every nation will celebrate their eternal cleansing from shame by the blood of Christ. In between, however, a tragic and sordid history unfolds in which the descendants of Adam probe with ever-increasing boldness the depths of the shame to which our race can plunge. Here we will highlight three ways that our...

Last Friday, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) opened its online store for preorders of the new Apple Watch. This article will clear up some of the misinformation that has resulted from inaccurate reporting.There have been several articles with conflicting headlines with almost all referring to the same resource data, a posting by Slice.The USA Today headline reads Apple Watch first-day pre-orders estimated near 1M, and illustrates the misleading information presented. I am not sure what country the author comes from, but in the U.S., if we are given a count of preorders of a product, we usually expect the number of units sold...

<p>Apple CEO Tim Cook eyeballs Apple Watches in Palo Alto, California April 10, 2015.</p> <p>An estimated 957,000 American shoppers ordered Apple Watches on Friday — a sign the tech giant’s newest gadget is already seeing more initial success than its first iPhone or the iPod.</p>