Free Republic

Coadjutor bishop arrested before he could take control of Wenzhou diocese, reports claimChinese authorities have arrested the coadjutor bishop of Wenzhou, China, and local faithful say it is to prevent him from taking possession of the diocese after the death of Bishop Vincent Zhu Weifang. AsiaNews, the Rome-based missionary news agency, said police took Coadjutor Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin out of the diocese in early September. Under canon law, a coadjutor would take over the diocese when the bishop retires or dies. AsiaNews reported that Bishop Shao was taken to northwest China “on a trip”. The diocesan chancellor, Fr Paul...

“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance,” Martin Castro, chairman of the commission, said in a statement included in the 296-page report. “Religious liberty was never intended to give one religion dominion over other religions, or a veto power over the civil rights and civil liberties of others,” Castro said. “However, today, as in the past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny others...

Does it seem plausible that the true spark of the American Revolution was the religion of peace—Christianity? In fact, how could it be any other way in a country expressly founded to establish Christian religious liberty? Colonial America was one of the most intensely evangelized and churched societies in history. For example, according to Harry Stout in The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England, the typical colonists probably listened to 7,000 hours of sermons in their lifetime. For many colonists, their instruction in religion, science, history, politics and most other subjects were delivered only by...

Hillary Clinton’s Christianity, which she wielded as a political weapon in her 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, largely has been missing in this year’s election. She hasn’t hidden her Methodist upbringing, but scholars say it’s not front and center. And where in the past she used it as a window into her character, this year she’s deployed it as a debate tactic to push criminal justice reform and other policy goals. Church attendance also has been all but absent from Mrs. Clinton’s schedule, except when she’s turned up behind a pulpit to stump for votes, particularly in predominantly black churches,...

Thanks to DCLeaks.com and the work of journalist Kevin Jones the truth is finally out there. George Soros, a U.S. billionaire and one of the richest people in the world, has been secretly pumping funds into the push to legalise abortion in Ireland. In a private memo, clearly never intended to be seen by the Irish people, Soros’ foundation takes aim at Irish laws protecting unborn babies, and commits to funding three groups who will work ‘collectively’ to legalise abortion – Amnesty Ireland, the Abortion Rights Campaign, and the IFPA. The revelations are hugely embarrassing for abortion campaigners. Under pressure...

Portland Public Schools officials are rethinking a district ban on rap music on buses after allegations of racism. The district had banished hip-hop from its buses, deeming the genre "inappropriate." Teri Brady, senior director of transportation at Portland Public Schools, sent a directive to bus drivers in March forbidding "religious, rap music, or talk show programs." The memo included a list of acceptable stations, broken down into three genres: pop, country and jazz. Parent Colleen Ryan-Onken obtained a copy and it circulated in August among outraged parents, prompting the district to walk back the directive in statements released Wednesday.

Trump is jihad group’s worst nightmare. The fact is Trump’s comparison to the Cold War is spot on. Islam, like Communism, is a political ideology a with religious component. Groups like CAIR aid and abet terrorism and should be prosecuted. The Department of Justice is sitting on a “mountain of evidence” against CAIR and other Muslim Brotherhood groups. Obama scuttled those prosecutions. Trump will right that wrong.

They hailed from all Christian denominations and backgrounds, coming by the hundreds to defend their faith. More than a thousand Christians rallied in Oklahoma City to protest a long-scheduled blasphemous ceremony designed to mock Mary, the mother of Jesus. Though the “black mass” ritual took place as planned, the protests seemed to have an effect, as few attended the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall to witness a ritual entitled “The Consumption of Mary” performed by the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, a group of “devil-worshipers.” The Catholic group the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property was...

Is it wiser to be alive and a coward, or risk our lives to defend the truth of liberty? THE FIRST AMENDMENT ENUMERATES the right of the people peaceably to assemble. Originally, the text combined assembly with the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. During the session of the House of Representatives on August 15, 1789 during which the representatives present discussed the proposed amendment, Mr. Sedgwick of Massachusetts questioned the connection, arguing the right to assemble must be preserved regardless of the reason for assembly. The congressional record reads: “The right is of so trivial...

In an August 12th op-ed piece for the New York Times entitled “Is God Transgender?,” Rabbi Mark Sameth claims that “the Hebrew Bible, when read in its original language, offers ‘a highly elastic view of gender’” and that, “Counter to everything we grew up believing, the God of Israel — the God of the three monotheistic, Abrahamic religions to which fully half the people on the planet today belong — was understood by its earliest worshipers to be a dual-gendered deity.”Are there any truths to these claims?Certainly not.For Rabbi Sameth, these are issues of social concern and not merely theological...

Superstar swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, nearly committed suicide two years ago. His athletic prowess and success had brought him so much attention over the last decade that sports media nearly worshiped him as a kind of god, but Phelps was struggling to find peace in his heart. He felt empty inside and sought to fill his pain with drugs and alcohol, which sent him into a downward spiral. In 2009 he was suspended from swimming for three months after a photograph of him using a bong went viral, but that didn’t stop him...

A Sterling woman accused of sacrificing up to 15 chickens a week for religious purposes will still be legally allowed to own live poultry-- as long as she completes a course in how to humanely sacrifice animals. .... Gro Mambo Danthoula Novanyon Idizol, a high priestess and the executive board secretary of the National African Religion Congress (NARC), testified Carrion is a member of her organization. She said Carrion underwent an extensive initiation process to become a high priestess in Santeria, a pantheistic Afro-Hispanic religion that incorporates elements of Catholicism.

Oh nice. So this is what we have to look forward to in Obama’s “new America.”Father Josiah Trenham described the threats on his Orthodox Church in California. Muslims screamed “Allahu Akbars” at St. Andrew Orthodox Church during its Sunday service. They brought their bullhorn so everyone would get the message. Via FOX News and Jihad Watch:

Mac Man tries to gobble up all the Apples. Illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac Cult of Mac 2.0 bugYou don’t see long lines for the latest Lenovo PC or LG Android phone. But take a quick peek on the internet and you’ll find plenty of people lining up to say how much they hate Apple. Every successful person or company has its critics, but the expressions of vitriol for Apple are more complex than the popular refrain ‘haters gonna hate’. Some are bugged by the price of Apple gadgets, others sneer over the enthusiasm of Apple fans, mockingly referring to...

An Iowa church just wants to be free to preach the gospel, but the state’s so-called nondiscrimination requirements could block the house of worship from doing just that. Lawyers for the church are asking a federal court to prevent Iowa from censoring what the religious group can say about homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” transgenderism and other related topics. The case erupted when the state’s Civil Rights Commission first claimed the authority to control the content of sermons and then to define what’s religious. At issue is the state’s nondiscrimination requirements that specify any “public accommodation” can be ordered not to say...

A teenage boy was arrested Sunday for assaulting a priest and a 69-year old woman who were praying outside a Ukiah church after finding satanic graffiti in the facility’s breezeway, Ukiah police said. The 16-year-old boy, who yelled satanic slurs during the Sunday attacks, could face a hate crime charge, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication, battery and elder abuse, police said. He was not identified because he is a juvenile. According to police, the incident occurred about 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Saint Mary of the Angels Catholic Church on Oak Street. The priest told police...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjntXYDPw44 "If you take away religion, you can't hire enough police." --Clay Chrisensen "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams

Liturgical VestmentsFr. William Saunders The liturgical vestments worn at Mass have evolved over time. Nevertheless, since the earliest days of the Church, liturgical vestments have been worn by priests for the celebration of the Mass. Even though priests of the Old Testament wore vestments in their liturgical rites, the “Christian” vestments are not really adaptations of them.Rather, the vestments of the Christians developed from the dress of the Graeco-Roman world, including the religious culture.Nevertheless, the Old Testament idea of wearing a special kind of clothing in the performance of liturgical rites did influence the Church. St. Jerome asserted, “The Divine...

Just 97 days from today Americans will vote and elect a new President. Many will vote but few will be informed voters. The election of Hillary Clinton will bring swift destruction of what remains of America after eight years political famine under Barack Obama. Whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton is the more evil is debatable; what is clear, is that a nation already ablaze in an out of control lawless wildfire under Obama, will explode from the accelerant fanning of these flames by the “Wicked Witch of New York”. Only Constitutional Conservatives appear to be aware of the devastation...

Marion Le Pen simply wrote “France, 2016 #SainteRita” alongside the image of the priest who refused to leave the mass he was holding in protest against the demolition of local church Sainte Rita. The angry protests come just a day after Father Jacques Hamel, who had his throat slit by two depraved Islamic State fighters, was laid to rest in Rouen Cathedral on Tuesday.