Free Republic

In Europe, Muslims have greater freedom to follow their faith than Christians do, the head of an anti-discrimination group has said. Martin Kugler, Austrian historian and founder of the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, said Christians were being marginalised on the continent while Muslims are treated much more carefully. Speaking to ACI Prensa, the Spanish edition of the Catholic News Agency, Mr. Kugler accused Europe’s elites of pressuring Christians into hiding their faith while permitting Muslims to display theirs. Europe has witnessed a secularist offensive, he added, but politicians have different criteria in dealing with Christians...

A government cannot show compassion by giving of its own to help another For over twenty years my wife and I were the pastors of churches and leaders of ministries. Everywhere we ministered we founded programs to feed and clothe those who needed assistance. These ministries through the work of volunteers and the donations of private citizens fed and clothed thousands all without ever taking a dime of government money. Back in the dream time when I was young in the ministry, I helped start a feeding ministry. We fed so many needy people with groceries and had so many...

Park service invokes separation of church and state: The shining symbols on the Knob will stay muted unless NPS and Lions Club come to agreement. MILFORD — The cross and star that shone for year over Milford, from high on the hill known as "The Knob," may have to go. The Knob used to be private land. But in October 2015 it was transferred to Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area under the National Park Service (NPS), which comes under federal regulations. Displays of religious symbols on government property are not allowed, although special use permits can be granted. Up...

LOS ANGELES, CA—In the wake of his announcement that he would be charging the creators of the undercover videos that exposed Planned Parenthood’s practice of selling fetal tissue with 15 felonies, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra clarified Wednesday that secretly filming people for the purpose of exposing animal cruelty is “still totally fine.” “I just want to make sure the people trying to expose the mistreatment of animals are not dissuaded by the 15 felony charges I’ve slapped those guys with who filmed the undercover Planned Parenthood videos,” Becerra said in an interview on MSNBC, stressing his concern that animal rights activists...

In this episode, my guest John Beechy and I will continue with our discussion on "The Things that Matter Most" by addressing truth and its transformative power as it is associated with Jesus Christ who claimed to be "the way, the truth, and the life." We will also shed some light on how organized religions have deviated from this concept, distinguish relative truth from absolute truth, and explore how science has reacted to, and/or compliments biblical truth. There are many thought provoking points to consider, and we want you to join us for this episode of "Making Sense with Rob...

My fellow Americans: From the early days of the colonies, prayer in school was practiced and revered as an important tradition. Indeed, for nearly 200 years of our nation's history, it was considered a natural expression of our religious freedom. But in 1962 the Supreme Court handed down a controversial decision prohibiting prayer in public schools. Sometimes I can't help but feel the first amendment is being turned on its head. Because ask yourselves: Can it really be true that the first amendment can permit Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen to march on public property, advocate the extermination of people...

A Dauphin County woman reportedly has been arrested after she allegedly slammed her daughter's head into the wall and then kicked her out of her house after drunkenly testing the girl on Bible verses. Rhonda Kemp Shoffner, 41, of the first block of Middletown, was charged March 14 with aggravated assault, endangering a child under 13, strangulation and terroristic threats. She was being held at the Dauphin County prison after failing to post $100,000 bail, according to public records.

Peek behind the curtain of some "progressive" or "hip" evangelical churches, past the savvy technology and secular music, and you will find more than just a contemporary worship service. You'll find faith leaders encouraging young evangelicals to trade in their Christian convictions for a gospel filled with compromise. They're slowly attempting to give evangelicalism an "update"—and the change is not for the good. It's painful for me to admit, but we can no longer rest carefree in our evangelical identity—because it is changing. No doubt you have seen the headlines declaring that evangelicalism is doomed because evangelical kids are leaving...

Whenever I hear Christian leaders talk about the inevitable collapse of the church of America (or elsewhere) I ask myself, “But hasn’t Jesus risen from the dead? Didn’t He ascend to the right hand of the Father? Hasn’t all authority in heaven and earth been given to Him? And aren’t we commanded to go and make disciples in His name and by His authority?”If so, how then we can speak of any inevitable collapse of the church (or, specifically, of Christian society), regardless of how inevitable that collapse appears to human eyes?I therefore differ strongly with conservative journalist Rod Dreher...

Author’s Note: This is a continuation of my last column “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”Given his decades-long identification as an atheist, the fact that my father’s final words on earth were those of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” was truly remarkable. It seems that he was telling us in his own way that he had heard the Gospel's message, believed it to be true, and was sure of where he was going after he died. But my mother provided some additional context when we sat down to talk the next day, which was the Friday leading into dad’s final weekend here on...

PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic Party has a God problem. And over the last couple of decades, as its base became more educated, less religious and more urban, this problem has only grown. Some of this has to do with lower church attendance in cities versus rural areas, and the Democratic Party’s increasing reliance on urban voters. Some of it is the divisiveness of social or cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage. And the divide has seemingly sapped Democrats’ ability to communicate to religious Americans. Especially if those people of faith are white, according to Brad Chism, a longtime and...

U.S.—Reports from around the country Friday indicated that celebrations in honor of Christian missionary Saint Patrick consisted primarily of consuming large amounts of alcohol in order to get “totally plastered.” Get the Bee delivered straight to your inbox. Partygoers around the nation and world declared their deep level of respect and admiration for the missionary by pounding all sorts of green beer, hard liquor, wine, and mixed drinks throughout the day and into the night, sources confirmed. “I’d like to dedicate this to the great ambassador of the one glorious gospel to the lost souls of Ireland,” one man in Boston declared just...

Those who insist that America was not intended to be a “Christian nation” point to the obvious absence of specific directives regarding Christianity in the federal Constitution. The popular propaganda since the 1960s has been that “the irreligious Framers did not want the nation to retain any attachment to the Christian religion.” Such an assertion is a monstrous perversion of historical fact. The truth of the matter is that they were fearful of the potential interference by the federal government in its ability to place restrictions on the free exercise of the Christian religion. Consequently, they desired that the specifics...

A Sikh man shot outside his home in Washington state by a partially-masked gunman shouting "go back to your own country" was targeted because of his ethnic origin, authorities have said as they announced a reward of up to $6,000 for anyone providing a lead in the case. US national Deep Rai, 39, was working on his vehicle outside his home in Kent on March 3 when he was approached by a stranger, who first argued with Rai, and then shot him in the arm. "The account provided by the victim suggests that he was targeted because of his ethnic...

Liberals have no appreciation for mankind & the world. Where a normal person might look and find something to take pride in, liberals will only see problems and troubles. Where others see achievement, liberals see excess. Now, apply all of this to the original, granddaddy of all Marxist programs for the destruction of the family unit; namely mandatory education for the young, especially through public tax-supported schools! It’s obvious, that it becomes an argument against it.

Beware! This place is a preacher’s graveyard. Those were the words a former minister shared with me as I set out to plant the only doctrinally Reformed church in Iceland and the only Baptist church in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík. At the time his words seemed dramatic, almost comical. After all, I was a 24-year-old fountain of wisdom who had become a Christian by listening to podcasts, and who was thoroughly equipped with the Reformed Theological Seminary app and plenty of other podcasts on his phone. What could possibly go wrong? Vikings, Volcanos, Chihuahuas Iceland is an odd place—a rock in the...

Approximately 90,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2016 worldwide, making them the most persecuted religious group in the world. That number — which amounts to one Christian killed every six minutes — is down a bit from 2015 when the number was estimated to be approximately 105,000.According to a Fox News report, nearly a third of the deaths in 2016 were at the hands of Islamic extremists like ISIS, and others were killed by state and non-state persecution. Massimo Introvigne, director of CENSUR, told Vatican Radio that approximately 70 percent of the martyred Christians in 2016 were from tribal villages in Africa, and their...

Last month it was the Anglicans who chose to "queer the liturgy" of evening prayer in honor LGTB history month by renaming the Holy Spirit "The Fantabulosa Fairy" and God the Father became "the Dutchess". Not to be outdone, Catholic LGTB supporters and numerous left leaning protestant churches throughout the United States and Canada intend to show their support by wearing "glitter ash" on their foreheads to mark Ash Wednesday.

Lana Del Rey has joined a nationwide occult effort that seeks to remove President Donald Trump from office through the power of witchcraft. On Thursday, Del Rey mysteriously tweeted, "At the stroke of midnight Feb 24, March 26, April 24, May 23. Ingredients can b found online." While early speculation wondered whether the tweet had something to do with her upcoming LP, those four dates aligned with the lunar calendar's "waning crescent moon ritual dates." Occultists noted that, on those four dates, practitioners of witchcraft would congregate for a mass ritual that would with the hope that their efforts resulted...

When I first started seeing headlines this week that claimed that Pope Francis said that "Muslim terrorism does not exist", I thought that it couldn't possibly be true. After all, who could possibly deny that Islamic radicals are engaged in terrorism? Within the last 30 days, there have been 127 Islamic terror attacks in a total of 25 different countries. And in 2016 global terror attacks set an all-time record high and were up 25 percent from the year before. Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1034#CKwUU5WbG4HG2IGE.99