Free Republic

Saying that Girl Scouts is “no longer a compatible partner in helping us form young women with the virtues and values of the Gospel,” the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas is severing ties with the organization and switching its support to a Christian-based scouting program. “I have asked the pastors of the Archdiocese to begin the process of transitioning away from the hosting of parish Girl Scout troops and toward the chartering of American Heritage Girls troops,” Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann said in a statement released Monday.

Consider the hate speech legislation....all generally designed to protect homosexuals and Muslims from any speech that is critical of them. It is the Bible, the Word of God that speaks out most forcefully against such immorality and false religion and God commands His followers to stand firm against sin. The hate speech legislation is absolutely directed at the Christian faith and Christians.

I can't copy on my iPad. Sorry. Very annoying article from the Huffington Compost.

What is repentance?  Is it turning from sin?  Is it not sinning?   Is it reforming one's life?  Is it getting cleaned up first, before coming to Christ? No word causes greater trepidation and uncertainty among those considering a decision of faith and no word causes greater fear and confusion among those already in the Church. This word has caused me some of the greatest angst in my life, largely because of how I've understood it: turning from sin, reforming my ways, being perfect.  Yet I continue to fail.  Daily.  This incredible dichotomy exists in my mind between the biblical...

I already know I’ll be scoffed at, challenged, and attacked for what I’m going to say here. That would be, because my outlook and opinions are from another era—and not part of the current, fashionable, “safe” Collective. I’m not in synch with this more “advanced,” time, of millennials, false reality, lying media, scum politicians, pornographic Hollywood, multi-millionaire kneeling athletes, and other drugged hipsters. But, I shall never take “the blue pill:” representing security in this Matrix of group lies, illusion—and the bliss of collective ignorance. No, I choose the red pill: representing freedom, knowledge, and the real world—truth, justice, and...

Between 1935 and 1975, Will and Ariel Durant published a series of volumes that together were known as “The Story of Civilization.” They basically told human history (mostly Western history) as an accumulation of great ideas and innovations, from the Egyptians, through Athens, Magna Carta, the Age of Faith, the Renaissance and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The series was phenomenally successful, selling over two million copies. That series encapsulated the Western civilization narrative that people, at least in Europe and North America, used for most of the past few centuries to explain their place in the world...

Lately, Chavez declared himself a member of a charismatic congregation, thus allegedly belonging to his country's fastest-growing branch of Christianity. But then he angered the country's National Catholic Bishops Conference by communing at a Mass organized by a priest of pro-Communist leanings. Should you have any doubt that Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is in serious decline, consider this: His bust is being removed from the altars of his country's popular religion, a renowned anthropologist told United Press International on Monday. Less than four years ago, the syncretistic Maria Lionza cult celebrated Chavez as the reincarnation of Simon Bolivar, (1783-1830),...

It appears that Russia is leading the way towards a much-needed rejection of "religious freedom" in the West: Source from NRO: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/446966/russia-jehovahs-witnesses-ban-continues-putin-religious-persecution Russia’s crackdown on religious activity took a major step forward this week as the Justice Ministry banned Jehovah’s Witnesses. Russia has steadily curtailed rights to evangelize in recent years, but this move signals their commitment to aggressively policing private religious activity. The Russian supreme court ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses amount to an “extremist group,” and therefore the government is shutting down their headquarters and local chapters, seizing their property, and banning them from meeting. Vladimir Putin’s campaign...

"LGBT agenda will be unhinged." A new religious liberty executive order protecting Christians from the onslaught of former community organizer Barack Obama's radical LGBT agenda may be in the works soon, says former Donald Trump advisor Ken Blackwell. “My anticipation is that we will see an Executive Order and it will be more than window dressing,” Blackwell, senior fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at the Family Research Council, told LifeSiteNews, predicting that Obama's “aggressive LGBT agenda will be unhinged." “We have a great plan to attack the administrative state,” he said. “We will have to be very meticulous...

A group of leftist activists wearing pink pussy hats disrupted a Christian opening prayer at Rep. Jack Bergman’s (R-MI) Thursday evening town hall in Gaylord, Michigan, shouting, “Separation of church and state!” as other constituents stood with their heads bowed in respect. Dr. Derek Hagland, the assistant pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Michigan’s First District, had just taken the stage to recite an invocation when activists began chanting, “Separation of church and state!” to disrupt him: “This guy was giving invocation,” Rep. Bergman’s communication director Farahn Morgan told Breitbart News. “He was not necessarily party affiliated in any way....

April 21, 2017 EVENING Enoch walked with God. Gen. 5:22 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Amos 3:3 Having made peace through the blood of his cross.... You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. Col. 1:20-22 In Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Eph. 2:13 If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death...

April 21 MORNING Stand fast in the Lord. Phil. 4:1 My foot hath held His steps, His way have I kept, and not declined. Job 23:11 The LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His saints; they are preserved for ever. Psa. 37:28 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. Psa. 121:7 The just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition: but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Heb....

Russia's Supreme Court has accepted the government's request to designate Jehovah's Witnesses as an outlawed religious group, deeming it to be an extremist organisation. The justice ministry argued that the group had distributed pamphlets which incited hatred against other groups. Lawyers representing the group reject the claims and say they will appeal. The denomination says it has 175,000 members in Russia - a country where it was persecuted during the Stalin era. An estimated eight million people worldwide are part of the Christian-based movement, best known for going door-to-door looking for new converts.

Arguments in a high-profile religious liberty case caused tempers to flare on both sides of the Supreme Court's ideological divide Wednesday. The high court waited for several months to hear Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, and did so with a full nine-justice court bolstered by the addition of Justice Neil Gorsuch, who joined the court this month. At issue in Trinity Lutheran is whether Missouri violated the Constitution in its decision to bar a church-operated daycare and preschool from a state program that provides funding to nonprofits to resurface playgrounds. Missouri's Constitution includes a provision that prevents public...

"Between 1990 and 2013 some 46.08% of all abortions were performed on women with previous terminations. There have been 44,0112,775 legal abortions since 1973, when Roe v Wade gave abortion constitutional protections. This, of course, does not include abortions that were performed in private. Interestingly, this is greater than the total number of legal immigrants in the USA (38 million), and the total number of illegal immigrants (11-33 million) as well."

More than 3,000 employees in 36 states will be laid off in the liquidation of one of the world’s largest Christian retailers. More than two years ago, suppliers forgave Family Christian Stores $127 million in debt so that it could remain open. Today, the chain—which bills itself as “the world’s largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise”—announced it is closing all of its stores after 85 years in business. Family Christian, which employed more than 3,000 people in more than 240 stores across 36 states, blamed “changing consumer behavior and declining sales.” “We had two very difficult years post-bankruptcy,” stated president Chuck...

An apology from Georgetown and the Society of Jesus’ Maryland Province for their roles in the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved individuals for the university’s benefit took place today in the company of more than 100 descendants. “Today the Society of Jesus, who helped to establish Georgetown University and whose leaders enslaved and mercilessly sold your ancestors, stands before you to say that we have greatly sinned,” said Rev. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, during a morning Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition, and Hope. “We pray with you today because we have...

A priest was thought to be missing. His car was found parked and people did know where he was. He was lost and was new to United States. He was using another priest's car whom he had driven to the airport. The priest, Father Julius Ohiaege of Nigeria, was taking the place of the priest he had driven to the Lafayette, Louisiana airport. He was to substitute for the priest at St Leo the Great parish in Leonville. Links to stories on this (which are quite confusing as some still has the priest as being missing): KLFY (CBS News): Priest...

As we celebrate Easter, we should also be reminded of, and confronted by, St. Paul’s stark claim in First Corinthians that “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Three verses later, Paul re-emphasized it: “And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins.”

Give it all to Him and he will give you rest When I was young I was not a nice fellow. Snakes would cross the street when I sauntered down the sidewalk. My all consuming passion was getting enough alcohol and drugs to help me forget something I couldn’t remember. Playing music and living in a 24/7 party atmosphere was all I cared about. Other people were collateral damage on my way to a buzz. I had the name of my guitar tattooed on my arm so women would know where my loyalties lay. Spiritually I was dead inside. I...