Free Republic

A wellness center connected to a church founded by Illinois Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush has received $650,000 in taxpayer-funded government grants in 2017, public records show and has pulled in more than $15 million in grants since 2008. Rush, who was first elected to Congress in 1992, founded the Beloved Community Christian Church, a non-denominational church located in Chicago, in 2002. (snip) "I founded a church in Englewood, one of Chicago's poorest and most fragile neighborhoods, and named it Beloved Community Christian Church," Rush wrote in a 2011 op-ed published in the Huffington Post. "The church, once the site of...

Pope Francis called for “a one world government” and “political authority” this week, arguing that the creation of the one world government is needed to combat major issues such as “climate change.” Speaking with Ecuador’s “El Universo” newspaper, the Pope said that the United Nations doesnt have enough power and must be granted full governmental control “for the good of humanity.” But what is raising eyebrows is the Pope’s call for a new global political authority. Here is more from the Guardian: Pope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the “unprecedented destruction...

Catholics always have been taught that the word “catholic” means “universal,” and arguably one of the hallmarks of the Catholic faith is that it recognizes no borders; while there are many rites, of which the Latin is the predominant one, there is one truth, one set of dogma.As I consider this from St. Louis, Missouri, where my family and I have lived since 2000, I realize something must be askew with Catholic pretenders who crave independence over universality.Several years ago, to greatly simplify a convoluted local history, a St. Louis parish operated for the benefit of the local Polish...

Bishop-elect John Dolan of San Diego is an LGBT supporter. WARNING: This article begins with a graphic clinical statement because all Catholics need to know the truth and not remain oblivious to it. June 22, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — When a man and a woman make love, the miracles of conception and birth are possible. When two men attempt the same, the most glorious result possible is an anal discharge of semen mixed with fecal matter.   Despite the striking contrast, high-profile Catholics in positions of power and influence in North America are no longer able to detect any important difference...

Actress Amy Brenneman thinks the right has committed an injustice. They’ve paired pro-life with the term Christian. In a video done for the Lives of Women series, the star of “The Leftovers”, while being filmed in a church, started her PSA by saying, “I absolutely think the term ‘Christian’ has been stolen in 2017 in America by the ‘Christian Right.’” She then proceeded to say that while she has been extremely open about having an abortion when she was 21, it was time to re-state that, because of the rise of social media. Brenneman also expressed her anger with the...

The story of secret Russian agents effectively swaying the U.S. election, or colluding with Donald Trump, has petered out into nothingness. For months we heard dark suspicions recklessly spread by news organizations. We learned of selective leaks from inside the Deep State — Obama holdovers or NeverTrumpers determined to wreck his presidency.Now there’s almost nothing left. Democrats hope to impeach the president for procedural improprieties. For clumsily firing a waffling and partisan FBI director. Still have Putin on the brain? You’ll have to settle for fevered claims by the likes of Louise Mensch that the Russian president, not ISIS,...

AUSTIN, Texas — A female minister in Texas who identifies as male recently declared at the state capitol that “God is transgender” in expressing her opposition to a proposed bill that requires those using restrooms and locker rooms in government buildings and public schools to use the facility that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate. Seth Wynn, who leads Agape Metropolitan Community Church in Fort Worth, began her speech refuting another pastor who had cited the Book of Genesis in expressing support for the legislation.

[Header Synopsis] Churchgoing Christians who support same-sex marriage are more likely to think pornography, cohabitation, hook-ups, adultery, polyamory, and abortion are acceptable. And it’s reasonable to expect continued change in more permissive directions.

The Church of England will be asked to denounce gay conversion, consider special services for transgender people and re-examine its teaching on marriage as between one man and one women in a raft of measures to be debated at its forthcoming General Synod meeting in July. In its first meeting since the surprise rejection of a bishops’ report recommending keeping the status quo on marriage, the CofE’s parliament will debate whether to join medical experts and condemn so-called ‘gay cures’ as ‘unethical, harmful’ and having ‘no place in the modern world’. Tabled by senior synod member Jayne Ozanne, the private...

Is Sister Christian sitting next to you in Sunday service a closet New Ager? Is your pastor tapping into new spirituality? Are you believing a new thought lie? I was simply shocked to read the results of a new Barna study that shows only 17 percent of Christians who consider their faith important and attend church regularly actually have a biblical worldview. But I was decidedly dismayed by the subsequent revelations in the report. In a nutshell, Barna found many Christians strongly agree with worldviews that compete with biblical teachings. In other words, many believers are believing flat out lies....

Since President Trump took office, according to ICE, about 11,000 undocumented people with no criminal records have been detained -- twice as many as last year. Now, the number of religious institutions across the country offering sanctuary has doubled to more than 800. --SNIP--- Jim Kenney: Well, you know, Ellis Island had opened in 1892. The bulk of Irish Diaspora came to America in the 1840s. We didn't have papers either. We were undocumented. There was an anti-Italian slur, when I was growing up in my neighborhood called W-O-P—that's without papers.

Pope Francis says he won’t try to convince U.S. President Donald Trump to soften his policies on immigration and the environment when they meet this month, but wants instead to find common ground and work for peace. Francis said proselytizing isn’t his style — in politics or religion. Speaking to reporters while traveling home Saturday from a trip to Portugal, Francis said he would say what he thinks sincerely to Trump and listen respectfully to what Trump has to say. […] Speculation has swirled about what Trump and Francis will discuss during their May 24 audience, given Francis has already...

Here is the description of the book: Many people of faith have identified the election of Donald Trump as a confessional crisis--a moment that calls into question the deepest meaning of our religious claims and values. This book gathers reflections by a range of scholars and activists from numerous religious and denominational perspectives to address that crisis. Among the themes treated are disability issues, the LGBT community, gender and race, immigration, the environment, peace, and poverty.

Many bishops protected priests who were child molesters for years, transferring them from parish to parish and allowing them to prey upon new children rather than turning them over to police. In the Catholic Church today, protecting the image of Islam appears to be job one: you can be a cleric who speaks out against the Church’s official positions (such as those on contraception and female priests) and in many quarters of the Church you’ll be hailed as a hero. But the highly dubious proposition that Islam is a religion of peace has become a kind of superdogma that the...

Having been in the hospital on and off for the last few months, even thinking once that I might die, I found myself, as many people do, delving deeper into my faith. I was raised by my parents with a strong Protestant faith, but have long felt abandoned by increasingly liberal Protestant churches -- open for worship one hour per week; while concurrently promoting the hottest young Christian singers to draw in the young folks. That’s my take on it; but I know many would disagree. So when I recently attended a Catholic Mass and realized there were people talking...

Strong for a Moment Like This - The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton is a book in a Cokesbury Catalog. Cokesbury provides resources for the United Methodist Church.Here are some excerpts from the book description:Strong for a Moment Like This gives readers an inside, personal look at the faith of one of our nation’s most lauded leaders.Rev. Dr. Bill Shillady—a pastoral friend of Clinton’s—and a small team of other pastors provided the Democratic nominee with spiritual support to stay strong through arguably one of the more contentious elections in American history.As Secretary Clinton said in The New York Times...

It’s one thing when a humanist attacks the Bible. That’s expected. It’s another thing when a humanist attacks a Christian denomination for using the Bible as a moral guide. But that’s exactly what humanist author Clay Farris Naff did on the Huffington Post on April 29th.Naff was upset that the highest court of the Methodist Church struck down the consecration of Bishop Karen Oliveto, since her only infraction was being married to another woman. How, he wondered, could the church punish her for love?He writes, “To anyone free of ancient prejudices, the injustice of condemning Oliveto is plain. How can...

Electing Lesbian Bishop Violates Church Law, United Methodist High Court Rules The United Methodist Church's highest court has ruled that a regional body violated the denomination's rules when they elected an openly lesbian clergywoman as bishop and she can be removed from her position. In a 6–3 decision released Friday, the United Methodist Judicial Council decided that the Western Jurisdiction's election of Karen Oliveto to the position of bishop violated church law. "It is not lawful for the college of bishops of any jurisdictional or central conference to consecrate a self-avowed practicing homosexual bishop," read the decision, as reported by...

A rebel Catholic group has ordained its second woman priest in North Carolina, the first in the 46 counties that constitute the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. News outlets report that the Association of Roman Catholic Woman Priests ordained 64-year-old Abigail Eltzroth on Sunday at Asheville's Jubilee, a nondenominational faith community. The group is opposed to the Roman Catholic Church's ban on women priests.

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