Free Republic

Miriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian woman who faces a death sentence for apostasy from Islam, remains in prison, and pressure is mounting for her execution, the Archdiocese of Khartoum has warned. Contrary to some media reports, Ibrahim has not been released from prison, the archdiocese reported. Her sentence has been appealed, but there is no word on when that appeal will be heard. “According to the concerned authorities, Mrs. Miriam can only be released on the condition that she renounces Christianity and gets divorced from her husband,” the archdiocese said. While she has been urged by many people to submit...

Frightening article in the Telegraph: Gay Danish couples win right to marry in church. The country's parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages. .... Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry out the ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church. I am sure at first most Catholic clergy will refuse and bishops will not comply but down the line, in two or three years, what will happen, and if this law were introduced into England, or the...

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission has ordered a suburban Denver baker named Jack Phillips to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples, finding that his religious objections do not supersede the state's anti-discrimination statutes. Because if the Constitution should be subordinate to anything, it's the local thought police, hurt feelings, and nuptial pastries. Raju Jaram, one of the reprehensible unelected commissioners—whose contact information is nowhere to be found on Colorado's government site—apparently had this to say about the case: "I can believe anything I want, but if I'm going to do business here, I'd ought to not discriminate against people." No,...

Denver, Colo., May 30, 2014 / 05:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A commission’s ruling that Colorado baker Jack Phillips must bake same-sex “wedding” cakes forces him to choose between violating his conscience and supporting his family, the baker’s lawyer said. In America, we don’t separate a person’s creative expression from what he believes. Jack simply exercised the long-cherished American freedom to decline to use his artistic and creative talents to promote a message with which he disagrees,” said Nicolle Martin, the lawyer representing Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo. Martin, an attorney allied with the national legal group Alliance Defending Freedom,...

Catholic doctors who follow church teaching on sexual ethics cannot work as gynaecologists in Britain, the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) conference was told. Charlie O’Donnell, a consultant in emergency and intensive care medicine, said the best advice he could give to an “orthodox” Catholic wishing to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology would be to “emigrate”. Dr O’Donnell told the conference at Ealing Abbey, west London, on 17 May that a Catholic training to be a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology would soon find he or she had conscientious objections to such tasks as prescribing artificial contraceptives, giving unmarried couples fertility...

Is it just me, or has the culture war between right and left been escalating wildly over the past few months? Everywhere you turn, there is another leftist assault on traditional values, as well as the occasional volley fired back by the retreating forces of Christianity and sanity. This is not a fight about religion; it is a fight about freedom — and believe it or not, the Judeo-Christian tradition provides the philosophical underpinnings of Western culture, which in contradistinction to every other long-lasting culture on the planet, values the individual over the collective, and thus values individual freedom over...

Homofascist Tyranny The tyranny of homofascism must be opposed By Michael Voris The Vortex April 9, 2014 Grab a pen and write the word down as quickly as you can and start using it everywhere – the word is .. homofascists .. as in homofascism. A working definition you ask? How’s this for starters? Homofascism – “a way of organizing a society in which homosexualists impose their agenda with which no one is allowed to disagree or have any appeal to the contrary without being subjected to severe consequences of ridicule, slander, libel, fines, public demonstrations, distortions, denial of free...

Are you 18-29 years old? Do you care about the constant attacks on religious liberty in America? Then, participate in our new video project about religious liberty. To receive instructions, you must fill out everything present in the below submission form. Submission forms that contain false and inaccurate information or don't fulfill our requirements will not be considered. To fill out a submission form, please go to this link: http://www.counterculturedusa.com/23/post/2014/04/speak-out-about-religious-liberty-video-project.html This was originally posted on Counter Cultured's "Video Projects" tab.

The war that has been brewing between the Sexual Activists of America, and every day people of faith, morals, and conscience has moved into the major campaign of the conflict. This week has been bloody. For the better part of the past two years I have repeatedly stated on my radio show that we have entered a day where the Constitutional guarantee of absolute legal protection for one's freedom of religious faith and expression is running headlong into a culturally driven force that is a non-Constitutional right to sexual freedom. The United States Constitution doesn't address sex, sexuality, sexual...

Many Christians have been warning for years that the radical homosexual activist lobby is made up of Christian-hating fascists who are in rebellion against both God and nature, who are hell-bent on criminalizing Christianity and pushing to the fringes anyone who publicly acknowledges natural human sexuality and the age-old, immutable institution of legitimate marriage as created by God. Sadly, many people, even many Christians, think that I and others are using hyperbole when we refer to this sexual anarchist "LGBT" movement as "homofascist" or the "Gaystapo." I hope you'll think again. It's time to wake up and smell the impending...

This week a well known company whose products I have used for years made national headlines. Why? They made a controversial decision based on their closely held corporate convictions in response to a national outcry. They were criticized by those on the other side who claimed that their expression of their organizational beliefs would violate the freedom of their employees and cause them harm. No, I am not talking about Hobby Lobby. I am talking about Mozilla. Yesterday, newly appointed Mozilla CEO Brandon Eich resigned amidst an online furor that erupted because he donated $1,000 to support California's Proposition 8...

Fox News reported a few weeks ago about how the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., removed a Bible verse from a cadet's personal whiteboard. I am personally so disappointed that the branch of service that I served in to protect our freedoms is now trying to suppress them. When one walks the dorm halls of the Air Force Academy, one immediately notices the hundreds of whiteboards hanging on students' doors. This past week, Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., cited Air Force officials who explained that cadets "often use these boards to display items, quotes or other things that reflect...

ROME, March 20, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Obama’s policies “have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization,” said American Cardinal Raymond Burke in an interview published in English exclusively by LifeSiteNews today. Burke did not mince words in responding to a question about the Catholic reaction to President Obama’s attack on religious freedom, especially through policies such as the controversial HHS mandate. “He appears to be a totally secularized man who aggressively promotes anti-life and anti-family policies,” said Burke. “Now he wants to restrict the exercise of the freedom of religion to freedom of worship, that is, he holds that...

Christians in the U.S. military are being told they must forfeit their First Amendment rights. Bible verses are being erased from cadets’ personal dorm-room white boards, and military lawyers claim that legal protections for religion only pertain to matters such as clothing and growing beards but do not extend to any religious expression such as talking about one's faith or posting a Bible verse. Last year Breitbart News broke the story of a campaign by anti-Christian extremists to suppress traditional Christian expression within the U.S. military. There were conflicting stories regarding the possible court martial of service members who share...

The Air Force Academy removed a Bible verse posted on a cadet's whiteboard after it determined the posting had offended other cadets, a spokesman for the academy said. The cadet wrote the passage on the whiteboard posted outside his room. "I have been crucified with Christ therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me," the verse from Galatians read. Mikey Weinstein, director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told me 29 cadets and four faculty and staff members contacted his organization to complain about the Christian passage. "Had it been in his room - not a problem," Weinstein...

Pro-life leaders have noticed that not a single panel or specific speaker on life issues has been scheduled for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which is supposed to be the preeminent annual gathering of conservatives in America. Pro-lifers note there are important panels on the IRS scandal, immigration, Common Core, privacy, gun control, and criminal justice reform--issues in which pro-lifers would be keenly interested. Pro-lifers generally pride themselves on being “full spectrum conservatives”; that is, supporters of the three-legged stool: economics, national security, and moral issues. So they would not complain about panels covering these issues. But they note...

Why aren't more people outraged over the Obama administration's war on religious liberty? The administration insists on coercing full compliance with the Obamacare mandates, even when 99.9 percent compliance would fully serve its purposes, and chooses to impose its iron will even against American citizens' God-given and constitutionally and statutorily protected religious freedoms. Despite straight-facedly promising that he would protect the religious liberties of people and groups and would not violate their conscience rights by forcing them to provide or support contraceptive or abortion services, President Obama has vigorously engaged in a scorched-earth campaign to do just the opposite. It's...

"Christian Leaders to Obama: Thanks for Standing Up for Religious Freedom Abroad; Please Protect Religious Freedom in US Too" Ten Christian leaders sent a Wednesday letter to President Barack Obama, thanking him for his National Prayer Breakfast speech in which he called for expanding religious freedom abroad. They also urged him to pay greater attention to his own policies that are infringing upon the religious freedom of his own citizens. "As religious leaders we write to express our appreciation to you for lifting up the issue of international religious liberty in your recent address at the National Prayer Breakfast," they...

A federal district court has ruled that public universities may discipline professors for religious speech. In 2009, a graduate student at the University of Southern Mississippi, referring to a law professor, complained that “sometimes during conversations with Dr. [Thomas] Payne, religion or Bible verses are usually brought up by him in some way. This makes me and others very uncomfortable … Dr. Payne made the statement that anyone who is not a Christian is going to hell.” Subsequently, Payne alleged that the university “subjected him to various adverse employment actions … including, but not limited to, the denial of promotion,...

All signs indicate Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will likely veto politically-charged legislation that supporters say promotes religious freedom and opponents contend discriminates against gays and lesbians. Brewer did not signal her intention either way in an exclusive interview with CNN on Monday at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington. "I can assure you, as always, I will do the right thing for the state of Arizona," she said. But some Arizona Republicans who know her well say they are confident those comments mean Brewer will almost surely reject the bill that is generating nationwide controversy. The Republican-led measure would...