Free Republic

CNN’s Drew Griffin broke into Wolf Blitzer‘s Newsroom report Wednesday afternoon to reveal new information about the investigation into the IRS’ admission that they targeted conservatives during the 2012 election year. Griffin said a Congressional source told him that the acting commissioner of the IRS, Steven Miller, has identified two “rogue” employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office, who he characterized as “off the reservation.” The commissioner reportedly said the two, as yet unnamed, employees were “principally responsible for overly aggressive handling of Tea Party requests for tax exempt status over the past two years.” Another source, according to Griffin, said...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied asylum to a Christian family that came to America to homeschool their children. As previously reported, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled to the United States in 2008 after German authorities demanded that they stop homeschooling their six children. Homeschooling was made illegal in the country in 1938 under the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler, and the law has never been repealed.......

It's never comforting to have one's longstanding fears confirmed. Yet, that's exactly what's happened over the last week as Americans have been presented with a stunning array of facts that diminish faith in our government. Whether it's on foreign policy, taxes, or the health-care system our lives depend on, members of the Obama Administration are making it harder to trust them to perform the most very basic functions of public service. *snip* Next, the Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has found that conservative and Tea Party groups, after complaining for years of being unfairly targeted by...

Dear Comrades, The Vanguard of the Socialist Democratic Party of the USSA, better known as Militant Atheists, are courageously fighting for the rights of workers and peasants in the American military to be liberated from the oppressive presence of religion in the Armed Services. Under direction from the White Fortress, officers are learning the Socialist principle of eliminating all public religious expression in keeping with the doctrines of Marxist-Obamism. Officers in the military know that their chances of advancement hinge on their ability to suppress religious expression, especially the worst kind: proselytizing and openly discussing religion as a believer. To...

In a move that foreshadows the radical left’s plans for churches should gay marriage become the law of the land, the California legislature is moving to strip the Boy Scouts of America – a private organization – of its non-profit status for refusing to allow gay scoutmasters...

Catholic students at George Washington University are rallying to the support of their beloved priest after two gay seniors launched a campaign to kick him out of his post at the university’s Newman Center for preaching that homosexuality and abortion are sinful. The GW Hatchet, a campus newspaper, reported this week that seniors Damian Legacy and Blake Bergen are spearheading the campaign. The story has since been picked up by numerous other news outlets. Fr. Greg Shaffer The students say that they will file a formal complaint with the university, release a video featuring ten other students who share their...

Many Christians doubt David Cameron’s sincerity in pledging to protect their freedoms, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey says today. In an article for the Daily Mail, Lord Carey squarely accuses ministers of “aiding and abetting” discrimination against Christians. He says he believes there is an “aggressive secularist and relativist approach” behind the Government plans to legalize gay marriage, and says the Prime Minister has “done more than any other recent political leader” to “feed” Christian anxieties. …

With that said and meant, this shift is altogether unsurprising. The new mark of being culturally acceptable is affirming homosexuality as virtuous (not merely okay, but virtuous, even exemplary). This is the litmus test. I don’t think many of us expected that it would so quickly fill this role, but it has. The mark of being a progressive, kind, socially courageous person today is simply this: affirming same-sex marriage. There are other cardinal virtues of a contemporary au courant identity, but this is the lodestar, the one that hangs one’s personal moon. This shows us that the cultural middle is...

Of course, for too long successive governments have enacted and tolerated laws that are evil (such as the legalizing of abortion). What’s new in our day is that laws are being proposed and enacted that attempt to force Christians to give up core Christian doctrines (e.g. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation) and ethics (e.g. biblical definition of marriage). When the Government does this, it is crossing the line from being God’s servant to being God itself. When that happens, what should we do? Although Christians ought to be the most loyal citizens in any nation, we are...

Christian registrars will not be able to opt out of performing gay marriages if they object on grounds of belief, the Government’s human rights watchdog has said.In guidance to MPs, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said marriage registrars were public officials and so should expect to be “required” to carry out the ceremonies. The document makes clear that employees, including teachers and chaplains working in the public sector, should be free to express their views on marriage without being disciplined. But it says that religious protection is “a qualified right” which “the state can interfere with” in some...

Egypt's Coptic Christian population has often had a difficult relationship with the country's Muslim majority, and human rights groups estimate that several thousand Copts may have left the country since the 2011 revolution. Video at link.

In my book, When the Crosses are Gone, I warn that when a culture abandons thinking and logic in favor of feelings and emotions, it is doomed to destruction. Although emotions are a very important part of the human psyche, when they control every aspect of life, morality becomes a victim. Today, there is widespread agreement that morality in America is deteriorating with breathtaking speed. On one hand, we face a belligerent and intimidating lobby that desires the breakdown of biblical morality. On the other hand, a docile public-as well as church leadership-is terrified to stand up for truth lest...

For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. – Mark 6:18-20 We have been tracking the shift for some time. To simply say what the Bible says — as one who believes what it says, of course, not as some...

More than 1000 priests have signed a letter voicing concerns about how same-sex marriage will threaten religious freedoms and may even lead to Catholics being excluded from jobs.In the letter, which is one of the biggest open letters of its type ever written, the priests claim that same-sex marriage could threaten freedoms in a way that was last seen during centuries of persecution of Catholics in England.The letter, signed by 1054 priests as well as 13 bishops, abbots and other senior Catholic figures, expresses fears that the simple acts of practising or speaking about their faith will be severely limited.They...

An Annapolis company whose old-fashioned trolleys are iconic in the city's wedding scene has abandoned the nuptial industry rather than serve same-sex couples. The owner of Discover Annapolis Tours said he decided to walk away from $50,000 in annual revenue instead of compromising his Christian convictions when same-sex marriages become legal in Maryland in less than a week. And he has urged prospective clients to lobby state lawmakers for a religious exemption for wedding vendors. While most wedding businesses across the country embraced the chance to serve same-sex couples, a small minority has struggled to balance religious beliefs against business...

A British think tank has released a lengthy report claiming that militant Islam is the greatest existential threat to Middle Eastern Christianity, bringing Christian communities in the region "close to extinction." The London-based Civitas, also known as the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, published the report in December. "Christianity is in serious danger of being wiped out in its biblical heartlands because of Islamic oppression," reads a statement from the group issued Sunday. "But Western politicians and media largely ignore the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the wider world because they are afraid they...

Lee Habeeb recently wrote a piece here for National Review Online, in which he was encouraging Christians to engage winsomely with our surrounding culture, and to make our peace with the way some things were going. He used the example of gay marriage in the civil sphere. David French wrote a very fine response here, but the money quote is below. "It took me a long time to realize the following truth: No matter how compassionate, charitable, winsome, and kind you are, if you oppose the sexual revolution you are the enemy." And this is precisely why Christians need to...

The government of Quebec is forcing Catholic schools to replace the Christian religion with the state’s “neutral” alternative based on moral relativism. That’s how defenders of religious freedom have responded to last week’s court ruling that a private Catholic high school must teach the state’s “secular” Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) course. Barbara Kay slammed the judges’ decision in the National Post on Wednesday, arguing that it empowers a government to “compel a faith community to jettison its driving beliefs in order to promote the state’s secular religion of multiculturalism; or indeed, in the future, to compel promotion of any...

SEATTLE, December 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Regardless of the state marriage referendum, Catholic Churches in the Archdiocese of Seattle may not participate in any same-sex “marriage” or recognize them in any way – including solemnizing such unions, allowing their facilities to conduct the ceremony or its reception, or providing marital counseling to homosexual couples. Following Washington state’s legalization of same-sex “marriage,” and marijuana, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain has issued a “policy refresher” to explain how the new laws will affect Catholic parishes in his archdiocese. The archbishop wrote that he was “disappointed that so many voters failed to recognize marriage...

David Cameron will risk a major battle with his party next week by backing gay weddings in churches, the Evening Standard can reveal. He will go further than ever in his modernising drive by saying religious groups should be allowed to host same-sex civil weddings in churches, synagogues and other religious buildings if they choose. Organisations that reject gay marriage, such as the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, will have legal protection from being forced to host ceremonies against their wishes, the Prime Minister will pledge. Tory MPs will have a free vote on a Bill next...