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"Could you be a church in Selma and not march, just handle your own community?" says pastor Stan Mitchell of GracePointe Church. "I don’t think I can do that." Three Sundays ago in Franklin, Tenn., twenty minutes south of Nashville and in the heart of the country’s contemporary Christian music industry, pastor Stan Mitchell of GracePointe Church preached what was perhaps the most important sermon of his life. You can watch it above–start around 44:40 if you are short on time.

Video at site Possible Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee says homosexuality is a lifestyle choice like drinking and swearing — which is why he can accept friends who are gay, despite his religious convictions. "People can be my friends who have lifestyles that are not necessarily my lifestyle," Huckabee said in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "I don't shut people out of my circle or out of my life because they have a different point of view. I don't drink alcohol, but gosh — a lot of my friends, maybe most of them, do. You know,...

A number of thoughtful Evangelical commentators (captured here by my brave and faithful friend Owen Strachan) have responded pointedly to Elizabeth Dias's Time story, "Inside the Evangelical Fight Over Gay Marriage." They have demonstrated logically, theologically and philosophically why the movement to abandon Scripture's teaching on human sexuality in order to accommodate supposedly Evangelical advocates of normalizing same-sex "marriage" and attraction is an offense to God and the Gospel.At the Family Research Council, we have joined them in addressing the concerns of younger Evangelicals regarding homosexuality, in recognizing the uniqueness of male-female complementarity and in celebrating God's plan for sexual intimacy...

What Do the Scriptures Mean which speak of “the flesh?” By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is a common misunderstanding of the meaning of the Biblical phrase “the flesh.”  There are many references to “the flesh” in New Testament Scripture, especially in the letters of St. Paul. The phrase confuses some, who think it synonymous with the physical body or merely with sexual sin.It is true that there are many times when Scripture uses the word “flesh” to refer to the physical body. However, when the definite article “the” is placed before the word “flesh” we are most often dealing with something...

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.(Galatians 4:4-5)When God became a man, He put himself under the law. In every sense possible Jesus was yoked underneath the heavy load of the Law of God. The entire moral, sacrificial and ritual law were placed upon the MEssiah from birth. At the very beginning we are told of Jesus’ circumcision. He too was circumcised the eighth day according to the Law...

I kinda wasn't too surprised to hear the pope say he prays that people fall to temptation. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out the kind of Catholics he curses. You know the irony of his ruthless perversion of prayer and role of a Pope? Catholics who want their religion taught to them are the very Catholics who humbly acknowledge their temptation and sin. That is why we constantly beg for pastoral perspectives on ways to recognize the devil long before he has us duped, ways to circumvent temptation and sin and remain in a state of Sanctifying...

Writing for the Christian Post, Melissa Barnhart notes that, "The Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritans Purse, says the government's attacks against Christianity and bans on traditional Christmas themes while society glorifies sin is 'like little children shaking their fist at Almighty God.' 'What's happening is we're glorifying sin, we're lifting up sin. And it's like little children shaking their fist at Almighty God,' Graham told Fox News host Megyn Kelly during a Wednesday segment of 'The Kelly File.' Speaking about atheists and secularists' actions to ban celebrations of Christmas in schools and government...

Rob and Linda Robertson did what they believed was expected of them as good Christians. When their 12-year-old son Ryan said he was gay, they told him they loved him, but he had to change. He entered “reparative therapy,” met regularly with his pastor and immersed himself in Bible study and his church youth group. After six years, nothing changed. A despondent Ryan cut off from his parents and his faith, started taking drugs and in 2009, died of an overdose. “Now we realize we were so wrongly taught,” said Rob Robertson, a firefighter for more than 30 years who...

Hello Freepers! I need help with research for a paper. Your ideas are needed and welcomed. I especially would appreciate comments from Libertarians and any lurking Liberals/Progressives and Atheists/"Brights".

May You Sleep the Sleep of the Just: A Short Meditation on the Burden that Sin Brings By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere’s an old expression, seldom used today although I remember the old folks used it sometimes when I was young, “May you sleep the sleep of the just.” When my Great Aunt Polly used it, she meant simply, “May you sleep well.” But more richly and historically, the phrase speaks to a serenity that comes from having a quiet conscience, a conscience that is untroubled by the burden of unconfessed and unrepentant sin. A serene and clean conscience is an...

[2 Billy Gilman Reveals He’s Gay By Billy Dukes 34 minutes ago Hours after one country artist revealed he is gay, another followed. Billy Gilman followed. On Thursday afternoon, he took to YouTube to reveal he is gay.

World renowned evangelist Rev. Billy Graham, the founder and chairman of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said that our children are growing up in a “lawless and wicked age,” infused with the “philosophy of the Devil, who says, ‘Do as you please.’” Further, rearing children in this culture is difficult because “we have taken God out of our educational systems and thought we could get away with it,” said Rev. Graham. “We have sown the wind, and we are now reaping the whirlwind. We have laughed at God, religion and the Bible.” Reverend Graham’s commentary, first broadcast in August 1955,...

Catalog of Sin – All Items are in Stock, Free Shipping and Handling from the Supplier By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe video at the bottom of the page is something of a spoof on drug commercials, treating sin like a drug. Wait till you hear the side-effects disclaimer at the end. I also thought today of doing a little post on the sins that cry to heaven for vengeance since I was talking to a parishioner today, who is suffering because his employer has not paid him for three weeks. The employer, a shipping agency says this is  due to “administrative...

I can't subject myself to the articles about Pope Francis demotion and exile of Cardinal Burke posted by long suffering Catholic journalists who have been luring our children into adultery and sexual debauchery, but I have been reading the headlines. I have also been fielding questions from readers who tell me stories about how their relatives and loved ones have put adultery on full throttle, citing the counterfeit deposit of faith Pope Francis has generated with his...I am groping for charity here...statements and actions contrary to Church teaching and obfuscation of teaching. These journalists have been permitted to use the...

The Rhine and Tiber have clearly merged into one filthy polluted river washing over faithful Catholics like the rising floods of Noah. Kasper, Marx and others from Germany continue to scandalise the faithful and debase the truth all under the watchful eye of Jorge Bergoglio, the man whom the Grand Lodge of Italy remarked that with him "nothing will be the same." The Synod on the Family became a cesspool of dissent where over half the bishops, though not the two-thirds required, actually wanted some kind of accommodation for Holy Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics and unrepentant sodomites. It...

Almost 20 years ago, I was speaking with an older Jewish couple who seemed very close to putting their faith in Jesus as Messiah, but they were not 100 percent sure.I said to them, "Later this week I'm debating an Orthodox rabbi. Why not come to the debate to hear both sides of the issue, and then you can make an informed decision?"Thankfully, they came to the event, they listened with open hearts and minds, and by God's grace, they came to faith.More recently, I was invited to speak on a college campus about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, representing the Israeli...

We cannot believe this wondrous event is almost here! How blessed Washington is to receive this theological giant of mercy, who truly is a light-bearer. A reminder: Next Thursday, November 6, Walter Cardinal Kasper will receive a prestigious award from the Catholic University of America's theology school, delivering a lecture there on the "theological background of the ecclesiological and ecumenical vision of Pope Francis." About the award: For Excellence in Scholarship and Leadership in Religious Studies Established in 1985 as the only academic award given by The Catholic University of America’s School of Theology and Religious Studies, the Quasten Medal...

In the first of this two-part series, we examined how Progressives have skillfully utilized Lust, Greed and Gluttony to capture control of the Democratic Party and weaken the moral fiber of the American people. As we continue to examine the warnings of Dante as outlined in his work, Inferno, we look at the remaining "seven deadly sins" and how the Great Deceiver's earthly forces work to erode the spirit of our republic and fundamentally transform our society into one of their liking. You may view the first part, in which we discuss Lust, Gluttony and Greed by accessing the following...

More than a thousand evangelical pastors and others—gathered for a three-day conference to steel the resolve of Christians who preach that gay relationships are sinful—were asked a simple question: How many live in a state that recognizes same-sex marriage? Hands rose all across the convention hall. “This moral revolution is happening at warp speed,” said the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “This is a real challenge to us on biblical authority.” Speakers at the event said they understood they were on the losing end of the culture war on marriage. But they were prepared to...

The recent session of the Synod on the Family has been likened not a few times by commentators as an attempt at a mini-Vatican III. And this appellation has some validity, for the past year or more has seen the re-appearance of such personages as Hans Küng (albeit not in vigorous form), Gustavo Gutierrez, and, at least in spirit, Karl Rahner, and, in the flesh, the indefagitable Cardinal Kasper, all examples of those who seemed to be disappointed that Vatican III did not follow closely after Vatican II to accomplish unfinished business: to get the Church firmly on the same...