Free Republic

There are rumours (also reported by S. Armaticus' and Father Z's blogs) that the Synod will be structured in a different way than the 2014 debacle. No relatio post disceptationem, no general discussion after the small group meetings and, most importantly for us, no official document with at least a pretence of doctrinal value at the end. Instead, the small groups would give their reports to the Clown, and he would simply give the usual, fluffy, nonsensical, and frankly stupid speech at the end of the, at this point, fairly useless proceedings. We do not know if the rumours will...

Legislation permitting counties to increase the excise tax on cigarettes was approved by the California Senate Thursday, Aug. 27. Another bill — introduced the day before — would hike the state excise tax by $2.00 per pack. The state legislature should prevent both bills from passing. If the local excise tax option is adopted, the law will almost assuredly lead to higher excise tax burdens in some if not most counties. (Counties would need to have to submit an increase to a public vote.) This will increase price differentials between counties (and differentials with other states and nations) and invariably...

What is at the Core of Original Sin? Msgr. Charles Pope • September 3, 2015 • Sometimes Original Sin gets simplified into the eating of an apple. But the core of the apple is not the “core” I speak of in the title. Actually an apple is not mentioned. It is fruit surely but what fruit we do not know. But what’s the big deal about eating an apple or piece of fruit? OK, maybe they shouldn’t have eaten it. But really, did an apple lead to all the pain and grief we experience today?As you may have guessed, No,...

When one abandons eternal truth, there is virtually no limit to the extremeness and no end to the amount of folly that will follow. Modern liberalism again demonstrates this well. Because of his commitment to liberalism, which makes him unable to call the public display of women’s breasts that is occurring in Times Square what it really is (offensive, absurd, gross, and yes, wicked and sinful), New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided to wield one of the favorite tools of modern liberals: the dreaded “multiagency task force.”

If you’re looking to discredit Christianity, you’re going to have to do a lot better than point to the failings of the followers of Christ. Josh Duggar, of 19 Kids and Counting fame, who was recently outed as a user of the adultery promoting website Ashley Madison, is simply the latest in a long line of public Christians caught failing to “practice what he preached.” Christianity isn’t about what Josh Duggar, Jimmy Swaggart, Billy Graham, James Dobson, myself, or anyone else did or will do. It isn’t about what we’ve said or will say. Christianity is in the words and...

After making threats for weeks, anonymous hackers have released the private information of millions of users of the Ashley Madison website, billed as the “most successful website for finding an affair and cheating partners” and boasting that it is “the world’s leading married dating service for discreet encounters.” So much for being discreet. What lessons can we learn from the release of millions of names of users looking for adulterous hookups? 1) Sooner or later, your sin will find you out (Numbers 32:23). Whether in this world or the world to come, if we don’t turn from our sins and...

Oh-ho-ho America, you are just BEGGING for the wrath of the Holy God to fall on you! Could this country BE more pagan? Could we possibly tempt the Lord God Almighty in more ways?! Last week, the heathen goddess Kali was projected onto the side of the Empire State Building in New York City. Gee. Great idea. The Times of India online reported “Artist Android Jones designed the portraits of the goddess to make the point that Mother Nature, now more than ever, needs a fierce avatar to fight the dangers of pollution and extinction.” I hate to tell you...

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:18 I had an interesting heart-to-heart with my dad the other day. We were discussing my son, his grandson, who was spending time with my folks in Colorado over the summer. At the risk of bragging a bit – my boy, an eighth grader who recently turned 14, is already 6-foot-1, very handsome and a competitive Olympic-style boxer. Evidently, on the previous day a “drop-dead gorgeous” high school girl had made a sexual advance...

If we walk in the light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another and the Blood of Jesus Christ God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.? (I john 1:7)What does it mean to ‘walk in the Light’? We know it doesn’t mean that we walk in sinless perfection, otherwise we would not be assured that the one who walks in the light is continuously cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ. What then does the passage mean,’If we walk in the light…”.Earlier in the same section of scripture, John tells us that...

The website of the German Bishops' Conference, katholisch.de, reported yesterday on the first case of a practicing homosexual permitted to remain in a position at a Catholic Church institution despite a flagrant and public violation of the Church's moral law. The woman who heads a Caritas Day Care Center in Bavaria, had been asked in April to leave her position due to her announcement that she was going to “marry” a woman. The decision has now been rescinded, according to Fr. Hans Lindenberger, head of the Caritas in Munich, Germany. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who is the Archbishop of the Diocese...

The Wages of Sin is death and the gift of God is eternal Life(Romans 6)And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.(Matthew 5:29-30)Once again in my life a tragic story...

PECULIAR PREACHERS These preachers are definitely not modern-day "Billy Grahams". These preachers all claim to be guided by the Bible and the Holy Spirit (as do all Christians). "Knocking 'Em Down" Preacher (Deodorant problem?) "Oi-oi-oi-oi..." Preacher- Video Clip 1- Video Clip 2 (2nd clip is just expanded version of 1st clip) "Jovial" Preacher (of happy memory) (Holy laughter???) "Tattooed" Preacher- Video Clip One- Video Clip Two (Theology of tattoo-ology.) "Screaching" Preacher (Please turn down the volume a tad.) "Laughing" Preacher- Video Clip One- Video Clip Two (More holy laughter???) "Drunken Glory" Preacher- Video - Article "Pro-Queer-Pervert" Deacon / Sunday...

Pope Francis on Friday told Bolivian inmates that he too is a sinner who has experienced the merciful love of God, and encouraged them not to fall into despair but to accept forgiveness and to sustain themselves with prayer. “You may be asking yourselves: Who is this man standing before us?’” the Pope reflected with prisoners during his July 10 visit to Bolivia’s Palmasola Rehabilitation Center in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. “I would like to reply to that question with something absolutely certain about my own life. The man standing before you is a man who has experienced forgiveness....

A Study of Sloth in the Life of Lot Msgr. Charles Pope • July 1, 2015 •   In daily Mass this week (the 13th week of the year) we have been reading through Genesis. Tuesday’s reading highlights a significant spiritual problem: sloth, one of the seven deadly sins. Sloth is a sorrow, sadness, or aversion to the good things God offers. Rather than being joyful and zealous to obtain these gifts, the slothful person sees them as too much trouble to obtain and is averse to the changes such gifts might introduce into his life. This is clearly the...

One measure of the decline of mainline social justice activism can be found in a recent Facebook exchange between the Methodist civil rights leader Maxie Dunnam and the Methodist civil rights official Bill Mefford. Dunnam was a heroic opponent of Jim Crow as a young pastor in Mississippi and went on to become the president of Asbury Theological Seminary. He also happens to believe in the historic Christian understanding of marriage, so in response to Obergefell v. Hodges, he made the following post on his Facebook wall:To which Mefford, the “Director of Civil and Human Rights” for the United...

We are the modern-day Nineveh which was the most corrupt and immoral city of its day. The prophet Jonah, against his will, went to Nineveh under orders from God and warned the citizens that they had forty days until their utter destruction at the hands of God. To their credit, they repented and wearing sackcloth and ashes, cried out to God begging His forgiveness. In His mercy, He spared them.

For those genuinely interested in understanding Given the nature of the discussion following the gay marriage ruling last week, one thing that’s clear to me as a Christian who opposes gay marriage is that very few secular people - and sadly, by no means all Christians - really understand why Christians take the position we do. That’s why there is so much being said that doesn’t really reflect what Christians think. Some say we hate or we judge. Others say we are against love. Some think we’re threatened by homosexuals. Some think we object too vociferously because we secretly want...

President Obama is calling the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage a "victory for America," but the Rev. Franklin Graham warns Obama is leading the nation on a sinful course and "God will judge him and us as a nation if we don't repent." At a Gay Pride event in the White House prior to the court ruling this week, Obama said, "There has been an incredible shift in attitudes across the country," and he was right, Graham wrote in a post on his Facebook page. "But it is definitely not a shift for the good of America. The shift...

Take up this Lamentation for the Land of the Free,America, once the liberator of others, who will liberate you? Are you really free? Free of what? You have set your self free alright, By your social revolution, you are now free from Marriage, commitment, family, and fruitfulness Yours is the freedom of the madman,who observes no conventions, who wears no clothes, and who breaks all chains, (He will NOT be restrained) and who now lives among the tombs crying and cutting himself… Yours is the Freedom of Adam and Eve, Who broke away from God, and from Eden, and from...

Nikki Brooks, a Black woman who claims to be a Christian and to have held leadership rolls in several churches, has published an astonishing video stating she has no sympathy for the unborn black baby targeted for abortion. “What I am about to say, I am a Christian, I’ve served in a Pastoral capacity in three churches, I uh, I am an active minister, and um, I don’t make apology for what I am about to say,” Brooks states in her video. She is apparently upset that the Black community, which is being targeted for abortion by racist eugenics groups...