Free Republic

Mainline Protestant churches seem to have weathered the past decade better than many people have assumed, but the future is raising serious challenges to continued stability, said a Christian pollster. George Barna analyzed data for The Barna Group's latest report examining mainline denominations. Weekend attendance at mainline churches has remained relatively stable, ranging from 89 to 100, over the past decade but the report suggests that they may be "on the precipice of a period of decline." Mainline bodies – which the research group identifies as American Baptist Churches in the USA; The Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A collection of pro-abortion religious groups authored a letter today to members of the Senate that essentially places them on record supporting taxpayer funding of abortions. The letter expresses their opposition to the Nelson amendment, released today, to remove abortion funding from the Senate government-run health care bill. The Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, and United Methodist Church are the four mainline protestant denominations to sign the letter asking lawmakers to oppose the Nelson amendment.They are joined by the Disciples Justice Action Center, NA'AMAT USA, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a...

The false religion is all around us. Those churches that have turned against the Word of God, Christ as God, and the proclamation of personal salvation through His forgiving mercy, aid in damning America. Those churches clustered into denominations add to the demonic force.

Obama early on stated that he answered an 'altar call' at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. For an altar call to be scheduled in a liberal sanctuary is something else. He witnessed that he met Christ at that juncture. That church would have had to be white-hating Jeremiah Wright's. How all Wright's rant fits in with an old-fashioned Dwight L. Moody style altar call is beyond me.

When it comes to volatile political issues, the United Church of Christ is not often content simply to issue statements. Its new general minister and president, Geoffrey A. Black, delivered 17,000 petition signatures this fall to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that urged health-care reform—including coverage for all and access regardless of ability to pay. Black's predecessor as UCC president, John Thomas, was arrested at the White House two years ago, trying to deliver 100,000 petition signatures against the war in Iraq. "The church has a long tradition of being involved in the large public issues of the day," said Thomas,...

The war on conservative speech has moved from the White House to your neighborhood pews. Left-wing church leaders want the Federal Communications Commission to crack down on "hate speech" over cable TV and right-leaning talk-radio airwaves. President Obama's speech-stifling bureaucrats seem all too happy to oblige. Over the last week, an outfit called "So We Might See" has conducted a nationwide fast to protest "media violence" -- specifically, "anti-immigrant hate speech, which employs flawed arguments to appeal to fears rather than facts." Their ire is currently aimed at Fox News and conservative talk-show giants. But how long before they target...

U.C.C. HOSTS SEXUAL CIRCUS IN MICHIGAN by Paul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 1 Cor. 6: 18 Ready for a Christian take of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show?” Then head off to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the United Church of Christ is sponsoring a “Growing Bold” gathering. The event, according to UCC officials, will be a “celebration” of the denomination’s “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender sisters and brothers” and a demand for “their full inclusion in church...

More on Obama’s Bughouse Denomination byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D.thelastcrusade.org Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20) Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own...

Obama and theology of liberation Exclusive: Hilmar von Campe revisits Rev. Jeremiah Wright's relationship with president -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 04, 2009 1:00 am Eastern -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The naïve American public and their dumb political leaders believe that Barack Hussein Obama has cleared his past with leaving the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and stating that he has severed "outraged" and "insulted" his relation with the then senior pastor of that church. In reality, however, this close relationship of 20 years, which I don't think is broken, makes clear who he is and where his philosophy is rooted. When you...

Condom distribution at church - UCC likes the idea Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 3/31/2009 7:00:00 The Institute on Religion & Democracy is blasting the religious denomination of President Barack Obama for its recent stance on condom distribution inside houses of worship. Recently, the HIV and AIDS Network of the United Church of Christ (UCC) said condoms should be handed out at places of worship. The statement was issued during a presentation to the denomination's Wider Church Ministries Board and also advocated making condoms available at faith-based educational settings. A UCC executive said that condom distribution is a matter of...

The Institute on Religion & Democracy is blasting the religious denomination of President Barack Obama for its recent stance on condom distribution inside houses of worship. Recently, the HIV and AIDS Network of the United Church of Christ (UCC) said condoms should be handed out at places of worship. The statement was issued during a presentation to the denomination's Wider Church Ministries Board and also advocated making condoms available at faith-based educational settings. A UCC executive said that condom distribution is a matter of life and death and that condoms should be made available to save the lives of young...

United Church of Christ committee recommends condom distribution at churches Washington D.C., Mar 26, 2009 / 09:06 pm (CNA).- The HIV and AIDS Network of the United Church of Christ (UCC) is advocating that condoms should be distributed at places of worship and faith-based educational settings. The network called for condom distribution in its March 19 statement issued at a presentation to the UCC Wider Church Ministries Board, the Institute on Religion and Democracy reports. UCC executive Michael Shuenemeyer argued: “The practice of safer sex is a matter of life and death. People of faith make condoms available because we...

The terminally ill UCC denomination has decided that the solution to their membership in freefall is to hand out condoms in the sanctuary during church services. You may have wondered what the last C in UCC stands for, and whatever they may say, it isn’t Christ. But why hand them out in the sanctuary? Are they preparing their people for the next phase of the church sex campaigns? Stay tuned. These apostate temples of doom always have a something new in the wings, and in this case, it can’t be good.

NEW YORK (AP) — Membership in the nation's two largest Christian church bodies, the Roman Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention, declined slightly in 2007, according to the latest edition of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The Catholic church remains the largest body of believers in the U.S., with 67 million members, the yearbook said. But from 2006 to 2007 the church shed 398,000 members in the U.S. — a 0.59 percent drop. Southern Baptists reported 16.2 million members for a decline of 0.24 percent, or a loss of nearly 40,000 members. Although the declines are relatively small,...

Gradye Parsons, the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA), has added a new twist to the messianic aura that seemed to surround the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. “Mr. President,” he said, “before you save us, let us have a chance to profess our ills.” -snip- John Thomas, the president of the United Church of Christ, expressed his appreciation that Obama had been “schooled by a preacher named Jeremiah” to serve as a “public theologian who shapes the way people understand their relationship to God,” RNS reported.

(CNSNews.com) – Religious leaders and AIDS activists told CNSNNews.com Tuesday that labeling sex outside of marriage as sinful or having multiple partners as immoral behavior is “biased” – something society has “moved beyond.” At a telephone news conference in advance of World AIDS Day, AIDS activist groups and representatives of various religious groups said that counseling teens and others to be abstinent and restricting sex to marriage just isn’t “realistic,” and called on churches and the incoming Obama administration to deal with HIV/AIDS in a “truthful” and “medically accurate way.” The Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer, executive for health and wholeness advocacy...

At Trinity United Church of Christ on the South Side, where President-elect Barack Obama embraced Christianity, the congregation rejoiced today and shouted, "Yes, We did!" Hundreds of worshipers packed into the sanctuary for a joyous service that celebrated the church's role in the spiritual awakening of a future president. Trinity's pastor, Rev. Otis Moss III, said history would note that Trinity was the holy place where "God stirred a young man's soul and put him on the path to the presidency." "You have much to be proud of this morning," Moss said. "We rejoice today." In his memoirs and campaign...

Obama's misuse of tax exempt resources prompted IRS investigation of the United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ's Web site reports that Barack Obama's delivery of a campaign speech at its annual synod--a blatant misuse of the church's tax exempt resources--prompted the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the church. That is, Barack Hussein Obama's knowing, deliberate, premeditated, and willful misuse of his church's resources to support his Presidential campaign put the church's tax exemption at risk.Obama's General Synod speech prompts IRS to investigate UCC's tax-exempt status Written by J. Bennett Guess February 26, 2008 The Internal Revenue Service...

A Muslim student who said a masked gunman assaulted her after he wrote anti-Muslim slurs in a women's restroom at Elmhurst College has been arrested for filing a false police report, officials said today. A week after the incident roiled the small college, Elmhurst Police Chief Steve Neubauer said officers had cited Safia Z. Jilani, 19, of Oak Brook, on a single count of filing a false police report. Filing a false police report is a Class 4 felony, punishable by one to three years in prison. The announcement -- made jointly by Elmhurst Police, the college and the DuPage...

With quiet vows and an eye toward November's Proposition 8 referendum, Stephanie Sue Spencer and the Rev. Arlene Nehring made their 16-year union a legal California marriage in Hayward's Eden United Church of Christ, where Nehring presides as pastor. This "much-awaited day" wasn't quite the wedding they'd hoped for, but with voters going to the polls in a month in an election that could make their union unconstitutional, the couple felt it was better now than never. "People are hedging their bets," said Todd Bove, a member of the church who married his partner of 10 years just a month...

Content of "disappeared" Trinity United Church of Christ bulletins could cost Obama the election. Napoleon's general Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle once told an associate, “My friend, any hussar who does not die by thirty is a blackguard.” We would not have appointed someone with this attitude to a command during the horse and musket era of warfare, because cavalry was too expensive an instrument to throw away in swashbuckling, glorious, but suicidal enterprises. Our ideal commanders would have instead had enough common sense to stay well away from intact infantry formations that presented solid hedges of fixed bayonets, but enough...

Trinity United Church of Christ adopted the Black Value System written by the Manford Byrd Recognition Committee chaired by Vallmer Jordan in 1981. We believe in the following 12 precepts and covenantal statements. These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect on the following concepts: 1. Commitment to God 2. Commitment to the Black Community 3. Commitment to the Black Family 4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education 5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence 6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic 7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and...

We've all seen the shocking clips of Reverend Wright screaming, "God damn America," "US of KKK," and declaring with seeming delight in his heart -- a mere 5 days after the 9/11 attacks -- that "America's chickens have come home to roost." While Obama unconvincingly attempted to dismiss Wright's rantings as mere out-of-context "snippets," the reality is that such sentiments are entirely consistent with the theology of Obama's church -- that is, black liberation theology. As Reverend Wright has explained, black liberation theology is based on the teachings of Dr. James Cone. So who is Dr. Cone and what does...

ATLANTA - The United Church of Christ’s rule-making body voted overwhelmingly Monday to approve a resolution that endorses same-sex marriage, making it the largest Christian denomination to do so. Roughly 80 percent of the members of the church’s General Synod voted to approve the resolution. They debated for about an hour before voting. Traditionally strong in New England, the liberal denomination of 1.3 million members has long been supportive of gays and lesbians. In the early 1970s, the UCC became the first major Christian body to ordain an openly gay minister. Twenty years ago, it declared itself to be “open...

A Washington Post "On Faith" religion blogger, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, is so affected by PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) that she has launched a hate-filled screed against Palin's religion. This might seem an uncharacteristic thing for an ordained minister to do but not when you find out a bit more about Our Miss Brooks. Her bio on the Washington Post site describes Thistlethwaite's area of expertise as "contextual theologies of liberation." Liberation theology which is another way of saying Marxism wrapped in a phony religious wrapper to make it seem more palatable. Thistlethwaite launches a distinctly un-Christian snarky attack upon Palin...

A Washington Post "On Faith" religion blogger, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, is so affected by PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) that she has launched a hate-filled screed against Palin's religion. This might seem an uncharacteristic thing for an ordained minister to do but not when you find out a bit more about Our Miss Brooks. Her bio on the Washington Post site describes Thistlethwaite's area of expertise as "contextual theologies of liberation." Liberation theology which is another way of saying Marxism wrapped in a phony religious wrapper to make it seem more palatable. Thistlethwaite launches a distinctly un-Christian snarky attack upon Palin...

Barack Obama's campaign has made a point about not taking money from big donors, even though it has received six figure bundled contributions from "little, ordinary people" like Goldman Sachs, Lehman Broters, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Execlon, and Microsoft,* and even though Obama broke his pledge to accept Federal campaign financing and the accompanying spending limits. The Obama campaign's fundraising ethics also include illegal and possibly rigged lotteries like "Dinner with Barack;" the "Backstage with Barack" lottery was modified to allow entry without a donation under pressure from Minnesota and possibly other law enforcement agencies. While Barack Obama is at...

This article is the first in a series that underscores Barack Obama’s serious deficiencies in character, ethics, and integrity. The links appear at “Barack Obama: Powered by Hate,” (http://www.stentorian.com/Obama/) a compilation of Obama’s questionable campaign financing practices, plus enablement and empowerment of racists, anti-Semites, and Catholic-hating bigots. In all cases, we provide links and references so the reader can verify for himself/herself the truth of the statements. This is very important because of the numerous smears and urban legends that are in circulation. Barack Obama’s unethical, dishonest, and possibly illegal campaign financing schemes include: 1. “Dinner with Barack” lotteries that...

The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of baptizing active homosexual lifestyle as God-blessed. Since 1960, that denomination has decreased in membership by 48%. The United Methodist Church has been roiled by those adamant on establishing homosexual lifestyles as Christian legitimate. In the fight for one side or another that denomination has decreased in membership by 25%. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has likewise been embroiled in the tussle. That denomination has decreased in membership by 44%. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has also been riddled with in-house fighting over homosexual lifestyles as anti-God or pro-God. That denomination's membership...

Donald Young, a vibrant, charismatic choir director at one of Chicago's largest open and affirming black congregations, Trinity United Church of Christ, was found shot to death this past Sunday in his home. Young,47, was a longtime member of Trinity's choir, initially singing bass and then moving up the ranks to become one of its most electrifying and popular directors. He was also a faithful attendee at the conferences of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. The details about why and exactly how he died remain unclear; there is, however, one story that emerges with some semblance of clarity: a...

This past weekend, Barack Obama passed up two key opportunities to stand up and be counted when it comes to making good on his campaign themes of bringing people together, healing, and fighting cynicism. But instead of action to realize his proclaimed goals, all we got was slippery evasion and bland talk. If you think Obama can be a leader, examine his brhavior this past weekend and draw your own conclusions. Background While many Christians, notably the evangelical community, are deeply supportive of Israel, the leaders of a few Christian church groups in America have issued anti-Israel resolutions over the last...

"No issue has bothered me more than the UCC's [United Church of Christ] relationship with convicted Puerto Rican terrorists that are responsible for over 150 bombings in the U.S. during the 70's and 80's. There is no moral or theological reason for defending members of this group who have killed and injured dozens of people. What is further shocking and completely contradictory to any of our beliefs is that there is no record (in the nearly 30 years that the UCC has been advocating for these terrorists) that our denomination ever reached out to the victims of FALN violence." Source:...

He ran. After twenty years of sitting with apparent acquiescence in the pews of Trinity United Church of Christ, after doing a slow-motion backslide from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright when the campaign spotlight flickered on, a backslide that eventually ended in an open break, Senator Barack Obama has now officially cut his ties with Trinity UCC altogether. Faced with a choice between bringing change to his own congregation, or simply turning his back, Obama chose the latter. As he would do in Iraq, so he has now done with Trinity. The question now is, will he leave the United Church...

CNN story. Apparently Obama sent a letter to his pastor but that has yet to be released.

Obama Effectively F-Bombed His Own Church with Improper Campaign Speech The Internal Revenue Service has cleared the United Church of Christ of accusations that it violated its tax exempt status by hosting Barack Obama’s “A Politics of Conscience.” The IRS’s letter to the United Church of Christ cites the same points that we did: even though Barack Obama’s “A Politics of Conscience” contained campaign-related content, the UCC did everything possible to prevent the Obama campaign from misusing its resources for electioneering. It would therefore be hardly fair to hold the United Church of Christ accountable for Barack Obama’s decision to...

[Placed in the public domain, copying and widespread circulation are encouraged] Obama’s Sword of Damocles: October Surprise Won’t Surprise UsLooming Scandal Will “Toricelli” Barack Obama After Democratic National ConventionThe Democratic Party’s superdelegates, even those who have endorsed Barack Obama, need to do some serious reconsideration between now and the convention. Should Obama become the nominee, the Democrats are likely to find themselves in the same situation as they did with Robert Toricelli (D-NJ) in 2002. As described by Wikipedia (more information at the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A20602-2001May12), In the middle of an increasingly competitive race against Republican Doug Forrester, Torricelli decided...

Ministers said they heard in Mr. Wright’s language “the same kind of passion and hyperbole as the Hebrew prophets,” said the Rev. Richard Wagoner of Union Congregational Church, a United Church of Christ church in St. Louis Park, Minn. Clergy members have cited the prophet Amos, who cursed all the nations, saving his harshest words for his own. But many congregants heard something different, Mr. Wagoner said, and were angry about Mr. Wright’s sermons. After his speech at the National Press Club, more frustration surfaced. “Many in our congregation are resonating with Obama’s talk of raising the discourse and that...

N.B. bold red-letter emphasis is mine. The original article's emphasis is making the case that Barack Obama is a Muslim. My emphasis is that Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ claims to have "many Muslim members." --Dajjal http://www.sonsofapesandpigs.org/2008/02/press-release-america-is-being.html Press Release: America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! [posted by] ibn Misr on February 15, 2008 We ask for your immediate attention, and viral dissemination of this news. America is being fooled by Barak Hussein Obama!! "YES, MUSLIMS ARE MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH." "WE HAVE MANY MEMBERS IN OUR CHURCH WHO ARE MUSLIMS." I am Usama K. Dakdok,...

We remind our readers that Jeremiah Wright’s accusation that Israel created an “ethnic bomb” to kill Black people and Arabs was first exposed at IsraPundit [http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=551]. Now we bring you more fresh revelations of anti-Israel hate speech from Barack Obama’s pastor of 20-plus years. With regard to the following, the United Church of Christ has ties to the Sabeel Ecuminical Liberation Theology Center, which refers to the creation of Israel (NOT the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the creation of Israel) as the Nakba or “catastrophe.” Trumpet Magazine The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for almost 40...

Dear Senator Obama: Our common denomination, the United Church of Christ, has a suddenly serious legal and financial problem with the Internal Revenue Service. You, personally, are the cause of this problem. Candidly? I think you owe it to those of us who are your fellow congregants to help repair the damage that you have done. ...UNSURPRISINGLY, ALL OF THIS resulted in a complaint being filed with the IRS following your presentation. In addition to your speech and the stories featured by the UCC's own website, the complaint cites numerous media accounts describing your appearance as a campaign event. This...

In addition to widening revelations about racist and/or anti-Semitic hate speech not only from his pastor, his associates like Al Sharpton, and even bloggers at his official campaign Web site, there are very credible allegations that he misused the tax exempt resources of the United Church of Christ to promote his candidacy: a malicious and self-serving action that may put his own church’s tax-exempt status in jeopardy. The story centers on "Obama’s General Synod speech prompts IRS to investigate UCC’s tax-exempt status," which is posted at the UCC’s own Web site. [http://www.ucc.org/news/obama-speech-in-2007-prompts-1.html] The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United...

Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy for the presidency has produced negative and often inaccurate publicity about the United Church of Christ, the president of the 1.2-million member denomination said in Lincoln on Saturday. The Rev. John H. Thomas acknowledged that controversy over allegedly anti-American comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has placed UCC leaders in the center of a media firestorm. Wright retired in February as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where Obama is a member. In addition, many of Obama’s opponents have criticized the UCC for its support of gay marriage and falsely characterized the denomination...

Several U.S. mainline Protestant denominations are about to face their latest showdowns on one of the most vexing issues since slavery: whether to break from biblical morality as traditionally understood to allow clergy with homosexual partners and to sanction blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. "Mainline" groups (predominantly white, with early American roots, and affiliated with the National Council of Churches) contain vocal, well-organized liberal and evangelical combatants. The resulting dispute "certainly has taken a big toll," says Jack Haberer of Presbyterian Outlook, an independent magazine that airs varied views. "For some, it's the total compromise of all things moral. For...

Until the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama's spiritual mentor in Black Liberation Theology, popped out of the woodwork, I didn't even know about BLT -- Black Liberation Theology. But the doctrines of Black Liberation have been preached since 1966 in black churches, with the enthusiastic support of white churches of the Left, notably the United Church of Christ. The Rev. Wright runs an official UCC church. Though I am not a professional theologian, I daresay that Jesus would not, repeat not, approve of BLT. Because Black Liberation Theology seems to go straight against every single word in the Sermon on...

Until the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama's spiritual mentor in Black Liberation Theology, popped out of the woodwork, I didn't even know about BLT -- Black Liberation Theology. But the doctrines of Black Liberation have been preached since 1966 in black churches, with the enthusiastic support of white churches of the Left, notably the United Church of Christ. The Rev. Wright runs an official UCC church. Though I am not a professional theologian, I daresay that Jesus would not, repeat not, approve of BLT. Because Black Liberation Theology seems to go straight against every single word in the Sermon on...

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OBAMA'S appearance, Lynn was quick to issue a pass for his own church, saying neither Obama nor the UCC had "run afoul of federal tax law."

The Christian Century Magazine News March 25, 2008 IRS probes appearance by Obama at UCC convention The Internal Revenue Service has notified the United Church of Christ that it has opened an investigation into possible "political activities" connected with Senator Barack Obama's speech at the denomination's national convention last year. UCC president John H. Thomas termed the investigation "disturbing," but said that church officials took great care to see that Obama's appearance at the UCC General Synod meeting last June in Hartford, Connecticut, "met appropriate legal and moral standards." Engaging in partisan political acts can endanger a church body's tax-exempt...

Editor’s note: CNN Contributor Roland Martin has listened to several of the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Portions of the sermons have been excerpted in recent stories. Martin says listening to the full sermons help put the excerpts in context. I just finished listening to the nearly 40-minute sermon Rev. Jeremiah Wright gave on April 13, 2003, titled, “Confusing God and Government.”

. (AP) Senator Barack Obama has told members of his denomination that some conservative Christian leaders have exploited and politicized religion to sow division. In a 30-minute speech before the national meeting of the United Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, the Democratic presidential candidate said, "Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us." Obama said, "They've told Evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion...

Barack Obama belongs to an unabashedly Black African-centered church. Its teachings focus on a "black value" system. It has knowledgeable Americans questioning how Obama's church (Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ) and its pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr. influence the man who wants to be President of the United States. Why couldn't Obama have chosen to be a Methodist, a Pentecostal or a Lutheran? What drew him to a church that many find questionable? Many Americans attend churches their parents attended. Others choose denominations where they are comfortable with the teachings. As a whole, the United Church of Christ...