Free Republic

Pastoral Ministry: Faith Must Be Demonstrated Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. --Hebrews 12:1 The lesson that comes to us through the many dramatic illustrations of faith in Hebrews 11 brings us back to my earlier statement: Faith in God is to be demonstrated, not defined. Just as God's church demonstrates Christian love, this demonstration of godly, humble faith is God's ideal for His church....

Daily Blog Pro-Life E-mail Campaign BY Tom McFeely Thursday, March 05, 2009 9:36 AM The U.S. bishops’ conference is augmenting its pro-life postcard campaign by launching an e-mail initiative urging to oppose abortion and retain pro-life policies. Like the postcard campaign, the e-mail campaign is being coordinated through the USCCB’s partner organization, the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (NCHLA). The e-mails urge a constituent’s Senators and Representative to “please oppose FOCA or any similar measure.” If passed and signed into law, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would remove all local, state and federal restrictions on access...

The Nature of Our Calling March 5, 2009  "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Timothy 1:9)  Our "calling" (Greek klesis) to follow Christ was not a matter of human decision, and certainly not one based on human works, for it was issued in Christ before He had even created us. In some inscrutable way, we were a part of His eternal purpose, and it was altogether by His grace....

US Sen Bingaman Outlines Climate Change Energy Legislation WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Influential Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., has set the stage for a congressional battle with the Obama Administration over upcoming climate legislation. Bingaman, who heads the Senate Energy committee, outlined Thursday a package that would give a major boost to the renewable energy, efficiency and transmission sectors and reveals that, despite their censure of the oil industry, Democrats acknowledge that crude oil will play a vital role in the nation's energy mix for years to come. Speaking to reporters at a Platts Energy Forum, Bingaman said his energy...

Noted newsletter editor Peter Eliades tells Stacey Delo why he believes the market could get worse — thousands-of-points-on-the-Dow worse — before things get better. Click the link to see the video of the interview.

The University of Mississippi on its website bills itself as "A Great Public University". I don’t know if they receive public funds or not. The administration seems to tolerate anti-Catholic bigotry in a paper associated with the University. The Daily Mississippian is a student run paper described to be both "of the University" and also "independent". Also, the web presense of the same seems to be separate to an extent from the print edition. Nevertheless, this entity is associated formally with Ole Miss. I don’t know where it gets its funding. Is any of it from tax payers? And so...

[watch video] During the presidential campaign, the compliant liberal press believed every word Barack Obama said. Or at least they pretended they did. They assured us that when their man was elected president, he would do as he promised by eliminating earmarks and emasculating lobbyists. Oops. Turns out there are 9,000-some earmarks in the “stimulus” bill. And lobbyists go to see the document before members of the House and Senate did. John McCain doesn’t like it and went ballistic on the floor of the senate yesterday. “If it sounds like I’m angry,” he roared, “it’s because I am.” His anti-earmark...

MOSCOW, March 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Defense Ministry is planning to complete tests and put into service sea-based Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in 2009, a deputy defense minister said on Thursday. The Bulava (SS-NX-30) ICBM carries up to 10 nuclear warheads and has a range of 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles). It is designed for deployment on Borey-class Project 955 nuclear-powered submarines. "We are planning to complete the firing tests and put the Bulava missile system on combat duty aboard the Yury Dolgoruky submarine this year," Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said. The latest unsuccessful submerged test launch on December 23...

As the Obama administration continues to navigate the shoals of the nation’s financial crisis, other dangerous waters are approaching — growing pressure from open borders groups to legalize 11 million illegal immigrants. So far, Team Obama is sailing around this one, instead of through it. President Barack Obama recently told a popular Mexican-American radio personality in Los Angeles that “comprehensive immigration reform” is going to be politically tough. He said, “It’s probably tougher now than it was, partly because of the fact that the economy has gotten worse.” But we’re less than 100 days into a new administration, and the...

naval drills involving nuclear-powered submarines off the Alaska coast, a fleet official said on Thursday. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's submarine force earlier announced that two Los Angeles class attack submarines had left their bases on route to Alaska to take part in the ICEX-2009 exercise aimed at testing submarine tactics under Arctic conditions. "Any action by foreign submarines in the vicinity of Russia's maritime borders naturally demand heightened scrutiny on our part, especially in the light of an accident involving a British submarine during a previous exercise," the official said. The most recent ICEX exercise was held...

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has ordered the army to temporarily take control of the country's rice processing plants. The move on Saturday comes as Chavez said that the businesses were not cooperating with price regulations. "I have ordered the immediate intervention in all those sectors of agro-industry, intervention by the revolutionary government," Chavez said during a speech. "This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich," he said. The army has been ordered to intervene in all rice factories in the Latin American nation.

Buttressed by a new statement of support from President Obama, union leaders said today they are confident that the Employee Free Choice Act would be introduced in Congress in the next few weeks and that they had the 60 votes needed to break a Senate filibuster -- that is, if Al Franken is seated. "We're confident right now that we have majority support," said Bill Samuel, the AFL-CIO's legislative director, speaking in a conference call from the AFL-CIO's executive council meeting in Miami. The bill would be introduced in "days if not weeks," he said. "We've been engaged in a...

Fantastic post by "Hogan" on RedState.com against the pseudo-Republicans who went after Rush Limbaugh and his speech at CPAC last Saturday... Also, you can listen to an on-air debate between Mark Levin and David Frum by clicking here.

IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula Credit & Copyright: Neil Fleming, David Plesko Explanation: Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide, located some 4,000 light years away toward the northern constellation Cygnus. Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars and blue, dust-reflected starlight at the edge of an otherwise invisible molecular cloud. In fact, the bright star near the center of this nebula is likely only a few hundred thousand years old, powering...

If Palin is going to be the conservative leader of the future, how she navigates the economic crisis in Alaska will be a proving ground of sorts. America will be watching to see if she has the courage to implement the conservative policies she advocated on the campaign trail. The first test comes in the form of proposed legislation to index Alaska’s minimum wage. State Representative Pete Petersen recently introduced a bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.15 to $7.85 in 2010, $8.60 in 2011, and $9.45 in 2012. Following that, the wage rate would rise automatically...

The Handout Handback Bill Cooper, Bank CEO: TCF never really needed the money in the first place. The regulators suggested that we take it, and strongly suggested it, and they said that the money was only going to go to strong banks. The deal has kind of changed in connection with the regulations and so forth, the rules they want to apply to companies that take the TARP money. And there are a lot of reasons why it does not work for us. We do not need it. We don't need those additional rules and regulations. And the public perception...

President-elect Barack Obama. Those words ring with meaning. For organized labor they ring with pride, hope, and energy for the struggles ahead. No one feels like “labor’s candidate won, so now we can go home and rest.” Rather, as congratulation messages pour in from all parts of the labor movement, the critical subtext is, we are ready and eager to march with you for change. At the top of labor’s change agenda is boots-on-the-ground support for the Obama agenda of a new “New Deal” for economic recovery and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Organized labor played an amazing...

mid a sea of beehives, bouffants and buns, it was a remarkably low-key affair. In fact, Jennifer Aniston’s red-carpet hairstyle looks like something most of us could attempt with a decent pair of straightening irons and a bit of patience. But astonishingly, the sleek style cost the actress almost £40,000.

Police say a 12-year-old Michigan boy was shot and killed when a gun being cleaned by his father went off.