Free Republic

The irony of the theology of meritorious suffering is that it tends to produce the very opposite effect from its original intention. What began as a call to humble willingness to suffer became an insidious tool for self-righteousness. Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God's grace and God's grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people-for beggars. We don't want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We...

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email as secretary of state has expanded to look at whether the possible “intersection” of Clinton Foundation work and State Department business may have violated public corruption laws, three intelligence sources not authorized to speak on the record told Fox News. This track is in addition to the focus on classified material found on Clinton’s personal server. "The agents are investigating the possible intersection of Clinton Foundation donations, the dispensation of State Department contracts and whether regular processes were followed," one source said. The development follows press reports over the...

With the incidents of the past two months, ranging from San Bernardino to Merced to Rochester, we now know that we are essentially unprotected from terrorist attacks. What San Bernardino amounted to is that government fumbled the ball and then refused to pick it up. Every single error made on the federal level concerning terror since the first inauguration of Barack Obama came to a head, from encouraging Muslim immigration to enabling terrorists to enter the country to crippling security investigations in the name of PC. The federal government has unilaterally broken a basic element of the social contract -...

Sons and daughters of candidates are supposed to be off-limits - but sons-in-law are apparently fair game, at least for Trump-loving Roger Stone.The author of "The Clinton' War on Women" and "Jeb and the Bush Crime Family" also does annual Best- and Worst-Dressed lists. Guess which one Marc Mezvinsky is on."Chelsea Clinton's husband and baby-daddy looks like he smells greasy," snarks Stone, who took over the list after the death of Mr. Blackwell. "Ferret-like. The hedge fund manager rakes in the cash, but can't seem to be bothered with grooming... Hair product and a fresh shave ever [sic] so often...

Let's not mince words: Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist. Some will think this an outrageous label to apply to the frontrunner for a major party's presidential nomination. Ordinarily, I would agree that name-calling is part of what's wrong with our politics.

There is a reason most presidential candidates stump through diners and living rooms this time of year. They can’t fill a bigger room. And then there is Donald J. Trump. On the second day of January, in the Gulf Coast town of Biloxi, Miss., at least 13,000 stood for hours in a stinging chill to pack an entire sports arena for Trump, and when that venue was full, the overflow spilled into a second megaspace nearby. Trump called it the biggest crowd in Mississippi political history, which is exactly what you’d expect him to say, and also entirely plausible.

The Iowa Republican Caucuses may come down to a photo finish. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are tied with 27% of the vote each. Apart from the 27 percenters, Marco Rubio takes 3rd place with 15%, with Ben Carson behind him at 9%. The rest of the field holds 18% of the support, with another 3% undecided. Unlike the Democratic Caucuses in Iowa, once you commit to a candidate, your vote is finalized. There is no support threshold, meaning the top candidates cannot benefit from lower tier candidates not getting enough traction. Slightly frustrating efforts to read into how this...

Juanita Broaddrick is using social media to remind the world that Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton tried to silence her when she accused Bill Clinton of raping her in 1978. "I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General raped me and Hillary tried to silence me. I am now 73. It never goes away," Broaddrick tweeted Wednesday.

'Five paid staffers' last day was Sunday, call Cruz a 'conservative who can win'MANCHESTER, N.H. - All five paid New Hampshire staffers at the pro-Ben Carson 2016 Committee super PAC quit their posts on Sunday to become volunteers for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, WMUR.com has learned.Jerry Sickles of Keene, the spokesman for the staff, said he and the other four staffers recently came to the conclusion that Cruz is the conservative most able to win the GOP presidential nomination and the presidency. He also noted that Carson has spent very little time campaigning in New Hampshire, which became...

Early rally today, so we can watch the Football Game tonight. Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally at the Castleton Banquet and Conference Center in Windham, NH at 11:00 AM CST. Watch the live stream and replay of the event at this URL.

Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal has been a difficult one for the public to understand and for journalists to explain. But Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter who helped uncover Watergate 40 years ago, clarified things a lot on Fox News Sunday today when he said that an e-mail in the most recently released batch shows Hillary trying to "subvert the rules" that she expected others to follow. A few days earlier, Joe DiGenova, a well-respected former district attorney for the District of Columbia, told The Laura Ingraham Show that "there is vitriol of an intense amount developing" in the intelligence...

All five paid New Hampshire staffers at the pro-Ben Carson 2016 Committee super PAC quit their posts on Sunday to become volunteers for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, WMUR.com has learned. Jerry Sickles of Keene, the spokesman for the staff, said he and the other four staffers recently came to the conclusion that Cruz is the conservative most able to win the GOP presidential nomination and the presidency. He also noted that Carson has spent very little time campaigning in New Hampshire, which became frustrating to him and the other staffers as they tried to build support in the...

Good Morning!

On the streets and in their congregations, Sacramento’s pastors, reverends, bishops and rabbis see the toll taken by income inequality and the dwindling economic security of the middle class.

Toll in Russia raids on Qaeda-run Syria jail rises to 81: monitor AFP 22 hours ago Beirut (AFP) - At least 81 people, including 23 Al-Qaeda fighters, were killed in Russian strikes on a prison complex run by the jihadist group in Syria's northwest, a monitor said Sunday in a new toll. The strikes on Saturday targeted an Al-Nusra Front building near a popular market in northwestern Idlib province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The complex in Maarat Al-Numan housed the group's religious court and a jail. The dead included 23 Al-Nusra fighters and six non-jihadist rebels...

In an exclusive hour-long sit down interview with Breitbart News, 91-year-old conservative icon and living legend Phyllis Schlafly declared that Donald Trump "is the only hope to defeat the Kingmakers," and detailed why she believes Trump alone will return the government to the people. She warned that if immigration is not stopped: "we're not going to be America anymore."

Cry me a river on cable TV, Mr. President. But do not set your sights on my generation's natural right to self-defense. Every generation of human beings has a natural right to self-defense. Reason tells us that we have a right to protect our private property and our first piece of private property is our body. Yet even more than my parents and grandparents—who certainly faced their own challenges—my Millennial peers face a historic threat to their right to self-defense. Politico wrote last week that Millennials are Obama's "prime target" for his agenda on "gun control." Let me be clear:...

In New Hampshire, however, Mr. Trump received 33 percent support from likely voters in the Republican primary, which is more than double the amount of his closest rival, Mr. Rubio, at 15 percent. Mr. Cruz got 12 percent. And despite a sense that Mr. Christie is on the rise in the state, he was at 5 percent in the Fox News poll, in sixth place. Both Mr. Bush and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio are ahead of him, with Mr. Bush at 9 percent and Mr. Kasich at 7 percent. Meanwhile, in the Democratic contest, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont...

In the evening hours of January 3, 2008, Barack Obama arrived at a vast exhibition hall in downtown Des Moines to claim a pundit-confounding, odds-defying victory in Iowa’s Democratic Party caucus. I may have been working in George W. Bush’s White House at the time, but I was cheering, too. In part, this was a selfish act. Like many on the right, I wanted Obama to make things more difficult for Hillary Clinton, and at the time, I still foolishly assumed she would eventually clinch her party’s nomination. But there was also something stirring about an African-American man winning big...

It's the story that gripped nineties America and forged a racial divide across the nation.But it was also about the tragic deaths of two people: Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.The trial of O.J Simpson, now televised as part of a dramatic new series called American Crime Story, is a complex tale - and Cuba Gooding Jr, who plays O.J, reveals the intense sense of loss he experienced while filming it.Gooding, 48, told The Hollywood Reporter: 'There was one day after filming that I went to my trailer and I couldn't stop crying because I realised I never [even considered...