Free Republic

"The Brooklyn Museum will retain a controversial video featuring ants crawling on a crucifix as part of a larger show on American portrait art that opens Nov. "

NEW YORK, July 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - American Christians may one day find themselves facing legal penalties simply for believing marriage can only exist between a man and a woman, a fate already suffered by believers in other countries, said the leader of America’s most influential Catholic pulpit this week. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York reflected on his blog Thursday on the recent legalization of gay “marriage” in New York, and what repercussions true marriage supporters can expect in the future. He called it “haunting” that the marriage bill became law on the day Catholics celebrate the feast of...

  Religious Fanatics? What About Secular Fanatics? David C. Stolinsky July 7, 2011 …no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.– U.S. Constitution, Article VI We frequently hear about religious fanatics, but there are also secular fanatics. Examples include Marxists, radical environmentalists, and health zealots. These people strive to control all human activity until everyone conforms to their ideas. Like all fanatics, they believe that you can’t have too much of their favorite thing. What I am discussing here is a specific type of secular fanatic, one...

A Connecticut school board has voted to appeal a federal court ruling that would keep the town's two high school graduation ceremonies out of a megachurch. . . . Hall found that holding the June 23 and 24 graduations at First Cathedral Baptist Church in Bloomfield would amount to an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

First, let me take a moment to say THANK YOU for your participation in Bibles Unbound, packing and mailing New Testaments into restricted and hostile nations. With your help we’ve been able to send more than 1.2 million New Testaments into restricted nations. We know these “seeds,” though planted in hostile soil, will produce fruit. I am writing to give you some important updates about Bibles Unbound; in doing so I have good news and bad news. Part of the good news is that Bibles Unbound continues to be very effective at getting God’s Word into restricted nations. We know...

KNOXVILLE - A federal trial began today to determine if school students can read and discuss the Bible during recess time. The Knox County Schools system is being sued in U.S. District Court by Samuel and Tina Whitson, who contend their son, Luke, was barred from the activity when he was a fourth-grader at Karns Elementary School more than four years ago. After opening statements this morning, the Whitsons' lawyers opened their case with stipulations from school officials that no adults were involved in the Bible reading and discuss that occurred on the school playground.

CANTON, N.C. (October 13, 2009)—The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C. will celebrate Halloween by burning Bibles that aren’t the King James Version, as well as music and books and anything else Pastor Marc Grizzard says is a satanic influence. Among the authors whose books Grizzard plans to burn are well known ministers Rick Warren and Billy Graham because he says they have occasionally used Bibles other than the King James Version, which is the sole biblical source he considers infallible. According to the church’s Web site, members will also burn “Satan's music such as country, rap, rock, pop,...

After a couple of weeks of unsubstantiated rumors, it has been confirmed that the forthcoming film The Invention of Lying is indeed intended to satirize religion and religious believers. New York Post critic Kyle Smith has seen the film and describes it as “a full-on attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. It might be the most blatantly, one-sidedly atheist movie ever released by a major studio, in this case Warner Bros.”

(CNSNews.com) – President Obama’s economic stimulus bill would forbid colleges -- both religious and secular -- from receiving stimulus funds to improve facilities that are used for religious purposes. The provision is found in the Higher Education Modernization, Renovation and Repair section (Sec. 9302) of both the House and Senate versions of the bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. According to the provision, none of funds of the $6 billion allotted to the renovation, modernization, or repair of college buildings may be used for facilities “(i) used for sectarian instruction, religious worship, or school department of divinity;...

When vandals covered the walls of the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church with swastikas and other graffiti last weekend, Gavin Newsom condemned the attack, as any mayor should. But according to some Catholics, the mayor (and the Board of Supervisors) is partly to blame for the vandalism. "Both Newsom and the board have shown nothing but contempt for the First Amendment rights of Catholics," said a statement released by the Catholic League the day after the graffiti was discovered. "When crucifixes are sold as sex toys and Catholic sensibilities are assaulted by naked men in the street at the annual...

<p>SCIENTISTS have warned that Christmas lights are bad for the planet due to huge electricity waste and urged people to get energy efficient festive bulbs. CSIRO researchers said householders should know that each bulb turned on in the name of Christmas will increase emissions of greenhouse gases.</p>

Patricia and Wesley Galloway could not have children of their own. Yet for them, the essence of marriage is rooted in procreation. “It takes a man and a woman to create children and thus create a family,” Mrs. Galloway, 60, told a legislative panel in Connecticut last year as it was considering a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill never went to a vote, but on Friday the Connecticut Supreme Court eliminated the need for a bill when it struck down the state’s civil union law and ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. The decision...

In a moment, I will say something you've probably never read in an opinion column. Last week, you see, I wrote about Sarah Palin's attempt to ban books when she was a small-town mayor. In the process, I noted that "we all have questions" for Palin. Among them: "Does she really take the parable of Adam and Eve as literal truth?" Which unleashed a flood of e-mails from people angry that I had demoted the Christian creation story to the status of parable and suggested by implication that anyone who believes it is, as one reader put it, a "fool."...

BRUSSELS, August 21, 2008 (C-FAM) - A recent report from the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) of the European Union (EU) has called for binding EU regulations that would equalize the legal status of married heterosexual couples with that of same-sex and opposite-sex couples across Europe. It also recommends policies aimed at "promoting visibility of homosexuality and other gender identities" and criminalizing homophobia through "hate crime" legislation. FRA contracted writing of the report to a group called FRALEX. FRALEX is roughly the same group as the now defunct EU "network of independent fundamental rights experts," a group that was widely criticized...

Is it OK to switch religions, change denominations, even split from God entirely? Jesus says: Sure! This much we know: God is failing. Or more accurately, God is mutating. Changing. In flux. Becoming perhaps slightly less appealing as a dogmatic force of rigid closed-minded sit-down-and-shut-up paternal scowling and becoming perhaps more fluid, interesting, dynamic, unspecified, something you actually want to take into your heart and into your mouth and lick until you find the rich, creamy center and then define that taste for yourself, blissfully independent of what your parents or priest or president tells you, until you reach that...

Holiday task force gives decoration suggestions for city This article discusses a proposal by the city of Fort Collins, CO to establish a task force to consider policies related to city-sponsored holiday displays. The "educational and multicultural" display would represent both religious and non-religious celebrations that occur between Nov 1 and Jan 30.

Joe Biden Says Democrats Have Been Too Fearful to Discuss Religion Monday , August 13, 2007 ADVERTISEMENT NASHUA, N.H. — White House hopeful Joe Biden said Monday that Democrats lost the last two presidential elections in part because they let themselves be portrayed as anti-God. Democrats have been too afraid to talk about faith, Biden said at a Rotary Club luncheon. But what voters really want to know is whether a president believes in something bigger than themselves and whether he or she respects the faith of others, he said.

An Ohio woman is steaming after reading an anti-God message published on the side of a Starbucks coffee cup. The message that got Michelle Incanno's blood boiling reads: "Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure." Michelle Incanno of Springboro, Ohio, holds a cup part of Starbucks' 'The Way I...

Bodyguards, not altar boys, flank pro-marriage cleric Archbishop receives death threats, bullet in mail from 'Red Brigade' for opposing same-sex unions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 6, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco no longer celebrates Mass in the cathedral of Genoa, Italy, with assistance from altar boys or deacons – not since the death threats began after he spoke out against government plans to legalize same-sex unions. Bagnasco, recently appointed head of Italy's Conference of Bishops, stirred controversy last month when the group issued a statement directed at Catholic lawmakers, reminding them of their moral obligation to...

Fresh off a vote last week urging our abrupt surrender in Iraq, and just hours removed from coming up 62 votes short in an attempt to override the president's veto, Democrats will use the House floor this afternoon to slide through legislation conceived of, written by, and moved in consultation with a key segment of their special interest constituency. The bill, harmlessly coined "the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act" by House Democrats, would create a nebulous new class of criminals based not on the things they do, but on the basis of what they may or may not...