Free Republic

As a lifelong Catholic, I pray daily for the abolishment of abortion, and like many Catholics I have attended the rallies, marched in the rain, donated money, and from the sidewalks of Planned Parenthood worn the heckling as a badge of honor. In 2010 I was elected to the Iowa Senate as the first Republican to represent Sioux City in over 30 years, and I am proud to say that I am a Catholic, a husband, and a father who believes that abortion is murder, and that there is no such thing as an “exception” when it comes to the...

The life of Ulrich Zwingli will be brought to the big screens, confirmed C-Films, a company which produced films like “Midnight train to Lisbon.” Many have discovered the Protestant Reformation through films about Martin Luther (especially “Luther”, lead by Joseph Fiennes), but not many other Christians leaders of his age have been portrayed in cinemas. Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) was the most well known Reformer of the Swiss city of Zürich, a focus of the Reformation in the country alongside Calvin’s Geneva. The script is being written by journalist Simone Schmid, who is working on historical material of the Reformed Church...

Ben Franklin is the prototype for the celebrity-as-politician. His autobiography is still in print; if he were alive, he’d be on Drudge’s columnists’ list, and command speaking fees that would turn Hillary Clinton green with envy. A popular T-shirt has a quote erroneously attributed to Franklin: ‘Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.’ But John Witherspoon? He wasn’t a fan of self-promotion, which was no less prevalent then. Today, in D.C., his statue stands at a tiny triangle where Connecticut Avenue intersects with N Street and 18th Street N.W. It is routinely ignored. At...

The origins of the Papacy can be traced to St. Peter, one of the original disciples of Jesus. The current pope, Francis I, is the 265th successor of St. Peter. Needless to say, all 266 popes are male. Yet, during the middle ages, there existed a story about a pope who was actually a female in disguise. The name of this supposed female pope was Joan. Who was this mysterious Pope Joan, and did she really exist? The statue that still stands in Rome is Joanna with a papal crown.(ericcostanzo.com)The first written account of Pope Joan can be traced to...

Introduction Recent scholarship on Arminius has pointed out that he was a theologian of grace. Of course, I am yet to read of a Christian theologian who would not wish to be described that way. Some scholars have also tried to narrow the gap between Arminius and the Reformed tradition, with some suggesting that Arminius was correct to view himself as Reformed.  Historically speaking, according to the judgment of many Reformed divines, Arminius, and his Remonstrant successors, deviated from the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone in a significant way. Arminius thought his difference was only minor. In fact,...

Matthew James Christoff is, in some ways, like a modern-day St. John the Baptist, an urgent voice crying out in the wilderness. Christoff wants the world to know the Catholic Church has a man problem. Actually, not just a problem, but a crisis. The Catholic convert from Minnesota’s Twin Cities founded an apostolate called the New Emangelization Project to help men learn and fully live their faith. Nothing less than the future of the Catholic Church is at stake, he says. The father of four’s journey into the Catholic men’s movement began with a cancer diagnosis and a “very long...

The Rev. Charles Hasty, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Georgia, has announced his resignation from the congregation he's served for 13 years after members narrowly defeated a motion to leave the Presbyterian Church (USA). Hasty announced his resignation Monday evening after congregants voted 266-146 last month to leave PCUSA over theological differences; the total was just eight votes shy of the necessary two-thirds majority needed to pass. JoAnna Williams, administrative assistant for Hasty, directed The Christian Post to a local news article wherein quotes from a letter Hasty wrote explaining his reasoning was published. "Undoubtedly, there is...

Authorities are looking into the claims of a local craftsman who raised concerns over the condition of at least 10 mosaics at the Hatay Archaeology Museum, the Hurriyet Daily News website reports. Mehmet Daskapan first spoke out in an interview with a local paper in February, but the news was only picked up by mainstream Turkish media on Monday. "Valuable pieces from the Roman period have been ruined," Mr Daskapan told the Antakya Gazetesi website at the time. "They have become caricatures of their former selves. Some are in an especially poor condition and have lost their originality and value."...

Do you hate it when they whine? Do you hate it when they whine and say, "Don't you agree," "Do you see my point," "Ain't it awful," "Aren't they just terrible for doing that," etc.? Do you want to graciously stop them from wasting your time and using you to confirm their distorted views? Then memorize the following line: "Thanks for the honor of being a judge. But, to be a fair judge-- I will first have to hear the other side." If you stick to this line each time they whine--they will soon stop bothering you and move on...

WASHINGTON (RNS) Late on a Saturday night in 2012, I received word from my sister in Mississippi that my mamma had passed away. My home was silent as my wife and two boys slept upstairs. I was reading when the sad call came. I woke my wife to tell her; we sat on the edge of the bed and hugged. In my sadness, around midnight, I started cleaning the kitchen, likely because my mamma was always cleaning something. I also reached out to two friends. It was within minutes that I heard back from Hillary. Secretary Clinton joined me in...

[SNIP] Severely gluten intolerant, Celiac Catholics like myself can’t take the whole wheat hosts that are so prevalent in today’s Catholic churches, so we’re forced to receive our Lord in the form of wine. Problem is, with so many faithful receiving Holy Communion during Holy Week services, the consecrated wine runs out before Communicants do. During packed Holy Thursday and Easter Masses, as many as a third of the congregation may miss out on lifting the chalice. You can bet most of these are Celiac victims. That happened to me this past Thursday. I’ve received Holy Communion at over 57...

Hundreds of believers have flocked to a hillside in Colombia after a landslide revealed the face of Jesus. The 'miraculous' discovery was made in the San Francisco area of Putumayo, Colombia, on Saturday. Since then police have had to be called in to control the crowds as believers from across the country have descended on the hill to witness the 'miracle.' Now some local landowners are cashing in by charging visitors to view the holy image, according to a local newspaper. 'If you believe in Jesus, you will see your image,' Ximena Rosero Arango told Colombian newspaper El Tiempo after...

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Monday dismissed all criticism of his new film "Killing Jesus," saying that the "secular-progressive left" was giving the film bad reviews because it challenged their anti-religious agenda. "Any embrace of Christian tradition is a danger to the agenda of the left. It was easy to see that in the articles about 'Killing Jesus,'" he said. O'Reilly went on to call a review in the "far-left" Guardian newspaper the most "idiotic thing I have ever read in my life." He also admonished the New York Times for directing readers to a critic who described the...

Okay, so it isn't really Catholic thing per se, but the origin of April Fool's Day is actually found in the Church. A lot of people don't know this, so here's how the story goes. On February 24, 1582, Pope Gregory XIII issued the papal bull Inter Gravissimas which established the Gregorian calendar (which gets it's name from this pope) as the official calendar for the Christian world. With this pronouncement, the Julian calendar was replaced and the first day of the new year was moved to January 1. Those who continued to observe it on April 1, whether out...

I miss the Weekly World News! It stands head–and-shoulders above the rest of the tabloids for sheer exuberance and hilarity. Other tabloids waste their time and efforts on Brangelina and Brittany Spears stories, while WWW sticks with the straight "news" of alien cab drivers and three-headed chihuahuas. At various times, I have purchased subscriptions to WWW for my old lab boss, so it would come proudly addressed to his faculty mail box, and for one of the Major Consulting Firm partners so it would be delivered in his name to the front desk at the office. Rediscovered last spring on...

Finding the International Museum of the Reformation is almost as complicated as explaining the historical movement it chronicles. You must first navigate the labyrinth of Geneva’s Old Town, down narrow, cobblestone streets and then up a long flight of stone stairs, skirting the shadows cast by a towering 13th-century cathedral. Finally you arrive at the tranquil courtyard of the Maison Mallet, the 14-room 18th-century mansion housing the museum, which opened in 2005. [SNIP] Given how practices have changed, museum officials set out to create a space that contemporary visitors, Protestant or not, would find appealing and meaningful, with creative high-...

I have several Bible themed projects coming out in 2015. Eve and The Garden of Eden chronicles the time and adventures that Eve experienced with Adam in their time in Paradise. Even the most conservative estimates put Adam and Eve in the Garden at least 100 years, we don’t really believe they were laying around staring longingly at each other the entire time right? The Accuser had fallen from the Heavens and was plotting his destruction and poisoning of Paradise from the beginning. The art will be provided by a variety of illustrators working over my pencils, layouts and storytelling....

No. Really. In a decision that can't possibly have any negative repercussions for the city's helpless residents, Springfield, Illinois mayor J. Michael Houston has given the key to the city to noted terrorist leader and snake enthusiast Cobra Commander. Ostensibly this was done as a promotion for the upcoming JoeCon, the G.I. Joe collector's convention which will be held in Springfield April 9th through 12th, but I think we all know Cobra Commander is plotting something. Joe fans likely remember that Springfield housed a secret Cobra base in the original cartoon, seen in the memorable and quite scarring two-part first...

As the chart ... shows, Catholicism is the most common religious tradition in 17 states, while white evangelical Protestants are first in 15 states, mostly in the South. The religiously unaffiliated are the most common religious group in 13 states, mostly in the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast. Three states are outliers: Utah, which is 56 percent Mormon, the largest percentage of one single religious tradition, and Iowa and North Dakota, where white mainline Protestants are the dominant religious tradition.

Why is this blog titled “ParkingSpace23”? Because in the burial plot of the great Reformer, John Knox, now lies under a parking space numbered 23 behind St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh. Knox’s grave is marked by a small, oil-stained plaque in the pavement. Nevertheless, although his burial place is less than honorable, his faithfulness to the Word of God has not been forgotten. We wish to continue his legacy of the bold proclamation of the Truth. In this blog, I want to highlight 7 marks of John Knox’s life which we ought to imitate as we seek to honor Christ....