Free Republic

A Great AwakeningA movie about a preacher who was very influential just before the American Revolution and his friendship with Benjamin Franklin. This is movie is true art, an inspiring spiritual journey though time that is a very uplifting experience to watch.

Last year, Paula White offered her followers seven Easter blessings for a gift of $1,000. This Holy Week, she’s using support for Israel as a motivation to give money to her. In addition to being a health-and-wealth televangelist — soundly critiqued by most of mainstream Christianity — White leads President Donald Trump’s White House Office of Faith. This year, she’s drawing on the Trump administration’s unflinching support for the Israeli government by claiming a gift to her ministry is a gift to support Israel. White is a staunch Zionist and recently kicked a conservative evangelical woman off Trump’s Religious Liberty...

"Paula White, appointed by Trump as president of the White House Faith Office, conducts an exorcism session to drive evil spirits out of the audience by blowing into the microphone." ...

Days after we broke the story that prominent Pentecostal pastor and evangelist Ted Shuttlesworth Jr. has stepped down from ministry (at least temporarily) after revealing that he’s been cheating on his wife and having “inappropriate conversations” with other women, his church has also closed down. While the church’s social media pages haven’t been updated in a while, a banner at the top of Miracle Word Church in West Palm Beach, Florida reads that the church is closed. According to our sources, Shuttlesworth was actually outed several months ago but waited until now to tell ministry partners about the sexual misconduct....

The decline of religion remains a fundamental reality in most Western countries, particularly in Europe, where over 50% of those under age 40 do not identify with any faith. Even in more religious America, some estimate that as many as 100,000 churches will close in the near future. Meanwhile, the ranks of “Nones,” those outside religious communities, have grown so large that their numbers rival those of Catholics and evangelical Protestants.Yet, as we document in a new report for the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, there are signs that religion is enjoying more than a nascent revival. Data emerging...

Grant had roots in both Baptist and Assemblies of God congregations, and went on to seminary to prepare for ministry. While there, he was introduced to the Church Fathers, who had a very different view of Baptism than the one he’d grown up with. Seeing that they treated it as a sacrament made him wonder if his view of Communion was also out of step with historic Christianity. After serving seven years in ministry, as both a children’s and student pastor, Grant ended up coming home to the Catholic Church.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing a Seattle-area church engaged in oral arguments in Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland v. Kuderer at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. ADF attorneys are asking the court to uphold Cedar Park Church’s constitutionally protected, pro-life religious beliefs by exempting it from an overly broad state mandate that requires most Washington employers to provide abortion coverage for employees. Senate Bill 6219, signed into law in March 2018, requires Cedar Park’s employee health plan to cover abortion if the church’s plan also offers maternity care coverage. Violators face fines and criminal...

Joe Campbell, a Pentecostal preacher who for half a century ministered to thousands of children across four states, has been arrested on child sex abuse charges, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday. Campbell was charged with one count of first-degree rape and one count of lewd or indecent acts to a child under 16, according to the charging document. U.S. marshals arrested him Wednesday morning at Camp Bell, his children's camp in Elkland, Missouri, and took him to the Greene County jail in Springfield, where he was awaiting transfer to Oklahoma. If convicted, he faces up to life in...

A video clip from Kirk Cameron caused a firestorm over the weekend on social media in which he stated that he no longer believes that hell is a place of eternal conscious torment. He has embraced an alternative view called annihilationism or conditional mortality.Does the Bible teach that hell is indeed a literal place of eternal conscious torment?The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus clearly teaches some truths about the reality of hell.Luke 16:19–31 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid...

High-profile conversions from figures like Shia LeBeouf, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Russell Brand followed by findings--church attendance picking up has led to stunned reaction from the commentariat press. In Britain, for example, Pentecostalism and Catholicism have been found to have reversed decades of decline and grown remarkably from 2018 to 2025 – drawing intrigue from the likes of the Guardian and Reuters. In France, since 2020, the bishops’ conference (typically assiduous in collecting and releasing data) have confirmed consistently remarkable and accelerating year-on-year increases in the number of adult converts they are drawing in and baptising – many from irreligion...

This article is part of “Pastors and Prey,” a series investigating sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God. A children’s pastor was caught filming girls in a church bathroom in Arkansas. Elders suspended him for a few weeks. In Illinois, a preacher was accused of sexually abusing children. Church leaders sent him to therapy rather than call police. In California, a worship minister went to prison for molesting boys. His congregation threw him a party when he returned. All of these men remained in ministry in the Assemblies of God, the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination. All went on to...

Lindsey Whiteside, 26, is the former youth minister at Getwell Church in Hernando, Mississippi. In 2024, she was arrested and charged with “sexual battery of a minor child by a person of trust or authority” after she groomed and had sex with a 14-year-old girl over a period of several months. While prosecutors demanded 30 years, she only received three years of house arrest and seven years of probation, causing an uproar in the community over the light sentence. This also prompted district attorney Matthew Marton to rebuke the judge in the case while declaring: “She used the gospel of...

Is vandalism of a Christian church protected under the First Amendment? That’s the claim made by attorneys for three Muslim activists accused of spray-painting graffiti near the entrance of the nondenominational Uncommon Church in Hurst, Texas, located about 10 miles northeast of Fort Worth. The vandalism, which occurred in early March 2024, included an expletive referring to Israel, a swastika, and several inverted red triangles, a symbol used by Hamas and pro-Palestinian protesters to refer to Israeli military targets. The graffiti, which was spray-painted near a flagpole displaying a large Israeli flag outside the church, was initially said to incur...

United House of Prayer is A Cult! More show notes: The pastor is "Sweet Precious Daddy Bailey" He sits during the sermon because he looks like a black Jabba the Hut. Four members of the church pull this guy out in a giant chariot just to bring him up to the pulpit. The name of Jesus has been replaced with "Sweet Daddy" in all the hymns and songs. There have been 4 "sweet daddies" since this cult began in 1919.

One of the most frequently cited texts by cessationists — those who believe the gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy, tongues, and healing, ceased after the apostolic era — is found in 1 Corinthians 13:8-12: “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When...

An evangelical global pro-life organization has urged Christians, especially Catholics, to work together across denominations to further the pro-life movement and more effectively protect unborn lives from abortion. PassionLife remarked in a July 9 news release that denominations’ “respective theological differences” should not hamper their “joint effort and impact.” Instead, Christians, regardless of their beliefs, should work together as “collaborating co-belligerents,” the organization said. PassionLife works around the globe as a mission partner for local churches and organizations, especially those in areas where abortion rates are extremely high. The organization offers training in Christian pro-life teaching, evangelization, and pro-life counseling...

Life.Church South Broken Arrow Life kicked off their At the Movies campaign with a Super Mario Brothers theme, decorating their church and crafting a sermon based around the adventures of Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Preach, and whatever stray Koopa that may make it into a sermon illustration. South Broken Arrow is one of more than 40 locations of the 85,000-member, seeker-sensitive, multi-site-based Oklahoma church. Led by Craig Groeschel, their promo material explains: At the Movies is an annual summer event at Life.Church. We decorate our lobbies in our favorite movie themes and invite friends and family. During the experience, we...

Life.Church Owasso kicked off their “At the Movies” campaign with a Ghostbusters theme, decorating their church to resemble the Ghostbusters headquarters, complete with an animatronic Slimer and giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man outside, while crafting a sermon based around the film. It’s not a one-off for the 85,000-member, seeker-sensitive, multi-site-based Oklahoma church that has 40 locations, but rather something they do every year. For more on Life.Church (Not Clickbait) Pastor Turns Himself Into A Video Game Character For Super Mario Sermon Series+ Begins Rapping Theme Song Mario Sermon Series? Megachurch Transforms Church into Mushroom Kingdom + Singing Bowser Church Puts...

Jimmy Swaggart, the popular Pentecostal preacher and televangelist who garnered national headlines for his extramarital affairs, has died at the age of 90 following a cardiac arrest. Swaggart's official Facebook page announced Tuesday morning that "Brother Swaggart has finished his earthly race and entered into the presence of His Savior, Jesus Christ." "Today was the day he has sung about for decades. He met his beloved Savior and entered the portals of glory. At the same time, we rejoice knowing that we will see him again one day," stated the page. "He was not just a preacher — he was...

Like many Gen X Christians in the 1980s, I was not only captured by the explosion of Christian television and radio ministries, but I also had my personal favorites who really deepened my understanding of the Bible. One of those was televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Much like Aimee Semple McPherson of the Foursquare Gospel movement, Swaggart was instrumental in putting the Assemblies of God and Pentecostalism on the map, making the gospel and a relationship with Jesus a dynamic pursuit rather than a rote obligation. Swaggart was a media pioneer. In 1969, he launched "The Camp Meeting Hour." Because of a...