Free Republic

For Christians, the Christmas season is a unique time of joy associated with the birth of the savior Jesus Christ, whose life, death and resurrection makes possible a personal and intimate relationship with God. Jesus was born a Jew, and his teachings were built on the foundation of the Torah and the Old Testament. Thus, Christians and Jews have much in common and share a natural mutual affinity. But what came from Christ also benefited and deeply affected people of diverse beliefs in every part of the world. The fact is that Christ affected history with such impact that He...

Do you, like many Americans, feel especially charitable this time of year? Enjoy helping those in need? Better buy a permit.As Americans around the country celebrate the Giving Season, various elected officials are busy trying to put a stop to all this charitable mumbo jumbo. In Murfreesboro, Tenn., the city council is considering a rule that would require people to obtain a permit to share food with the homeless and others in need. "A new ordinance is being considered that limits where people can serve meals on public property, including parks and sidewalks," Nashville's Fox 17 reported last month. "The...

A 53-foot container full of donations that was stolen from Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood last month has been located, but most of the items inside had been taken, the group’s founder said.

It seems that the Salvation Army is not the only charity leaping on the anti-American, racist, vile, and divisive Critical Race Theory handcart. Goodwill has enthusiastically embraced this evil, hired a “Director of Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion,” and openly brags about its “antiracism” quest on its website and in press releases.

The Salvation Army wants its white donors to give it more than just money this Christmas season. Its leadership is also demanding they apologize for being racist. It's part of a push by the Christian charitable organization to embrace the ideas of Black Lives Matter, an activist group working to, among other things, "dismantle white privilege" and "disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure." The Salvation Army's Alexandria-based leadership has created an "International Social Justice Commission" which has developed and released a "resource" to educate its white donors, volunteers and employees called Let's Talk about Racism. It asserts Christianity is institutionally...

“Dear God, I ask you that you help me get out of here and that you take care of my mom.”That’s a prayer that the bishop of El Paso, Texas brought to a meeting of 20 Catholic bishops and Vatican officials. It’s a child’s prayer, written in Spanish, collected from a migrant in a tent city south of the border. It’s heart-wrenching; there’s no soul as innocent as a child’s, and in this simple plea, it shows.But there’s no peace coming to children like these; not right now, in this moment — at least not in this world.The images flickering...

Government-run schools fail kids. Teachers unions and education bureaucrats say, "We need more money!" But America already spends a fortune on public schools. My town, New York City, spends $28,000 per student -- half-a-million dollars per classroom! Think about what you could do with that money: Hire five teachers? Pay for private tutors? Where does the $28,000 go? No one really knows. When governments run things, money vanishes into bureaucracy. NYC spends $3 million per year on "executive superintendents" and $10 million on consultants. Some charter schools offer better educations for less. But NYC politicians limit the number of charter...

On a recent summer morning, Lynn Hirsch was determined as she packed the back of her gray SUV with 20 aluminum pans of lasagna. The retiree was on a mission: Drive nearly 70 miles from her suburb of Atlanta to two rural Georgia towns and get the hearty dishes into the hands of people who needed them. It's an increasingly typical mission for volunteers of Lasagna Love — a grassroots nonprofit organization of 33,000 people across the country who are sharing free lasagnas with Americans struggling with financial and other challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The group is...

The third time was not the charm for a man who washed up on a beach in Florida in a "bubble" as he attempted to walk on water to New York for charity. Reza Baluchi, 49, made it about 25 miles into his journey in his hydro pod, which resembles a hamster wheel installed with flotation devices, before returning to shore in St. Augustine, according to The New York Times. Fully stocked for a three-week trip, he reportedly found a day after his departure that his backup GPS device and charging cables were missing, forcing him to return to land....

In his book Was Jesus a Socialist? author Lawrence W. Reed writes, “Almost everybody wants to help those in need. The crucial question is how to help. Let’s not make the mistake of arguing that to use force, plunder, and dependency is somehow ‘the Christian thing to do.’” [Emphasis his]Today we see the party in power in Washington, D.C. spending recklessly, ostensibly to help those in need. But one suspects they’re really just trying to buy votes by giving away “free” money. They are racking up debts so high they threaten our nation’s future. As Senator Rand Paul, Republican from...

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff released their tax returns Tuesday, showing they only donated a sliver of their income to charity. Harris and Emhoff earned $1,695,225 in 2020, largely from Emhoff’s work as an attorney but donated only $27,006 to charity.

There was, in the hours following Rush Limbaugh’s death Wednesday at the age of 70, a rush of praise and of judgment-passing about his career and what it meant in the world of politics. The human stories about Limbaugh tended to get lost if you didn’t look hard enough. Thankfully, country music superstar John Rich was there to remind us. In 2011, Rich was one of the final two contestants on “Celebrity Apprentice,” hosted by our future former president, Donald Trump. (In a contemporary piece that has aged like a chef’s kiss, Billboard noted that “Trump was presiding over ‘The...

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa announced the formation of the Tua Foundation on Thursday, and one of the first beneficiaries of the new charity was Alabama-based Big Oak Ranch. In announcing the launch of the Tua Foundation, Tagovailoa said its “primary focus will be on charitable endeavors in south Florida, Alabama and Hawaii.” Tagovailoa was an All-American quarterback for Alabama and is a native of Hawaii. The nonprofit organization’s first action featured donations of $16,667 apiece to the Police Athletic League of North Miami, Big Oak Ranch and the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, which is in Hawaii. Big Oak...

In America today, it is way too tempting to spend all our time attacking or celebrating the presidents we support. People seem to either hate Donald Trump or hate Joe Biden. We are locked into attacking or promoting presidents, not the principles or program priorities we believe will ensure the future for this amazing country. Yes, “Elections have consequences,” but because we vote for presidents over principles, we don’t often know what presidents will do until they get elected. Whoever Republicans put up for election in 2024, and even for House and Senate seats in 2022, we need to challenge...

The Republican Party in Arizona’s largest county voted Saturday to censure the widow of the late Sen. John McCain after she endorsed Democrat Joe Biden. The state GOP is planning a similar vote later this month. The Maricopa County GOP’s censure resolution called Cindy McCain a "troubled individual, with a past riddled with drug abuse and illegalities associated with such behavior." The measure also accused Cindy McCain of supporting "leftist causes" including gay marriage, larger government and "others that run counter to Republican values." Cindy McCain has acknowledged suffering a three-year addiction to pain medicine from 1989 to 1992 and...

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic and darkest days of 2020, Americans proved their benevolence and generosity in ways the government never could.Two-thousand and twenty is a year most Americans are in a hurry to forget. From a chaotic political atmosphere to uncontrolled riots and violence across the country, to a pandemic that revealed the worst instincts in our politicians, the year seemed to resemble a horror-house of our worst fears.Because of all we’ve been through, most people would just as soon get on with ending this year of chaos, mobs, and quarantines and get on with the business of believing...

Black Lives Matter protesters reportedly crashed a Christmas charity fundraiser for children with cancer this past weekend. The fundraiser, protest, and march took place on Candy Cane Lane in the city of West Allis, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that “a group of about 50 Black Lives Matter supporters” marched at a Christmas light show of houses on the street which “has raised money for the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer.” The Sentinel notes that there were “no arrests or citations” issued during the protest and that “there were no reports of violent activity.” The protesters marched down the...

Black Lives Matter protesters in Wisconsin hijacked and crashed a Christmas charity event for kids with cancer. Nothing is sacred to the woke left, including Christmas or helping kids with cancer. Residents of a Milwaukee suburb hold an annual event called Candy Cane Lane to benefit childhood cancer research. Students decorate trees in a section of West Allie, Wisconsin to look like red and white candy canes to designate the route. Houses are festively lit up with lights to celebrate the season.

Members of a local Black Lives Matter organization marched through a Candy Cane Lane charity event and harassed people driving through the Christmas-decorated street. The residents of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, suburb decorate every year to raise money for a childhood cancer center. The People’s Revolution, a Black Lives Matter (BLM) organization, organized a march to disrupt a children’s cancer fundraiser in West Allis, Wisconsin, Friday night. The group marched down Candy Cane Lane and harassed suburban attendees to the annual charity event where the residents decorate their homes for Christmas and the holidays, Wisconsin Right Now reported.

What Is Operation Paperback? Operation Paperback is a charity that sends books and magazines to soldiers and their families. This is invaluable for people on the front lines who can’t stream the latest video, aren’t close to a library and are nowhere near a movie theater. For their families, it is a pleasant reminder that the world hasn’t forgotten them and gives them free entertainment. Operation Paperback lets volunteers send books to the VA hospitals, too. Operation Paperback also accepts financial donations to buy books in high demand genres, specifically requested titles and pay for the shipping of these items....