Free Republic

The arguments in favor of same-sex civil marriage are well known. Thrown into the ring are the buzzwords of “equality” and “discrimination”. So the typical argument goes: Discrimination is bad, and equality is good, so our government should give homosexual couples the recognition and subsidies reserved for heterosexual couples.But there are problems with those. For one thing, discrimination and prejudice are innate to our psyche. If I have a soccer ball, for example, I will only intend to use it for soccer, because that is its purpose. Since I refuse to use it for basketball, does that mean I hate...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Leading Republicans on Thursday insisted that America's leaders must do more to defend Christian values at home and abroad, blaming President Barack Obama for attacks on religious freedom as they courted social conservatives expected to play a critical role in the next presidential contest. "Those of us inspired by Judeo-Christian values...have an obligation to our country and to our fellow man to use our positions of influence to highlight those values," Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio said at a conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by long-time Christian political activist Ralph Reed.

“What do you do for a living, Donny?” “I’m a porn producer!” Whenever I had an exchange like this with one of my pastor-father’s parishioners, the initial response was usually laughter. But then I would make it clear that I was serious, and then neatly cut off the coming lecture with a question of my own. Although raised in a Christian home, I abandoned my faith to become a porn producer, a decision fueled by an intense hatred for the Church. For many years I confused God with the people who claimed to represent Him. This may seem like a...

Clint Dempsey at FUSE event With Three Days Grace in 2006. Credit: G. Gershoff/WireImage/Getty Images. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jun 17, 2014 / 12:55 pm (CNA).- U.S. soccer fans went wild on Monday as team captain Clint Dempsey scored a goal during the first minute of the club’s opening World Cup game against Ghana. The goal is among the quickest in World Cup history and the fastest scored by an American during the World Cup games, adding to numerous records help by the acclaimed player, who is also the first American to score in three different World Cups. Perhaps less...

There is an old Spiritual that says, My God is so high, you can’t get over him, he’s so low, you can’t get under him, he’s so wide you can’t get around him, you must come in, by and through the Lamb.

I’d heard of Nick Vujicic. I’d caught a glimpse of him on Christian television. But nothing prepared me for his recent appearance at my church. A mighty man of faith, Vujicic delivered one of most powerful, spirit-filled messages I’ve ever heard. I think the Australian-born evangelist the most inspirational Christ follower since Helen Keller. Keller’s life story was immortalized in the 1962 motion picture “The Miracle Worker.” Born in 1880, Helen was 19 months old when she contracted “brain fever,” as the Keller family doctor called it. She was struck blind, deaf and mute. Nearly feral as a child, Helen’s...

Jews defending Judaism with the best defense...

The facts just don’t add up. Our President secretly negotiated a deal to free a man who appears to have deserted his country and put fellow servicemen in danger while there are innocent American citizens being held in Iran, North Korea and Mexico. Why Bergdahl? Lawmakers and human rights groups have called out for the release of Pastor Saeed Abedini, the 34-year-old from Boise, Idaho, who left behind his wife, Naghmeh, and two young children to go back to his homeland on a mission to build a family orphanage. Abedini, who had traveled to Iran many times before, was pulled...

A California pastor is being extradited to Nevada on a murder charge in the death of a man outside a Las Vegas sports bar -- despite claims by witnesses that the father of two was acting in self-defense. Robert Cox, of Manteca, Calif., claims he did not throw a punch at Link Ellingson, knocking him to the ground and causing a mortal head injury. But prosecutors claim Cox changed his story, first telling officers he punched Ellingson after the man threatened him outside Four Kegs bar, and then later claiming in a written statement that he grabbed Ellingson by the...

Chapter 36 – Russia, North Africa, Italy, “D” Day Victory in the battle of Britain saved the country from invasion, but the enemy sought to recompense himself by heavier, indiscriminate night-bombing, which continued into 1941. The next prayer was greater still. We suppose nothing gave the world a bigger shock through the whole course of the war than when, without a word of warning, Hitler swung round and invaded Russia. God now began to turn the prayers of the College into yet another direction. With the Nazis marching through Yugoslavia and Greece and capturing Crete, and with the menace of...

Ann B. Davis, who played the beloved housekeeper Alice in The Brady Bunch, died over the weekend. New information is coming out about her faith and her life. The Associated Press reports: For many years after “The Brady Bunch” wound up, Davis led a quiet religious life, affiliating herself with a group led by [Episcopal Bishop William] Frey. “I was born again,” she told the AP in 1993. “It happens to Episcopalians. Sometimes it doesn’t hit you till you’re 47 years old. “It changed my whole life for the better. … I spent a lot of time giving Christian witness...

We Must Report Sexual Abuse of Children in the Church One of the most damaging forces against the witness of the evangelical Church today is the legal (in certain states) but unbiblical application of priest-penitent privilege, or the right of a minister to refuse to divulge confidential information received from a member of his or her congregation, to cases of sexual abuse of children. Again and again, ministry leaders are choosing to not report cases of sexual abuse of children to the congregation, law enforcement, or other congregations. The Adversary is smiling amidst the devastation. Twisting Scripture to support a...

Days after media reported that a Sudanese mother sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith was likely to be released soon, a spokesman from Sudan's Foreign Ministry as well as the woman's husband said only courts have the jurisdiction to decide. Daniel Wani, the husband of Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who is in a prison with her 20-month-old son and newborn daughter, told CNN that only the appeals court can free his wife. "I'm not aware that any release is imminent," he said. Foreign ministry spokesman Abubakar Al-Sidiq also said that only a ruling from an...

SUDAN has denied a Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for apostasy will be freed soon, saying quotes attributed to a foreign ministry official had been taken out of context. Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was sentenced to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in place since 1983 and outlaws conversions under pain of death. Abdullah al-Azraq, a foreign ministry undersecretary, told media outlets on Saturday that Ishag “will be freed within days in line with legal procedure that will be taken by the judiciary and the ministry of justice”. But the foreign ministry said...

My son just graduated from college and is moving to San Jose CA from North Carolina to work at Silicon Valley. He is a believer in Christ and would like to find a Bible-believing church as soon as he can after moving. He doesn't know anyone there so he's starting his new life at ground zero. Anyone know of a good church in the San Jose area?

Multiple international news reports Saturday indicate Meriam Ibrahaim would “be freed” after getting a death sentence from the government of Sudan for rejecting Islam. Meriam gave birth this week to a baby girl named Maya. The decision comes after the Sudanese government faced mounting pressure from the international community over her “barbaric” treatment. However, the London Telegraph newspaper reports “her lawyers say they will not believe it until they see her walk out of prison.”Meriam languishes in a notoriously rank Sudanese prison with her 20-month-old son and her newborn daughter. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions urging Sudan...

As I’ve mentioned before, the laws requiring Christians to do things like bake wedding cakes or do photography for homosexual weddings are corporate laws. That’s how these laws are implemented - corporations have privileges granted by the State for the benefit of the State, as the State sees fit. So if Christians sue, what they have to argue before the Court is how it benefits the State to allow their incorporated business to not do work for homosexual marriage. That’s the legal reality. That’s not my opinion, that’s what the Courts are actually ruling on. Given that, there is a...

Obama is saying he is contemplating arming and training Syrian rebels (just the 'moderates' which will be identified by their smiles). However, as the following PBS Frontline documentary exposes, the Syrian rebels themselves say they are already armed and trained by US in the use of sophisticated weapons and fighting techniques, including, one rebel said, "how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush." The interviews are the latest evidence that after more than three years of warfare, the United States has stepped up the provision of lethal aid to the rebels, as PBS notes "it appears the Obama...

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Five Christian families have been freed after being held for more than two decades as slaves in a Muslim-run brick kiln in eastern Pakistan, Christian officials involved in the rescue operation told BosNewsLife. The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), a major advocacy and aid group, said it provided two vehicles for the May 6 raids at the brick kiln in the industrial city Wazirabad in Punjab province. Nasir Saeed, a CLAAS director, told BosNewsLife that "a total of eight" Christians were found working as slaves in the area, representing five families.

An American citizen whose pregnant wife has been sentenced to death in Sudan for refusing to renounce her Christian faith told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Friday that his wife is staying strong in her convictions despite her ordeal. Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, whose Christian husband Daniel Wani holds American citizenship, has been held in a Sudanese prison along with her 20-month old son for more than three months. Wani said on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” that when his wife’s ordeal began he went to the U.S. embassy and tried to report the case. However, he said...