Free Republic

Johnson’s political muzzling silenced the primary moral and religious voices that Founder John Adams said were essential to the life of the Republic.. In 1954, then freshman U.S. senator Lyndon B. Johnson was running for re-election in a hotly-contested Democratic primary against fellow-Democrat State Representative Dudley T. Dougherty. THE NEW DEAL WITH THE DEVIL IN 1954: GIVE UP YOUR MORAL AND FREE SPEECH RIGHTS IN EXCHANGE FOR TAX WRITE-OFFS In the heat of that 1954 Texas primary campaign, Johnson introduced his now infamous “Johnson Amendment” in the U.S. Senate. His revisions further restricted the free speech of churches and religious...

A Coptic Orthodox church in British Columbia was destroyed in a fire on Monday, July 19, just days after an attempted arson attack damaged the church’s door. Local police said they were alerted to a fire at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Surrey around 3:17 a.m. on Monday. By the time the fire was extinguished, the building was almost entirely demolished and only a single wall was left standing. No one was reported injured in the fire. “While today is a day of sadness, we will not be deterred and we will rebuild,” said Bishop Mina of the Coptic...

Because our media establishment is total garbage, you probably haven't heard about this: Though barely mentioned in US media, 48 Christian churches in Canada have been vandalized or burned down in the past two months…Much of the arson appears linked to white progressives...” Heartbreaking, important story getting almost no coverage in U.S... Canada's churches are burning. Trudeau shrugs.. Yes, 48 churches in Canada have either been vandalized or set on fire in just TWO MONTHS. Here's one of them: Having a hard time processing this right now. The historic & beautiful St Jean Baptist’s parish in Morinville burned to the...

This means they can exceed capacity restrictions.. COLORADO SPRINGS — Worship leaders across the state are preparing to be able to do things a bit differently after a new public health order from the governor will allow places of worship to exceed mandated capacity limits. The order redefines worship services as essential, meaning they’re allowed to go over mandated capacity limits if they can’t perform their essential service without doing so. “I grew up in church and sensed that this is what I wanted to do,” said Vista Grande Baptist Church Pastor Chris Moore. “After college I felt that seminary...

The idea can no longer be shrugged off as a mere pipe dream -- the hope of the thousands of Iraqi Christians who were evicted from their villages three years ago by the criminal incursions of Islamic State (ISIS) -- that they might one day be able to return to their homes on the Plains of Nineveh. With the March 27th signing ceremony in the offices of the archdiocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Erbil, an agreement was reached between three Christian churches in Iraq -- the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church...

Christians in Turkey have become a tiny minority. The few remaining Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Christians in Turkey have – throughout the centuries -- been turned into a tiny, dwindling minority. The remaining few Christian churches in Anatolia are also on the path to total annihilation. Hagia Sophia in Trabzon: Church-mosque-museum and now mosque again. The Hagia Sophia, Greek for “Holy Wisdom,” was one of the many historic Orthodox churches located in the city of Trabzon. ... The city of Trabzon .. is located in the ancient land of Pontos, in the...

After Egypt President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi apologised for not finishing the reconstruction work of Christian properties damaged in the aftermath of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the engineering unit of the Armed Forces immediately started cooperating with Coptic authorities to wrap up the pending renovations, religious Coptic figures said. While visiting Cairo's St. Mark Cathedral on Christmas Eve, El-Sisi apologised to the country's Christians over the delay in the completion of renovations, which he says will be done by the end of 2016.The churches undergoing renovation were attacked in August 2013 on the day of the dispersals of pro-Morsi...

There was a surge of anti-Christian violence by Muslims around the world that included the destruction of nearly 200 Christian churches in Nigeria during a short period around October, according to a new report from the GateStone Institute

The Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) has sold its property at 35 Harris Road, Avon, former home to Christ Episcopal Church, to the Farmington Valley American Muslim Center, Inc. (FVAMC). The sale, for $1.1 million, was completed on Oct. 21. The building was vacated after the congregation voted in 2012 to dissolve as a parish and close by the end of that year. The following spring, Bishop Ian T. Douglas and other ECCT staff hosted a meeting of community leaders and interested residents to discern how the property could best be used “as an asset to God’s mission of restoration...

One of the main problems of the EU is an inherent one: it is a problem of being constructed in a particular way as well as behaving in a particular way. The EU suffers from a lack of self-reflection and the idea of not “knowing oneself”. The EU also suffers from a denial of failure: its official discourse claims it is on the right track. The EU does not question what it has done so far and why it went wrong. The EU has a cognitive problem that puzzles many of us. The Christian Churches may ask for more room...

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...

The Obama Internal Revenue Service targeted several Christian groups including a 180 year-old Baptist paper. The Obama IRS targeted Christian groups including Franklin Graham and the 180 year-old Biblical Recorder. The Obama IRS implemented a program to infiltrate and target conservative, evangelical Christian churches. ... The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization, were both targeted by the Obama IRS.

Sen. Dick Durbin is calling on churches, synagogues and mosques to carve out time this fall to discuss the so-called DREAM Act with their congregations, despite federal restrictions on lobbying that often apply to religious institutions. The Illinois Democrat is reaching out to the faith community as he tries to advocate for passage of the controversial proposal that would provide a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants who attend college or join the military. A coalition of religious organizations -- which see the bill as a humane immigration proposal -- had already been pushing for what they call the...

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi blamed a little-known local Muslim group of preaching religious intolerance in an area where Christian churches were burnt last week, killing one person. Authorities have said up to 50 churches have been burnt and around 3,000 Christians displaced since March 2 when Muslim youths attacked the community around Asendabo, some 360 km (215 miles) west of the capital Addis Ababa. Meles told a news conference late on Saturday that "elements of the Kawarja sect and other extremists" had been preaching religious intolerance in the area. ... Kawarja, about whom little is known, aimed to set...

An elected official in southern city is taking heat from churches over his decision to proclaim today, Saturday, June 19, as 'Gay Pride Day,' complete with a march downtown. The churches banded together for a protest/prayer service/counter-rally on Friday. Organizers of the counter-rally state that they do not intend to disrupt the 'gay pride' parade today nor be a part of hateful slurs against homosexuals. Instead, they claim that their message is to the city official, Mayor Junie White of Spartanburg, South Carolina. In spite of the fact that the city is located in a very conservative area of the...

"Living in tolerance of other faith groups does not require Christians to give in to every demand for the sake of political correctness." -- Faith J.H. McDonnell, IRD Religious Liberty Program Director WASHINGTON - Concerned that Christian groups are not fully realizing the threat posed by an expansion of Shari'a (Islamic law) in the West, the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) is calling upon churches to stand against global attempts to enshrine it. IRD Religious Liberty Program Director Faith J.H. McDonnell cited wide-ranging examples of authorities accommodating Islamist demands, among them a draft constitution in Kenya that would give...

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre: Christian Holy Site Jerusalem also holds one of Christianity's most venerated spaces of worship—the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Christians believe occupies the site of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. In the northwest quarter of the Old City, the church still stands at the end of Via Dolorose, the Path of Sorrows, believed by Christians to be the path along which Jesus carried his cross to Calvalry. Apparently, the site was a burial ground at the time of the crucifixion. Later, the Roman Emperor Hadrian erected a temple to Venus in this...