Free Republic

The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors’ decision to designate July American Christian Heritage Month, which sparked opposition from some residents, has now drawn protest from a national organization that promotes the separation of church and state.

Only a month before, the top local newspaper had been promoting the fact that one of the 10 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in an urban northeastern congressional district was also "one of the few women vet candidates for political office in the country." Even so, she lost the primary. Now, on the Fourth of July, the man who had defeated her was the principal speaker at the city's historic town hall. He was preceded by the mayor and introduced by his grandfather. He did not deliver the typical Democratic message. "Throughout the years, down to the present, a devotion...

The rituals we observe, the company we keep, the memories we honor—these are the things that bind a people together and give them a sense of themselves. Our public holidays make the present a link between the past and the future. They are public displays of what a people values. In America, we value gratitude. From our earliest days, Americans have taken time to give thanks and to do so publicly and together. We’ve done this since before there really was such a thing as an American. The earliest people to celebrate a day of thanks in the new world...

President Trump said this morning that his administration is “stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values” in a rousing speech at the Values Voter Summit. In his first major speech to a socially conservative conference since his election, Trump addressed parental rights, religious liberty, the right to life, and the importance of God over government. “This morning, I am honored and thrilled to return” as the first sitting president, he said. Trump joked that he didn’t even need to ask attendees to vote for him, but he was still there. “Religious liberty is enshrined in the very First Amendment in...

I see regularly the slogan from the American Humanists Association: “Good Without God.” And I think….well, maybe for a while, one can be good (before men). But only because they piggyback on the Judeo-Christian values they may have imbibed. After a while, it all fades away. The reality of that fading away now hits us daily in the news. There’s not a week that goes by without some new report of violence and mayhem. Some attacks are worse than others. Just recently, the UK’s Daily Mail referred to “lawless Paris,” in an attack on innocent people, including tourists. Their sensational...

HOUSTON, Texas -- Speaking at the  Values Voters Summit, put on by the Family Research Council, Texas Senator Ted Cruz gave a passionate speech about religious liberty and faith. Invoking personal stories from his own life, the senator highlighted the power of hope in the darkest of times.  "Our values are fundamentally American," Cruz told the audience. "This country remains a country built on...Christian values. And anyone who tells you differently is lying to you."Cruz spoke about his own father, whose life was drastically changed by the power of faith. Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, was taken captive in Cuba as a teenager. He was wearing a...

An Audience With … Nigel Farage features a stage with only a table, a chair, and a bottle of wine as props. Farage thinks it will give him a chance to “explain who I am” and, crucially, to “reach a new audience”. … “We need a much more muscular defense of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Yes, we’re open to different cultures, but we have to defend our values. That’s the message I want to hear from the Archbishop of Canterbury and from our politicians. Anything less is appeasement of the worst kind.” Yet he speaks not as a defender of the...

Two Tea Party groups recently declared war on Republicans who voted to end the government shutdown. The Tea Party Nation and the Tea Party Leadership Fund want to run Tea Party-approved candidates against sitting Republicans as punishment for being "traitors." One Tea Party favorite, debunked Christian historian David Barton, is rumored to possibly run against Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), notes Warren Throckmorton at Patheos.org. A "Draft David Barton for US Senate" Facebook page has been set up and currently boasts 1,445 members. One pro-Barton advocate claims on his blog that "last week a meeting occurred between Tea Party leaders and...

I have made no bones about the fact that the ultimate authority on the issue of homosexuality is the Bible and it is crystal clear in condemning it. If others want to cite polls and commentaries and “experts” to attempt to bolster their claim in favor of homosexuality they are welcome to do so. However, what I find a bit disingenuous are those that will talk about rights within the context of the Constitution, which was written by men, not God as though the men who wrote it and backed it would have sided with practicing homosexuals today on the...

America’s first mega-church, defined as a congregation of 2,000 attendees or more, held services in the capitol building inside the House of Representatives. It remained there until 1868 as the congregation raised money for building a new sanctuary they could call their own. According to the diary of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, church services were also held in the Treasury building and the Supreme Court Building. He describes the Reverend James Laurie, pastor of a Presbyterian Church, that had settled into the Treasury Building, preaching to an overflow audience in the Supreme Court Chamber,...

An interesting video by David Barton of Wallbuilders regarding our Christian heritage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfEdJNn15E&feature=player_embedded

Growing Pains actor Kirk Cameron thinks that America is off track. He’s concerned about our country’s future and he believes that we have to look to history to find “the secret sauce” that made our nation so great in the first place. With that in mind, his new documentary Monumental focuses on Cameron’s attempt to retrace our Pilgrim’s journey in order to better understand how our nation came into being. I recently had a chance to talk to Cameron about his new movie and the reasons he made it. Cameron’s reason for making the film is evident even in the...

Australian history books will no longer use Jesus' birth as a reference point for dates, to the outrage of some religious and political leaders. Under new government curriculum, the terms BC, translated "Before Christ," and AD, translated "The Year of Our Lord," will be replaced with neutral, non-religious language. The land down under will now use the politically correct BCE and CE, meaning "Before Common Era" and "Common Era" respectively. The terms are popular in academic and scientific publications. Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen has condemned the move, calling it an "intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human...

I was just channel surfing and came across a show where a bunch of 25-35 somethings were talking about the royal wedding. They were particularly laughing at the part where everyone sang Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah - maybe one of the most recognizable hymn tunes I can think of. http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/g/u/guideme.htm To them it was some mysterious "obscure" ritual song. And they projected this attitude on the audience saying nobody knows the words, look at Elton John trying to sing this thing. I watched the same scene and thought how nice all these diverse people were enjoying something they...

Shhh. I am about to say is something so radical that it will jangle every politically correct nerve in your body. And yet...it is true. The founding and traditional culture of the United States, its Judeo-Christian heritage and boots-on-the-ground decency is superior to all other cultures this world has produced. And it certainly beats the radical worldview (part Marxist, part Islamic, and all thug) that our political and media elites -- led by the president of the United States -- are imposing upon us. Scream if you must -- but then think. Think about what former Godfathers Pizza CEO Herman...

Join Us In Celebrating America's Christian Heritage Dear Friends in Christ and Believers in our inalienable rights given to us by our Creator: This is an invitation to all to the opening day ceremony for the historic Third Annual Springfield (Illinois) Nativity Scene on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 from 12 Noon until 1 P.M. in the Illinois state Capitol Rotunda building. If you plan to attend, please come early, as we are expecting an even larger crowd than last year who wish to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and take part in exercising our Constitutional right to hold the...

Pastors go on a tour of the United States Capitol with history expert David Barton

In 2002 a group of tourists from the United States visited the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing to hear a talk by a Chinese academic who prefers to remain anonymous. Speaking in the plural for unnamed fellow thinkers, he described their search for what accounted for the pre-eminence, the success of the West all over the world. Their studies ranged widely. Originally they thought the main reason was more powerful guns; then it was Western political systems, before considering the claims of the Western economic system. Finally, and I quote "in the past twenty years, we have realized...

Ahead of the National Day of Prayer, Franklin Graham expressed dismay at how Islam is receiving preferential treatment by the Obama administration. The evangelist, who was recently disinvited from a Pentagon prayer event over past comments he made about Islam, pointed to the violence against Muslim women. “It’s just horrific,” Graham said to Newsmax.TV this week. “If you just take women alone … I just don’t understand why the president would be giving Islam a pass.” Graham wants the president to speak up for women and minorities living in Muslim countries instead of one-sidedly praising Islam. As a result of...

Virginia’s Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell is catching flak from the ACLU because it does not like the fact that he has lifted the ban on police chaplains praying in Jesus’ name. Virginia’s former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine had issued the ruling in 2008, and the ACLU gang charges that McDonnell is giving in to conservatives and Christians in revoking the Jesus ban. Well, maybe another former Virginia governor influenced McDonnell—Thomas Jefferson. The author of Virginia’s famed Statute for Religious Freedom, Jefferson never tried to suppress Virginians’ or Americans’ free exercise of religion. In fact, as president in 1802, Jefferson invited...