Free Republic

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof uses poor thinking about abortion to misunderstand why for many Christians it is a paramount issue. In his recent New York Times op-ed, “Er, Can I Ask a Few Questions About Abortion?” Nicholas Kristof makes a case against Christian pro-lifers. He writes that many Christians “support Trump, despite reservations about him, because their be-all issue is the unborn.”No Christian cares only about abortion as if other issues like religious liberty, taxes, and foreign policy don’t matter. But many Christians hold that abortion can disqualify a candidate. I think most people have issues that are...

JERUSALEM—Authorities are investigating after witnesses accused a local religious nut named Simon Peter and several others of hosting an unauthorized super spreader event in an enclosed room in Jerusalem. Experts say the event, which was not authorized by the local Jewish or Roman authorities, may put everyone in the area at risk for infectious diseases such as leprosy. "This is completely inexcusable," said local magistrate Biggus Tookus. "We have found that there were at least 11 people at this event. No one's address was recorded at the door and we don't know where they are now." One medical expert named...

Politicians on both sides of the aisle agree: voting is our essential duty as Americans. As we discuss the best way to participate in this election season—debates or silence, socially distanced rallies or none, in person voting or potentially fraudulent mail-in ballots—let’s remind ourselves why we must vote in the first place and how we ought to vote. Why must we vote? It is a sin not to do so. First, let's define sin. The Bible has five different usages of the word "sin." Most common among them is "missing the mark." Consider this. When we vote, we mark the...

When I started writing this study, I planned to avoid mentioning the election. Besides, my last pre-election political/religious piece posted on Friday asked that our nation pray for a peaceful outcome. Meanwhile, I also planned not to reveal why “The Greatest Commandment” was chosen for today’s study. But since one of my favorite sayings is, “How do you make God laugh?” Answer: “Tell him your plans,” I did, and He “laughed.” Let me explain.In church last Sunday, the Gospel reading was Matthew 22:34-40  — Jesus’ teaching about “The Greatest Commandment.” Immediately I was “dinged” and felt “called” to make today’s study about those...

“Our new generations walk through our cities like strangers, they have no idea what even Easter or Christmas truly mean, or what all those stories in those beautiful stained glasses or churches tell." - Thierry Baudet "A civilization that forgets its past is condemning its future." - Santiago Abascal As Christianity has declined, European politics has secularized. Christian democratic parties have lost their distinctive religious identities and become generic liberal or conservative parties. At the same time, secular Green and Socialist parties have increased their percentage of the vote. But in recent years, this political secularization has enjoyed a notable,...

In my previous article, Aufheben der Kultur/Cancel Culture, was this paragraph: Why do Western Culture and Christianity both have to be annihilated? Western Culture represents the reasoning, logical, fair and openminded aspects of our world. Out of Western Culture sprang the United States Constitution, the framework of the nation. And the Christian religious traditions, especially the Ten Commandments, are the underlying pillars of Western Culture. As Antonio Gramsci wrote in his prison notebooks, “Any country grounded in Judaeo-Christian values can’t be overthrown until those roots are cut … Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity … in the...

As Halloween approaches, the debate over whether Catholics should join in the celebrations has reignited. Many claim it is a harmless holiday for children that Catholics may freely participate in. Others affirm that it has now descended into dark regions with the return of pagan and Satanic imagery. It should thus be off limits. And then there are those who look for a third way somewhere in-between. They propose alternative celebrations, All Saints Day commemorations or fall festivals. In this way, Halloween, an originally Catholic feast, can be “re-Christianized” and re-purposed to promote the Faith. They hope to turn Halloween...

The pope’s series of doctrinal dubious statements, along with his questionable politics, have left faithful Catholics somewhere between scratching their heads and banging their heads against a wall. After the release of Pope Francis’s papal encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” earlier this month, Crisis magazine Editor Michael Warren Davis wrote the kindest thing one could say about it is that it’s incomprehensible. I would go further. The kindest thing to be said of Pope Francis’s entire seven-year papacy is that it has been utterly disorienting.His equivocal statements on questions of morality and faith, whether the comments be made in an encyclical, a...

When the so-called Islamic State (IS) took over their town, Qaraqosh in northern Iraq, Mathi and his family had no choice but to flee. He, his wife Nazik and their six children fled to safety – they knew that their Christian faith made them extremely vulnerable. Five years later, thanks to support from Christian charity Open Doors, they have been able to return home. https://missionsbox.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Mathi-Returns-Home-to-Iraqs-Nineveh-Plains.mp4 My name is Mathi Habib Khodor and I have six children. In 2014 we were forcibly displaced from our city Qaraqosh (by Islamic State). But in 2017 our city was liberated. When I returned to...

A church service has been stopped by police after worshippers were told they were breaking strict lockdown rules in Wales. Churchgoers filled the packed hall yesterday despite 'firebreak' rules banning gatherings including religious ceremonies from taking place. Naomi Mclennan filmed the moment officers entered the New Hope Community Church in Llanrumney, Cardiff, and told people they had to leave.

Conservatives, in the United States and elsewhere, are sometimes faulted for blaming “the 1960s” for many of today’s most persistent social ills. Surveying the situation in contemporary Europe, French social theorist Olivier Roy suggests that they are mostly right—at least with respect to recognizing that the 1960s mark a moral and religious watershed in modern history. Roy warns that we will misinterpret the 1960s if we see it as a “mere hedonistic craze.” Hedonism, he adds, might have been part of the decade, but “the student revolts of 1968 marked a complete anthropological revolution, whose values are today enshrined in...

A recent article in The Christian Post discussed findings by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University that found while 61% of American millennials consider themselves to be Christian, just 2% of them were found to hold a biblical worldview. Conducted by Dr. George Barna, the study also reported that just 6% of American adults overall hold a biblical worldview.“Profoundly disturbing”, said Barna.While disappointing, I’ll risk having angry arrows rain down on me by saying the low percentage of Christian worldview holders makes complete biblical sense. Let me explain why.A nomizo faith When confronted by numbers showing Christianity being...

God loves people from every nation, race, language, and tribe. Having said that, however, I believe the United States is a unique representation of the grace and mercy of God. We are unique amongst the nations of the world—both in our history and our founding documents—and in the mission of faith from which our nation was birthed. It doesn’t mean that we are perfect or that our history is perfect. I am not suggesting that. But sometimes, in our complaints and bitterness about our own nation, we reflect quite an ignorance of the nations of the world. The liberty and...

In a parallel with current events, a new film recalls the 1969 trial of the Chicago 7. Author urges progressive Christians organize and fight in order to win. 'Chicago 7' film about iconic '60s trial disappoints Netflix's newly released film "The Trial of the Chicago 7," recalls when the Youth International Party (or Yippie) leaders along with six others were tried in 1969 by the federal government for conspiracy to incite a riot during demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 1968. Viewers will see ample parallels to our time in this flat and too staid film....

Payton Finds His Purpose, one of Amazon's September "Hot New Releases," will be FREE to all Amazon accounts on: October 24th, 25th, 31st, November 1st and December 5th.

At the fourth annual Christian Media Summit on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Christian support for Israel saying: “Your friendship and support is greatly appreciated – enormously appreciated.” The premier also discussed his newly negotiated Peace Deal between Israel and the UAE as well as Bahrain explaining that the Trump brokered normalization deal will “bring us the blessings of peace.” He added that he signed the accords “as a proud son of the Jewish people.” “If anyone has been there, all along through thick and thin, it’s you” Netanyahu stated. “You have understood the historical imperative, this great...

According to recent survey, nearly a third of self-described evangelicals do not believe that Jesus Christ is truly God. Arianism, as it turns out, is a heresy that plagues multiple generations of the Church, not just the one of the fourth century.Well, over and over the Church has, in various times and ways, ruled that some beliefs are not acceptable alternatives within Christianity. Adherents are, in fact, outsiders to the faith. For example, nearly 100 years ago, in a book entitled Christianity and Liberalism, Presbyterian scholar J. Gresham Machen argued, in an extensive scholarly treatment, that liberal Christianity was not...

Are you curious about who this title is referencing? Hints:His father gifted him a colorful robe. He was blessed with a prophetic ability to interpret dreams that later saved his life. His jealous brothers sold him into slavery for twenty shekels. He was “well-built and handsome.” Thus, he became a victim of sexual assault by the wife of a powerful man — but it was our “hero” who went to jail for several years and was almost forgotten. He was released from jail only because the Pharaoh needed, and was reminded of, our hero’s God-given talent for dream interpretation that forecasted a devastating famine....

Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, sat for nearly 20 hours of questioning by 22 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee over two days. At the outset of the process, Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham acknowledged that her confirmation by the panel was all but guaranteed. “This is probably not about persuading each other unless something really dramatic happens. All Republicans will vote yes and all Democrats will vote no and that will be the way the breakout of the vote,” Graham said. But he added that the hearings give the American people the chance to “find...

Teleios evaluated the influence of religious beliefs on the general wellbeing of college students. Of the 227 participants, there were almost equal portions of self-professed evangelicals, social Christians, agnostic/atheist and other religious groups. Students reported high levels of wellbeing with no statistical difference between religious belief systems. Evangelical Christians more often perceived themselves as: spiritual (P<0.001), accepted by God (P<0.001) and having more purpose (P=0.01). Students who identified as both evangelicals and ‘saved by grace’ showed greater wellbeing (P=0.015). IN SUMMARY, university students have high levels of wellbeing across all religious belief systems, but evangelical Christians show higher levels of...