Free Republic

First they came for the Alawites, then they came for the Christians. Now they are coming for the Druze.Ever since regime change in Syria last December, the country had not exactly offered safety to its minorities, despite President Ahmed al-Sheraa's (al-Julani) fine words that he is the head of all Syrians, not just Sunnis. Druze have been murdered in the town of Suweida, there has been massacre, mutilation and humiliation. In fact there are suspicions that Al-Julani’s own forces slaughtered the entire staff at Suweida’s hospital along with their patients and carried out extrajudicial executions. The international community has been...

Failed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams isn’t ruling out a third run for governor of the Peach State, and said in a Tuesday interview that true Christians should have left-leaning views. "I truly have not made any decisions and that is in part because there's an urgency to 2025 that we cannot ignore," Abrams told NPR, concerning whether she'll run again. "My focus right now is on how do we ensure that we have free and fair elections in 2026? There's a lot of hope being pinned on the '26 midterms." Abrams was the minority leader of the Georgia...

Heartbreaking, Father Tony Boutros, representative of the Greek Catholic Church in Sweida, Syria, makes an appeal to the international community to save Christians and Druze from an Islamist genocide. “We Christians and Druze are one. Look at the massacre they are committing against us. We need protection to continue living in the land we have peacefully lived together for hundreds of years.” ... Who is doing the Killings? What’s UN doing? ... not seeing Christian pastors/priests speaking up ... This is the history of Islam. Conquer. Destroy. Kill non Islamic citizens. Then destroy a country and send it back into...

A priest who was a close friend of the late Pope Francis has been injured in an Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church.The attack on Thursday killed two people, injured several others and and damaged the Holy Family Church. It is one of three surviving churches in the war-ravaged enclave, which have become refuges for displaced Christians.“The Holy Family Church in Gaza has been struck by a raid this morning. There are several injuries in the place, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli,” the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.

Under Iran’s theocratic regime, Christians – especially converts from Islam – already face severe restrictions and opposition. The country is number nine on the World Watch List, and Iranian believers are often viewed as Western-influenced ‘threats to the state’. Persecution includes long prison sentences for ordinary house church members for the vaguely worded charge of ‘acting against national security by connecting with ‘Zionist’ Christian organisations’. With tensions now erupting between Iran and Israel, experts warn that Iranian Christians will be even more targeted with suspicion and repression. “Instead of protecting the people, the Iranian government is now arresting anyone caught...

This magnificent prayer was delivered at the opening session of the 54th Annual National Right to Life Conference in Overland Park, Kansas Father, we come to You today with a deep sense of gratitude. We are grateful for your love, and we are grateful for the salvation that you have provided in Christ. We are grateful because we know that everything is from you and through you and to you. And every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no shifting shadow. We praise you for the opportunity to gather – we...

As a dual American and an Israeli, July 4 has always had a dual special meaning. That is, since 1976, America’s bicentennial. Like many American children, the year leading up to and during the bicentennial was a period of sharing national pride in all that America stood for, and its history. Growing up in a town with a famous revolutionary war battlefield, the reenactment of that battle made things extra vivid. As an Israeli, it is remarkable to me that after 200 years, the U.S. was able to celebrate its independence by reenacting the war in which it fought to...

A religious group is protesting outside Seattle City Hall on Tuesday following a weekend of unrest at Cal Anderson Park. At least four people have been arrested for assault at the First Amendment event outside of City Hall, according to the Seattle Police Department (SPD). KOMO News crews at the protest saw at least one other arrest, in addition to the four SPD reported. The "Rattle in Seattle" rally was scheduled to take place at Seattle City Hall at 5 p.m. A counter rally was also planned at the same location and began an hour earlier.

The pro-life movement is losing the long game. Not because our arguments lack truth or our data lacks integrity, but because we are fighting on the wrong battlefield. For decades, we have reacted to Planned Parenthood’s every move, attacking abortion procedure by procedure, law by law and statistic by statistic. And yet, abortion remains embedded in our culture, now more accessible than ever through telehealth, mail-order pills and blue-state shield laws. The question must be asked: have Christians conceded the moral high ground? Planned Parenthood understands something the Church has forgotten — the real battle is cultural. It is spiritual....

Talk to the average critic of the evangelical church—perhaps someone who has “deconstructed” and now resents their religious upbringing—and one of the first complaints they have is that Christians are too political. Especially since 2016, it has become common to smear conservative Christians for being more interested in “making America great again” than in making disciples. This perception of evangelicals (that their churches are too political) is so strong that sociologist Christian Smith cited it in his recent book, Why Religion Went Obsolete as one of the main reasons for the long-term decline in church attendance. Here’s the irony: Evangelical...

Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday hailed Christian communities in the Middle East who “persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them” despite war, marginalization or persecution. “Christians must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” he told a meeting of Eastern Catholic Churches at the Vatican. On Sunday, the pontiff called for an "authentic and lasting peace" in Ukraine, a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages held by militant group...

SOKOTO, NIGERIA – Monday, May 12 marks three years since radical jihadists in Nigeria murdered a 22-year-old Christian woman, and new first hand testimony is shedding light on her final moments. However, the Nigerian Department of State Services detained the three journalists today for about four hours after publishing the new report. Deborah Emmanuel’s story first made international headlines when a violent Muslim mob beat her to death in 2022. Journalists identified her as a victim of a so-called “blasphemy” murder in the capital of Nigeria’s Sokoto state. Judd Saul, the founder of Equipping the Persecuted and executive director of...

The institutions created to protect and build better lives for American children who have suffered abuse and neglect have made it much harder for religious families to adopt. In fact, the state nearly thwarted one Christian foster family’s sacrifice to build a better life for innocent kids, all because their beliefs did not align with radical gender ideology. In a new docuseries available now, Separated: When The State Takes Your Kids, the Daily Caller Original Series highlights the stories of three families who paid an awful price for refusing to participate in left-wing gender madness. The third and final episode...

The al Qaeda terror leader of Syria – Al Sharaa who is perpetrating the wholesale slaughter of Christians, Alawites, Druze as we speak is hosted by French president Macron in Paris This the same Macron who has pledged to arrest Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu if he came to France. Didn’t they vote this craven scumbag out? ... The Syrian dictator, an ISIS murderer, who just recently set his Sunni dogs to butcher Alawites and Druze, has landed in Paris to meet Macron. If Bibi were going down those stairs he would be arrested for being a Jewish leader who fights...

Is Donald Trump on his way to becoming the world’s chief Defender of Christianity? That’s what various media have been reporting; one Fox News headline asserts that Trump is “Vowing to ‘Defend the Christian Faith.’” These claims trace back to a White House statement released on Palm Sunday (April 13) wherein Donald Trump spoke of Jesus Christ and Easter, or Resurrection, Sunday in terms that would edify the most faithful of Christians. A few snippets from Trump’s statement follow:

After the Biden administration spent four years “weaponizing” her division, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon says that she needs more “energized attorneys” to help her spearhead new initiatives to protect rights that have been trampled on in the past years. The priorities pursued in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division by her predecessor Kristen Clarke — prosecuting pro-life activists, suing states over election integrity efforts and targeting police departments — are going to change, Dhillon told the Daily Caller News Foundation during a Friday interview. Under her leadership, Dhillon said the Civil Rights Division will...

Indiana’s state treasurer repeatedly stood against big banks canceling accounts and releasing customer data of Christians and conservatives for viewpoint discrimination. A pending must-pass bill in Indiana’s Republican-run legislature would strip some of Treasurer Daniel Elliott’s powers and could give them to those same banks.... Elliott has been a key partner of a nationwide coalition of conservative financial elected officials, the State Financial Officers Foundation. As part of that coalition, he and some 25 other Republican state financial officers have fought financial discrimination against Christians and conservatives, ESG, and DEI.... In a 2024 Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) press conference, Elliott...

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing the extent to which parents can opt their children out of public school instruction in which LGBT-themed books are read as part of the curriculum. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday morning in the case of Mahmoud, Tamer, et al. v. Taylor, Thomas W., et al. The case centers on whether public school parents in Montgomery County, Maryland — the state's largest school district — have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to exempt their children from lessons that feature LGBT ideology. Eric Baxter of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty...

If wokeism, Islamism, and global neoliberalism are to be decisively rejected, then Americans should support fortifying the Christian church.This is an adapted excerpt from Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West by Josh Hammer. Used with permission from Radius Book Group, a division of Diversion Publishing.In June 2024, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law making his state the first to mandate display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms from kindergarten through university. As Landry, himself a Catholic, said before signing the bill, “If you want to respect the...

50 years ago today, on April 13 1975, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on a church in Beirut, killing 4 Christians. It was the start of the Lebanese Civil War It would destroy the Christian-majority country that had been one the best and safest countries in the Middle East ... A tragic reminder of how quickly violence can destroy a once-peaceful nation. Lebanon was truly a jewel of the Middle East before extremism tore it apart. We must learn from history to prevent these devastating sectarian conflicts from repeating. ... Same plan for America. ... Islam destroys everything it touches. ......