Free Republic

Among life’s most perplexing mysteries: • Why do most Americans continue to believe Islam is the “religion of peace” – a growing international death-toll notwithstanding? • Why do the French eat snails and think Jerry Lewis is funny? • Why are women surprised that many of the men they have sex with have absolutely no interest in marrying them? • Why are the Jews so compulsively/tragically liberal? My friend Ira, a Hasidic Jew who lives in the Boston-area, once told me if he goes to vote and sees two candidates for an office, and he knows nothing about them other...

Mara Vanderslice is a frenetic far-Leftist who worked for the Kerry campaign in 2004 — also then trying to con Christians into voting Democrat. Background on her here A new political group that claims to be a Christian organization has endorsed pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Matthew 25 Network plans to run ads for Obama on Christian radio stations and in newspapers and magazines that appeal to Christians. The object is to try to pry away evangelical voters from supporting John McCain, who has already received the endorsement of a number of evangelical and Catholic groups and leaders.Mara Vanderslice,...

Observe that the Lutherans cite government as “an important catalyst in God’s work.” In fact, their agenda implies that government is virtually God’s only instrument. The Lutherans want government to abolish poverty, prohibit war, cleanse the environment, engineer egalitarian justice globally, and seemingly usher in The Millennium through additional regulation and taxation. If government can achieve so much, who needs God, much less the church?

Officials of the declining 4.9 million Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have revealed what God’s priorities are in the U.S. presidential campaign. And remarkably, the divine priorities was very akin to the Democratic Party’s priorities, if not further to the left. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, with three other ELCA officials generously wrote both presidential candidates a public letter with the divine guidance. Although famed Protestant Reformer Martin Luther championed the Bible as God’s exclusive revelation, modern ELCA activists have located more useful counsel in the secular welfare state and environmental agenda. “The Scriptures are clear about God's concern for...

A prominent black Christian pastor says Barack Obama (D-Illinois) made "an inept attempt to be a theology major" in Thursday night's Democratic presidential forum on homosexual issues. During Thursday's forum, Obama was asked by one of the moderators why many black churches remain strongly opposed to homosexuality. Moderator Jonathan Capeheart of the Washington Post then referred to such opposition as "homophobia." Obama responded to the question by saying some black pastors "have elevated one line of Romans over the Sermon on the Mount." Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., who chairs the High Impact Leadership Coalition, says Obama is an intelligent man...

This past weekend, Barack Obama passed up two key opportunities to stand up and be counted when it comes to making good on his campaign themes of bringing people together, healing, and fighting cynicism. But instead of action to realize his proclaimed goals, all we got was slippery evasion and bland talk. If you think Obama can be a leader, examine his brhavior this past weekend and draw your own conclusions. Background While many Christians, notably the evangelical community, are deeply supportive of Israel, the leaders of a few Christian church groups in America have issued anti-Israel resolutions over the...

I've been thinking about Barack Obama's speech on religion in Hartford on Saturday and also the recent forum where the three leading Democrats discussed their own theologies -- Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, Hillary Clinton is a strict Methodist and John Edwards was raised as a Southern Baptist but joined the Methodist Church while in college. This is the first time in recent memory that Democratic candidates on the campaign trail have been so candid about their religious affiliations and beliefs; religion and the sanctity of belief are subjects that have been "hijacked" -- to borrow Obama's...

Barack Obama and I share the same church. And since our joint church is celebrating its 50th birthday in Hartford, Connecticut from June 22nd-26th, he's coming to party. While I will be unable to attend the party, I am still looking forward to seeing whether Obama will dare to have the courage of Daniel in the lion's den and, as liberals love to say, "speak truth to power." Something tells me I shouldn't hold my breath. We are in different physical churches, of course. The Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate belongs to Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago,...

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, one of the country's most racially diverse and liberal Protestant denominations -- the first to ordain an openly gay minister and to call for equal marriage rights for all people, regardless of gender. The UCC prides itself as being "out front" on social justice issues, battling civil rights, women's rights and gay rights ahead of the mainstream. One Sunday hymnal equally celebrates male and female images of God.

OK, shameless theft of Anne Coulter's idea of the church of liberalism, but I thought for Easter I'd publish this. It will be part of a book about taking back the West from moonbats to be published some day (maybe, if I ever finish it). Please feel free to add your own pithy additions which I will no doubt shamelessly steal without attribution. Happy Easter!The Liberal Canon All cultures are equal. One culture is less equal than others. Members of a minority are never responsible for their failures. Members of the majority are never responsible for their successes. Only the...

A fresh wave of atheistic books has hit the market this autumn, some climbing onto best-seller lists in what proponents see as a backlash against the way religion is entwined in politics. "Religion is fragmenting the human community," said Sam Harris, author of "Letter to a Christian Nation," No. 11 on the New York Times nonfiction list on October 15. There is a "huge visibility and political empowerment of religion. President George W. Bush uses his first veto to deny funding for stem cell research and scientists everywhere are horrified," he said in an interview. Religious polarization is part of...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A fresh wave of atheistic books has hit the market this autumn, some climbing onto best-seller lists in what proponents see as a backlash against the way religion is entwined in politics. "Religion is fragmenting the human community," said Sam Harris, author of "Letter to a Christian Nation," No. 11 on the New York Times nonfiction list on October 15. There is a "huge visibility and political empowerment of religion. President George W. Bush uses his first veto to deny funding for stem cell research and scientists everywhere are horrified," he said in an interview. Religious polarization...

The religious right, which helped re-elect President Bush in 2004 by rallying opposition to abortion and gay marriage, is now facing a pushback from the religious left.  With a faith-based agenda of their own, liberal and progressive clergy from various denominations are lobbying lawmakers, holding rallies and publicizing their positions. They want to end the Iraq war, ease global warming, combat poverty, raise the minimum wage, revamp immigration laws, and prevent "immoral" cuts in federal social programs.  Some, like the Rev. Robin Meyers of the United Church of Christ in Oklahoma, marry gay couples and seek to reduce abortions while...

by L.N. Smithee July 18, 2006 Although it is far from the overwhelming box office success of Michael Moore's factually-challenged "documentary" Fahrenheit 9/11, Al Gore and producer Laurie David's glorified campaign ad/PowerPoint presentation An Inconvenient Truth is a hit...for a documentary. This is not surprising, because few documentaries have the backing that this one does: it stars a nationally known figure in former Vice President Al Gore (who, remember, got the majority of votes cast nationwide in the 2000 election), is co-produced by a well-known celebrity spouse (Laurie David, wife of professional schlemiel Larry David and a quasi-environmentalist who loves...