Free Republic

(RNS) — The Rev. John Parks was taking his first sabbatical in 40 years of ministry when he got a call from his church’s accountant with some bad news. Church Mutual, the church’s insurance company, had dropped them. “This does not make sense,” Parks, the pastor of Ashford Community Church in Houston, recalls thinking at the time. “We’ve never filed a claim.” Five months and 13 insurance companies later, the church finally found replacement coverage for $80,000 per year, up from the $23,000 they had been paying. “It’s been an adventure,” said the 69-year-old Parks from his home in Houston,...

Community members are calling for greater transparency after it became more widely known that the pastor of Eternal Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is a registered sex offender. Don Logan, who has been pastor of the non-denominational church since 2015, was convicted of a child sex abuse charge in 1997. The church had been associated with the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) but left the denomination in 2009. Dana Cummings, who formerly attended the church, told Fort Mill Sun that she and her husband became aware of Logan’s status as a sex offender after receiving a cryptic email about...

[Catholic Caucus] Knights of Columbus to cover Rupnik art in DC and ConnecticutThe Knights of Columbus announced Thursday it will cover mosaics by the accused abuser Father Marko Rupnik in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut, a dramatic move that represents the strongest public stand yet by a major Catholic organization regarding the former Jesuit’s embattled art.The 2.1-million-member lay Catholic fraternal order said July 11 it would use fabric to cover the floor-to-ceiling mosaics in the two chapels of the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington and in the chapel at the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut — at...

...talking about what it meant for them to choose the Catholic priesthood in the year 2024. The next morning, they would make lifelong promises of celibacy and obedience, and they were elated by the prospect. ... There was a time where the church “maybe apologized for being Catholic,” he said later in the conversation. He and the other new priests agreed they were called to something different: advancing the Catholic faith, even the parts that could seem out of place in an increasingly hostile world. “The church is Catholic, and so we should announce that joyfully,” he said. In an...

This street preacher is out from of an LGBTQ Church and the "pastor" came out and is tongue tied when trying to discuss the Bible. Open Door Worship Center is the name of the church.

A Tennessee church raffled off an AR-15 rifle as part of its Independence Day celebration over the weekend. Dr. Todd Holmes, senior pastor of The River of Tri-Cities Church in Johnson City, said that he sees the giveaway as part of a broader effort for his church to “be a blessing” to the community. “This is just one of the many giveaways that we do here at our church,” Holmes told WJHL last week. “And I thought it was appropriate, since it’s about our nation’s independence and part of our Constitution and our Second Amendment rights.” Although Holmes acknowledged that...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican issues text underpinning controversial Synod on Synodality October meetingsWhile there are no explicit calls for female deacons, as there have been in other texts, the Vatican's new document seeks to cement synodality as the way forward for the Church.The Vatican has issued the working document which will guide October’s Synod on Synodality meetings, containing key themes and calls to action for reorganizing Church governance and decision making to involve lay people in a more “synodal” style.Published July 9, the lengthy Instrumentum laboris (IL) states that at the center of the multi-year synod process “is a call to...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope’s Restrictions Spark Resurgence of Interest in Traditional Mass Among YouthTwo French Catholic writers analyze how Traditionis Custodes is fueling a Traditional Mass movement among young CatholicsThe authors of two articles published in the progressive French Catholic daily La Croix have drawn attention to how Pope Francis’ restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass have fueled a growth in support for the ancient liturgy among young Catholics, producing the opposite effect to what was intended and posing a dilemma for bishops and for Rome. In a June 4 article headlined “Young Trads: ‘Bishops Must Seek a New Balance,’” French...

The abortion debate in America has been a defining issue for decades, drawing a clearly defined line between those who value life and those who, quite frankly, promote death. From the infamous Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which opened the floodgates to the slaughter of the unborn, to the 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned it, conservatives have long held the moral high ground. We have rightfully labeled the Democrat party as the “party of death”—it is their policies that have facilitated the killing of millions of innocent lives. Yet, with the latest compromises from the Republican National Committee (RNC),...

This street preacher is preaching at a church sponsored pride event. Not sure which church sponsored it. Only that one women who said she had a Doctorate in Theology came out and spoke to the preacher for all of the video. Others joined in either being rude or talking religion and warping it to fit their views.

The “He Gets Us” campaign, a $100 million public relations initiative aimed at rebranding Jesus, has once again proven its penchant for theological folly. This latest installment features an ad proclaiming, “The one who identifies as they/them is your neighbor.” As chronicled at The Dissenter, this campaign persistently distorts Christian principles to fit a modern, leftist agenda—much to the chagrin of conservative Christians who uphold the authority of Scripture. The ad attempts to exploit the biblical mandate to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). This campaign, like much of the contemporary evangelical movement, grossly misrepresents what it means to...

[Catholic Caucus] Italian priest to ‘bless’ homosexual activist ‘couple’ after civil union ceremonyDon Giuseppe Cavoli will ‘bless’ Hector Pautasso and Filippo Sanchi at the reception after the two LGBT activists contract a civil union, in the Italian diocese of Francis-appointed Bishop Andrea Andreozzi.Bishop Andrea AndreozziCARTOCETO, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — Two homosexual activists are due to receive a “blessing” from a Catholic priest following their civil union ceremony later this year, with the longtime cohabiting pair also intending to adopt a child. A July 7 report by an Italian daily highlighted the upcoming plans for the state and ecclesial approval of the...

Since Joe Biden has taken office, we have seen him not wasting any time seeking to open our U.S. border and flood our nation with illegals and refugees from God knows where. Our nation was founded on the rule of law and founded on the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. Many Americans today despise any rule of law and seek a narcissistic form of life, which is outworked in lawlessness (Rom. 1:18-32). This topic of immigration is not a hard topic to understand when one sees this topic through the prism of our founding, the rule of constitutional...

[Catholic Caucus] The mysterium iniquitatis and Pope Benedict XVI’s Resignation: Giorgio Agamben’s InterpretationThe Mystery of Evil: Benedict XVI and the End of Days contains a message carries implications rarely seen in a book written by an academic scholar. In fact, as we will see shortly, the Italian author proposes a substantial interpretation regarding the unprecedented crisis that led to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.Published in Italy in 2013, Giorgio Agamben’s small volume, Il mistero del male: Benedetto XVI e la fine dei tempi, was translated by Adam Kotsko and rendered into English four years later, in 2017. Known as...

In this video I'm in Claremont, New Hampshire outside of a pride rally talking to a gay affirming church. We had a long talk with their female 'pastor' Maggie, who we had a good discussion with. Later in the video I talk to another Church Tabling who were also gay affirming and one of the ladies was less than happy with me talking about the truth of Jesus Christ with her and her daughter. (In this video he actually speaks to two different churches from same denomination. The First Congregational Church and South Congregational Church)

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: The Vatican is more interested in silencing Viganò than addressing his allegationsWhile Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is excommunicated, the same Vatican tolerates and even supports figures like Theodore McCarrick and others who abuse and challenge Church teaching.Editor’s note: The following text has been taken in full from Bishop Joseph Strickland’s X account (formerly Twitter). The original posts can be found HERE and HERE.(LifeSiteNews) — We find ourselves at a strange moment in Church history when Archbishop Viganò is excommunicated swiftly while Theodore McCarrick remains unexcommunicated after years of his crimes against the Church have come to...

[Catholic Caucus] Thousands of Spanish Pilgrims to Be Denied Traditional Latin Mass at the Shrine of CovadongaThe Dicastery of Divine Worship notified the Archdiocese of Oviedo that the pilgrims of Nuestra Señora de la Cristiandad are forbidden, at the end of their pilgrimage, to celebrate the TLM in the great historic shrine of Covadonga, as they have peacefully and fervently done the past three years. Here are a couple of photos from last year, showing the large numbers, and the poster for 2024:Photo of last year's pilgrims in front of the shrineWorshiping in the shrine, as their forefathers had doneThis...

[Catholic Caucus] Faithful Catholics prayerfully protest sacrilegious ‘Pride Mass’ at New Jersey churchFor a seventh year, Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, hosted a ‘Pride Mass,’ drawing opposition for the sacrilege and for desecrating the church with ‘Pride’-themed decorations from faithful Catholics.(Tradition, Family, Property) — Wolves are destroying the faith from within. For a seventh year, a sacrilegious “Pride Mass” took place on June 23, 2024, at Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, thus wounding the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Archdiocese of Newark. READ: Vatican says Archbishop Viganò ‘guilty’ of schism and...

A Mexican woman believed to be a witch with cartel ties, was killed after she tried to snatch an 18-month-old out his parents' arms with the stated intent of killing the child as sacrifice to the patron saint of cartels. Before Maria Guadalupe R.M., 33, tried to kidnap the child, she had made it known to her nephew, also the father of the child, that she believed a dead family member had been reincarnated as his son, reported local newspaper Norte Digital. Sunday, she broke into her relatives' Ciudad Juarez home as her nephew slept with his wife and son...

Georgia megachurch Pastor Andy Stanley has criticized the Southern Baptist Convention for disfellowshipping Rick Warren's Saddleback Church for having a female teaching pastor. In a sermon Sunday at North Point Community Church of Alpharetta, Stanley, the son of late Southern Baptist pastor and televangelist Charles Stanley, spoke about the need to "remove obstacles" for people trying to follow Jesus Christ. Identifying himself as "theologically conservative," Stanley said that the "progress" many churches were making to reach the lost "is being undermined and reversed like crazy." "With all the political nonsense in the last few years, it has picked up speed...