Free Republic

After they beat Azat Azatyan so bad blood came out of his ears; after they sent electric shocks up his genitals; after they wacked him with pipes and truncheons, the Russians began to interrogate him about his faith. “When did you become a Baptist? When did you become an American spy?” Azat tried to explain that in Ukraine there was freedom of religion, you could just choose your faith. But his torturers saw the world the same way as their predecessors at the KGB did: an American church is just a front for the American state. Azat was dragged back...

Women in Potentially Destructive and Harmful Relationships Do you constantly find yourself “walking on eggshells” in order to avoid upsetting your partner? Does your partner constantly criticize you? Are you confused about what a healthy relationship looks like? STATEMENT OF FAITH Called to Peace Ministries is an evangelical, nondenominational parachurch ministry. We hold to the basic tenants of the faith as passed down by the church fathers and set forth in the Apostles’ Creed. We believe that God’s Word is the standard by which Christians are to live their lives. At CTPM we believe that there should be unity when...

Pollster Frank Luntz tried on Friday to explain to an oblivious CNN host why Evangelical Christians overwhelmingly support former President Donald Trump. While the reasons should be obvious — Trump helped repeal Roe v. Wade, staunchly supports religious liberty, and has been an ally to Christians — host Brianna Keilar just couldn’t figure it out. Indeed, in her opinion, Evangelicals should revile Trump because — wait for it — he’s an imperfect human being who’s said and done imperfect things. For example, when asked in 2015 about whether he’d ever asked God for forgiveness, he essentially said no. “I’m not...

Among faith groups in the United States, white Evangelical Christians are one of the best at retaining members even as the share of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated continues to grow, according to a new survey. The nonprofit research organization Public Religion Research Institute released the report on Wednesday titled "Religious Change in America," which charted several trends among faith groups in the U.S. Data for the report came from a survey PRRI conducted online of 5,627 adults in the U.S. from Nov. 16 to Dec. 7, 2023, with a margin of error of +/- 1.79 percentage points at the...

On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough told a tale of attending a family gathering for his last birthday, and that his family members there were "all Republicans. All pro-life. All evangelicals." And yet, were they really "pro-life"? According to Scarborough, 30 minutes into the gathering, one relative raised the anedcote of a woman in Texas who was bleeding out because the doctor wouldn't perform an abortion. And that in turn led to "these people, these Republicans, these pro-lifers, these Southern Baptists, these evangelicals, had one horror story after another horror story about what terminating Roe v. Wade was doing to human...

The media freakout over the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos are people continued on Thursday’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, where the MSNBC eponymous host welcomed OBGYN Jennifer Lincoln to label the state “dangerous” and claim Evangelicals are trying to kick women out of the workplace. Mitchell led Lincoln with two reasons why a woman may seek IVF treatment. The first had to do with the ramifications of certain life choices, “a lot of women are staying in the workplace longer and not having children, delaying marriage until their late 30s or 40s. For them, this can be very, very important,...

A conservative California preacher invited to deliver the invocation as a guest chaplain in the U.S. House last month has drawn the ire of self-identified atheist Rep. Jared Huffman and 25 other House Democrats. Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, who spoke of “a coming day of judgment,” in his Jan. 30 invocation, is described in the Democrats’ letter of protest as a “radical Christian Nationalist who helped fuel the January 6th insurrection and [who] has a long record of hateful vitriol toward non-Christians, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community.” In their letter to House Speaker...

There are many followers of Jesus in America today who do not describe themselves as “Christians.” It is not because they are ashamed of their faith. Instead, it is because the word “Christian” has become so diluted that almost anyone can call themselves a Christian, regardless of how they live or what they believe. To say, “I’m a Christian” does not necessarily convey a specific set of beliefs or moral standards, and this has been the case in America for many years now.

Sometimes the deity moves in completely unexpected ways. Right now, it looks like the whole world is ganging up on Israel, except for a few Western (American and European) holdouts, and even these are starting to waffle. But the deity had a backup plan. What America’s press has totally ignored is the radical transformation of Latin America. In Brazil, the population is 31% Evangelical. In El Salvador, the population is 40% Evangelical In Guatemala, the population is 40% Evangelical. In Honduras, the population is 40% Evangelical. In Chile, the population is 18% Evangelical. In Argentina, the population is 15% Evangelical....

Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump railed against “so-called Christians” and “pieces of s—” evangelicals who supported Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, according to a forthcoming book. At the time, allies of Cruz had been making hay of Trump’s flub before an audience at Virginia’s Liberty University, a conservative evangelical college, in which he botched a question about his favorite Bible verse and replied that it came from the book of “Two Corinthians,” rather than “Second Corinthians.” “The laughter and ridicule were embarrassing enough for Trump,” Tim Alberta writes in his new book, “The Kingdom, the Power,...

Israel is reassessing its visa policies for Evangelical Christian organizations, including the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, after years of restrictions. The move follows a surge in visa denials for Evangelical clergy and comes against a backdrop of rising tensions between religious communities in the country.Israeli authorities are in talks to establish new visa procedures for permanent staff of Christian organizations like the ICEJ, Bridges for Peace and Christians United for Israel, Al-Monitor reported, citing a spokesperson for the Israel Population and Immigration Authority.Founded in 1980, the ICEJ has a small permanent staff of 40 in Jerusalem and is involved...

Whoopi Goldberg told her co-hosts Monday on ABC’s “The View” that she hoped evangelicals would “wake up and realize that God may not be on their side the way they think he is” while discussing former President Donald Trump at the recent Faith & Freedom Coalition convention. Co-host Sunny Hostin said, “What was shocking to me was the hypocrisy of the evangelical community, booing at the truth. I mean, we can all have differences of opinions, but the facts remain the same. And, he did these things, so it’s almost like they were going, ‘la la la la la la...

Former President Trump stressed his efforts to restrict abortion access during remarks to a group of evangelicals over the weekend in the early nominating state of Iowa. “Last year, after decades of work by organizations like yours, those justices delivered a landmark victory for protecting innocent life,” Trump, bragging about the three Supreme Court seats he filled with conservative justices, said Saturday about the fall of Roe v. Wade. “Nobody thought it was going to happen. They thought it would be another 50 years.” Trump’s victory lap on helping curb abortion access in front of the Iowa Faith and Freedom...

At issue is a provision in the bill that would impose, per the legislative text: "criminal penalties for persons who knowingly and willfully violate, or who reasonably should know and who violate, certain provisions relating to the transporting into or within this state, or the concealing, harboring, or shielding from detection, or the attempt thereof, of individuals who entered the United States unlawfully and without inspection by the Federal Government."Violators could be charged with a second-degree felony under the bill, which in Florida is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The bill is also opposed by the ACLU,...

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at evangelicals for not supporting his latest presidential campaign, saying it was a “sign of disloyalty” after he appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices and made their long-held dream of overturning Roe v. Wade possible. Trump, 76, told Real America’s Voice’s “The Water Cooler” Monday that the religious bloc of voters who were key to his 2016 victory have not yet come out to back his 2024 White House bid. “That’s a sign of disloyalty,” Trump told host David Brody. “There’s great disloyalty in the world of politics, and that’s a sign of disloyalty.”

The Observatory of Religious Pluralism in Spain has released an update of the data on places of worship, as well as the religious identification of the Spanish population according to the statistics published by the Sociological Research Centre (CIS).The Observatory aims to provide “data and diagnoses on the diversity of beliefs and the needs related to the effective exercise of religious freedom, in order to contribute to the improvement of public management”, explained on its website.In addition to provide reports and infographics on the situation of religious minorities in Spain, the Observatory updates data on places of worship every six...

Call it a crisis of faith. Despite appointing the conservative judges who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade — and fervently courting the religious right during his presidency — prominent evangelicals are beginning to shy away from supporting former President Donald Trump’s third bid for office. A major factor is the same issue driving leaders in other parts of the conservative coalition away from his campaign: They’re not sure he can win. “Evangelicals, conservatives and freedom-loving Americans … the common question is: Who can win in 2024?” Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of the Family Leader, told Semafor. “And I...

American evangelicalism is deeply divided. Some evangelicals have embraced the secular turn toward social justice activism, particularly around race and immigration, accusing others of failing to reckon with the church’s racist past. Others charge evangelical elites with going “woke” and having failed their flocks. Some elites are denounced for abandoning historic Christian teachings on sexuality. Others face claims of hypocrisy for supporting the serial adulterer Donald Trump. Old alliances are dissolving. Former Southern Baptist agency head Russell Moore has left his denomination. Political pundit David French has become a fearsome critic of ­many religious conservatives who would once have been...

On Jan. 6, 2021, a large group of evangelical Christians attacked the U.S. Capitol on the understanding that they were fighting for God's president. (Not all of those who stormed the Capitol were driven by religious convictions, of course, but a large proportion were.) They were ready to kill for their president, take down a democratic system that has endured nearly 250 years, and follow Donald Trump at God's supposed direction until America became a Christian theocracy. As the House Jan. 6 committee concludes its investigation, I think the power and significance of these evangelical believers have been overlooked. Most...

Every two years, Ligonier Ministries works with LifeWay Research to evaluate the theological temperature of the American church. This year’s State of Theology study’s results show that not just Americans but Evangelicals, in particular, are increasingly muddy on core truths such as the nature and character of God, the reality of human sin, the role of the Church in the world, and the exclusivity and divinity of Jesus Christ. For context, the survey defines “Evangelical” as a Christian believer who meets four criteria: that the Bible is the highest authority for what someone believes, that it is important for non-Christians...