Free Republic

The speech was mean-spirited and dishonest -- and may have been counterproductive. President Obama’s speech last week advocating congressional approval of the Iran deal was mostly made-up history mixed with invective. Indeed, he talked far more roughly about his congressional partners than he did about our Iranian enemies, who have worked so hard to kill Americans over the last 35 years. Obama assured us that in the past a “nonproliferation treaty . . . prohibited nations from acquiring nuclear weapons.” One wonders, then, how India, China, North Korea, and Pakistan ever obtained them, given they were all forbidden to do...

“The Bread of Life” (John 6:35-51)Today is the second of three straight Sundays in which the Holy Gospel is a portion of Jesus’ “Bread of Life” discourse from John chapter 6. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus declares, several times in John 6, and that is the motif running through this chapter. Last week we heard Jesus say, “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” And then he said, in the verse that concluded last week’s reading and also...

“Receiving God’s Gifts: Grumbling or Grateful?” (Exodus 16:2-15; John 6:22-35; Ephesians 4:1-16)There is a theme that runs through all three of our lessons today. Did you spot it? It is the theme of God’s gifts. In the reading from Exodus, in the reading from Ephesians, and in the reading from John--in each of those readings, God is busy giving gifts to his people. Our God is a gracious and giving God, there is no doubt about that. But how God’s people receive his gifts--how we receive the gifts God gives to us--now that can be quite another question. Do we...

Michael Lutz, the Wisconsin whistleblower and former prosecutor who alleged that the union-operative wife of “John Doe” prosecutor John Chislhom was behind the targeting of conservative activists that recently was thrown out by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.... Is dead in what police are terming an apparent suicide....Lutz, 44, a former Milwaukee police officer, suffered an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound “while in the presence of Menomonee Falls tactical officers after a brief tactical situation,” the medical examiner’s office said in a release issued Sunday. Lutz was pronounced dead in the 12300 block of W. Mill Road in Milwaukee at 4:05 a.m.,...

“The Loving Father, the Lifted-Up Son, and the Life-Giving Spirit” (John 3:1-17)The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for our salvation. That’s what this Feast of the Holy Trinity is all about. This is not an occasion to strain our brains to try to figure out what for us, with our finite reason, is ultimately incomprehensible, namely, how there can be one God in three persons and at the same time three persons and only one God. That would blow out our circuits, if we even could comprehend it. Rather, the thing to do on this day is simply,...

“The Helper: The Paraclete of Pentecost” (John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15)“To You, O Paraclete, we raise / Unending songs of thanks and praise.” Did you catch that last line of the hymn we just sang? And did you wonder who or what this “Paraclete” was? Well, it seems to be a reference to the Holy Spirit, because earlier in that stanza we’ve been praising the Father and the Son, so this must be the Holy Spirit. But why call the Holy Spirit “Paraclete”? Is that because the Spirit came down in the form of a parakeet at Jesus’ baptism? No, wait, that...

“Confidence, Unity, and Joy: God’s Gifts to Our Church” (1 John 5:9-15; John 17:11b-19)Today we are very happy to receive yet another family into our congregation. That makes seventeen new members added to our little church so far this year. Seventeen! That is remarkable. From out of the blue, quite unexpectedly, God has gifted us with these brothers and sisters in Christ, who are joining our church. Thanks be to God! Yes, today we give thanks to God for the gift of these new members, who already are being a real blessing to our church. But now I want to...

Here comes Kasichmania? CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich is about to launch a national political committee that would allow him to raise money and his profile as he considers a run for president in 2016, sources close to the Republican said Thursday. (SNIP) But I don't think he'll get that far. If he runs, plenty of people in the base are going to react the way Mofo Politics reacted when he put forth a plan to expand Medicaid in Ohio under Obamacare: Kasich justifies his “very conservative” decision to expand Medicaid and implement Obamacare... (SNIP) ... There’s a, kind...

“One Name, One Flock, One Shepherd” (Acts 4:1-12; John 10:11-18)Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter, also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday,” the day in the church year every year when the propers--that is, the various parts of the service--revolve around Jesus as our Good Shepherd. The Holy Gospel is always a portion of John 10, in which Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd. The Psalm is always the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The Hymn of the Day, which we just sang, is “The King of Love My Shepherd Is.” And so on. This theme of the...

“Faith, Fellowship, and Forgiveness” (John 20:19-31; 1 John 1:1 – 2:2; Acts 4:32-35) Did you get any gifts for Easter? Maybe an Easter basket, filled with chocolate bunnies and jelly beans and Easter eggs that you open up and there’s a coin inside? Well, I can think of some Easter gifts that are even better than that. And today I want to tell you about them. They’re right there in our readings for today, and they are these Easter gifts, three of them: “Faith, Fellowship, and Forgiveness.” Faith, fellowship, and forgiveness: three Easter gifts that we have because of the...

“A Fruitful Tree” (Galatians 5:16-25; John 15:1-5; Psalm 1)We just heard a bunch of readings from a variety of places in the Bible--Psalm 1, Proverbs, Jeremiah, Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and words of Jesus from the gospels of St. Luke and St. John--and all of these readings, about trees bearing fruit. This is an image of course of people and the fruits or works that they produce in their lives. Now the first thing to recognize is that we all bear fruit. We all produce works in our lives. The question is, though: What kind of fruit are we...

 How Did James & John Envision Jesus' Kingdom?  They Asked to Sit at His Right & Left Hand; the Other Ten Were Indignant.  What Was This Kingdom They Thought They Would Rule?  What Eventually Became of Them All?  The Apostles Believed that Jesus Would Restore the Kingdom of David, Which Was at Its Greatest Extent and Stability in the Time of his son Solomon.  But Jesus's Apostles Spread His Kingdom Worldwide, Far Beyond the Greatest Extent of Israel's Empire.  The Apostles Never Could Have Imagined Their Eventual Fates.  The Apostles "Get Down to Business", Trying to Establish the Pecking Order...

“Watershed Moments: Jesus’ Birth and Our Own” (John 1:1-18; Titus 3:4-7)Today is Christmas Day. This is the day for celebrating the greatest birth in the history of the world, the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The birth of Christ marks the watershed moment in all of human history. By a “watershed moment,” I mean a moment so significant that it marks a division between what went before and what comes after. And so it is with the birth of Christ. We even divide up time according to it: “B.C.,” “Before Christ,” and “A.D.,” “Anno Domini,” “In the...

There might soon be thousands more licensed drivers in the Grand Canyon State. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Arizona must offer driver’s licenses to thousands of young immigrants who entered the United States illegally but were protected from deportation by a presidential order in 2012, The Associated Press reports. In a 6-3 decision, justices denied Gov. Jan Brewer’s request for a stay on a circuit court ruling. Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would have granted the stay.

“Who Are You, John?” (John 1:6-8, 19-28) How would you like to be defined in terms of someone else? I mean, who you are, your life and identity--when people think of you, they always compare you to somebody else? Are you like this person? Are you like that person? I suppose it could get old after a while. Why can’t people just take you for who you are, on your own terms? Well, today we’ll meet someone whose life was always being defined in terms of someone else. And you know what? He was okay with it. And so this...

I think I speak for the VAST MAJORITY of those who voted Republican in the midterm election when I say F*** Y** John Boehner! This SOB IGNORED THE MANDATE OF THE MIDTERM ELECTION, thus back-stabbing all of us by spearheading passage and funding of amnesty and Obamacare. Save to mention he has just committed suicide of the Republican party! Job ONE of next year's newly seated members of the House is to REPEAL AND REPLACE JOHN BOEHNER AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE!!!! May you ROT in hell for what you have just done to the Republican party, Speaker Boehner!

There was once a time when "The Daily Show" was truly groundbreaking. That isn't the case anymore

Wow! Obama went off on National Journal reporter Major Garrett today during his press conference after the thumping he received in the midtern elections. “OK, let’s see. See, they may… OK, medical device tax… I’ve already answered, uh-uh, the question. We are going to take a look at whatever ideas… Let me take a look comprehensively at the ideas that they present. Let’s give em time to tell me… I’d rather hear it from them than from you. Major, you know, uh… conceivably I could cancel my meeting on Friday because I’ve heard everything from you. I think I’d rather...

MI5 and MI6 have identified the British fighter suspected of murdering the American journalist James Foley, senior government sources confirmed last night. The masked man with a London accent, who is said to be known to fellow fighters as “Jihadi John”, was seen in the shocking video of Foley’s death released by the Isis extremist army last week. While sources gave no details of the man they have identified, a key suspect is Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 23, who left his family’s £1m home in Maida Vale, west London, last year. He recently tweeted a picture of himself holding up a...

NHS doctor from East London may hold the key to identifying the jihadi who beheaded James Foley. An NHS doctor from east London who was previously accused of kidnapping Western journalists in Syria may hold the key to identifying the jihadi who beheaded James Foley, intelligence sources have disclosed. Shajul Islam was arrested and charged with kidnapping a British journalist, John Cantlie, in 2012 but was released after his trial collapsed when Mr Cantlie was unable to give evidence. He had always protested his innocence, saying he went to Syria to use his medical skills to treat victims of the...