Free Republic

A Canadian study found that conservative churches are still growing, while less orthodox congregations dwindle away.Mainline Protestant churches are in trouble: A 2015 report by the Pew Research Center found that these congregations, once a mainstay of American religion, are now shrinking by about 1 million members annually. Fewer members not only means fewer souls saved, a frightening thought for some clergy members, but also less income for churches, further ensuring their decline. Faced with this troubling development, clergy members have made various efforts to revive church attendance. It was almost 20 years ago that John Shelby Spong, a U.S....

CULLMAN, Ala. — On a sofa in the hallway of his office here, Mitchell Williams, the pastor of First United Methodist Church, announced that he was going to break the law. He is not the only church leader making such a declaration these days. Since June, when Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, signed an immigration enforcement law called the toughest in the country by critics and supporters alike, the opposition has been vocal and unceasing. Thousands of protesters have marched. Anxious farmers and contractors have personally confronted their lawmakers. The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups have...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said Iran bore no hatred towards the United States as he held talks with American Christians in a rare official contact with visitors from Tehran's arch enemy. State television showed Ahmadinejad meeting with a dozen American representatives from various Christian orders who are in Iran for a week-long visit to promote peace and dialogue between the foes. "The Iranian nation does not have any feeling of hatred and opposition towards the American people and we believe that all people are respectful and given the common grounds people have, they could achieve peace and justice," Ahmadinejad...

December 14, 2005) Alderman Edward M. Burke (14th) joined fellow colleagues today in introducing a City Council resolution that won approval condemning the Reverend Robert Reynolds, the head of the Chicago Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church USA, for his recent controversial meeting with a Hezbollah commander in the Middle East. Hezobollah is a terrorist organization which has attacked American embassies, hijacked an American airliner, kidnapped American hostages and is responsible for "innumerable assaults on innocent people," the resolution noted.

PUGHTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The United Methodist Church yesterday defrocked a lesbian for violating the denomination's ban on actively homosexual clergy — the first such decision by the church in 17 years.     A 13-member jury made up of Methodist clergy convicted the Rev. Irene Elizabeth Stroud on the second day of her church trial. Methodist law bars "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from ministry. Nine votes were necessary for a conviction, and the jury voted 12-1 to find Miss Stroud guilty. [snip]Mr. Hall told jurors they had a duty to "hold a good pastor accountable to the standard with which we...

America's mainline protestant churches are in trouble. One sign is shrinking membership. Another is turning their political policymaking over to fringe leftists whose deepest instinct is to blame America and pummel Israel whenever possible. The latest disgrace is the Presbyterian Church's plan for selective divestment in Israel--ending the church's investment in multinational companies that the church believes bear particular responsibility for the sufferings of the Palestinian people. For example, the Presbyterians say they may divest themselves of Caterpillar stock, because bulldozers made by that company are used to level Palestinian homes in Israel's antiterrorism campaign. Of course, these bulldozers can...

I was recently sent a campaign finance request. It was coupled with a lovely photo of the first couple, with thanks for my support beautifully embossed beneath in gold letters followed by a pitch for a few bucks. Now getting a campaign appeal is certainly no surprise in an election year. What did surprise me is how I, a registered and quite active Democrat who has never voted GOP in my life, ended up on the GOP friends list. It turns out that the Bush fund-raising team decided my politics based on my ministerial calling. Being a Christian minister apparently...