Free Republic

In announcing a Lenten fast “for a moral budget,” many Religious Left officials are arguing against federal budget cuts but are silent about ongoing federal support for organizations like abortion provider Planned Parenthood. According to Democratic and Republican sources quoted by the Washington Post, both the Planned Parenthood funding, as well as Medicaid funds for abortions in the District of Columbia, figured prominently in budget negotiations. Religious groups participating in the “budget fast” include the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Hunger Program, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran World Relief, Sojourners and World...

The Journey Home with Marcus Grodi LIVE - Mondays 8 PM ET Encore – Tuesday 1 AM ET & 9 AM ET, Thursday 2 PM ET, Saturday 11 PM ET This exciting call-in program examines why so many people, including fallen away Catholics and individuals from other denominations, are being drawn home to the Catholic Church.

The Christian tradition that emerged from John Wesley’s eighteenth-century Methodist movement has developed several branches. One of them is called the Wesleyan Church, and I was born into a family in that denomination. My parents met at a Bible college in Oskaloosa, Iowa. My father was studying to be a minister, and my mother was there to pick a husband out of the pool of future preachers.Dad’s family was predominately Wesleyan. As Wesleyans, we believed in being born again. We boiled it down to the ABCs. A: Accept Jesus as Savior. B: Believe He died for you, personally, on...

A Texas couple and the head of an Oregon charity secretly sent millions of dollars to an Iranian bank and to a contact in Iran for nine years, violating the U.S. embargo on the Middle East country, according to a federal indictment. The indictment describes an alleged scheme in which the Texas couple got tax exemptions for their donations to the Portland-based Child Foundation charity. The head of the charity, Mehrdad Yasrebi, allegedly funneled money that was meant for food and other assistance to his cousin and to a bank controlled by the Iranian government. Working through Iranian corporations and...

I am a Methodist, my parents were Methodist, my grandparents were Methodist. When I heard Glenn Beck say that some churches have a radical left-wing progessive agendas that matched our current administration's views, that they are working with the left, I thought, no, not the Methodist Church. But then I looked up the website of the NAACP and union fronted One Nation Working Together.org. Going down the list of partners I saw unions, the NAACP, black, muslim and socialist organizations and The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society (I can't find it there now). I looked up...

A Methodist preacher is preparing to sue his own church over claims it is using charitable donations to pursue a campaign of discrimination against Israeli Jews. The legal dispute has been prompted by a controversial resolution passed at the Methodist Conference which called for a boycott of some Israeli goods. If the legal action is successful, it would likely bring to an end all similar campaigns that boycott Israeli goods and services. David Hallam, who preaches in Methodist churches around Birmingham, has accused his own church of wasting funds to pursue a vendetta against Israel. There are no Methodist churches...

Clarisse is a snake, found in the Fossil Butte region of Wyoming, perfectly fossilized in limestone and the only one of her kind known to be in existence. Palentologist Hussan Zaher found her, and he brought her to Houston in hopes of learning more about her. He brought his precious find to The Methodist Hospital and subjected her to a detailed CT (computerized tomography) scan in hopes of finding where Clarisse fits along the timeline of evolution. [You need Flash installed to watch this video] ...CT scan technician Pam Mager conducted the scan on a 64-slice scanner that is capable...

ELCA pastor drives ‘God talk’ initiative By Susan Hogan* A UMNS Report CHICAGO – Can Christians discuss the language of faith without it becoming a battle over political correctness or theological orthodoxy? The National Council of Churches hopes so. To begin the conversation, its Justice for Women Working Group brought 28 people to Chicago in August for a three-day symposium, “Language Matters.” S. Kim Coffing, the lone United Methodist participant, did not know what to expect. “The issue of how we talk about God and faith stirs up pain for many people,” said Coffing, an executive with the denomination’s Commission...

The following commentary is by Riley B. Case, associate executive director of the Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church.Dr. Riley B. Case Dr. Case served many years as a pastor and district superintendent in the UMC’s North Indiana Conference (now the Indiana Conference). He has been a delegate to five UM General Conferences. (Links below have been added by MethodistThinker.com.) — Ed.– I was speaking with a fellow pastor several years ago and inquired whether he and his church might be interested in Good News magazine. He replied “no” because people in his congregation were upset enough with...

A United Methodist congregation should conduct same-sex marriages despite the possibility of negative consequences, according to Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire. "I'm here to tell you that when you speak about God's limitless, boundless and unimaginable love, you will get into trouble: I promise you, I know this," Robinson said to the congregation. Robinson both gave a sermon at the invitation of Foundry's Senior Pastor, Dean Snyder, as well as answered questions from church members during an informal session following the Sunday morning worship services. Robinson's sermon was part of a month-long "outstanding preacher" series...

The president of a United Methodist-affiliated seminary says Christians who feel the need to evangelize people of other faiths have “an incorrect perception of what it means to follow Jesus.” The comment from Jerry D. Campbell, president of California’s Claremont School of Theology, was published July 2 by the United Methodist Reporter. “The correct perception [of following Jesus] is much more on [the] side of learning to express love for God and love for your neighbor as yourself,” he told the newspaper. Dr. Campbell’s remarks were reported in an article about Claremont’s plan to become an “interreligious institution” that offers...

The banality of Methodist evil By ROBIN SHEPHERD 04/07/2010 Boycott against goods emanating from settlements shows where the rancid, global campaign against the Jewish state is heading. The decision last week by the Methodist Church of Britain to launch a boycott against goods emanating from settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem will send a shiver down the spine of anyone with a feel for where the rancid, global campaign against the Jewish state is currently heading. The boycott will involve transactions of the church itself, and extends to encouraging all affiliated Methodists to follow suit. The Methodists boycott...

The Methodist Church of Great Britain is currently holding its annual conference in Portsmouth, England. At the conference, which began on June 24, 2010, delegates will vote on a report about the Arab-Israeli conflict titled “Justice for Palestine and Israel.” The 50-plus page report calls on Methodists in Great Britain to embrace the Kairos Document issued by Palestinian Christian leaders late last year and to participate in a boycott of Israeli goods produced in the West Bank. (June 30, 2010 note: This boycott has been affirmed. See update below.) The arguments used to justify these actions are similar to those...

For the second time in less than a year, the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), an official agency of the denomination, has published an article arguing that sexual relationships outside the covenant of marriage are not necessarily improper. “An Ordained Single Woman and the Discipline,” published June 7 as part of the “Sex and the Church” series in GBCS’ weekly Faith in Action online newsletter, contends that sexual relationships should not be off-limits for unmarried UM clergy. Last August, the controversial series featured an article by Unitarian “sexologist” Debra Haffner who wrote that one can have...

Men belonging to the famously clean-living denomination live to the ripe old age of 83.9, research has found, compared with a national average of 77. For women the difference in longevity was even greater with female Methodists dying at 91.1 on average – nine years longer than the 82 years enjoyed by most British women. Last week Stanley Lucas died in Cornwall aged 110, having become not just the oldest male member of the Methodist Church but the oldest man in Europe. Dr Richard Vautrey, vice president of the Methodist Conference, said, “I’m sure there are many different factors at...

Paul Schenck and his family say grace before dinner at their Manchester Township home in 2007. Schenck will become the first married priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Saturday. A former Anglican pastor will become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg's first married priest when he's ordained Saturday in Springettsbury Township. Paul Schenck, 51, of Manchester Township will be ordained by Bishop Victor Galeone of the Diocese of St. Augustine (Fla.) during a 10 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church. Galeone, a longtime friend of Schenck's, will perform the rite because the Diocese of Harrisburg has...

LAKESIDE, Ohio – In a close vote, delegates at the West Ohio Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church approved the nomination of a gay man as chief financial officer. The nomination of Bill Brownson has been a contentious subject within the regional conference, which includes Columbus, for three months. Affirmative votes exceeded those against by a narrow margin of 28, with 948 votes cast in favor of the appointment and 920 against. Brownson, who is in a long-term, committed relationship, was given the opportunity to address the conference briefly after the vote. “I know this is not about me,”...

The search for the people who killed an 80-year-old woman found beaten under a church pew has gone nationwide. Cross County Sheriff J.R. Smith said possibly two "people of interest" fled the area after the church pastor discovered Lillian Wilson's lifeless body Sunday. Sheriff Smith said investigators know who they're looking for and where they are from, but would not confirm details of the ongoing investigation. The Central United Methodist Church sits along Highway 64 in the small community of Hamlin, west of Wynne, Arkansas. It's where Wilson grew up and where she held her 50th wedding anniversary. The church...

I gave a talk Sunday morning to the men’s club of a large Atlanta Methodist church at the request of an old friend. When he asked me to speak to this group several months ago, I responded with a question which I would ask him repeatedly every time we got together: “They know I’m Catholic, right?” I engage one-on-one with people of other faiths almost every day and always enjoy the dialogue, but this was very different as I would be going on their turf to deliver a talk. I let nagging self-doubt creep in and began to regret my...

Protestant Organist Finds Musical Home in the Catholic Church April 6th, 2010 by Patricia Coll Freeman On the third Sunday in Lent, high in the choir loft of Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, a born and bred West Virginian Baptist directed a group of Catholic singers and worshipers through the prayerful notes of the Latin Agnus Dei.But at Pentecost, Gary Marks, the cathedral’s new music director and Baptist-turned-Episcopalian with a Methodist divinity degree, comes home to the Catholic Church guided by the Holy Spirit along the mellifluous thread of sacred music.God’s Musical Direction“The church and music have always been tied together for...