Free Republic

The full weight of the failed Enlightenment experiment over-taxes the load bearing pillars that prop up a decaying Western Civilization, pillars that are buckling under the sheer weight of moral corruption on full display in modern society. The ethical structures of the West are in desperate need of repair. This new age is best characterized by the Weird Sisters crowing pronouncement “Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air.” The inversion of values has been a massive moral de-construction project that has taken the time honored vertical hierarchy of virtues and vices and turned...

Silence isn't something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco fall quiet as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students meditate for fifteen minutes. And school administrators tell NBC News that the violence outside of the school, which is situated in one of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods, was spilling into the school and affecting the students' demeanor. "The kids see guns on a daily basis," the school's athletic director, Barry O'Driscoll said, adding, "there would be fights here three-to-five times a week."

Isn’t there supposed to be a separation of cult and state? Mindfulness is a New Age kind of meditation that focuses on the present moment “non-judgmentally,” tracing its origins to Buddhism. The growing phenomenon was the subject of a 60 Minutes segment on Sunday, for which May and other fans of the practice were interviewed.The segment featured Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio), a so-called “rock star among mindfulness evangelists” who earmarked nearly $1 million to teach mindfulness to preschool students in his district. The $982,000 project provided deep breathing exercises, and “Peace Corners” for kids in Youngstown, Ohio. I’m sure...

ROME, May 6, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The American Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which was placed under a mandate of reform by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith last year, must drop its New Age ideas and return to the central teachings of the Catholic religion on Jesus Christ, the Trinity, and the nature of the Church, or risk being expelled as a recognized Catholic institution. In an address to LCWR officials in Rome on April 30, Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), and Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle,...

Blockbuster in the making. Son of God blasts off to major viewer numbers, Thursday night and Friday!!! Could be #1 movie this week. Terrific movie across the board. All Americans should see this wonderful, motivating, religious film!!! Son of God will do terrific across the entire world!!!

Mars Hill Bible Church, the congregation founded by author Rob Bell, lost about 1,000 people over their former pastor's controversial 2011 book, Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, according to the Grandville, Mich., megachurch's new pastor Kent Dobson. Dobson was chosen by Mars Hill Bible Church in 2012 to replace Bell, who founded the congregation in 1999. "There was a lot of drama with (Bell's book) Love Wins and that season feels like it's over. This year has been one of sort of settling down a bit and re-identifying our...

Marianne Williamson running for Congress Best-selling author Marianne Williamson is running for the US House of Representatives in California's 33rd District. Marianne Williamson, the best-selling author whose “A Return to Love” spent 39 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 1992, announced Sunday that she is running as an independent for the US House of Representatives in California’s 33rd District, a seat currently held by 74-year old Democrat Henry Waxman, one of the most powerful members of Congress. Williamson, who made her candidacy official Sunday afternoon at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, has written extensively about the...

Last Friday night (March 22), March Madness was in its televised glory. And Taylor Swift was singing and strumming at Time Warner Cable Arena. Despite such competition, Christ Episcopal Church managed to draw 1,100 people. The attraction: A doctor describing his time in heaven. Not just any doctor. Sitting on stage, answering questions from the Rev. Chip Edens, the church’s rector, was Dr. Eben Alexander. He’s a Charlotte native who wrote “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.” His book is such a mega-seller that he has talked to Oprah – and Universal Pictures won a bidding war...

The Natural American Spirit is produced by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, which sprang up in left-wing Santa Fe, New Mexico in the early 1980s with a new innovative approach to cigarette-making. The American Spirit consists of “100 % Additive-Free Tobacco,” without the nuanced chemical combinations that give most mass-marketed cigarettes their savory taste and potent impact. As such, the Spirit satisfies a growing niche market of left-leaning types who want smoking’s well-documented coolness without earning it through hard respiratory work. This brand’s very existence is a response to the cancer research conducted by various academic elites in the...

Every once in a while, someone of note questions or denies the classic Christian belief of a literal hell with eternal, conscious suffering. Then a debate rages and becomes personal between representatives of various perspectives on the issue... Hell is real and terrible. It is eternal. There is no possibility of amnesty or reprieve. Daniel says that some of the dead will be resurrected “to shame and everlasting contempt.” Jesus says, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. . . . And these will go away into eternal punishment.” Paul tells...

There was an intriguing forum this week in New York City provocatively titled “I’m So Spiritual.” It was co-hosted by The New School, which trains up its students, it says, “to bring actual, positive change to the world,” and New York Salon, an organization composed of intellectuals, academics artists and public personalities, according to Wikipedia. The forum featured four speakers: Courtney Bender, an associate religion professor at ColumbiaUniversity, Matthew Hutson, a Psychology Today science writer, Sally Quinn, editor of the Washington Post’s On Faith blog, and Alan Miller, New York Salon’s co-director. Of the four speakers, Miller proved to be...

Evil has not fallen out of fashion. Exorcism is a rite developed — and promulgated — to meet a need that still exists, due to more people delving into New Age and occult practices. And, yes, satanic worshippers are a reality. “They come in the church and steal the Blessed Sacrament to use in a ‘black mass,’” explained Father Gary Thomas, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Saratoga, Calif., and the exorcist for the Diocese of San Jose. He has alerted his fellow priests to this danger — and trained his extraordinary ministers of holy Communion so that they note...

Will the world really end in 2012? Is the ancient Maya prophecy true? What exactly is supposed to occur on December 21, 2012? Does the Maya calendar really predict a cataclysmic event on that date? People are talking about it, books have been written about it, and some folks — believing it — have contemplated taking drastic measures with their own lives and families. However, even the purveyors of the hysteria are not in agreement on what it entails. Is it the end of the world, the end of life on earth, or "just" the end of human civilization or...

SAN JOSE -- Amid inspirational talk, chanted mantras and shouts of victory at a late-night firewalking event attended by thousands Thursday came agonized shrieks from followers whose soles were scorched by the superheated coals, witnesses said. At least 21 people were treated for burn injuries after taking part in the crowning event of the first day of a Tony Robbins function downtown, including at least three who went to the hospital, a San Jose fire captain said. The people who suffered various second- and third-degree burn injuries were among more than 6,000 who attended the motivational speaker's event at the...

In a previous post, I noted how The Catholic Free Press is once again promoting Sister Joyce Rupp, a dissident religious who rails against the hierarchical Church while promoting New Age spirituality. Many parishes throughout the Worcester Diocese are also promoting the upcoming day-long retreat with this angry, dissenting religious. The retreat, which is to be held on September 29th at St. Anne's Parish hall in Shrewsbury, is being sponsored by the "Commission for Women," and has as its theme: "The Gift of Self - Compassion." Sister Rupp, the self proclaimed spiritual midwife, claims to have learnt a lot from...

The basic credo of the New Age Movement, which looks to usher in a New World Order, is that a person creates their own reality according to what feels right for them. For example, a person may choose to be homosexual, bisexual, monogamous or polygamous and it's "okay" as long as it's "right for me." A person may choose whether or not to have an abortion. And so on. Of course, this is nonsense. For, as Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand reminds us, "The truth of a proposition is essentially objective; a truth which as such would be valid for one...

Before you newly active Republicans commit to Newt Gingrich as your presidential nominee on the basis of the recent debates, here's a bit of Newt history you ought to know. I promise you, it's going to come up if he's the candidate. The day after the Republicans' historic takeover of the House of Representatives in the 1994 election, Newt was off and running, giving a series of Fidel Castro-style speeches about "the Third Wave information revolution." It had the unmistakable ring of lingo from his new-age gurus, Alvin and Heidi Toffler. Read the complete article here:http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/coulter120811.php3

Mug shots of Rebecca Chandler, 22, and Raven "Scarlett" Larrabee, 20 Think the Devil doesn’t exist? Gaze into these lovely ladies’ eyes and think again! This past Sunday, two women were arrested in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after a man claims he was held hostage in a Satanic Sex Ritual. According to police reports the man suffered in excess of 300 stabbings, cuts and punctures.He is expected to survive, and perhaps tell of his entire ordeal at a future date. But until then, here’s the scoop we have at present.Ruben Vatin, 18-years old, decided to hop a bus last week from...

Democrats In Drag, Part 3 The most-heralded achievement and high water mark of Republican leadership since the revival of America’s military superiority under Ronald Reagan is, without question, the coming forth of the “Contract With America” during the election of 1994. Its 100-day surge through the House of Representatives, with its visionary agenda and its promise and delivery of lock-arm partisan voting, is a singular feat; such a one that ever since Republicans have looked back with fondness and longing for a revival of ‘the good old days.’ Seven years later, as election 2000 approached, conservative Republicans, unhappy with the...

Earthquakes. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Floods. Fires. Some natural disasters can be anticipated. Others can't, but we can prepare for them - and our emergency plans should include our pets. In the wake of large disasters in recent years, even federal, state and local emergency managers have realized the importance of providing information for pet owners and including the welfare of animals in their own plans. Probably one thing that many pet owners don't think about with those plans are the dangers that pets are susceptible to in the hours and days immediately following the destruction from a disaster.