Free Republic

Kristine Johnson is suing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for reporting her husband’s sexual abuse of an underage girl. The lawsuit is an attempt to hold the church responsible for “loss of income, emotional distress and her family’s loss of her husband’s companionship,” to the tune of $9.5 million — plus $40,000 to cover their legal expenses. Johnson claims the church went against its principles of confidential confession when it reported her husband’s admission that he sexually abused an underage girl. Johnson learned of her husband’s crime in 2016. She and her husband responded, according to the...

A brutal business climate and societal breakdown have brought major changes to America. In response, many Americans, especially conservatives, are soul searching for something more compassionate for those left behind. Unfortunately, they are looking in the most unlikely places: business and government. They will likely be searching for a long time. The controversy over this shift in mentality erupted with the publication of a Wall Street Journal advertisement in which major firms pledge a commitment to “stakeholder” capitalism, which holds businesses should be run having all society, not just shareholders, in mind. Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) stirred the pot with...

Something remarkable just happened in St. Louis that you probably didn’t hear about. The Church of God in Christ, a seven-million-member black denomination, unanimously passed a historic resolution affirming the value and dignity of every human life and opposing the practice of elective abortion in America. A key excerpt from the Resolution on the Sanctity of Human Life reads: COGIC is one of the largest historically black Protestant denominations, which also include the National Baptist Convention, the National Baptist Convention of America, the Progressive National Convention, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and the Christian...

LA MESA, Calif. — An appeals court heard arguments Monday in a federal lawsuit filed by a La Mesa church against a state health agency, alleging violations of equal protection rights for “forcing” churches to have elective abortions covered in their health insurance plans. Skyline Wesleyan Church filed suit in response to a 2014 letter distributed by the California Department of Managed Health Care to various insurance agencies, in which the department said health plans must include abortion coverage, or be in violation of state law. The letter stated that “the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 requires...

Jana Riess, 49, is a popular LDS blogger who has degrees from revered school such as Princeton Theological Seminary and Columbia University, where she earned her Ph.D. in religion. She is a senior columnist for Religion News Service. MRM’s Viewpoint on Mormonism has produced shows on more than a half dozen of her articles, as she has an interesting perspective, even when we disagree.Her newest book is titled The Next Mormons: How Millennials are Changing the LDS Church. It is a scholarly research book published by Oxford University Press in March 2019. While this book is not as “layperson” oriented...

A group of pseudo-religious leaders gathered outside an abortion clinic earlier this month to “bless” the facility and the culture of death it houses. Because much like ancient cultures that use to burn children alive to appease their pagan gods, nothing says “spirituality” quite like killing infants. The group, who are about as godly as I am a mermaid, gathered outside the Whole Women’s Health clinic in McAllen Texas to sing songs and affirm the clinic’s work, including their legally sanctioned ability to poison and suck the brains out of a living reborn infant. “We do this to support the...

The front-running Democratic Presidential candidate who is pro-abortion up until the first breath sang a rendition of "Jesus Loves the Little Children" at CNN's LGBTQ Town Hall in Los Angeles on Thursday. Elizabeth Warren sang the song in defense of gay marriage. She did not apply the song or its lyrics to unborn children who are slaughtered relentlessly by Democrat-protected abortuaries and whose blood money fuels her campaign. The church I grew up in, the first song I remember singing, "Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus Loves the little children of the world."...

PRINCETON, WV (WVNS) — Police say a man is facing numerous charges for disturbing a Sunday service and damaging a bathroom at a church in West Virginia. Around 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 6, 2019, an off-duty Princeton Police officer noticed a man running in traffic and attempting to wave down cars. After entering Rogers Street Community Church, the man, identified as Damon Reed, reportedly locked himself in the church’s restroom, tore off the sink, and reportedly screamed demons were trying to beat him. The officer called for backup after telling the congregation to stay seated. In addition to extensive...

About a thousand representatives of world religions and other organizations gathered in Germany in late August to advance globalism and a planetary uniting of religions to promote the United Nations’ so-called masterplan for humanity known as UN Agenda 2030. Critics expressed alarm that self-proclaimed religious leaders were embracing dangerous world “order” ideas totally at odds with liberty and Christianity. The implications are massive. The controversial 10th World Assembly of Religions for Peace, backed by George Soros and the globalist-controlled German government and other powerful forces, aimed to unify the world’s religious organizations behind key elements of the establishment’s agenda —...

Recently, the Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr. Arturo Sosa Abascal, declared that “the devil exists only as a symbolic reality.” He has said similar things in the past. He also made news in 2017 when he asserted, concerning Christ’s condemnation of divorce and remarriage, that we can’t know for sure what Jesus really said because no one recorded him on the spot. These and similar remarks make it clear that at least this Jesuit does not believe that Scripture—which teaches manifestly both the reality of the devil and the sinfulness of active divorce and remarriage—is actually the word of...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has issued a warning to members that coffee is prohibited no matter how fancy the name, that vaping is banned despite the alluring flavors and that marijuana is outlawed unless prescribed by "competent" doctors. The new guidance in the August issue of a church youth magazine does not include fundamental changes to the religion's strict health code, but clarifications are significant and seem to reflect growing concern about young Latter-day Saints' adherence to the rules. The article says it aims to clear up issues that could be confusing for young people within...

FULL TITLE: Iowa pastor, 44, is arrested on child sex abuse charges just hours before his Christian rock band was due to perform at Minnesota music festival An Iowa pastor was arrested for child sexual assault, just hours before he was due to perform with his Christian rock band at a music festival on Saturday. Emanuel J. Rodriguez, 44 is accused of inappropriately touching two girls known to him, believed to be 11 and 12. The alleged incidents took place while he and they were covered in blankets. Rodriguez also assaulted the minors inside two of his former homes in...

People of faith have as much, but no more, right as other people to engage in public deliberation on matters of law or ethics. As a Uniting church minister and teacher of ethics, I support the move from criminalisation to reproductive justice because it separates divisive questions of moral justification (for or against) from the law that applies to all citizens whatever their religious or ethical beliefs. The ethical debates are undoubtedly divisive. Philosophers, religious leaders, lawyers, bioethicists, and feminist theorists debate the status of the foetus vis-a-vis a woman’s right to bodily integrity and self-determination. Meanwhile, moral decision-making is...

Joy Morgan: Missing student ‘murdered by fellow churchgoer’ A midwifery student who has been missing since Boxing Day was murdered by a man who went to the same church, a court heard. Joy Morgan, 20, from Hatfield, was last seen on 26 December, but her body has never been found. Jurors heard she attended the Israel United in Christ Church in Ilford, east London, along with Shohfah-El Israel – the man accused of killing her. Mr Israel, 40, denies murder and is on trial at Reading Crown Court. Opening the case, prosecutor Mark Fenhalls QC said the trial was “unlike...

As a lot of Freepers, and now even Jim Robinson, know: I've been putting a lot of references to Jesus Christ and His power and love and plans into threads that have to do with America and even recently, Canada. As a result, I got accused more than once of thread hijacking, and then last night I got newbied for a while (my account marked as though I were a newbie and could not mail or do certain other things). I'm hard up against the issue now of what do you DO when you really DO believe Jesus Christ is...

BLUEFIELD, WV (WVNS) — A pastor of a church in Bluefield is facing charges for sexually abusing a 25-year-old mentally handicapped man, according to police. Anderson H. Martin II was indicted on sexual assault and sexual abuse charges by a Mercer County Grand Jury last week. Court documents state Martin called the victim’s family and asked if he could “take out” the victim. The family told officers when their son returned home, he was wearing different clothes. The victim told officers Martin took him to his home, undressed and showered him. While in the shower, the victim said Martin asked...

Jacob Rudenstrand’s Stream article Friday on Christian refugees being denied asylum in Sweden and the United Kingdom is disturbing on multiple levels. These governments have taken on the authority to determine Christian doctrine. They’re deciding who counts as Christian. This is just wrong. In Britain, reports Rudenstrand, “the government quoted Bible verses” to argue that Christianity isn’t a religion of peace. In Sweden, officials regularly give asylum seekers “pop quizzes on theology to determine whether they are genuine believers.” Some of those questions have been so complex, “not even experienced pastors have been able to answer.” That’s bad. Worse yet,...

At the back of an altar in Westminster Abbey is a looted tablet deemed so holy by Ethiopian Christians that only priests from the country’s Orthodox church are able to look at it. But the abbey has been accused of gross cultural insensitivity for apparently failing to respond when leaders of the church asked to be able to pray beside the artefact. “I was very shocked and surprised,” said Samuel Berhanu, a deacon in the Ethiopian church in London, who contacted Westminster Abbey last year asking for permission for Ethiopian Orthodox church leaders “to organise a viewing and prayer session”....

ORLANDO, Fla. - Attorneys for two victims abused by Orlando Seventh-day Adventists pastor Billy Leveille have filed a lawsuit against the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, alleging the church was negligent after the Orlando pastor was convicted of sexual activity with a minor and child abuse. The women who wanted to be named and tell their stories had attended Bethel Elise Haitienne Des Adventists Church in Orlando, where Leveille was the senior pastor. Kenia Gilles said she was 16 years old and Jeny Desronvil said she was 21 when the abuse began, shortly after they were both elected and appointed...

My absoluteness extends into forever as Loving kindness and so My Faithfullness equates The sum of My Love for you for I AM ever with you being in and through all things . . . Therefore there is No need of reaching out but merely and graciously just a laying down before Me (Jesus) All your cares and woes for I AM ever listening and caring for you even when it seems I AM distant to your needs, your cries and your joys for Truly I KNOW your beginning for I AM YOUR COMPLETENESS and Final Joy Eternally waiting for...