Free Republic

A letter to Presbyweb concerning their coverage of the recent (leftist) World Council of Churches Assembly (emphasis mine): I am deeply grateful for the excellent balanced coverage you have given to the just concluded 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. Unfortunately, it is difficult also to be grateful for many of messages that have come out of that Assembly. For example, while some declarations called for increased evangelical and Pentecostal involvement in the WCC as crucial to the future health of the ecumenical movement, at the same time WCC General Secretary Samuel Kobia condemned American megachurches as promoting...

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge, who had issued rulings that partially supported the property trust clause of the Presbyterian Church (USA), now has raised questions about the constitutionality of the law he had cited in making those decisions. "The court can think of no plausible purpose for the legislation except to give hierarchal churches a more advantageous rule for determining the revocability of trusts made for their benefit than any other beneficiary of such a trust has," said Judge David Yaffe in an interim ruling in the case of Thomas Lee v. the Presbyterian Church (USA). Lee's case, in...

The anti-Israel, mainline denominations (the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church USA, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the United Church of Christ) have 18 million members and are declining. The pro-Israel evangelicals have twice as many members and are growing. Some would say this fact alone is worth noting. Some would say those who bless Israel are blessed, and those who curse Israel - even if they convince themselves that they are not really cursing Israel, but acting out of a noble desire to be pro-Palestinian, even if that means enabling a little terror...

The Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) victory in the Palestinian elections may have given pause to anti-Israel Mainline church officials in the U.S. But do not expect these officials to criticize the new radical Palestinian regime, even though Hamas’ brand of radical Islam is hostile, and sometimes deadly, to Christians. The 3.2 million member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has especially pushed hard against Israel, having endorsed divestment in firms doing business with Israel. And the 1.3 million member United Church of Christ has similarly endorsed “economic leverage” against Israel. Some officials of the 8.2. million member United Methodist Church are also pondering...

Remember that old adage: “when all else fails, read the manual”? Well, Arab enemies of Israel have turned that concept into a reality. Thanks to a “Divestment Manual”, recently published on an Arab website (see footnote #5), we can now read a step-by-step instruction booklet educating divestment supporters as to how they can literally franchise divestment movements across the USA and abroad. And that is exactly what divestment supporters seem to have done. Acting as a hitherto unrecognized fifth column, insinuating themselves deeply into our society, divestment activists have initiated a series of divestment movements that pretend to be grassroots...

The National Council of Churches has a long history of supporting Communist causes -- and condemning the United States and Israel. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES 475 Riverside DriveSuite 880New York, NY 10115 Phone :212-870-2227 URL :http://www.ncccusa.org/     Largest coalition of leftwing religious denominations in the United States Has long record of financial support for Communist regimesRemains faithful ally of Communist Cuba  Reserves criticism on moral issues for Israel and the United States Makes common cause with environmentalist radicals Masks leftist politics in faith-based declarations  Earlier this month, the National Council of Churches condemned Israel – a nation plagued in...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For short, the acronym-makers in the Presbyterian Church (USA) call them HPREIs – Historically Presbyterian Racial Ethnic Institutions. It is a fading history and some of the institutions are barely hanging on. Clearly, according to a report that will be presented to the 217th General Assembly, several of the denomination's HPREIs are in deep trouble. One went bankrupt last year. Another has only 20 students. Another is at least temporarily closed and has zero students. Several schools have lost their accreditation. -snip- * Barber-Scotia College in Concord, N.C., founded in 1867 as Scotia Seminary for Negro Women...

Synod in disinvestment snub to Israel By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent, for Times Online The Church of England is expected to face condemnation from Jewish leaders after it voted to disinvest from companies whose products are used by the Israeli government in the occupied territories. In a surprise move, the General Synod voted to back a call from the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East for "morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories". In particular, the Synod backed the Jerusalem church's call for the Church Commissioners to disinvest from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation", such as...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) - The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the leaders of four other mainline church denominations called on the U.S. House of representatives to defeat the fiscal year 2006 Budget Reconciliation package, which, the church leaders said, cuts safety net programs for the poor. In a Jan. 29 letter to House members the leaders said, "We write to each of you now to urge you to listen to both your hearts and your constituents, and oppose once and for all the FY '06 Budget Reconciliation Spending Reduction package when...

And so we come to the illustrious S. I. Rosenbaum of the St. Pete rag, with whom I wasted thirty or 45 minutes of my life a few days ago, while if I had not been fool enough to think that she might be decent and fair I could have slavered a little and given her what she wanted in no more than twenty seconds. Rosenbaum called me looking for material for her story which appears today, "Are bloggers against hate, or feeding it?" (thanks to all who sent this in). You can imagine which side she comes down on,...

Blogs dedicated to protecting America against terrorism are troubling the Muslim community. Kaufman's site is only one of a constellation of blogs with names like JihadWatch.com, MilitantIslamMonitor.org, and WesternResistance.com that are dedicated to the surveillance of American Muslims. The blogs link to one another, with more-traveled sites amplifying stories from more obscure ones, like Kaufman's. Last month, after Kaufman called a Tampa Muslim religious retreat a "jihad camp for children" and wrote that the speakers were "linked to al-Qaida," death threats poured in to the Presbyterian camp hosting the event. Muslims say the blogs breed hate. "He's spreading lies, slandering...

Despite 9/11 and the almost numbing frequency of suicide bombings in Iraq, Israel, London. Madrid, Istanbul, Bali, and elsewhere, some people continue pedaling two discredited arguments: 1) that blame for these attacks ultimately lies with the policies or mere existence of the victims’ governments; and 2) that we must listen and can learn something of value from the terrorists themselves. Most Americans realize that "it’s not us, it’s them," in other words, it is the terrorists, not the victims of terrorism, who are to blame. Accordingly, it is the terrorists, not us, who need to change or to be stopped....

TEMPLE TERRACE - Chantal Carnes didn't recognize herself. A friend had e-mailed her a blogger's article. It described Carnes as a supporter of terrorists, a fan of suicide bombing. Her friend thought the article was a joke. "No, dude," Carnes said. "This is really serious." Carnes, a Chicago resident who converted to Islam 11 years ago, was scheduled to speak at a spiritual retreat for Tampa Muslims this weekend. But after bloggers alleged that the event was a thinly veiled terrorist indoctrination, anonymous callers bombarded the Muslim American Society of Tampa with death threats and curses. The director of the...

It's all about Iraq, isn't it? Yep, it's all about Iraq and... India and the Sudan and Algeria and Afghanistan and New York and Pakistan and Israel and Russia and Chechnya and the Philippines and Indonesia and Nigeria and Thailand and Spain and Egypt and Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia and Ingushetia and Dagestan and Britain and Turkey and Kabardino-Balkaria and Morocco and Yemen and Lebanon and France and Uzbekistan and Gaza and Tunisia and Kosovo and Bosnia and Mauritania and Kenya and Eritrea and Syria and Somalia and California and Kuwait and Virginia and Ethiopia and Iran and Jordan and...

Threats force Muslim youth retreat to meet at secret location Careerbuilder December 31, 2005, 2:49 PM EST LITHIA, Fla. -- A weekend church retreat for young Muslims was moved to a secret location after Internet bloggers alleged a scheduled speaker had terrorist ties, prompting death threats. The three-day event was to be held at the rural Presbyterian Cedarkirk Camp and Conference Center to teach youth leadership skills and core religious studies. However, reports began to appear on Web logs that Mazen Mokhtar, a North Brunswick, N.J., man scheduled to speak, had ties to al-Qaida. "Nothing rings in the new year...

Muslim retreat sparks threats A retreat for young Muslims was to be held at a Presbyterian camp, until a blogger alleged a speaker was linked to al-Qaida. By S.I. ROSENBAUM Published December 31, 2005 LITHIA - Death threats have closed a church camp where a Muslim youth retreat was planned this weekend, after an Internet blogger alleged that a scheduled speaker was linked to al-Qaida. Mohamed Moharram, president of the Muslim American Society of Tampa, said the three-day event at Presbyterian Cedarkirk Camp and Conference Center was supposed to teach young Muslims leadership skills as well as the core tenets...

A Presbyterian camp today began hosting a conference by the Muslim-American Society of Tampa that was scheduled to continue through Jan. 2 ... Presbyteries' camp and conference center near Tampa. Deborah Brokema, co-director of Cedarkirk Camp and Conference Center, which is owned by the presbyteries of Peace River and Tampa Bay, said the members of the Tampa group are moderate followers of Islam who asked to use the conference center as a witness to their commitment to peace. *** But a controversy has begun to swirl around the event. Joe Kaufman, chairman of Americans Against Hate and the host of...

Three Catholic issues drive critics nuts. Articles criticizing Pope Benedict XVI keep singling out three issues: the celibacy of priests, the all-male priesthood and the prohibition of artificial contraception. During May, our editorials will look at each of them, starting this week with celibacy, which is a little bit different from the other two. It isn’t a teaching on faith or morals - the Church doesn’t teach that it is impossible for a married man to be a priest. In fact, celibacy wasn’t required of priests for the first millennium of the Church’s history (though most priests were, in fact,...

A New Year’s Jihad Retreat By Joe Kaufman FrontPageMagazine.com | December 29, 2005 Watching the ball drop, twirling a noisemaker, kissing your sweetheart, and making a resolution that rarely comes to pass -- everyone looks forward to the memory of a new year. But one group will be ringing in the New Year a little differently…through a children’s jihad retreat, with a guest speaker who exalts terrorists and another who is linked to al-Qaeda. The majority of Islamic organizations within the United States have, at one time or another, been cited for their connections to terrorism, whether by support of...

Watching the ball drop, twirling a noisemaker, kissing your sweetheart, and making a resolution that rarely comes to pass -- everyone looks forward to the memory of a new year. But one group will be ringing in the New Year a little differently…through a children’s jihad retreat, with a guest speaker who exalts terrorists and another who is linked to al-Qaeda. The majority of Islamic organizations within the United States have, at one time or another, been cited for their connections to terrorism, whether by support of terror groups or through actual terrorist activity carried out by its members. Two...