Free Republic

As we survey our rotting cultural and political landscape, it is tempting, from a worldly perspective, to lose hope for our way of life and our nation. As Christians, we have a greater Hope, one that transcends these worldly problems. We must always train our focus on Jesus Christ, especially during this holiest of weeks, but let's not in the meantime abandon our earthly duties -- our responsibilities to family, friends, country and values. While we must guard against making politics and patriotism our idols, we don't have to accept the notion that worshiping God requires neglecting what is true,...

The world seems to have gone nuts. People are seeing unidentified flying objects. The government confirms it. Sen. Marco Rubio claims UFOs are flying over our military installations. Pilots have videos of mysterious objects flying rapidly and making 90 degree turns -- something physically impossible for humans at the speed those objects are flying. They seem to defy the known laws of physics. Over the past summer, Americans watched other Americans burn down cities while reporters stood in front of the burning rubble claiming the protests were peaceful, but your eyes might be racist. In January, supporters of President Donald...

We urge you to lead our nation on a path that revives the Founders’ vision of religious freedom in our government and promotes a unifying patriotic pluralism—not dogmatic religious chauvinism—in American society. We believe that this is a moment not only to enact policies to advance constitutional secularism but to position the Democratic Party to take back the mantle of religious freedom and pluralism from the Republican Party. ... We urge you not to underestimate the institutional strength of what we refer to (interchangeably)in this document as the “Christian nationalist movement” or the “religious right.” This movement is extraordinarily well-funded...

A shocking Vatican perspective on the pandemic The latest document from the Vatican, a reflection on the CO19 pandemic, is an embarrassment to the Catholic faithful. The Pontifical Academy for Life, under the leadership of the controversial Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, produced the document, and the Vatican press office introduced it on July 22 with a title as prolix as the statement itself: “Useful information on the Document of the Pontifical Academy for Life: Humana Communitas in the age of pandemic: untimely meditations on life’s rebirth.” That title is misleading; the document provides very little hard information. But I will grant...

Nearly one-third of the earth’s population is Christian. Of those, almost all expect that the kingdom of heaven awaits them on the other side of the grave. But that’s not what the Lord said in His Sermon on the Mount. “Not everyone,” He warned, “who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” That should fill those among us who are “Cafeteria Christians” with fear and trembling. For they not only fail to live by “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” they...

The Left’s Religious War Against America What’s really driving leftist anger and hatred. October 12, 2018 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. 69% of progressives are ashamed to be Americans, but 63% are proud of their political ideology instead. The majority don’t attend religious services, but 73% list politics as their preoccupation. Religiously unaffiliated voters are the most excited about attending political rallies and marches. Numbers from one poll showed that, "religiously unaffiliated Democrats were more than twice as likely...

The voters who are most amped for the 2018 elections look elite in nearly every way. They are Democrats, college-educated, and largely secular. They are likely to be women, but they’re not necessarily white or particularly young. These are the people who might post rants about Donald Trump on Facebook or harass their friends to donate to Planned Parenthood. They may sign petitions on Change.org or follow the Facebook page of the U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, even though they don’t live in Texas. Maybe they attended the Women’s March two years ago, or the March for Our Lives this...

Secularists are not necessarily anti-Christmas, but the radicals in their ranks are. At the top of the list is FFRF. Its tactics are twofold: If religious Christmas symbols and events cannot be banned, secular symbols and events must compete with them. Consider the following. For many years, the northern Michigan town of Menominee has displayed a nativity scene on public property. It was taken down this year after a complaint by FFRF. Chicago’s Daley Square has long been host to a life-size nativity scene, and in recent years that spot has been shared with a display by FFRF: it is...

Can European Christianity withstand assaults from radical secularism and Muslim immigration? The current trends suggest that Christianity may vanish from Europe, as happened to Christianity in North Africa in the 7th Century.

MUSLIM students repeatedly disrupted a lecture on blasphemy given by a human rights activist with one making a death threat, it has been claimed. Maryam Namazie was giving a lecture on blasphemy at the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society (ASH), of Goldsmiths in London. Her talk was repeatedly disrupted by members of the university's Islamic Society (ISOC) with hecklers shouting and turning off her Powerpoint presentation when she showed a cartoon of Jesus and the prophet Muhammad. One member of the audience also claimed he received a death threat during Ms Namazie's talk.

Protesters from the Goldsmiths University Islamic Society have heckled and aggressively disrupted a talk from ex-Muslim and feminist campaigner Maryam Namazie. Ms Namazie was giving a speech on blasphemy and apostasy at the invitation of the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society at Goldsmiths University when several men from the Goldsmiths Islamic Society (ISOC) arrived and started disrupting the event. The night before the event the president of the Islamic Society wrote to the ASH society saying "we feel extremely uncomfortable by the fact that you have invited Maryam Namazie. As you very well probably know, she is renowned for being...

This is a breakup letter. But it's worse than that. This is a breakup letter by a junior high schooler who is trying to tell everyone in the hallway outside homeroom that the person they had liked a few days ago is just like kinda' totally awful or something. Some lib in The Inquisitr wrote:Elected in 2013, Pope Francis has since shown us a very convincing image of a bold, refreshing deviant who has adamantly defied the church’s typically iron-fisted conservatism. His stance on LGBT, women’s rights, atheism, and evolution were so mind-blowingly revolutionary that many people saw him as...

The above photo represents a graffito found a month ago in Vienna, on the ground of a popular walkers' and bikers' promenade outside Augarten Park. It says: "Occupy all churches! We will rise!" (Besetzt alle Kirchen. We will rise.) This kind of direct threat to Christians has become increasingly common in Europe. A voluntary, non-profit organisation based in Vienna, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe , has been established, and issued a report documenting 241 cases of intolerance and attacks against Christians and their institutions in 2013. Among them are arson, gun attacks, bombs and...

We live in a culture where, increasingly, any sense of the sacred is being lost. The thought that something could be sacred, special, holy, or somehow “off-limits” is bewildering to many. Indeed many secularists consider those who do see some things as sacred, to be stuffy and somehow arrogant. There are many in our culture who defend the rights of others to burn the flag, ridicule religious symbols (e.g. the cross submerged in urine some years back in a noted “art” museum), and even applaud when, a couple years back, homosexual activists desecrated the Body of Christ by stomping on...

Because this is the holiest week of the year on the Judeo-Christian calendar, it might be useful to look at how theology is faring in the age of secularism. As you may know, there is a movement in America to remove the word "God" from the currency, to replace the word "Christmas" with "winter" and to replace the word "Easter"' with "spring." On Long Island, where I live, one school is running a "spring egg hunt" with a special appearance by the "Spring Bunny." Of course, this kind of stupidity is insulting to Christians, but it's been going on for...

With Easter approaching and the Astroturf groundswell for same-sex marriage at its apex, I thought I'd put in a plug for the Bible, whose integrity and timeless principles are under increasing assault in our culture. In fact, what sparked this column was a warning by a nationally prominent Republican to his party that it ought not go "Old Testament" and oppose same-sex marriage. I don't want to turn this column into a rant about same-sex marriage, but I cite this example to illustrate a common tendency to bifurcate the Old Testament and the New Testament and to paint Jesus...

Pope Francis speaks to 5,000 journalists at Paul VI Hall. Credit: Estefania Aguirre Vatican City, Mar 16, 2013 / 08:11 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis told thousands of journalists today he loved them and thanked them for their recent work. “I love you so much and I thank you for all that you have done,” Pope Francis told over 5,000 journalists today at Paul VI Hall in the Vatican. “We aren’t called to communicate about ourselves, but on this trinity of truth, goodness and beauty,” he told the journalists at 11:00 a.m. local time. The newly elected Pope from...

With the shorthand "OMG" (oh, my God) becoming a huge cliche, it might be worth taking a look at how Americans are seeing the Almighty these days -- that is if they are looking at all. A recent Gallup poll indicates that just 31 percent of Americans worship publicly on a weekly basis, while 43 percent rarely go to a church, synagogue or mosque. Growing up under the heavy hand of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, it was drummed into me that attending weekly Mass was not an option. It was a must to avoid eternal damnation, which...

With Christmas now in the rearview mirror, it is perplexing that some far-left bloggers are still bemoaning the fact that Newsweek magazine proclaimed that folks who respect the traditions of the Christmas holiday "won" the battle against secular progressives who want to diminish the birth of Jesus in the public square. Because of that ongoing angst, and because I am still in the Christmas spirit, I offer some travel tips to the anti-Christmas crew in preparation for this December. If you don't like Christmas, book your trip now. North Korea: According to reporting by ForeignPolicy.com, that feisty little country...

The largest demographic of Obama's religious coalition supporters is made up of those who have stated they are not affiliated with a religion. The Public Religion Research Institute's 'American Values Survey' pegs that number to be approximately 23%. The largest percentage that supported Mitt Romney came from white, evangelical Protestants, at 37%.The survey also revealed that Obama supporters are younger, more diverse and more accepting of growing minority groups. Compared to the older, largely Caucasian and fundamentally religious group that supported the Republican candidate, analysts are predicting the demographic supporting Obama will translate into more wins for the Democrats in...