Free Republic

Many 2020-22 Americans, who consider themselves more sophisticated than their 1950s counterpart, nonetheless embraced Coronamania’s nonsensical lockdowns, school closures, masks, testing, and vaxxes.What cultural changes caused people to go from the radical, “anti-Establishment” 1960s and cynical Watergate/post-Vietnam/“Do your own thing” 1970s to the gullible, government-believing/medical expert-worshiping 2020s?

Was the American Revolution an act of rebellion against God and the Bible? Many today claim that it was. For example, John McArthur (Pastor of Grace Community Church and host of the national radio program “Grace to You”) asserts: People have mistakenly linked democracy and political freedom to Christianity. That’s why many contemporary evangelicals believe the American Revolution was completely justified, both politically and scripturally. They follow the arguments of the Declaration of Independence, which declares that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are Divinely endowed rights. . . . But such a position is contrary to the clear...

Zeynep Tufekci and Jeremy Howard played a decisive role in shifting CDC guidance and ushering in mask mandates across America. Zeynep’s role in the COVID story goes far deeper than most realize. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeynep_Tufekci But alas, the pro-mask establishment responded with a trump card of their own: a New York Times op-ed by sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, Here’s Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work, highlighting a statement of clarification from Cochrane’s editor-in-chief, Karla Soares-Weiser, that the review’s conclusion had been “open to misinterpretation, for which we apologize.” This new trump card was a disaster for mask opponents—the proverbial queen of...

"Trader Joe's will continue to hire on-site staff as the company believes its employees are more important than the glitz and the glamour of self-checkout. “The bottom line here is that our people remain our most valued resource," Tara Miller, Trader Joe's vice president of marketing, said on the Inside Trader Joe's podcast. “While other retailers were cutting staff and adding things like self-checkout, curbside pickup, and outsourcing delivery options, we were hiring more crew, and we continue to do that.” She added: "Our crew will be in our stores to help you find your next favorite product, just as...

When Christendom learned to fight fire with fireRaymond Ibrahim's Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam, chronicles the lives of eight great Crusaders who defended Christians against Islamic extermination, savagery, occupation, and slavery. These heroes demonstrated great courage on the battlefield and a fierce devotion to their Christian faith. Raymond Ibrahim, an expert in Islamic history and doctrine and a frequent contributor to American Thinker, spotlights Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, France; El Cid (Roderick Diaz of Spain); King Richard the Lionheart of England; St. Ferdinand of Spain; St. Louis of France; John Hunyadi of Wallachia; Skanderbeg,...

Masking and social distancing should be encouraged or even mandated once more in public in order to protect people from COVID-19 and from the possibility of suffering from "Long COVID," according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services. The report, commissioned by HHS and produced by research agency Coforma, calls for a broad range of government policies to help people who continue to deal with the lingering effects of COVID. Those policies include an awareness campaign, funding for long COVID support groups, financial support for students and workers, and new health benefits for COVID victims....

THE DISCOURSE OF VOLUNTARY SERVITUDE is lucidly and coherently structured around a single axiom, a single percipient insight into the nature not only of tyranny, but implicitly of the State apparatus itself. Many medieval writers had attacked tyranny, but La Boétie delves especially deeply into its nature, and into the nature of State rule itself. This fundamental insight was that every tyranny must necessarily be grounded upon general popular acceptance. In short, the bulk of the people themselves, for whatever reason, acquiesce in their own subjection. If this were not the case, no tyranny, indeed no governmental rule, could long...

Rand Paul Dismantles Faucian Doublethink: ‘Where’s the Evidence?’Rand Paul – seemingly the only national-level politician with the moral fortitude to challenge unelected public health commissar Anthony Fauci – made a simple request in the most recent March 18th COVID Senate hearing: produce the evidence or, as the kids say, GTFO.“You’re telling everybody to wear a mask, whether they’ve had an infection or a vaccine… What studies do you have that people that have had the vaccine or have had the infection or the vaccine are spreading the infection? If we’re not spreading the infection, isn’t that just theater? You’ve had...

Aza, an amateur Arabist who had been brought up to believe that the Koran was linguistically inerrant, said that he began to have doubts about Islam after detecting a number of linguistic errors in the Koran. When a Christian gave him a copy of the New Testament in Kurdish, Aza, who is of part-Kurdish heritage, broke down emotionally after reading it. “God speaks my language!” he exclaimed, overwhelmed by the fact that the Word had not only become flesh in Jesus but also was written in his own mother tongue. Keen to reach out to Muslims with the gospel, Aza...

What is a Christian's responsibility to submit to governmental authority when laws and regulations are in conflict with a Christian's belief? As a pastor, I am regularly confronted with this question, from parishioners and even in my own life as a citizen of the United States.I was asked the question yet again on our most recent Inauguration Day, when President Joseph Biden was sworn into office. The question was couched in relation to the compliance called for in Romans 13:1–5:Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities...

Author's note: The contemporary situation is perhaps the first time since the Civil War that talk of literal revolution is getting serious. It has been intensifying for the last four years. In 2018 I reflected on Romans 13. I Include some of those thoughts in the current column. America in this desperate hour does not need bloody, anarchic chaos from left or right, but a constitutional, biblically grounded revolution.Chaos kills the patient it claims to heal.America’s founders, steeped in biblical knowledge and principles, and fresh from the chaos of the Revolutionary War, sought revolution that would be carried out with...

Muslims quote Scripture to encourage ‘Doormat Christianity,’ submission to IslamOne of the least known tactics used by Muslims to disarm Christians has been to insist that Christianity is against warfare and violence in general.Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).December 5, 2020 (American Thinker) — Past and present, one of the least known — and, until the modern era, largely futile — tactics used by Muslims to disarm Christians has been to insist that Christianity is against warfare and violence in general. The most recent Muslim to take on this mantle of Christian theologian is none other than Somalia-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)....

Diocese of Nice: Statement in response to church knife attack The Diocese of Nice has released a statement following the knife attack in the French city’s Notre Dame church this morning. Monsigneur André Marceau, Bishop of Nice, said the following:It is with the greatest emotion that I have come to learn about the tragedy which has struck the Christian community of Alpes-Maritimes this morning. And once again the city of Nice.As I write this, it appears that three people have been the victims of a heinous terrorist act within and around the walls of Notre Dame Basilica, days after the...

The hired security guard accused of shooting a protester dead during a Denver rally on Saturday was identified by police as Matthew Robert Dolloff. Dolloff, 30, is being held in connection to a first-degree murder investigation in the shooting, the Denver Police Department announced on Sunday. Family members said the victim was Lee Keltner, a military veteran. Officials said Dolloff has not yet been charged. He is being questioned about the shooting, which was captured on camera. The shooting happened at a pro-President Donald Trump rally that was disrupted by people with Black Lives Matter and Antifa, who had planned...

(Catholic) Bishops missing in action as Christian pastors defy California gov’s orders to hold worship services ‘Don't the bishops realize what a scandal it is that those who do not believe in the real presence of Jesus in the sacrament are more zealous to participate in worship than are the Roman Catholic bishops?’ September 4, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – As hundreds of Protestant pastors in California continue to offer worship services to the faithful, defying Governor Gavin Newsom’s order, Catholic bishops continue to largely remain missing in action, what one Catholic professor referred to as a “scandal.”  Protestant pastors have strongly opposed...

Muslims Claim Córdoba Cathedral Hagia Sophia sets precedent for Islamic takeover of Christian sites ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - The ruler of Sharjah — the third largest and third most populous city in the United Arab Emirates — is demanding the conversion of Córdoba's Catholic cathedral into a mosque days after Turkey ordered the Islamic takeover of Hagia Sophia basilica. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, sovereign of one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), told Sharjah News that Córdoba Cathedral, located in the Spanish region of Andalusia, was "a gift" to Christians "who do not deserve it."Sheikh Sultan bin...

A case against the masks.   https://banned.video/watch?id=5f162d17677a7f01e92df056 

[Barf Alert] Vatican on Hagia Sophia: Don’t Blame Islam VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Vatican representative is insisting that Turkey's conversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque should not be seen as "Islamic aggression" even as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fired a shot across the Vatican's bow in an Islamic supremacist speech. "It is the product of the same logic to demand the Vatican be converted into a museum and insist that Hagia Sophia remain as a museum," Erdoğan declared on Turkish television Monday after Turkey's top court annulled President Kemal Atatürk's 1934 decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum as...

Using the COVID pandemic as an illustration, unsuccessful presidential candidate Hillary Clinton boasted that "women are superior leaders. Out of all the governors called upon to deal with the virus the one who stands head-and-shoulders above the rest is Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. She is my hero." "Gov. Whitmer was quicker than anyone else to recognize that ordinary people are incapable of making wise decisions on their own," Clinton asserted. "She was the first to neutralize individual self-reliance and the most thorough in establishing the widest authoritarian control ever seen in America. Her ruthless enforcement of her executive directives is...

A state trooper from Georgia refused to kneel during a Black Lives Matter protest in Georgia, telling demonstrators he does that only for God. Video footage has emerged of O'Neal Saddler, who cancelled his plans to help keep protesters safe, at the rally in Hartwell. Addressing a group of demonstrators, Saddler says: 'I'm supposed to be out of town this weekend with my wife.