Free Republic

(RNS) — The presiding bishop of the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States has asked its first transgender bishop to resign amid criticism over their removal of the pastor of a Hispanic congregation on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in December. RELATED: As the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe approaches, the Virgin Mary inspires community In a written statement published Friday (May 27), Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, announced she had requested Bishop Megan Rohrer’s resignation from the denomination’s Sierra Pacific Synod. Eaton’s request comes after the Sierra Pacific Synod...

Denver Newsroom, May 19, 2022 / 16:58 pm New South Wales has become the sixth and final Australian state to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. Its legislation forces health care and elder care organizations with religious objections to allow the practice on their premises. “If a civilization is to be judged by how it treats its weakest members, the New South Wales parliament has failed miserably, and has set a dark and dangerous path for all posterity, determining a new and disturbing definition of what it means to be human.” Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney said May 19. “Despite our...

On Saturday afternoon, 18-year old Payton Gendron allegedly shot several people, killing 10 at a Tops Friendly Market located in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. He has been arrested and arraigned on 10 first-degree murder charges. Trends over Twitter to do with Gendron's motives included "Great Replacement" and "Tucker Carlson," as some took to blaming the Fox News host for the shooting. It's worth emphasizing, though, that the suspect's own manifesto not only included no mentions of Carlson, but attacked 21st Century Fox for hiring Jewish people. The suspect expressed many anti-Semitic views, from what screenshots and...

A slide used in a Department of Defense (DOD) training manual identifies Catholics and evangelical Christians as “religious extremists,” along with members of the Ku Klux Klan, al Qaeda and Hamas, according to a Marine Corps officer. “First Liberty also obtained a screenshot of an unclassified slide from a U.S. Army training manual. The slide is entitled ‘Religious Extremism’ and it purports to identify religious extremists,” Michael Berry told the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing Wednesday entitled “Extremism in the Military.” Berry is General Counsel to the First Liberty Institute (FLI), a Plano, Texas-based public interest law firm...

The first documented executions of heretics in medieval Europe occurred on this date in 1022 in Orleans, when 13 or so were burned at Orleans. The French king at this time was Robert II, known to history as “Robert the Pious” because he was so violent with the sub-orthodox.* In addition to this date’s burnings, he’s noted for inciting anti-Jewish persecutions that in some places drove local Jewry to drown themselves fleeing pogroms. For those within Christianity, starting now, Robert’s Piety meant much tighter scrutiny of potentially deviant doctrines. Now, these were not the first-ever Christian-on-Christian heresy executions in the...

The Secular Democrats of America PAC prepared a report for Joe Biden and his transition team that outlines a roadmap to "boldly restore a vision of constitutional secularism and respect in the land for religious and intellectual pluralism." The federal political action committee "represents secular Democratic individuals and organizations" and advocates for "secular governance, promote respect and inclusion of nonreligious Americans, and mobilize nonreligious voters." The proposal was formally presented by Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Jared Huffman, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, and endorsed by Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney. “We’ve offered the new administration a roadmap to restore...

In C. S. Lewis’s book, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," he describes a beautiful place (Narnia) under the spell of an evil character (the White Witch) – who symbolizes the Devil. Lewis writes of her that it was she who has made it "always winter, but never Christmas.""Always winter, but never Christmas" – what a great phrase to describe this world, without the loving, powerful, and positive influence of Jesus Christ.Could you imagine life in such an intolerable state where we had to endure the brutal conditions of the winter season – but never having Christmas to look...

Officials rejected the registration certificates saying the government can revoke them anytime Government officials in eastern China have raided and shut down close to 100 protestant churches as part of the escalating crackdown on Christians in the communist nation. Officials in four cities of Anhui province have closed down 99 churches and prayer venues this year, exploiting a range of pretexts including poverty eradication and prevention of Covid-19 epidemic, reported Bitter Winter, a magazine that covers human rights and liberty in China. At least 43 churches were closed in Suzhou, while 24 in Huaibei, 20 in Fuyang, and 16 in...

Vatican City, Dec 2, 2020 / 11:30 am MT (CNA).- Pope Francis said Wednesday that he was praying for Nigeria following a massacre of at least 110 farmers in which Islamist militants beheaded an estimated 30 people. “I want to assure my prayers for Nigeria, where blood has unfortunately been spilled once more in a terrorist massacre,” the pope said at the end of his general audience Dec. 2. “Last Saturday, in the northeast of the country, more than 100 farmers were brutally killed. May God welcome them in His peace and comfort their families, and convert the hearts of...

(Origianl language is German. I used Google translate and did some editing for readability) The Bremen district court has convicted the pastor of the St. Martini Protestant congregation in the Hanseatic city, Olaf Latzel, of sedition. The presiding judge Ellen Best said on Wednesday that the 53-year-old theologian had incited hatred against homosexuals in a "marriage seminar" posted on YouTube. She joined the public prosecutor's request and imposed a four-month prison sentence, converted to a fine of 90 euros a day for 90 days. The defense had pleaded for acquittal. (AZ: 96 Ds 225 Js 26577/20) The punishment is in...

Gathering in barns, cafes and bookshops, worshippers are flocking to illegal services around the countryIt sounds like the build-up to an illegal rave. Invitations are passed by word of mouth to trusted people. Minimal information – time, directions – is quietly given with pleas for discretion. Once everyone is assembled in a barn on a remote farm – “away from prying eyes,” says the organiser – it begins. This is no rave, but an English church service under lockdown, and the organiser is a Protestant pastor. The Christians who will gather illegally in the west of England on Sunday morning...

Denver Newsroom, Nov 18, 2020 / 03:40 pm MT (CNA).- Two church buildings— one Baptist, one Catholic— were damaged by fires in apparent arson attacks Sunday morning in Brewster, a town in central Washington. Sacred Heart Catholic Church suffered some fire damage near the sanctuary from an incendiary device dropped through a broken window early Nov. 15. New Testament Baptist Church, located a block away, suffered more serious fire damage to its interior the same morning. Investigators have deemed the fire at Sacred Heart to be intentional, police say. The police have not yet made the same pronouncement about the...

CNN "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper suggested during a Sunday interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci that...[cut] based on Dr, Fauci's recommendations, which are expected to extend into the "the second or third" quarter of 2021, "Christmas is probably not gonna be possible."

LOUISVILLE, KY; A Louisville man was arrested after allegedly causing damage to a historic church. In a letter to parishioners, the pastor at Saint Martin of Tours Church said the man broke into the sanctuary late Sunday night and caused extensive damage to the altar. An on-duty security guard was able to detain the suspect until officers arrived. Police have not identified the suspect. The church will be closed for a few days while the damage is assessed, the pastor says. Officials say the pastor and Archbishop Joseph Kurtz will be working with the archdiocesan insurance company on repairs.

An attacker armed with a knife killed three people inside a church Thursday in the southern French city of Nice, prompting the government to raise its security alert status to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. It was the third attack in two months in France that authorities have attributed to Muslim extremists, including the beheading of a teacher. It comes during a growing furor over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were republished in recent months by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo — renewing vociferous debate in France and the Muslim world over the depictions that...

The Vietnamese Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was a “total loss” after being burned during Black Lives Matter protests and riots on Tuesday night, according to news reports and video footage released Wednesday.

Former evangelical Steve Chalke has claimed that churches could soon face prosecution over their treatment of LGBT people. He tweeted over the weekend: "When I began to welcome LGBT people into my church, the Evangelicals threw the charity I founded out of their alliance. "But I believe what amounts to the abuse of LGBT people by churches is likely to soon see a crop of high-profile prosecutions." His tweet was in reference to the Evangelical Alliance, which in 2014 discontinued membership of the Oasis Trust, the charity founded by Chalke, after he came out in support of same-sex relationships. Since...

The Communists Know It: Christ Stoned the Adulteress \ A Chinese textbook on professional ethics and law for vocational schools claims that Christ stoned the adulteress in John 8 to death because he wanted to respect the law, reports UcaNews.com (September 22).However, in the original John 8, Christ says, “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone” adding "go and sin no more."According to the Chinese Communist Gospel Jesus says, “I too am a sinner but if the law could only be executed by men without blemish, the law would be dead.”Legalism, fanaticism, and cruelty are indeed...

Saint of the Day - Saint Andrew Kim TaegonThe first native Korean priest, Andrew Kim Taegon was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, Andrew traveled 1,300 miles to the seminary in Macao, China. After six years, he managed to return to his country through Manchuria. That same year he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai and was ordained a priest. Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude the border patrol. He was arrested, tortured, and finally beheaded at the Han...

President Donald Trump went to church Monday. That isn’t exactly accurate. There was no chorus of worship, no corporate prayer, no holy reverence, no gathering of believers, and thus no church. Just the leader of the free world and the charred, boarded-up shell of a building, marred with fire at the hands of mutinous rogues. Amid nationwide protests and riots over the needless death of George Floyd at the hands of dishonorable officers, the president stood outside the vandalized historic structure. St. John’s Episcopal Church isn’t the only desolate house of worship today. Church buildings across America stand as empty...