Free Republic

Cranston, Rhode Island federal judges and the school board members have voted to remove prayer banner at the public high school

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, February 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – As parishioners gathered for Sunday Mass, a radical group of homosexual activists protested outside Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral, calling Francis Cardinal George the city’s “arch-bigot” for defending marriage. Carrying placards and spouting slogans on the sidewalk as worshipers entered the sanctuary, members of the Gay Liberation Network instructed Catholics to “give up hate for Lent.”David E. Smith, executive director of the Illinois Family Institute told LifeSiteNews.com the Gay Liberation Network is “a tiny group of radical activists who are trying to intimidate and name-call religious leaders like Cardinal George to try to coerce...

The president of the US bishops’ conference has said that it is “getting harder and harder” to believe that President Obama has a genuine commitment to religious liberty. Archbishop Timothy Dolan on New York, who is in Rome this week to receive a cardinal’s red hat..........

Insisting that it is “dangerous” and “wrong” for women not to have access to contraceptives free of charge, the White House press secretary asserted that the US bishops “never supported health reform to begin with”--prompting a rebuttal from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. During the February 13 White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked a lengthy question: On Friday, you seemed pretty satisfied that the contraception issue had been settled and you wanted to move on. But the bishops put out a statement saying that it still raises serious moral concerns, and said the President's...

Catholic bishops said Friday night that they would not support the Obama administration's proposed compromise on a controversial rule that requires most employers to fully cover contraception in their workers' health plans. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which had led opposition to the regulation, issued a statement saying that they didn't believe their concerns were addressed by a new policy offered by President Barack Obama on Friday morning to allow religious employers who object to the use of birth control to turn over responsibility for covering it to insurance companies. Under the new policy, religious employers that don't want...

You have been waiting in suspense for Me to move in a spectacular way , not for yourselves but for the Body and the Bride and to AWE the lost and stolen those wandering aimlessly in the darkness with no hope ! YEA ! I Declare Hope is Here ! And your Glory Cloud has landed but it is the key of Faith swinging in the incense of worship that causes My smoke to Gather , My wings to spread as over the Mercy Seat ! And My Eyes and My Heart to Rest upon you as I nestle you...

Some 200 Catholic priests suspected of sexual abuse are living undetected in communities across California, according to an attorney who represents hundreds of plaintiffs who sued the LA Archdiocese for molestation they say was inflicted on them by priests and clergy of the church. Ray Boucher has mapped sixty locations where suspect priests live, in cities and towns from northern to southern California, and provided those locations to NBC4 exclusively. “Many if not all these priests have admitted to sexual abuse,” Boucher said. “They live within a mile of 1,500 playgrounds, schools and daycare centers.” Since none of the priests...

KIRKWOOD, Missouri, February 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Missouri Lutheran Synod added his voice to the growing chorus of religious leaders from across denominational lines who are objecting to the HHS mandate requiring employers to cover sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans. “The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod objects to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sight of God from the time of conception,” wrote Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, in a statement issued February 3rd. “Increasingly we are suffering overzealous...

20 Catholic (and Christian) Institutions Opposing Obama/HHS Mandate by Thomas Peters10 hours ago (February 9, 2012) My list of bishops who have publicly condemned the Obama/HHS mandate is now at 171 (representing almost 95% of Catholic dioceses). Only 4 bishops have yet to issue statements — and I expect they will shortly!Now I’d like to begin compiling a list of Catholic (and Christian) institutions who have said publicly they will fight or oppose the mandate.A few ground-rules: I’m only going to include institutions that have issued public statements online or a statement to the press which is available online....

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) – The Southern Baptist Convention’s top public-policy expert said Feb. 4 that President Obama’s health-care mandate covering contraception is the most anti-Catholic action by government since the denial of taxpayer funding to parochial schools. “This ruling by the Obama administration is the most transparently anti-Catholic action by the federal government since the Blaine Amendment was proposed in 1875,” Richard Land, head of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said during his weekly broadcast of the Richard Land Live radio program. The Blaine Amendment would have amended the U.S. Constitution to prevent the use of taxpayer funds...

"Are coercive government control and subsidized sexual freedom more important than religious freedom?" -- Mark Tooley, IRD President WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, along with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which includes the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and United Church of Christ, have stunningly endorsed Obamacare's mandate that all religious hospitals and charities must provide insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization, despite religious objections. In contrast, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, National Association of Evangelicals, Southern Baptist...

I believe that our right to religious freedom is now being censored. Each day as I write this message, I wonder if it will be my last. For those of you who “pooh pooh” that, and think it is a gross exaggeration, think again.

Military Chaplains are being forbidden from reading the letter from the bishops protesting the HHS mandate. If they do, they are considered seditious. ht Gateway. The emerging conflict between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration may have a new front: in the U.S. military itself. The Catholic Church is fighting mad about an HHS ruling that would have them buy insurance for things they consider sinful–contraception, sterilization and abortion. All the bishops in the country sent out a letter to be read in their parishes promising that the Church “cannot-and will not-comply with this unjust law.” Even Archbishop Timothy...

...If Florida courts accept provisions of Islamic Sharia law or other foreign laws and legal codes which are inconsistent with American laws it will undermine public policies enacted by our representative form of government and change our value system. ... - Florida Family Association The dangers of Shariah should be self-evident and, thankfully, the good people of the Florida Family Association (FFA) are working against Islamism in their home state. The Obama administration, some other Western governments, and the Western mainstream media are generally soft-peddling the dangers of radical Islam, so people who value freedom and democracy should be...

Obama's erroneous interpretation of Luke 12:48, which drew a rebuke from Sen. Orrin Hatch (over the invoking of the scripture not the interpretation of it) now opens up the door for ALL elected officials to talk about Jesus and how His words apply to political positions or policies on a host of issues, be it tax policy, marriage, the sanctity of life, abortion etc. while some already have done this... You see, others have talked about "God" and "my faith dictates that I do this or that" but never has anyone went so far as to invoke Jesus' name in...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) – A Southern Baptist seminary president applauded Roman Catholic bishops for refusing to obey an insurance mandate forcing employers to offer coverage for contraceptives and sterilization, and predicted that evangelical leaders will soon face similar choices. “Our religious liberty is being similarly subverted and attacked,” Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said of the Obama administration’s inclusion of pregnancy in “preventive services” that health insurers must provide. In his daily podcast briefing Jan. 31, Mohler commented on a letter from bishops read in Catholic churches Jan. 27 stating in part, “We cannot -- we will...

Our many fellow Catholics now enchained for the Faith of our Fathers in such places as China, Syria, and Egypt are, as Father Faber’s hymn says, “in heart and conscience free.” But what happens when a government tries to chain the conscience itself? A few weeks ago, in a remarkably unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the attempt of the present Administration in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC to restrict religious freedom by interfering with the hiring of ministerial personnel. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the Administration’s argument that the First Amendment does not guarantee the...

Dear Mr. President, I am fully aware that these are days in which the federal government is — for all practical purposes — unlimited in its power. As it stands, you — sir — can detain any American citizen without due process simply because you suspect him of being a terrorist, you have magically managed to become the Chairman of the UN Security Council without the approval of Congress — despite that awkward Article 1.9 of the Constitution — and you — along with the FCC — seem to think the Internet is thine to regulate. Now I’m sure this...

I doubt things have deteriorated quite enough for this to go anywhere, but the logic of a recent hate crime complaint in Ireland is intriguing. Humanist John Colgan argued that a recent homily of Bishop Philip Boyce of Raphoe constituted a hate crime under an act passed in 1989. Before I point out what is so interesting about this particular case, let me first acknowledge that the interplay of opposing factions in any culture is complex and varied. When groups disagree on fundamental issues, they naturally view any advance of the values of their opponents as a threat to, and...

“ought not that box of perfume, had been sold and given to the poor”