Free Republic

The federal government will no longer forgive student loans in exchange for public service if that service is related to religion, according to a new Education Department rule from the Obama administration. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program announced the change Jan. 31 with little fanfare, while most of Washington was focused on the new ObamaCare rule requiring religious organizations to provide free birth control through health insurance. “Generally, the type or nature of employment with the organization does not matter for PSLF purposes,” reads the new language. “However, if you work for a nonprofit organization, your employment will...

Fr. George Rutler was kind enough to share his latest parish bulletin concerning the recent HHS mandate with the Cardinal Newman Society.He writes: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. Chief Justice Roberts...

Monday, December 19, 2011 The apocalyptic prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen, the next Doctor of the ChurchBy Brian Kopp Earlier this fall, Pope Benedict XVI beatified Venerable Elena Aiello, bringing to light her little known prophecies, which have strong parallels to those of both Our Lady of Akita as well as statements Pope JPII and Cardinal Ratzinger made in the past regarding the Third Secret of Fatima. (See this earlier blog post for a summary of the parallels: For fourth anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, Pope draws attention to little known prophecies of Venerable Elena Aiello) Now, Pope Benedict XVI is...

On Wednesday, a group of high school athletes at a Long Island school were suspended for staging a spontaneous bout of Tebowing in their high school's hallway. According to Connor Carroll, a senior, the Riverhead administration handed out one-day suspensions to four student athletes after a group of Riverhead students decided to spontaneously hold a group Tebowing session in the school. Tebowing, a relatively harmless act which emerged amidst the rapid rise of the Denver Broncos quarterback, is meant to be an homage to the second-year passer's religiously focused touchdown celebrations. While as many as 40 teens (with some participants...

The prophecies are not just about pointing to literal events prophesied to happen, such as the destruction of Damascus or the attack by Iran and Russia on Israel. The prophesies also describe the states of mind and emotional turmoil that will accompany the conditions that God is setting up for His final pieces to be fulfilled. This essay is about the emotional and mental conditions that are prophesied and are already here. First, this excerpt from the Sydney Morning Herald-- EU Leaders Roll the Dice as Eurogeddon Looms 'Eurogeddon'? Interesting way to put it. "Could the Euro be saved? After...

It’s an Obama world. While we were preoccupied with other disastrous Obama policies, military bureaucrats under Barack Obama passed a new rule that barred loved ones from bringing Bibles to wounded soldiers. The US Military says they are rescinding the order but only after a Republican lawmaker denounced the policy on the House floor. Todd Starnes reported: Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said they are rescinding a policy that prohibits family members of wounded military troops from bringing Bibles or any religious reading materials to their loved ones. The decision to rescind the ban on Bibles came exactly one...

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel HaYom newspaper reveals a leftist turn for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Speaking in an interview to be published Thursday, the Prime Minister admitted he had come to terms with dividing the Land of Israel. “The land is already divided. How it will [yet] be divided, that is the question,” the newspaper reports. In the interview, Netanyahu insisted that the new reality required “practical solutions”. “How will the land be divided? Territory-wise, there have been those who predicted the land would be divided according to the 1967 armistice lines, which is not acceptable to me. Israel requires defensible...

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain has some advice for President Barack Obama to help energize stalled Middle East peacemaking: Put former President Bill Clinton in charge. Democrat Bill Clinton, husband of Obama's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is always "the smartest guy in the room" and so would he be in a roomful of Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, McCain told the Reuters Washington summit on Tuesday. The Republican presidential nominee in 2008 who lost to Obama, McCain said Clinton had credibility with both Israelis and Palestinians and had come the closest of anyone to producing peace....

To the catalog of missed opportunities for peace in the Middle East, we can add a tantalizing if also depressing chapter: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's secret offer in 2008 to create a Palestinian state that would feature international control of holy sites in a divided Jerusalem — a concession many Israelis have said was impossible. Condoleezza Rice discusses the Olmert proposal in her new memoir, "No Higher Honor." She writes that as she listened to Olmert's plan during a May 2008 visit to Israel, she asked herself (and the emphatic italics are hers in the text): "Am I really...

Last Friday, Rev. Robert Jeffress, the Dallas pastor who introduced Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, spoke derisively about the Mormon faith of Mitt Romney, making the case that “Mormonism is a cult.” Two days later, he chided Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism as “false religions.” Last year, Rev. Jeffress said the Roman Catholic Church was the outgrowth of a “corruption” called the “Babylonian mystery.” He continued, “Much of what you see in the Catholic Church today doesn’t come from God’s word. It comes from that cult-like pagan religion. Isn’t that the genius of Satan?” Catholic League president Bill...

U.S. President Barack Obama needs to make good on the promises that won him the Nobel Peace Prize, fellow laureate and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday. Carter called on the current American president to back the Palestinian’s bid to the UN for statehood and seize the opportunity provided by the Arab Spring to facilitate Palestinian-Israeli peace. The shaking up of authoritarian rule in the Arab world has created opportunities for resolving conflicts in the Middle East, Carter said, comparing the Arab Spring to the political reality in which he, as president, helped broker the peace treaty between...

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Sunday that Israel was at risk of becoming isolated and more vulnerable if it did not take steps to repair ties with neighboring countries and restart negotiations with the Palestinians. The U.S. remains committed to helping Israel maintain its "qualitative military edge" in the Middle East, Mr. Panetta said. But he added that genuine security would not come through military hardware, but by returning to peace negotiations. "The question you have to ask is: 'Is it enough to maintain a military edge if you are isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena?'" he said. "Real...

Deny Jesus Christ... Or Die.. That's pretty much the situation a Christian pastor is facing in Tehran. In Iran the Christian pastor could be executed this week... unless he recants his faith in Jesus Christ. So far he's refused to recant his faith. (He's in court facing charges of apostasy.) "Yousef Nadarkhani, who leads a 400-person house church movement, refused in court on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 to recant Christianity and was scheduled to get two more chances on Sept. 27 and Sept. 28, according to the British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which monitors religious freedom."

The heckler was booed by the crowd when he began his rant with "The Christian God is the only and only true living God. The creator of heaven and the universe." "Jesus Christ is God! Jesus Christ is God! Jesus Christ is God! Jesus Christ is the son of God!" the man continued. "You're the antichrist!" the man said. The crowd responded with an enthusiastic cheer of "four more years" afterward. "First of all, I agree Jesus Christ is the Lord. I believe in that," Obama said to tepid applause.

THE end is near — or so it seems to a segment of Christians aligned with the religious right. The global economic meltdown, numerous natural disasters and the threat of radical Islam have fueled a conviction among some evangelicals that these are the last days. While such beliefs might be dismissed as the rantings of a small but vocal minority, apocalyptic fears helped drive the antigovernment movements of the 1930s and ’40s and could help define the 2012 presidential campaign as well. Christian apocalypticism has a long and varied history. Its most prevalent modern incarnation took shape a century ago,...

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has handed over a historic request to UN chief Ban Ki-moon asking the United Nations to admit the state of Palestine as a full member. The Palestinian leader won huge applause and a standing ovation on Friday from some of the assembly as he entered the hall before beginning his speech. Abbas said he was ready to return to the negotiations, saying he did not want to isolate or delegitimize Israel. "Here I declare that the Palestine Liberation Organization is ready to return immediately to the negotiating table on the basis of the adopted terms of...

US President Barack Obama will be held responsible for the failure of the Middle East peace process, members of the Palestinian Authority delegation to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York charged on Thursday. The latest allegation came as the PA called for anti-Obama demonstrations in protest against his opposition to the Palestinian statehood bid. Dozens of Palestinians answered the call on Thursday, demonstrating against Obama in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The protesters carried signs with anti-Obama slogans and some burned pictures of the US president, Army Radio reported. The officials said that relations between the PA...

Chuck and Stephanie Fromm already have been fined $300 for holding Bible studies for their friends at their home, and they face the potential for additional fines of $500 for each study held, according to a legal team taking their case to court. The newest conflict over Bible studies in homes in America arose in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., where city officials say city code section 9-3.301 prohibits religious organizations in residential neighborhoods without a conditional-use permit, a sometimes very expensive procedure. The code cites "churches, temples, synagogues, monasteries, religious retreats, and other places of religious worship and other fraternal...

As we approach the 2012 presidential election, the issue of religion co-mingling with politics has become central. Momentarily, though, let's set that debate aside and accept, for better or worse, this is the way things currently work. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has, early in his candidacy, outrun all other contenders for the Republican nomination when it comes to drawing Christianity into the mix. "Many," Perry claimed in 2008, "want to recognize Jesus as a good teacher, but nothing more. But why call him 'good' if he has lied about his claims of deity?" The "many" Perry specifically referred to...

OBAMA IS MUSLIM by Tina Si on Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 12:11pm This is a great Atlas Shrugs website link with a slew of information. All of the blue sentences are links to support the information further. Please share this information with everyone in email and facebook. People need to look at this and see that this isn't conspiracy. This is truth on top of more truth. You can't deny this much info if you honestly look at it all. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/06/-obama-tells-egyptian-foreign-minister-i-am-a-muslim-stealth-coup-on-the-white-house.html 1. Obama Admits He Is A Muslim http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCAffMSWSzY 2. Obama is Declared Messiah by Louis Farrakhan (The leader...

The news and blogosphere is filled with responses to the July 14, 2011 story by Joshua Green, the Senior Editor of the Atlantic, entitled "Michele Bachmann's Church Says the Pope Is the Antichrist." That is because it raises a serious matter which should not be taken lightly, and one which the candidate must address. First, let me share some personal context. I am what is often called a "revert" to the Catholic Church, someone who returned to the Church of my childhood after a long search for the truth. I love being a Catholic Christian. I hold an undergraduate degree...

Michele Bachmann’s exit from her longtime church brought to focus the traditional Lutheran doctrine which equates the Roman Catholic Pope with the Antichrist, but the denomination says its views are being misunderstood. The anti-papal doctrine of Protestant Reformer Martin Luther is “not one of our driving views, and certainly not something that we preach from the pulpit,” a spokesperson of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s former denomination, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, told Religion News Service. “As a confessional Lutheran church, we hold to the teachings of Martin Luther who himself maintained the papacy, and in turn the pope, has set himself...

An unusually ignorant story in The Atlantic--with a completely misleading headline—questions the religious affiliation of Rep. Michelle Bachman Republican presidential candidate. Bachman was—but no longer is—a member of a Minnesota Lutheran congregation that belongs to the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The latter, a theologically conservative group, teaches that the Roman Catholic Church embodies the spirit of Antichrist—although a representative of the group reports that this view is rarely expressed today. Columnist Joshua Green asks whether Catholic voters will find Bachman’s beliefs offensive. But Bachman herself never professed that belief. When questioned about it, she repudiated it, and said that she...

....some of my colleagues in the world of Catholic media, journalism and the Press have attributed the positions of this Church and Bachmanns past membership to just "being a Protestant." As someone who has worked ecumenically for decades I reject that dismissal. The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod does not represent many Protestants. It is an Anti-Catholic body. ....I have worked with, prayed with and collaborated with MANY Protestant Christians, for over three decades, who would NEVER call the successor of Peter the Antichrist. The colleagues to which I refer go further, they seemingly accept the notion that if Protestant Christians...

A recent Hill article on Libya reveals the administration's disturbing disdain for checks on presidential authority. In quoting the Obama administration's petulant criticism of Congress, it gives us a candid-camera snapshot of the executive branch's Kingly Presumption of blatantly unconstitutional authority. We see, in short, an administration asserting a monarchical supremacy that inherently assumes that there's no need to even rhetorically argue the legality of actions, much less halt those actions.

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) It's summer. It's hot. It's the South. That must mean it's time for an old-fashioned camp meeting. Next week (June 23-26), the bygone staple of the tent revival will be reincarnated on a bucolic North Carolina farm as The Wild Goose Festival. Nearly 10 years in the making, the festival is an attempt to reimagine Christianity for the 21st century under a bigger, wider more inclusive tent.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama warned America's pro-Israel lobby on Sunday that the Jewish state will face growing isolation without a credible Middle East peace process. He defended his endorsement of a future Palestine based on Israel's 1967 boundaries but subject to negotiated land swaps as a public expression of long-standing U.S. policy.

JERUSALEM – The speech that President Barack Obama delivered last week may have sparked a crisis with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the president's mention of Israel's pre-1967 lines as a starting point for new borders. But the bereaved Israeli father Obama singled out took no offense. Toward the end of his wide-ranging Mideast address Thursday, Obama spoke of the difficulties of making progress in peace talks and how suspicion and hostility have been passed on for generations.

Right wing MKs: Obama is the new Arafat By GIL HOFFMAN Danon, Ben-Ari outraged by US president's call for creation of Palestinian state on '67 lines; Livni says plan in Israel's interests. Knesset members on the Right expressed outrage on Thursday night at US President Barack Obama's call for the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps in an exchange of territory for security. They called upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reject Obama's plan when he meets with him on Friday in Washington. "Barack Hussein Obama adopted the staged plan for Israel's...

Someone please start immediately a separate thread "We Stand With Israel" Not a prayer thread, please. We need a thread site where we can post what we really feel about Obaxander the Great's ghastly move. Leni

- Catholic Exchange - http://catholicexchange.com - Is the Antichrist Approaching?Posted By Sonja Corbitt On April 29, 2011 @ 12:00 am In Featured on Front Page,Grow,The Marquee,What We Believe | 9 Comments Uprising after uprising in the Middle East; sexual and intellectual scandal in the Church; earthquakes in Chile and Haiti; tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan; and financial collapse in almost every market: given the startling increase in the frequency of global crises—political, religious, financial, natural—one is tempted to begin looking for Antichrist and despair for the future.The pervading anxiety and fear is exacerbated by non-Catholic proliferation of “end time” fiction...

White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked today why President Obama did not give a statement on Easter. He laughed it off. Barack Obama released statements for the Muslims holidays of Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, the Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha last year. Just last month he released a statement for the Persian Nowruz holiday. The Hill has more: Carney also scoffed at media reports calling out the White House for not releasing a statement commemorating Easter on Sunday, explaining Obama and his family attended church services in Washington. “The president went to church yesterday, it was well-covered. I’m not sure if we...

Our Lord Jesus Christ said. John 18:6. "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Jesus reveals The Christ Spirit and asks us to love him and become a part of the body of Christ on earth. This is done as we shine the light of the Christ trinity, love, truth and life in our every thought, word and deed. When we are centered in absolute love of the Lord of love, our hearts are purified and we see God and shine that divine light for...

My sufferings are growing through you , All that I AM growing anew , The blood , the stripes , the words you know , Persecution that just seems to grow and grow , My very essence speaking and flowing through you , Oh ! but as you suffer I become new , For it is heaven in you I desire to prolong , For as you suffer your flesh falls behind , And all your words now become mine , A beautiful tapestry sung just for me , Each stitch woven in perfect harmony , My kingdom then comes...

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least 12 people were killed Friday in an attack on a United Nations building in Afghanistan that followed a demonstration against the reported burning of a Quran in Florida last month, authorities and a U.N. source with knowledge of the events said. Eight workers for the U.N. and four Afghans were killed, said Abdul Rauof Taj, security director of Bulkh province. At least 24 people were injured, he said. A U.N .source confirmed the dead included four Nepalese security guards. U.N. workers from Norway, Sweden and Romania were also among the dead, the source said....

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(Revelation 6:1-2)In John’s vision, we have been escorted into the very throne room of God himself, and we have beheld wonderful, and mysterious things. God has granted this vision to his servants,that we may know the things which must...

Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck today said Americans should be alarmed over the revelations of a WND Books product, The Islamic Antichrist, in which author Joel Richardson documents the similarities between the "bad guy" of the Bible, the Antichrist, and the "good guy" of the Quran, the Mahdi. The author contends they are, in fact, the same. "You have to look at this, really ask yourself, 'Wow, is this true?'"Beck said. He also cited the Islamic teachings that some Muslims like Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believe – that they can speed the coming of the Madhi, their end-times...

In a moment of pure comedy gold, Barack Obama makes the hilarious statement that he has never raised taxes. Even his friends at Politifact were dumbfounded by Obama’s tall tale. They called him on it and published the following. The idea that Obama did not raise taxes is just plain wrong. He signed legislation raising taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products soon after taking office; that money goes to pay for children’s health insurance programs. The law went into effect in 2009. He also signed the health care law, which includes taxes on indoor tanning that went into effect...

St. John of Damascuss Critique of Islam Webmaster note: The following passage is from Saint John’s monumental work, the Fount of Knowledge, part two entitled Heresies in Epitome: How They Began and Whence They Drew Their Origin. It is usually just cited as Heresies. The translator’s introduction points out that Fount of Knowledge is one of the most “important single works produced in the Greek patristic period,…offering as it does an extensive and lucid synthesis of the Greek theological science of the whole period. It is the first great Summa of theology to appear in either the East or the...

The Savior, the Master Teacher    By Elder Jay E. JensenOf the Presidency of the SeventyJay E. Jensen, "The Savior, the Master Teacher", Ensign, Jan. 2011, 42–47   We are to feast upon the words of Christ—the scriptures—and, as He did, use them to teach and strengthen others.  Under the direction of His Father, Jesus Christ created worlds without number. He was the great Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament. He was born of a mortal mother, Mary, and of God the Eternal Father. He was the greatest being to live on earth. He said He came “to do the will of him...

The Secular Left’s Intolerance and Spirit of Anti Chris Today in post Judeo/Christian America we live in the craziest of days. Right is wrong, bitter is sweet, good is evil, immoral is moral, godly is godless, holy is unholy, pure is impure, just is unjust and Almighty God is the devil (Isa. 5:20). This is the bizzaro world mind set of those who are void of reality, dominated by their unbridled passions and are intensely pushing to recreate the natural and moral laws of Almighty God’s creation (Isa. 24:5-6, Dan. 7:25, 2 Thess 2:8-12, Rev. 13). Today’s godless haters are...

Pundits and politicians alike praised President Obama's speech at the Tucson memorial service last Wednesday. "A wonderful speech," wrote the New York Times' David Brooks. "A magnificent performance," wrote National Review's Rich Lowry. "A terrific speech," wrote Sen. John McCain.And those were just the voices on the right.Obama's tribute to the victims of the shooting and the heroism of bystanders was appreciated by everyone. But many conservatives particularly admired the speech because the president took care to say, in clear terms, that political rhetoric did not cause the violence in Tucson. "It did not,"

First, I would like to send my condolences to everyone who has been affected by the senseless act of violence perpetrated on Saturday in Tucson, Arizona.  I was not going to write anything about what happened, but after seeing the way the left spent the last few days attempting to smear those of us on the right of being guilty for this tragedy, I have decided to break my silence. Throughout history, politicians have taken advantage of tragedies to increase their power or to destroy their opponents.  Sometimes they will even create a tragedy to smear their opponents or...

STANFORD, Calif. - President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today. It's "the absolute perfect spot in the U.S. government" to centralize efforts toward creating an "identity ecosystem" for the Internet, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt said. That news, first reported by CNET, effectively pushes the department to the forefront of the issue, beating out other potential candidates including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

... "Republicans, however, later agreed to pass it by unanimous consent."

Obama Messiah - Posing as AN Anti-Christ (not thee), but Messiah Obama Has Only Himself to Blame. Now, two years later, millions of Americans who voted for this false posing anti-christ messiah, have now concluded 'messiah' is not the 'man' they thought he was.

Interview with attorney Stephen Pidgeon. The case for probable cause of high treason against Barack Obama. Atty Pidgeon explains how there is already enough probable cause to warrant investigations and indictment against Obama for high treason under the Logan Act. Atty. Pidgeon also explains Obama's constitutional eligibility in full detail. Parts 1-3 embedded below. Enjoy!

Through the years there have been many theories on the identity of “The Antichrist”. The common belief held by many Christians today looks quite different than what you actually find in the Bible. How important is it to have a correct eschatology and does it really matter?

AS a schoolboy in Jakarta, Barack Obama attended Muslim prayer sessions with his classmates against the wishes of his mother. The US President's former grade three teacher said that Mr Obama - who was known as "Barry" when he attended the Menteng One school in Jakarta - studied the Koran and went to classes on Islam, despite the objections of Anne Dunham, a Roman Catholic. The teacher's recollections will add to speculation about Mr Obama's links to Islam during his much-anticipated visit to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, as part of his ten-day tour of Asia.

As the Unions begin their annual push to get the rank and file to the polls we now have evidence that Union Leaders are now telling their members they need to stand by Obama by voting to keep Congress in the hands of Democrats. After all, even Jesus Christ Himself could not do a better job than Obama has.  At least that's what  AFL-CIO official Herb Johnson has been telling the rank and file in Kansas City Mo. That's right. In an interview with an AP reporter, Mr Johnson actually equated Obama with Jesus Christ by saying Jesus could not...