Free Republic

A Pennsylvania pastor rejected by the state's House of Representatives will pray in the Senate instead. The pastor is Gerry Stoltzfoos of Freedom Valley Worship Center in Gettysburg. He was asked to pray before the House by his own representative and sent officials a written prayer on their request. "I wrote the prayer and sent it to them and they sent back a very short rejection notice," he recalls. "So I wrote back, 'I'm curious as to why.' And they said it had an offensive word. Can you tell me what the word was?' And they came back and said...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose officials in the past have been convicted for being associated with Muslim terrorist groups, said it will announce at a news conference Tuesday that it is launching an “education campaign” and will distribute 100,000 copies of the Koran to local, state and national leaders. The books will provide an English translation and commentary. CAIR said the distribution is prompted by U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent speech in Cairo, in which he said he wants to reach out to Muslims throughout the world. He praised the Muslim community in the U.S, whose values he...

Christian Organization Denied Free Speech Rights At Arab International Festival Restrictions requested by Dearborn police upheld in court Dear AMERICA, Imagine a large Christian festival being held on public streets in a major city. A Muslim organization dispatches volunteers to mix and mingle with festival attendees, handing out pro-Muslim leaflets. The local police, concerned about crowd control and possible violence, order the Muslim organization to confine its leafleting to a single street corner out of the way of most of the festival traffic. If this is hard to imagine it's because we all know that the outcry from the...

"We're not going to win this case, but that's okay. Once we get 'hate crime' laws on the books, we're going to go after the Scouts and all the other bigots." This was a remark made in the gallery by the Clinton White House liaison for "gay" issues during U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the Boy Scouts case in 2000. She had whispered it to the Rev. Rob Schenck, whom she mistakenly thought was one of those liberal clerics who think God is still making up His mind about sexual morality. The point is that the proposed federal "hate crime"...

As we watch the horrors in Iran, it makes us wonder if anything like that could happen in America. In Iran, the mullahs control everything and feel justified in any injustice they commit because of a belief in the rightness of their own actions. Is there anyone like that here? In an answer to that question, Frank Schaeffer wrote a column for the Huffington Post entitled “The Real Lesson of Iran — Beware America’s Republican Mullahs.” Reading it and the comments to it, I came to a realization: people who think the religious right are just like Iranian mullahs are...

Do you believe in God? Really? And you're willing to admit it in public? Oops. Sorry, for a moment I slipped back into the arrogant Atheism of my youth. Before my parents had children, they decided to raise their kids in a secular home. We had gifts at Christmas time and chocolate covered matzoh during Passover, but there was no religion and certainly no God. When I was in grade school, God was just a kind of nondescript character who popped up in Little House on the Prairie books from time to time. He seemed like a decent enough fellow,...

First gay couple to become fathers in UK expecting fourth child By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 18th June 2009 Britain's first gay fathers have announced that they are having a fourth child on Valentine's Day. Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow sparked outrage when they used donated eggs and surrogate mothers in the USA to have their nine-year-old twins Aspen and Saffron and five-year-old son Orlando. The pair from Danbury in Essex, battled the American authorities to become the first gay couple to have both their names on their children's birth certificates.

On Tuesday June 16, 2009 the Board of Directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) met in its offices in Crystal City, located in Arlington, Virginia, to discuss the pressing issues they face. Top on its agenda was to consider whether it would continue airing “religious programming” or allow any more such programming to be aired on its member stations in the future. In explaining its mission on its’ own website the Corporation notes “…that PBS is a private, nonprofit corporation, founded in 1969, whose members are America’s public TV stations. PBS provides quality TV programming and related services to...

In the days since President Obama’s highly touted “speech to the Muslim world,” a number of commentators have pointed out that Obama, a self-described “student of history,” managed to serve up a pastiche of half-truths, exaggerations, and utter nonsense about Islamic history, and that even in his supposedly gutsier moments — as when he criticized the treatment of women in Muslim societies — he was hardly as forceful as the circumstances warrant. It’s no coincidence that the commentators who have made these points have done so, almost without exception, not in major media organs but in places like Pajamas Media....

Foes of the global jihad are constantly accused of quoting the Qur'an "out of context," but when Barack Obama actually did so in Cairo yesterday, no one seems to have minded. He quoted one Qur'an verse in connection with speaking of our shared interests as human beings: As the Holy Koran tells us, "Be conscious of God and speak always the truth." That is what I will try to do – to speak the truth as best I can, humbled by the task before us, and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human beings are far...

Christians in the UK Facing Increasing Official Discrimination: Poll By Hilary White LONDON, June 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A poll conducted by the Sunday Telegraph has found that thousands of Christians in Britain fear losing job promotions and are being harassed at work because of their religious beliefs. The poll has been released at the same time that reports that Britain is becoming increasingly hostile to Christian believers are increasing. In the Telegraph poll, one in five said they had faced “opposition” at work because of their beliefs. Over half said they had suffered from some kind of “persecution” at...

Breaking news 4:24 PM N.H. legislators OK gay marriage The governor is expected to sign the bill, which would make New Hampshire the sixth state to legalize gay marriage.

I spend a lot of time arguing about the fact Obama may be a Muslim, I always get this response, So what? Whats a good come back?

This is a french interview. If you can speak French you can watch it. I think the MSM will show it soon in the US Channel. You'll find the videos through the Figaro link.

The BBC Trust has dismissed a complaint about an episode of Bonekickers, a BBC One drama series about a team of archaeologists, that involved a fundamentalist Christian beheading a Muslim (as so often happens in real life, right?). The Trust has backed an earlier BBC ruling that there is "no reason why viewers would have been given the impression that the fanatics in the programme were evangelical Christians or that the programme gave an offensive portrayal of such people". We are deep into the realms of BBC bias and ignorance here. Only a BBC drama series would, to quote the complainant,...

Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary have been told that they cannot invite friends to their San Diego, Calif. home for a bible study....

Around 175 people were arrested in San Francisco while taking part in peaceful protests against a California Supreme Court decision to uphold a ban on same-sex marriage, police said. A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Police Department said the arrests came as demonstrators blocked an intersection near the court building. Those arrested were released at the scene, Sergeant Lyn Tomioka told AFP. California's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a referendum that outlawed gay marriage, but said 18,000 same-sex weddings carried out before the ban would remain valid. Gay and lesbian activists had sought to overturn the result of a November...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Gay marriage supporters are holding a prayer service on the eve of the California Supreme Court's expected ruling on the legality of a voter-approved ban on same-sex nuptials. The group Marriage Equality USA plans to hold the interfaith event Monday night at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. On Tuesday morning, the state's high court plans to rule on a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8. Opponents of the gay marriage ban argue that the issue was improperly put before voters; they say it revised the state constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography. For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians...

In a wide-ranging interview on Thursday night, David Axelrod opened up about comparisons to Karl Rove, the White House dress code, President Obama’s battle against smoking, the First Family’s new dog and even Miss California. He did this all on a game show. The senior adviser to the president and former campaign consultant was the special guest on National Public Radio’s “Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” which made a road trip to George Washington University in the nation’s capital for an episode that will air this weekend. Mr. Axelrod – or, as host Peter Sagal called him, “the moustache behind the...

A Law suit was filed in federal court May 13, 2009 against a radical anarchist group that openly advocates the use of riots and crime to further its views in favor of homosexual behavior. The complaint was filed on behalf of Delta Township’s Mount Hope Church in Michigan against the group “Bash Back!,” which invaded the church’s building during a worship service on Nov. 9 of last year. “The use of violent threats and criminal behavior to make a political point should never be acceptable in America,” said ADF attorney Gary McCaleb. “Bash Back! revealed how dangerous the homosexual agenda...

AINA) -- As a result of a rumor that a young Christian Copt hurled a stone towards a mosque, thousands of Muslims congregated and attacked Copts and their properties, leaving several injured and arrested. The incident, which took place on Wednesday, May 13, 2009,in the area of Saft El-Labn, Giza, resulted in the injury of 14 people from both sides. The police arrested 20 Copts, including 6 women, and 7 Muslims, and security imposed a curfew on the region. Among the Copts randomly rounded up by the police is 29-year-old Sabry Shaker, a physically handicapped man suffering from infantile paralysis....

Note: Read the whole article and check out the hypertext-links in the article. # FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, May 12, 2009 Where does the Obama administration stand on Israel? Although that vexed question is still open, the worrying signs are accumulating. On Sunday it was National Security Adviser James Jones telling ABC that “We understand Israel’s preoccupation with Iran as an existential threat. We agree with that”—and adding: “…by the same token, there are a lot of things that you can do to diminish that existential threat by working hard towards achieving a two-state solution.” With Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slated...

KIRKUK, Iraq, May 13, 2009 – Provincial police representatives in Iraq’s Kirkuk province met May 4 with Christian leaders in Kirkuk city to address concerns about increased violence against Kirkuk's Christian minority. Only about 3 percent of Iraq's total population -- about 800,000 Iraqis -- are Christian. "Anyone that targets you, targets us also," said Maj. Gen. Turhan, the Kirkuk city deputy police chief, a Kurdish Muslim. Two attacks April 26 left three Christian residents of Kirkuk dead and two others injured, the third series of attacks targeting Christians in the city in recent months. "Our history has always coincided...

The president of a Christian mission organization is trying to help believers become better equipped to battle their biggest enemy. Dr. Jerry Rankin is president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. In his new book Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory, Rankin examines the causes for spiritual warfare, and the methods and disciplines Christians can use for victory. Rankin says spiritual warfare is real for all believers. "Satan is not just going to roll over and relinquish the kingdoms of the world to become the kingdoms of our Lord," he counsels. And in much more...

John Gechter's story has been troubling me ever since I read it in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09128/968674-298.stm)on Friday, May 8th. Gechter was set to graduate from Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania which is about 65 miles north of Pittsburgh. The college is situated in a rural area, and was founded in 1879 as a strict Christian institution, which it remains today. It prides itself as an authentic Christian institution. The college is also listed as one of the top ten conservative schools in the nation with very rigorous academics. Sex outside of marriage, heterosexual or gay is forbidden,...

Note: The following text is a quote: May 8, 2009 UK bans cross-shaped medal as offensive to Muslims and Hindus When in Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Muslim sensibilities. In non-Muslim countries, non-Muslims must conform their behavior to Muslim sensibilities. Got it? It is a pity that the prevailing multiculturalist fog is such that the Hindus joined this initiative. They may ultimately find their allies in this struggle turning on them. Cultural Abdication Alert from Absurd Britannia: "Queen's medal of honour scrapped... because it's too Christian for Muslims and Hindus," from the Daily Mail, May 8 (thanks...

The Rutherford Institute is suing a Billings, Montana, school over a graduation decision. John Whitehead, founder of the Institute, says many people were scheduled to speak at the 2008 Butte High School graduation. Some chose serious subjects, others humor, he says. "Renee Griffith, who is a Christian, wanted to mention Christ once and mention God once in one of her very short remarks, and the school said she couldn't do it," he explains. "She [insisted she] wanted to do it, so then they actually removed her from the graduation ceremony and did not allow her to speak." According to a...

The Taliban on Thursday threatened "harsh reprisals" if Pope Benedict XVI does not immediately intervene to stop Christians proselytising in Afghanistan. In a message posted on their official website, the Taliban made the threat against the pope and Christians for spreading their faith. The message followed video footage aired on Arabic satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera earlier this week apparently showing Christian soldiers proselytising outside the Afghan capital, Kabul, and handing out copies of the bible in Pashtun. "We are sending out a message to the most important personality in the Christian world - Pope Benedict XVI," read the message. "If...

It was supposed to be a kind gesture to brighten up a hospital for patients. But a council managed to enrage local artists when it asked them to contribute their paintings to hang in wards. In an unsolicited letter, Havering council in East London made it clear it would accept pictures of any subject - except churches.

Tuesday afternoon, April 28, several major homosexual activist figures, including a prominent state employee, led a screaming demonstration to terrorize a downtown Boston church while it was holding a peaceful religious training event inside. Using a bullhorn, they illegally trampled through an adjoining Revolutionary War-era cemetery in order to be directly outside the church's windows. Despite numerous apparent violations of the law, the Boston Police talked with them but refused to make any arrests.

Tom Hanks, who plays the character Robert Langdon in the controversial new film Angels & Demons, has described the plot as “playing fast and loose with the truth”. The plot of the film sees a secret society known as the Illuminati try to destroy the Vatican in order to take revenge for a massacre against its members by the Catholic Church. The film is the prequel to The Da Vinci Code, which claimed that the Church covered up Jesus’ secret marriage to Mary Magdalene. Leaders within the Catholic Church have already condemned the film as offensive to Catholics. The Catholic...

For those who were shocked by Obama "faith" advisor Harry Knox knocking the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic men's group, as an "army of oppression," he is not alone. Gay activists are now taking pride in getting Knights charity drives crushed at supermarkets. Metro Weekly, a D.C-based gay "news" magazine, honored a man for his "Storefront Stand" -- he harassed Knights of Columbus volunteers raising funds for the mentally disabled (usually with Tootsie Roll candies) outside a Safeway store in northern Virginia. Allison also succeeded in getting other Knights thrown off one Giant supermarket's property. To passers-by at Safeway, Brad...

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2009 – A report broadcast by the Arab news network Al Jazeera about U.S. servicemembers proselytizing in Afghanistan is just plain wrong, Pentagon officials said today. The Al Jazeera story showed an evangelical religious service on Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan and a discussion about distributing Bibles that had been translated into Dari and Pashtu – the two major languages of Afghanistan. “American servicemembers are allowed to hold religious services,” a Defense Department official speaking on background said. “The clip shows one of those services with an American chaplain leading a religious service for American servicemembers. In it,...

<p>Organizers of this week's National Day of Prayer still don't know whether the White House will participate.</p> <p>The event's evangelical character earned it a White House welcome during President George W. Bush's eight years in office. But Brian Toon, vice chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, says to date, there's been no mention of a White House observance being held this year.</p>

Swine flu: Egyptian police battle Christians as they enforce pig cull Egyptian police fought running battles with stone-throwing members of the country's Christian minority after moving in to enforce a cull of pigs ordered because of swine flu. By Richard Spencer in Dubai 03 May 2009 Fires burn in Cairo as protestors try to prevent security forces confiscating their pigs Photo: EPA Pig farmers, many of whom keep their animals in the backstreet slums of the capital, Cairo, mounted a blockade against government workers moving in to slaughter their animals. When they began throwing stones at police trying to force...

A shocking decision has been handed down by the National Public Radio board. In 1985, National Public Radio (NPR) adopted a policy stating that member stations had to provide "nonsectarian, non-political, noncommercial" educational programming. But in February 2009, the wording was changed to say: "NPR Member Stations shall provide ONLY [emphasis added] nonsectarian, non-political, noncommercial educational content on all broadcast channel(s) and related media distribution platforms such as member partners that use the NPR member brands." The rule, which takes effect May 1, means that any NPR stations carrying religious programming must cease and desist that programming as of that...

Irfan Masih, the 11-year-old boy wounded on 22 April during a Taliban attack against Christians in Tiasar Town near Karachi, has died. In critical conditions from the start, the boy slipped away after five, agonisingly long days. Fr Emmanuel Yousaf Mani, the director of the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), led a delegation to the site of the attack. The group, made up of clergymen and lay people, visited the wounded in hospital and then met leaders of the Muttahida Quami Movement(MQM), the only Pakistani party that is opposed to the introduction of Sharia in the Swat Valley....

Gay victims of violence would gain new federal protections under a revived and expanded hate crimes bill passed by the House. Conservatives strongly objected but lacked the votes to stop the legislation. The bill could provide a financial bonanza to state and local authorities, with federal grants to help pay for prosecution of hate crimes. The federal government could step in and prosecute if states requested it or declined to exercise their authority. A weaker bill died two years ago under a veto threat from President George W. Bush. But President Barack Obama urged support before the vote. Democratic Sen....

Ron Howard has been doing his best Opie impression while running around claiming that his upcoming movie, “Angels & Demons,” is not anti-Christian or anti-Catholic. Howard is in denial and perhaps a bit distracted by the box-office. In the film, the Catholic Church and the Vatican are depicted as secretive, conspiratorial, ignorant, and violent.

President Obama’s first 100 days in office will come to a close. Obama's juggernaut candidacy swept many Christians into its wake. Some now appear to have "buyer's remorse." As David Gushee, an evangelical Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University and a supporter of Obama recently wrote in the USA TODAY: "Mr. President, we need more than lip service. Centrist evangelicals like me embraced Barack Obama's campaign pledge to help bride the gaps of the culture wars. Instead, the president's short record on abortion-related issues is is familiar— and disappointing—rather than revolutionary.” Gushee is not alone. So, while politicos and...

The Alliance Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit on behalf of students and parents against the Wilson County School Board in Tennessee. Lakeview Elementary School students wanted to display posters that referenced God and prayer, but school officials said they had to cover up those references before the posters could be displayed. The posters were hand-drawn by students and announced voluntary activities such as the "See You at the Pole" prayer event. Nate Kellum is with the Alliance Defense Fund. "Well, Christian students shouldn't be censored just for expressing their beliefs. They do not check their constitutional rights upon stepping...

Members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today rejected an opportunity to protect Christian pastors who preach the biblical condemnation of homosexuality and approved on a 15-12 vote a "hate crimes" bill that supporters admit could be used to bring charges against religious leaders. The bill, H.R. 1913, now will be considered by the full House of Representatives. The committee rejected a number of amendments offered by several members seeking to protect religious liberty, to protect the unborn, to protect against violence by illegal aliens, and to clarify the bill's meanings of "gender identity" and "sexual orientation." One of the...

Director Ron Howard on Tuesday defended his film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown 's "Angels & Demons" from criticism that it smears the Roman Catholic Church, heightening an ongoing battle over fictional depictions of the Vatican. Howard, who also directed the 2006 movie adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," posted a blog at The Huffington Post website saying that neither he nor his new movie "Angels & Demons," which debuts in May and stars Tom Hanks, are anti-Catholic. "And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics, including most in the hierarchy of the Church...

Frank Rich, mutant columnist for The New York Times, has a permanent sneer on his face — especially for proponents of traditional marriage. In a recent column, “The Bigots’ Last Hurrah,” he mocks the supposedly sad, pathetic creatures who have the audacity to stand for Judeo-Christian morality, notwithstanding media censure. His hook is a YouTube video called “Gathering Storm,” produced by the National Organization for Marriage, which Rich treats as the pro-family equivalent of “Triumph of the Will.” Just who is Rich calling a “bigot”? For starters a majority of voters in Oregon (57%), California (53%), Texas (76%) Florida (62%),...

Openly homosexual blogger defaces contestant's photos, gives her 0 score Note: This story contains material that some readers might consider graphic and offensive. An openly homosexual blogger and judge of the Miss USA pageant has launched into a full-blown attack on Christian contestant Carrie Prejean – calling her a b-tch and a c---, as well as defacing photos of her with sexually explicit drawings – because she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. At Sunday night's pageant, Prejean was asked the one question she dreaded most, "Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage;...

The Council on American Islamic Relations CAIR is caught red handed selling Sayyid Qutb (the father of Jihad) books and anti-Judeo-Christian material which state that those who wrote the Bible should "burn in hell for blasphemy."

Amidst all of the American flags and presidential seals, there was something missing when President Barack Obama gave an economic speech at Georgetown University this week -- Jesus. The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com. The gold "IHS" monogram inscribed on a pediment in the hall was covered over by a piece of black-painted plywood, and remained covered over the next day, CNSNews.com reported. The Washington Times' Belief Blog asked the university about the presidential request: Julie Bataille from the university's press office...

The international Religious Left has very little interest in human rights or religious liberty in the world, outside territories occupied by or supposedly victimized by Israel. Never critical of radical Islam or Arab regimes, groups like the World Council of Churches (WCC) have an obsessive interest in the plight of Palestinians, whose plight would otherwise bore the WCC, if Israel, and by extension, the U.S., could not be blamed. Last month, the WCC dispatched a "Living Letters" team to Israel and "Palestine," purportedly to show solidarity with Palestinian Christians. But the attitude of Hamas and other Islamists towards the dwindling...

A self-described Christian 12-year-old boy who dared post his views on same-sex marriage on the popular Internet video site, YouTube, has since been ridiculed and insulted by tens of thousands of comments that attack the boy, his sexuality and his faith. "Kill Christianity, and then kill yourself," responded a YouTube community member identified as greenacidfusion. A commenter calling himself WizzyBoy 520 added, "How do you know the Bible isn't full of lies? You, just like everyone who is against gay marriage, is a mentally retarded bigot. No exceptions. Now go to h---." The boy identifies himself only by the name...