Free Republic

Studying Holocaust history is difficult. Our American psyches are not conditioned for the unprecedented level of cruelty that is the Holocaust. This column may be unstomachable for the weak of mind. Be forewarned.  The American liberation of the concentration camp Dachau is distinct from all other Holocaust liberations. U.S. soldiers, according to the book "The Day of the Americans," were so overpowered by the horrors of Dachau that they “summarily executed” some of the Nazis who operated the concentration camp, along with their dogs. Their dogs? I can understand the human nature that propelled American soldiers to execute the Nazis who, in...

An inscribed ancient Egyptian scarab and five clay tablets with carvings of naked women have been found in Rehob, a 3,500-year-old city in Israel. The carvings likely depict ancient fertility goddesses, such as Asherah or Ashtarte, Amihai Mazar, an archaeology professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Live Science. "[They] were used at home, as part of popular domestic religious practice in the domestic sphere, mainly related to fertility of women," Mazar said in an email, noting that similar carvings have been found at other archaeological sites in the region... Made of a mineral called steatite, the scarab contains...

Archeologists made a rare discovery at Tel Motza, to the west of Jerusalem, recently: evidence of the Jewish religious practices and rituals in the early days of the Kingdom of Judah. Among the finds are a ritual building and a cache of sacred vessels some 2,750 years old. Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, the directors of the excavation, released a joint statement provided by the Israeli Antiquities Authority in which they said: “The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual...

August 22, 2016 Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary Reading 1 2 Thes 1:1-5, 11-12 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the Church of the Thessaloniansin God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:grace to you and peace from God our Fatherand the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters,as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more,and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater.Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of Godregarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutionsand the...

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary CUF Issue: What does the Church teach concerning the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Response: The teaching is aptly summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 974: The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up [“assumed”] body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of His Body.

'Female figurines and inscribed prayers to a "divine couple" found in temples in Israel suggest that the “one God” of the Bible may not have been entirely alone. A recent excavation in Tel Motza, not far from Jerusalem, found what archaeologists believe to have been a ritual building - with clay figures of animals and men from the time of the First Temple, according to Israel's Haaretz news site. The find suggests that Iron Age religion in the area around Jerusalem may not have been monotheistic just before the time the Hebrew Bible – the basis of the Old Testament...

God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshipped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar. In 1967, Raphael Patai was the first historian to mention that the ancient Israelites worshipped both Yahweh and Asherah. The theory has gained new prominence because of the research of Francesca Stavrakopoulou, who began her work at Oxford and is now a senior lecturer in the department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter. Information presented in Stavrakopoulou's books, lectures and journal papers has become the basis of a three-part documentary series, now...