Free Republic

The new late-term abortion clinic / Pro-life leader Karen Garnett Dallas, Texas, Nov 8, 2009 / 07:12 pm (CNA).- An abortionist who says he know he is “killing” has opened a late-term abortion clinic in North Texas, prompting local pro-lifers to express their dismay that such a clinic was absent for only 14 months. However, they also affirmed their resolve to peacefully end the “grave evil” in their community. Dr. Curtis Boyd, who opened the first abortion clinic in Texas in 1973, is the only doctor in North Texas who will perform abortions on women up to six months...

After witnessing a gay pride march, committed Christian Pauline Howe wrote to the council to complain that the event had been allowed to go ahead. But instead of a simple acknowledgement, she received a letter warning her she might be guilty of a hate crime and that the matter had been passed to police. Two officers later turned up at the frightened grandmother's home and lectured her about her choice of words before telling her she would not be prosecuted Mrs Howe, 67, whose husband Peter is understood to be a Baptist minister, yesterday spoke of her shock at the...

PORT ST. JOE, Fla. — Seventeen-year-old Simone Davis of Port St. Joe, Fla., is like most teenage girls. She enjoys school and is active in her church’s youth group. But while her senior class peers at Port St. Joe High School fuss over which club to join or who will be elected homecoming queen, Davis is battling for her religious freedom and the right to stay in the country.Born in Colchester, England, she has lived in the U.S. for the last 10 years as a resident alien and recently applied for full U.S. citizenship. This summer the Bureau of Citizenship...

The Obama administration’s safe schools czar, Kevin Jennings, has accused the Baptists, the Boy Scouts and sports fans of anti-gay bias, and he has advocated a special high school for gay teens as well as gay-straight alliance clubs for every high school in America. Jennings, who was a prominent homosexual activist before being named director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education, also has called for kindergarteners to be taught to respect all sexual orientations, while insisting that “ex-gay messages” and “Christian values” are ‘misused to isolate or denigrate lesbian, gay, bisexual...

Complex machines often have lots of knobs provided for adjustment: think of a jumbo jet, a television set or a DVD player. With a radio set you can twiddle the knobs to tune a different station or increase the volume or adjust the tone. But you can twiddle the controls on your radio as much as you like, it won’t change into a TV set. The natural changes we see in living things are like twiddling the knobs on a complex machine: they can fine-tune the settings, but cannot create something completely new. For example, an enzyme in a bacterium...

Newsweek magazine recently published a commentary by atheist Richard Dawkins containing some of his arguments against “creationists.” Therein he admitted, “What would be evidence against evolution, and very strong evidence at that, would be the discovery of even a single fossil in the wrong geological stratum.”[1] Out of place fossils are actually common, despite Dawkins’ claims regarding the “massive numbers” of fossils documenting evolutionary history. ICR News has reported on several over the last 12 months [2,3,4,5,6] and another one has surfaced recently...

ATLANTA -- A key Southern Baptist official has apologized for comparing proposals to overhaul the nation's health care system with Nazism. Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, also apologized for bestowing a "Josef Mengele Award" on President Barack Obama's chief health care adviser. He said in a letter dated Wednesday that he did not intend to "actually equate anyone in the Obama administration with Dr. Mengele." The Anti-Defamation League had criticized Land's remarks, calling them "inappropriate, insensitive and unjustified."

MAYS LANDING, N.J. - Eugene Robinson said sex was the last thing on his mind as he drove the pretty young woman who had asked for a ride to her motel. "I was waiting for God to send me the one that's supposed to be my Christian wife," he said. "That's what it says in the Bible." Yet within minutes of taking the woman to a cheap motel in neighboring Absecon, the 67-year-old Atlantic City Councilman and Baptist minister was receiving oral sex. "I was so surprised," he testified Wednesday in an Atlantic County courtroom. "I, um, hadn't really had...

CANTON, N.C. (October 13, 2009)—The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C. will celebrate Halloween by burning Bibles that aren’t the King James Version, as well as music and books and anything else Pastor Marc Grizzard says is a satanic influence. Among the authors whose books Grizzard plans to burn are well known ministers Rick Warren and Billy Graham because he says they have occasionally used Bibles other than the King James Version, which is the sole biblical source he considers infallible. According to the church’s Web site, members will also burn “Satan's music such as country, rap, rock, pop,...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A coalition of mainline Protestant churches have authored a letter to members of Congress asking them to make certain the health care bills they are considering contain taxpayer funding for abortions. The letter comes from a group of churches that have long advocated the pro-abortion position. Under the umbrella of the Religious Institute, the church denominations and more than 1,100 pastors and church staff from the denominations endorsed the letter. The letter calls abortion a “morally justifiable decision” and opposed any amendments to the House and Senate bills, which current contain massive abortion funding, to strike...

Prayer was mixed with a dose of politics at Passaic’s largest black church on Sunday as congregants donned Obama T-shirts in a show of support for a president they say has been unfairly criticized after only eight months in office. The Union Baptist Church held a “Support Obama Sunday,” asking members to “turn the script” on the “wicked and nasty” reaction Obama has received in some quarters as he pushes for health-care reform. The church’s pastor, Rev. Ronald W. Johnson, said he rarely brings politics into the church but was moved to do so because he is concerned that some...

A great explosion of purity is about to come , But "not" as before(as Katrina) ,something straight from my kingdom , The heavenlies are about to applaud , I AM The Lord behold I alone am God ! Yet for my children of my rod and staff , They shall rest in my bossom of Zion and laugh , For the Joy of The Lord is their strength , And these are my children of victiory that have gone the full length , Obedience to me has become their rod , My staff is their com(fort) for I AM their...

Findings from a nationwide study reveal that clergy sexual misconduct is more prevalent than many people believe.According to research by Baylor University, 3.1 percent of adult women who attend religious services at least once a month have been victims of clergy sexual misconduct since turning 18. In other words, seven women in every congregation of 400 adults have been victimized.Ninety-two percent of the sexual advances were made in secret and 67 percent of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance."Because many people are familiar with some of the high-profile cases of sexual misconduct, most...

Robert Carter III of Virginia was one of the richest men in Revolutionary America. (He would have ranked near the top of the Forbes 400 List if they would have had one then.) He owned 16 plantations, 70,000 acres, numerous mansions, and several companies involved in shipping, manufacturing, and banking. He was the second largest slaveholder in Virginia owning almost 500 slaves. Robert's fortune had been handed down to him from his grandfather and then his father. His grandfather had been so rich and powerful in Virginia that he had been given the nickname King Carter. Robert was born in 1728....

Updated August 18, 2008 (first published June 4, 2008) (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) - Many people have walked into the Roman Catholic Church through the broad door of the “church fathers,� and this is a loud warning today when there is a widespread attraction to the “church fathers� within evangelicalism. The Catholic apologetic ministries use the “church fathers� to prove that Rome’s doctrines go back to the earliest centuries. In...

Two by two: Missionaries teach the Word of God in Lufkin By BRITTONY LUNDThe Lufkin Daily NewsSaturday, August 15, 2009In his first week in Lufkin, LDS missionary Elder Josh Nielsen, 19, of Moses Lake, Washington, has had doors slammed in his face, people tell him he doesn't believe in the Bible and has rescued his companion missionary, Elder Sawyer Prestwich, 21, of Orem, Utah from getting punched.The Lufkin Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints welcomed four new missionaries to Lufkin this past week. Elder Justin Esplan, 19, of Nephi, Utah and Elder Matthew Bird, 21, of Wenatchee,...

EDE, Netherlands (ABP) -- A Latina theologian says overreaction to Catholic veneration of the Virgin Mary has caused Baptists to miss important biblical teaching associated with the mother of Jesus. Nora Lozano Nora Lozano, associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Baptist University of the Americas, found potential liberation for women -- both Protestant and Catholic -- in Latin America and elsewhere by taking another look at the biblical story of Mary, Jesus' mother. Lozano, a participant in theological conversations between the Baptist World Alliance and the Vatican, made the remarks in a presentation to the BWA Commission on...

Jimmy Carter has announced he is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention because of his opposition to the church’s attitude toward women. One can certainly empathize with Carter’s legitimate concerns about the mistreatment women endure in many societies. But he makes it clear he isn’t just taking issue with the Southern Baptists or their contemporary views on this issue; in the commentary he published July 15 in Australia’s The Age newspaper about his decision, he attacks other religions for their positions regarding the equality of women. And his article, titled “Losing My Religion for Equality,� also implicitly attacks the Catholic Church...

In the True Presence of Christ, I fall to my knees. I am humbled to be so near Him in the form of the Eucharist.A feeling of peace and joy comes over me.I start to pray in earnest because our Lord hears our prayers.I offer Him my sincerest gratitude for the many blessings in my life.I ask His forgiveness for the sins I have committed.I promise our Lord that I will go to Reconciliation soon.I unburden myself to Him and share all of my stress and anxiety as He asked us to in the Gospel.I pray for others-family, friends,...

After years of discussion, the Baptist and Roman Catholic bodies in Italy signed an agreement on “interchurch” marriage this week. The agreement, called “A Common Document for a Pastoral Approach to Marriages between Catholics and Baptists in Italy,” addresses issues encountered by such mixed church couples. In Italy, there are only about 6,400 Baptists who are members of one of the 116 churches of the Christian Evangelical Baptist Union of Italy (UCEBI). By comparison, more than 87 percent of Italy’s 60 million population identify themselves as Roman Catholic. “As the number of Baptists in Italy is very small, only in...

“Marriage is a cultural thing.” So began a very good sermon that I recently heard. My mind was set in rapid motion as I considered the raging arguments that are now taking place all over the country. What is marriage? How should we codify marriage in the laws of our land? The discussions become very sticky when our gay friends enter the debate and ask for equal treatment under the law. The exchanges become very heated when a participant demands that we turn to the Bible for answers that will once and for all settle the issues. Many well-meaning people...

This year, just like last year, Gay Pride weekend coincided with the feast of Corpus Christi.   Washington, D.C.'s Pride parade was fairly restrained: It featured a cornucopia of Episcopalians, and all the marchers went out of their way to sweetly drape beads over the little elementary-school girls standing in front of me. There were Affirming Baptists; as the parade passed by me, a knot of gay men to my right joked -- in that gay way that is never really joking all the way down -- that maybe they could be Baptists again now. There were strollers, lots...

As a Baptist Sunday School and Bible study teacher, one of the questions that used to nag at me incessantly was this: Why, after such painstaking deliberation in dictating an institutional religion that pleased Him in the Old Testament and that was designed to lead the people to recognize the Messiah when He came, would God then introduce a system in the New Testament Church that was so completely unlike the one He established in the Old? There are innumerable examples of how ridiculous this complete “change� would be, but take the priesthood, for instance.Priests were the officiators of worship...

A Closer Look At Stephen Covey And His 7 Habitsby Bill Gordon, Interfaith Witness Department Link Home Mission Board, SBCOne of the most popular personal development training programs today is The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Many church and religious organizations are using this program to train ministers and leaders. One of the reasons they find this program attractive is because it gives a prominent place to spirituality in personal growth. However, most of those who take this training are unaware of the specific religious beliefs that are behind many of Covey’s principles.Covey has...

A leader in the Southern Baptist Convention says President Barack Obama's recent proclamation designating a homosexual "pride" month goes beyond mere tolerance. ...snip "The United States federal government, now by executive order, signed by the President of the United States, is declaring national pride in these lifestyles," he contends. "This is not mere toleration; it's not calling for legalization, an end to criminal sanctions. It's not calling even for something like civil unions...it's calling for pride."

RLINGTON, Texas (ABP) -- A prominent African-American pastor is urging the Southern Baptist Convention to adopt a resolution celebrating the election of President Obama when the denomination meets June 23-24 in Louisville, Ky. A resolution submitted for consideration by Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, acknowledges policy differences with Obama, but terms election of America's first African-American president "a tremendous moment in our nation's history." McKissic's resolution, referred to a committee that will decide whether to bring any or all of it to the convention floor, "celebrates the historic nature of the election of President Barack...

The Southern Baptist Convention is Finally 'Throwing in the Towel' on Government Schools President and Executive Director of the SBC Executive Committee Proposes Major Expansion of Christian Schools by Churches COLUMBIA, SC, June 2 /Christian Newswire/ -- In 2004 Brig. Gen. T.C. Pinckney, USAF Ret. and former 2nd Vice President of the SBC, and Dr. Bruce Shortt, Houston attorney, opened a debate over education by submitting a resolution to the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention urging Baptists to remove their children from government schools and, instead, give them a Christian education. Although the Pinckney/Shortt Resolution was met with...

Contact: Catherine Rouse, Vision America, 936-560-3900, Catherine@visionamerica.usSOUTH BEND, Ind., May 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- Vision America President Pastor Rick Scarborough said he was sickened by what he saw when those protesting Obama's speech at Notre Dame were arrested on the campus. "I wept when I saw my friends arrested and taken to jail," Scarborough disclosed. "They almost broke the arm of a priest who appeared to be in his 80s, by dragging him on the ground." Scarborough, who's a Southern Baptist preacher, said he was in South Bend in solidarity with Catholics who are protesting the upcoming commencement speech at...

...But in celebrating accomplishments like these [the SBC's success in creating colleges and universities], I now wonder if our focus in the evangelical community should shift at least in part from training our children during the transition to adulthood to placing greater emphasis on training up a child in the way he should go. I'm not advocating the neglect of what we have already established in higher education, but simply a course correction in an area that seems to have suffered neglect -- the protection and nurturing of the spiritual health and growth of children and adolescents. In far too...

My Aunt Violet Alexander passed away Friday. She was a giver, a good Christian, mother of three boys (all adults now) grandmother, and a long-time babysitter in her community. She even provided daycare to the members of the famous rock group "Slipknot" when they were tikes. A very good country cook, a warm, "diamond in the rough" type person, she was really there for me when my dad passed away in 2002. Our family and Des Moines has lost a good woman. We will miss her.

In attempting to write a history of the Baptists no one is more aware of the embarrassments surrounding the subject than the author. These embarrassments arise from many sources. We are far removed from many of the circumstances under survey; the representations of the Baptists were often made by enemies who did not scruple, when such a course suited their purpose, to blacken character; and hence the testimony from such sources must be received with discrimination and much allowance made for many statements; in some instances vigilant and sustained attempts were made to destroy every document relating to these people;...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Former President Jimmy Carter implored fellow Baptists on Saturday to look beyond a range of doctrinal disputes that have split the denomination, and urged them to focus on reconciling under a common cause. Expanding the focus of a Baptist alliance he helped found, Carter said disagreements over many issues, including abortion, homosexuality and the role of women in the church, have divided Baptists and hampered the denomination.

WASHINGTON—The ordination Class of 2009, with computer experts, refugees, marathon runners and second-career men, mirrors the United States today.  The men from dioceses nationwide show that the call to serve God is heard at all ages. Respondents include attorneys, financiers, teachers and farmers.             Justin Minh Nguyen, of the Diocese of Austin, Texas, a skilled tailor, was a refugee from Vietnam. He was a parishioner of the only Vietnamese parish in Austin and is one of five men to be ordained for the diocese. Quy Vo, a refugee from the Philippines, is being ordained for the Diocese of Albany, New...

April 20Msgr. Keith Barltropformer Baptist CONVERSION STORY - August 2004 I was brought up in a very strong faith environment where I was taught bible stories from an early age and where personal commitment was taken so seriously that I wasn’t even allowed to be baptised until I was old enough to decide for myself, at fourteen. Not long after this I began to experience severe doubts as to whether God existed, was the bible true, had I really made a true commitment to Jesus , etc. At the time I found this very uncomfortable, and thought it was...

Come Easter Sunday, President Barack Obama will attend a local church for the first time since taking office, but aides say that won’t necessarily be the church he and his family join. The White House wouldn’t say where Obama will be on Sunday – but did say that the Obamas search for a more lasting spiritual home in the capital has been going on for some time. Friends have been quietly checking out churches in the Washington, D.C., area to see which might be a good fit for the family, one aide familiar with the process said. That reflects in...

Congressional Quarterly has posted a transcript of “Fox News Sunday,” including this exchange between Chris Wallace and Newt Gingrich about the former House speaker’s conversion to Catholicism: WALLACE: Mr. Gingrich, you have been a Baptist most of your life, and last Sunday you converted to Catholicism. Why, sir? GINGRICH: I’m not talking about this much publicly, but let me just say that I found over the course of the last decade, attending the basilica, meeting with Monsignor Rossi, reading the literature, that there was a peace in my soul and a sense of well being in the Catholic Church, and...

LONGVIEW — A movie that's being praised as a salvation for relationships drew more than 200 viewers Sunday to First Baptist Church. "I hope that my son gleans something from this," John Jones said, seated in the downtown church's education center next to his son, Jason, and wife, Donna. "We're very grounded, my wife and I. And, with all you see on TV and so forth, this (movie) may allow him to see something that he wouldn't otherwise see on TV — values, commitment, honoring your commitment, honoring your word." The movie is "Fireproof" (2008 Provident Films), its title a...

One week from today, the star of "Luau Orgy," "Gazongas" and the ahead-of-its-time "Wanda Whips Wall Street" will walk onto the campus of Truman State University in Kirksville to debate a pastor on the subject most dear to his heart: porn. It will fall to the Rev. Craig Gross to rebut actor Ron Jeremy's arguments that pornography is a harmless activity that most people pursue in the privacy of their own homes. "If Ron was right, I wouldn't have a job," said Gross, founder of XXXChurch.com — a Christian website dedicated to battling pornography. "Porn rips apart homes and families."...

MARYVILLE, Ill. (AP) — The widow of a pastor killed in mid-sermon urged mourners to reject hate and to take comfort in their faith at his funeral Friday, in the church where he was gunned down five days earlier. "On Sunday, my husband didn't die. He simply got a promotion," Cindy Winters said. She raised a hand to the sky as the "Movin' on Up" theme from "The Jeffersons" blared from the loudspeakers and the standing-room-only crowd rose to its feet at First Baptist Church in this St. Louis suburb. Fred Winters was eulogized as a coupon-clipping brainiac who never...

(CNN) -- Five people, including a church pastor, were shot inside the First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois, a police dispatcher told CNN on Sunday. The shooting occurred during a church service, the dispatcher said. The suspect was stabbed by parishioners who wrestled him to the ground.

A Message About Today’s Loss Today, a little after our 8:15 service began, a man entered First Baptist Church and fired several gunshots at our Senior Pastor, Dr. Fred Winters. Pastor Winters was taken to the hospital but died of his wounds. Please pray for Dr. Winter’s family, our two brave members who were injured when they stopped the assailant, for the assailant himself and his family, and for our church members as they deal with this tragic loss. In this day, where uncertainty seems to abound creating an environment in which people are vulnerable in doing things they might...

As we get ready for another Ash Wednesday, and another 40-day sojourn into the desert, the Arkansas Catholic has this intriguing item reminding us that Lent is not just a Catholic thing anymore: Beginning Ash Wednesday, Catholics enter the 40-day penitential season of Lent, but they are not the only Christians to do so. In fact, a growing number of Christian denominations are incorporating Lenten observances into their Christian experience. "In some denominations we are reclaiming a sense of history," Dr. Jane Harris, professor of American religion at Hendrix College in Conway, said. "We can still be Protestant yet claim...

A Bible Study Youtube for those with a funny bone. Lavishly produced with a cast of thousands...okay, about 20 people were involved...we had a tight budget....'kay, we didn't really have a budget. Enjoy and come to our Bible Study at Second Baptist - Katy, Room 331 at 9:30 AM every Sunday. You'll love it. Lots of creative types and we have all types and ages. Married, single, aged 9 to 100.

Early Saturday morning, someone crept into the New Fellowship Baptist Church, walked past thousands of dollars worth of audio equipment and computers and set fire to the balcony and altar, then fled as the Dorchester building went up in flames, fire officials and the church's pastor said yesterday.

Undercover missions are an irresponsible means to spread Christianity. This type of mission work has created an ethical quandary that evangelicals are at a loss to justify. While the mission of seeking out unsaved souls is an admirable one, it is dangerous to do so in a country where Christian evangelism is illegal. When a missionary goes to work in one of these places, they not only endanger themselves, but converts as well. In the summer of 2007, China expelled more than 100 missionaries in a secret operation that was the largest expulsion campaign of foreign missionaries in over half...

Phoenix, Jan 14, 2009 / 11:42 pm (CNA).- A new survey of denominational loyalty reports that churchgoing Catholics are significantly less likely than churchgoing Protestants to change denominations.Six out of ten active Catholics would only consider attending a Catholic church, while about 30 percent would prefer attending a Catholic church but would consider others, the survey says. Eleven percent of churchgoing Catholics reportedly do not show a specific preference for attending a Catholic church.By contrast, only 16 percent of Protestant churchgoers will only consider attending a church of their present denomination. About 51 percent express a preference for one...

For more than half a century, the First Baptist Church of Dallas could claim among its members one of the most famous of Christians – the Rev. Billy Graham. But that distinction has ended with the 90-year-old evangelist's decision to join the First Baptist Church of Spartanburg, S.C., which is much nearer his home in Montreat, N.C. -snip- Members of First Baptist Spartanburg voted him in on Sunday. -snip-

Ada — A Baptist preacher told the Pontotoc County undersheriff he did not know why he had been molesting two young boys for several months, but it might have something to do with his numerous blood pressure medications.

"The doctrine of justification itself, as preached by an Arminian, is nothing but the doctrine of salvation by works..." -C.H. Spurgeon Praised by many evangelicals as a great preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon is considered a successful and "safe" example of a "non-theological" ministry. His works are recommended as a means to lead many aspiring pastors into developing their own successful ministries. His Lectures to My Students are often used for this purpose, emphasizing the "practical" aspects of evangelism. But while the form of Spurgeon's successful preaching is often studied by would-be pastors, the content of this Christian giant's preaching and...

On the surface, something about Barack Obama picking Rick Warren to give his inauguration invocation seemed fishy. I mean, Warren was the man responsible for one of Obama's few (and perhaps biggest) campaign faux pas, when he made Barack look silly last summer trying to answer the question "When does life begin?" But then I realized that Barack, brilliant politician that he is, was using his special reverse "If I can't beat him, join ME!" psychology, already duping Warren and many of his on-the-surface Christians into his camp for the next election. However, while I predict this pick for Obama...