Free Republic

A Christian publisher pulled its Breast Cancer Awareness Bible after anti-abortion bloggers complained about where the money raised by the project was going Americans can promote breast cancer awareness with everything from ribbons to coffee mugs to women's designer boots. But one pinkified book is drumming up a wave of controversy. It's a special Breast Cancer Awareness edition of the Holman Christian Standard Bible, which has been yanked from store shelves by its publisher after customers complained about who was getting the money raised from sales. Here, a brief guide: So what happened? Nashville-based LifeWay Christian Resources recalled its special...

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...

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...

No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit, the policy states.

For centuries, people of all walks of life have carried around with them echoes of the King James Version. So to throw it out as the church hierarchy has done amounts to a savage act of deprivation and, as this deprivation is of the Word of God in English, it is vicious iconoclasm. Sidelining the King James Version especially deprives our children and is therefore a notable case of child abuse. There is no such thing as noble truth expressed in ignoble words. The choice of words determines what is being said. Therefore, we should choose the best. “Strips of...

First Lady Michelle Obama was booed in Florida today as she made the traditional "Gentlemen, start your engines!" call at the final NASCAR race of the season.

Iranian authorities seized thousands of Bibles in north-west Iran and destroyed a church in the Islamic country's south-east as part of a wider crackdown on Christianity, Iranian Christians said in messages monitored by Worthy News.

Three Christian murder victims were brutally tortured for hours before their death, Turkish media reports reveal. The Islamic zealots who attacked a Christian publishing house in the city of Malatya on April 18 prolonged the suffering of their victims by stabbing them repeatedly with dull knives, the media report. A Sabah newspaper story notes that one victim, the German missionary Tilman Geske, suffered 156 knife wounds. An AsiaNews correspondent notes that the Turkish media have provided gruesome details of the crime, but still shy away from mentioning the motivation of the killers, who were apparently influenced by a vitriolic anti-Christian...

Two American servicemen were killed last week on as signment overseas. No, not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but in Frankfurt, Germany, for the simple act of getting on a bus. A lone Muslim gunman opened fire on the unsuspecting airmen at the Frankfurt airport, killing Nicholas J. Alden and Zachary R. Cuddeback and wounding two others. He shouted "Allah Akbar" as he shot -- making it plain he was murdering in the name of his god. A few days earlier, four Americans sailing in the Indian Ocean on a mission of Christian mercy -distributing Bibles to remote churches -- were...

The remains of the other two Americans slain by Somali pirates have also arrived, a US Navy Central Command representative tells Santa Monica Patch. The remains of the four Americans who were slain by Somali pirates earlier this week have arrived back in the United States, a US Navy Central Command representative told Santa Monica Patch on Friday morning. The remains had been aboard the USS Enterprise off the coast of Somalia, a U.S. Navy Central Command spokesman said Tuesday. Meanwhile, also on Friday morning, Department of Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said, "The Justice Deptartment and the FBI continue to...

... The New York Times reports that an FBI hostage-rescue negotiator aboard the U.S.S. Sterett came to believe the two Somalis were not serious when they boarded the vessel. Once those men were taken into custody, U.S. officials told the pirates on the yacht -- called the Quest -- to send over someone they could negotiate with. The events that immediately followed have been sharply contested and raises questions about the decision to detain the pirate leaders, the Times reports. American officials said the pirates on the yacht seemed relieved — even “exceptionally calm” — when they were told their...

Our Mission: To allow the power of the Word to transform lives. We seek fertile ground for the Word and homes for our Bibles. Often, the ultimate homes are best found by people who are already living locally and seeking and cultivating that fertile ground. AND even more extraordinary are the times when people have been praying for Bibles for their group or their schools and when we arrive we are often greeted by the attitude of, "We were expecting you." (that is, they were looking for their prayers to be answered. And...) "What took you so long?" Additionally, we...

Bible distributors who were taken hostage by Somali pirates were killed while negotiations between the pirates and U.S. military forces were underway Tuesday morning. U.S. forces boarded the yacht in response to gunfire, and discovered that four hostages had been shot. Two of the pirates were killed, and 13 captured in a confrontation, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. Scott and Jean Adam's vessel Quest was taken hostage last week; 19 pirates were believed to be involved in the hijacking.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 – Somali pirates killed all four Americans they had held hostage aboard a sailing vessel in the Indian Ocean this morning, U.S. Central Command officials announced. U.S. officials were negotiating with the pirates for the safe return of the captured Americans when the murders took place, officials said. Centcom officials said that in the midst of negotiations, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the S/V Quest. When the forces reached the boat, officials said, they discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately...

The four Americans aboard a yacht hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia are dead, CBS News has learned. Hijacked last Friday off Oman, the Quest was being piloted toward the Somali coast - and was being shadowed by a U.S. Navy warship. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that gunshots aboard the yacht were heard, and the warship took action. All 4 Americans were dead, killed apparently by their captors. There were more than a dozen pirates on board, some dead and others captured, Martin reports.

A new poll taken for the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible reveals that a majority of those under 35 in the United Kingdom don't even know about the work, which has been described as a significant part of the estimated 100 million Bible sales annually, making it the best best-seller, ever. "Yet this is a work which was far more influential than Shakespeare in the development and spread of English," a spokesman for the King James Bible Trust told the Christian Institute in a recent report. The Christian Institute's report said the translation, which will...

KABUL | Tue May 5, 2009 4:15pm IST KABUL (Reuters) - Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure that troops did not breach regulations which forbid proselytising, a military spokeswoman said. The U.S. military has denied its soldiers tried to convert Afghans to Christianity, after Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a bible class on a base with a stack of bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. "I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected...

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion. Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm...

This comes to mind in light of General Petraeus's warning "against" the planned Koran burning protest by an independent fringe church in Florida. The wrong way to protest.In Afghanistan, where General Petraeus is the new commander, Bibles were confiscated by U.S. military authorities from a soldier and burned last year. That was an absoluely repugnant action. One that every U.S. citizen in this country should have protested and denounced. And why did our U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan do that?-because Al-jazerra reported it's "concern" that the Bibles could be given to Muslims and used to share with them the Good News of forgiveness of sins through Yeshua [ Jesus], the Messiah. The U.S. military authorities...

"Medical charity: 6 Americans among 10 killed by militants in remote area of N Afghanistan" KABUL, AFGHANISTAN SNIPPET: "KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Six Americans and two other foreigners on a medical mission were shot and killed by the Taliban who ambushed their vehicles in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, a charity said Saturday. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press in Pakistan that they killed the foreigners because they were "spying for the Americans" and "preaching Christianity.""

Have you been anxiously awaiting word that the Bibles you sponsored have successfully reached their destination in North Korea? Wait no more! Bibles Unbound is pleased to announce the successful completion of the operation. Thanks to your help, 10,000 Bibles have made it into the hands of believing and non-believing North Korean men and women. Mr. Lee, one man who received a Bible through this operation, explained that before he defected to China he believed Bibles were evil. As a young boy he had been taught that American missionaries did bad things and that the books they carried were bad,...

First, let me take a moment to say THANK YOU for your participation in Bibles Unbound, packing and mailing New Testaments into restricted and hostile nations. With your help we’ve been able to send more than 1.2 million New Testaments into restricted nations. We know these “seeds,” though planted in hostile soil, will produce fruit. I am writing to give you some important updates about Bibles Unbound; in doing so I have good news and bad news. Part of the good news is that Bibles Unbound continues to be very effective at getting God’s Word into restricted nations. We know...

Internet wide, atheists are taking umbrage at the fact that a Christian organization is providing free solar powered audio Bibles to Haitians. Such atheists complain that money is being wasted on a waste of a book, the Bible (actually, a compilation of books) when the Haitians are in real and material need…. Convoy of Hope, a disaster relief organization and ministry partner of Faith Comes By Hearing, feeds the hungry and provides pure drinking water to people in need across the United States and around the world. To date, the organization has provided help to 28 million people in 112...

MIAMI (Reuters) - As international aid agencies rush food, water and medicine to Haiti's earthquake victims, a U.S. faith-based group is sending Bibles to Haitians in their hour of need. Not any Bible. These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time. Called the "Proclaimer," the audio Bible delivers "digital quality" and is designed for "poor and illiterate people," the Faith Comes By Hearing group said. It added 600 of the devices were already on their way to Haiti.

Even as you read this, persecuted Christians from around the world are gathering names and addresses from their local communities. These names are then submitted to Bibles Unbound where members have the opportunity to mail New Testaments in the appropriate language directly to the field. This unique program gives you the ability to stand alongside our persecuted brothers and sisters and help create a witness for Jesus Christ in hostile lands right from your own home. We invite you to read about current ministry operations to the right and consider joining today. For a donation of only $30.00 per month...

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011. "We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers...

PENTAGON BURNS OUR SOLDIERS BIBLES BREAKING NEWS: Pentagon Burns Soldiers Bibles - Military Chaplains Attacked BY CHAPLAIN GORDON JAMES KLINGENSCHMITT, UPDATED 5 JULY 09 A Pentagon spokesman under the Obama Administration recently acknowledged and defended seizing and burning the privately owned Bibles of American soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The Bibles had been printed in the local Pashto and Dari languages, and sent by private donors last year (under the Bush Administration) to American Christian soldiers and chaplains, for distribution to American troops on overseas military bases during optionally-attended Christian worship services. Had the Bibles not been recently seized and destroyed...

Brian and Doris Johnson have passed out free Bibles at the Twin Cities Pride Festival for 11 years, but this year their free gifts got them arrested. After being told they couldn't have a booth at this year's festival, the family came anyway and ended up behind bars for trespassing. The Pride Festival started Saturday in Loring Park and is considered the third-largest GLBT celebration in the nation. Since the festival rented out the entire park, police said they could choose which vendors to allow in the park. The Johnsons are born-again Christians and believe homosexuality is a sin. Pride...

BEIJING – By all accounts, Shi Weihan was a model Chinese citizen. A kind-hearted man with a sense of social responsibility, he donated funds to send poor kids to school, raised money for those suffering from congenital heart disease, and when the Sichuan earthquake hit, worked tirelessly for the emergency relief effort. But Shi had a fatal flaw. He printed Bibles – and gave them out for free. This week a criminal court in Beijing sentenced him to three years in jail.

On May 4, Al Jazeera English ran a report suggesting that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan may have been violating anti-proselytizing rules by distributing Dari-and Pashto-language New Testament Bibles. Central Command General Order No. 1 specifically forbids “proselytizing of any faith, religion or practice.” The footage came from documentary filmmaker Brian Hughes The report showed a service from approximately a year ago, with the head U.S. military chaplain in Afghanistan, Lt. Colonel Gary Hensley, talking about the need to spread the Gospel. "The special forces guys -- they hunt men basically," Hensley said. "We do the same things as Christians, we...

CBNNews.com - The U.S. military says some Bibles in Afghanistan have been confiscated and destroyed, Reuters reported. Their decision to destroy them came after Al Jazeera television showed U.S. soldiers at a Bible class with a stack of Bibles translated into the local languages.It's illegal to proselytize in Afghanistan and military officials forbid troops to convert Afghans to Christianity.The military says the Bibles were brought to the Bible class by an Evangelical Christian solider who received them from his home church.

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion. Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm...

The U.S. military has confirmed that it has "destroyed" some Bibles belonging to an American soldier in Afghanistan. "Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. " "The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion." But I thought they said we needed to change "hearts and minds" over there?

Iraq Government Wants U.S. Troops Out by June 30 [2009-05-04]. (This is the title of the story but as you can see has nothing to do with the actual article) Arlington, VA -- The U.S. Military said that reports from Al Jazeera English that evangelical Christian soldiers in Afghanistan handed out Bibles to local Afghans and operated under instructions from their chaplain to "hunt people for Jesus" grossly misrepresent the truth and that in reality Bibles were confiscated, not handed out. The Al Jazeera broadcast includes a video taken a year ago in which a small group of U.S. Soldiers...

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages.

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. The U.S. military forbids its members on active duty -- including those based in places like Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion. Reuters quotes Maj. Jennifer Willis at the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, who said "I can now confirm...

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,...

A Southwest Florida man who in past years has been allowed to distribute free Bibles to high school students on Religious Freedom Day was turned down this year by the district's superintendent. Jerry Rutherford, president of World Changers, appeared before the Collier County School Board on Thursday to ask for a reversal of the decision but received the same response. "This rejection is a slap in the face," said Rutherford, according to Naples News. "The decision to deny access to community groups that are religious in nature is censorship and bias." In November, Rutherford routinely submitted his request to set...

You want change? McCain decided to offer you REAL change we can believe in! McCain is nothing if not unpredictable! Only hours after the Hollywood made for TV DNC pander fest ended, confirming Barack Hussein Obama as the first multiracial candidate for the executive branch, Republican John McCain upstaged lefties by announcing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Four members of a Christian group from the United States are refusing to leave an airport in China after authorities confiscated their 300 Bibles, the group's director said Monday. The four members of Vision Beyond Borders -- based in Sheridan, Wyoming -- arrived in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming on Sunday. Customs officials discovered the Bibles during an X-ray scan of their luggage, said Pat Klein, director of the group, which supplies Bibles and other Christian material to people in China and other countries. Under Chinese law, it is illegal to bring printed religious material...

Chinese customs officials confiscated more than 300 Bibles on Sunday from four American Christians who arrived in a southwestern city with plans to distribute them, the group's leader said. --snip-- "I heard that there's freedom of religion in China, so why is there a problem for us to bring Bibles?" Klein said. "We had over 300 copies and customs took all of them from us."

Christian groups are appealing a federal judge's ruling that bars the Gideons from distributing Bibles to students of the South Iron Missouri School District. The South Iron School District allows off-campus organizations to distribute literature to students before and after school, and during other non-instructional times such as lunch breaks. But the American Civil Liberties Union sued, saying the Gideons should not be allowed to hand out Bibles because of their religious nature. U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry agreed. "In fact, the federal judge said...the ACLU must be able to have the say-so over whether religious literature can be distributed...

A new plant can turn out 12 million copies a year. Some are for export, but most are for domestic sale. The factory looks like it could be any plant in this export-driven nation. Hundreds of Chinese workers huddle over loud machines churning out large orders for customers at home and abroad. But what they're making might surprise you: Bibles. As Tibetan monks grab headlines protesting the lack of religious freedom under Chinese rule, a booming Bible industry is on its way to turning the world's biggest atheist nation into the world's largest producer of the Good Book. Chairman Mao...

Some of you may be aware of my recent thread about Bible translation preferences. On that thread that I was introduced to a freeware Bible study program called eSword. It is available here at no cost (Windows only). It comes with the King James Version and Strongs built in, but seems to be unbelievably expandable.For instance, I have added to mine: The Douay-Rheims Challoner BibleHaydock's Commentaries (in a rough "0.2" work-in-progress form)The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1899The Catechism of the Catholic ChurchThe Baltimore CatechismSumma Theologicae...and probably is still more out there that I've yet to find. I'm focusing on public domain...

The Pocket Testament League is celebrating 100 years of incredible ministry in the United States. Founded in England in 1893, the ministry opened its first US office in Pennsylvania in April, 1908. Described by 'the Sunday School Times' in 1920 as "the greatest movement of God since the 14th Century," the League has a mission to mobilize and equip Christians to Read, Carry, and Share the Word of God. Since opening in its first office in Philadelphia in 1908, over 8 million people have pledged to read the Bible daily, to carry pocket-sized Scripture everywhere they go, and to share...

The authors of the books discussed in this year’s survey are senior scholars who have distinguished themselves through many years of teaching and lecturing, original contributions to biblical research and proven ability to communicate their learning to the general public. Their recent publications offer reliable and accessible points of entry to important areas within the biblical field. What do today’s biblical scholars do? What should they do? In The Nature of Biblical Criticism (Westminster John Knox), John Barton, professor of the interpretation of holy Scripture at Oxford University, contends that the main task of biblical criticism is to read texts...

Church official worries country is becoming less tolerant of other religions KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysian customs officials seized 32 Bibles from a traveler, a church federation said Monday, adding its voice to a raft of complaints that the Muslim-majority country is becoming less tolerant of other religions. The Royal Malaysian Customs department, however, said it was only trying to determine if the Bibles were imported for commercial purposes. Custom officials at an airport in Kuala Lumpur took the Bibles from a Malaysian woman Jan. 28 on her return from the Philippines, according to the Rev. Hermen Shastri, general secretary...

FAYETTEVILLE — School officials in Cumberland and Harnett counties who have banned organizations from offering Bibles to elementary students may want to beef up their studies of Constitutional case law and reconsider their decisions. "In their efforts to appease the American Civil Liberties Union, these eastern North Carolina school systems are violating citizens' First Amendment rights to free speech and failing to acknowledge a 2001 Supreme Court ruling," said Christian Action League Executive Director Rev. Mark Creech. The Cumberland County Public Schools notified elementary principals Nov. 19 to prohibit Bibles or other "poselytizing texts" from being handed out, citing a...