Free Republic

Liberals renewed their criticism of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Monday in response to a speech Thomas gave over the weekend in which he said he and his tea party activist wife Virginia “believe in the same things” and dismissed their critics as “bent on undermining” the court. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) said it was Thomas’s speech that “undermines confidence in our highest court.” Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman and president of the left-leaning watchdog group Common Cause, said the speech did little to assuage concerns his group has raised about Thomas’s impartiality and said that his group’s...

Edgar: Jesus' priorities, not politics, guide NCC peace, anti-poverty and eco-justice programs August 9, 2005, Washington – In remarks today at the Progressive National Baptist Convention’s (PNBC) 44th Annual Session in Detroit, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, told the gathering of Baptist pastors, ministers and lay leaders that it is the priorities and commandments of Christ rather than partisan politics that leads the NCC to advocate for peace, ending poverty and protecting God’s creation. “There are those who try to dilute our witness and mislead our friends by suggesting that the...

New York, August 16, 2005 – The General Secretary of the National Council of Churches is urging President Bush to join with Gold Star families and religious leaders in an interfaith prayer service outside the Bush ranch at noon (CDT) Friday,  The prayer service has been called by Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan “as an opportunity for Americans and others across the world to pray for our soldiers in Iraq, their families and in particular the mothers of our fallen.”   Sheehan, along with United Methodist laywoman Celeste Zappala and other Gold Star mothers, has been waiting outside the...

In not untypical fashion, the faithfully left-leaning National Council of Churches (NCC) has issued a poisonous little July 4 greeting to the American people. The statement from the NCC Governing Board is not a celebration of two centuries of American democracy and religious liberty, with gratitude to God. It is instead a screed against the "dishonorable" war in Iraq. "It has become clear that the rationale for invasion was at best a tragic mistake, at worst a clever deception," the statement generously opines. Although comprised of denominations totaling over 40 million mainstream Americans, the NCC has for 40 years been...

NEW YORK - A video screen showed President Bush boarding a plane for Washington. His purpose: To get to the White House and sign Congress' bill asking federal courts to review the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Joan Bokaer of TheocracyWatch.org offered her take on the action. "There's something strange about the folks running our country," she quipped. The audience of 500 people responded with some appreciative chuckles. Bokaer, from a social action center affiliated with Cornell University, was speaking at a conference last weekend that denounced conservative Republicans on matters like mercy-killing, abortion, gay marriage, research using human...

"The President didn’t say it, but the country knows it: The union is in a state of great uneasiness. Many people are uncomfortable with a national priority that provides major tax cuts for millionaires and pays for them with funds that ought to go to help children without health care insurance, children who can’t get into Head Start, children whose families live on the edge all the time. "Other Americans wonder why the President insists on escalating the national debt, saddling their children and grandchildren with an obligation that threatens the well-being of generations to come, just so a relative...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A group of American Christian leaders and experts visiting Iraq said Thursday there was still a chance of averting war but expressed concern about food shortages among Iraqis. "In the United States, we see often pictures of the leadership of Iraq and the government of Iraq in very negative terms. We rarely see the picture that we saw of children and women and those that will be most severely impacted if (a) war began," Bob Edgar, secretary-general of the National Council of Churches (U.S.A), told a news conference in Baghdad. "The food rations, for example, do...