Free Republic

Nearly one-third of the earth’s population is Christian. Of those, almost all expect that the kingdom of heaven awaits them on the other side of the grave. But that’s not what the Lord said in His Sermon on the Mount. “Not everyone,” He warned, “who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” That should fill those among us who are “Cafeteria Christians” with fear and trembling. For they not only fail to live by “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” they...

My mom read the newspaper every day. She especially looked forward to the twice-weekly columns of Erma Bombeck, whose writings my mom enjoyed not merely because of her wittiness, but also because Bombeck was a woman of faith. Indeed, Bombeck converted to Catholicism in 1949, the year she graduated from the University of Dayton with an English degree. A professor suggested that she pursue a writing career but, instead, she got married and decided to be a mom. Alas, Bombeck and her husband were told they were unable to have a child, so they adapted a baby girl. Two years...

Nearly three-quarters of the world’s population adherents of one of the five most influential religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism. What disturbs is that most Americans who profess themselves Christ followers disbelieve the pronouncement of Jesus: “I am the way the truth, and the life. No one comes through the Father except through me.” According to a 2014 “Religious Landscape Report” by Pew Research Center, two-thirds of avowed Christians are theological pluralists. They reject the idea that Christ alone is the way to salvation. They believe that “many religions can lead to eternal life.” Including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism...

“The National Council of Churches makes a rare statement to Oppose Kavanaugh.” So read the headline accompanying the lead story a fortnight ago in the The Washington Post’s “Acts of Faith” section. The WaPo hailed the NCC – the (fake) religious arm of the Democrat Party – for its denunciation of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee (and, by extension, President Trump himself). And the paper misleadingly suggested that the NCC’s statement represented the prevailing sentiment of the “more than 30 million U.S. parishioners” the Protestant organization purportedly represents. But the NCC hardly speaks for the more than 30 million parishioners....

The 40-foot Peace Cross was erected in 1925 as a memorial to the 49 soldiers from Prince George’s County, Maryland who perished in World War I. The Bayview Park Cross in Pensacola, Florida has occupied its location since 1941 when America’s armed forces prepared to enter World War II. And the Veterans Memorial Bell Tower in Evendale, Ohio was dedicated just last year in memory of those who lost their lives in the service of our nation. As a grateful nation marks the sesquicentennial of Memorial Day, how ironic it is that the three aforementioned war memorials are in imminent...

My wife returns this evening from a week-long holiday in Italy. It was my Mother’s Day gift to the mother of our son and five grandchildren. In the meantime, I attended Mother’s Day church services yesterday. And in the message, the pastor recounted the soul-stirring story of a mother and son. The tale took the form of the son’s first-person testimony: “My mother only had one eye. All my life, I hated her because she was such an embarrassment to me. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell. Anything...

I was a junior high schooler growing up in the Bible Belt when I first heard the concept album “Jesus Christ Superstar.” The retelling of the events leading up to the crucifixion of the Son of God Christ made a household name of the then-22 year old composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and – slightly lesser so – 26 year old lyricist Tim Rice. Tonight, NBC is presenting “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.” This Easter production stars, among others, John Legend, the Academy Award winner and 10-time Grammy Award winner, as Jesus and Alice Cooper, the son of a Christian...

The teen-age shooter heard voices in his head, which he described as demons, instructing him to kill everyone he saw before him at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. That revelation by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, whose Valentine’s Day massacre left 17 dead and 15 injured, was underreported by much of the mainstream media. That’s because hardly any of those who reported the mass murder at Douglas High accept that the devil exists, and that his demonic forces are active and involved in the modern day affairs of humanity. Indeed, fewer than one in ten “mainstream” journalists attend church...

Minnie Louise Haskins was a professor at the London School of Economics. She taught there from the end of World War I to the near-end of World War II. Interestingly, Haskins is best known not for her scholarship – as distinguished as it may have been – but for dabbling in poetry. Her most noteworthy work, particularly fitting for the start of the New Year, is one of the most quoted poems of the past century: God Knows And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread...

A Gallup Poll released this past Friday found that First Lady Melania Trump is viewed favorably by 54 percent of Americans. That amounts to a remarkable 17 percent improvement since January, which the pollster attributes to Mrs. Trump becoming “better known in her role as first lady.” But I think there’s another factor Gallup has completely overlooked – the grace with which the First Lady, a committed Christ follower, has evinced in the face of unrelenting attacks from haters, many of whom are members of the so-called Fourth Estate, who think no attack too vile or too petty. Indeed, at...

The 31-year-old mother of four made an announcement to family and friends on Facebook: She and her husband of four and a half years were expecting a fifth child. “We’re blessed,” wrote she. Most Christ followers believe an automatic blessing awaits mothers- and fathers-to-be, no matter the circumstances under which their newborns are brought into the world. But the Bible does not say that the actions of expectant parents can displease God, yet the arrival of their newborn guarantees the Almighty’s blessing. In fact, it teaches us the opposite – that God does not reward parents-to-be whose actions run contrary...

A Google search for “family at Thanksgiving” yields disturbing results. An article authored by Dr. Marie Hartwell-Walker and posted on Psych Central’s web site offers “10 Tips for Surviving Thanksgiving with the Dysfunctional Family.” Another article, written by TODAY contributor Gail Saltz and posted on the morning show’s site, is headlined “Thanksgiving stress: How to avoid holiday family conflict.” And still another article, keyboarded by Esquire.com writer-at-large Dave Holmes and posted on the magazine’s site, begs the question: “Is Thanksgiving Better With Family or Friends?” Hartwell-Walker advises lining up “some co-conspirators” before the family gathers for Thanksgiving. “Chances are you’re...

Five hundred years ago today, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 Theses to the chapel door of Germany’s University of Wittenberg. And for much of the ensuing half-millennium, the man who begat the Protestant Reformation has been reviled by the Catholic Church. Indeed, the view of Luther among many if not most of today’s Catholics is informed by a polemic written by the not entirely objective Catholic clergyman Henry George Ganss. It was published in the Catholic Encyclopedia all the way back in 1910 and republished on the Internet in 1995. Ganss suggested that Luther was given...

Chip and Joanna Gaines grace the cover of People magazine’s October 23, issue. The husband and wife costars of the home makeover show ‘Fixer Upper’ – the highest rated series in HGTV’s history – explained why they decided to walk away from their hit series after five successful seasons. I’ve had my suspicions about the Waco, Texas couple since I caught an episode in which Joanna placed several pieces of artwork on a wall. The piece that stood out to me proclaimed: “We walk by faith, not by sight.” I image that many, if not most, of the 46 million...

The devil is a mimic. When God goes high, the evil one always goes low. For instance, SoCal Harvest was held last month in Anaheim, California. Hosted for the 28th year by Pastor Greg Laurie, more than 90,000 worshippers attended the three-day, spirit-filled event at Angels Stadium, during which more than 10,000 souls gave their lives to Christ. One month later, the wicked will gather in Los Angeles for “Adultcon,” which bills itself as a “weekend of sin and fun,” during which the unGodly can give themselves over to sexual depravity “without shame.” Marking its 16th year this upcoming weekend,...

My wife joined me on a business trip to New York City in 2004. I took an afternoon off to give her tour of my old neighborhood – Battery Park City in lower Manhattan. It looked a lot different than I remembered. That’s because there was a giant crater across the West Side Highway from where I used to live and work. It was the 16-acre site where the World Trade Center once stood, before its twin towers were reduced to scrap metal and rubble by Islamic jihadists using fuel-laden jetliners as weapons of mass destruction. As I toured what...

This is the tale of two husbands – one who faithlessly abandoned his wife, leaving her to walk alone through the valley of the shadow of death; the other who was faithful to the vow he made before God and man to stand fast by his wife in sickness and in health. The first tale appeared in People magazine a fortnight ago. The second tale appeared in the book “Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery,” which was written in 1976 by Dr. Richard Selzer, a Christ follower who also happened to be a Yale-trained surgeon. People tells the...

The sermon was titled “Fatal Attraction.” It was a cautionary message to those of us who were married members of the congregation to scrupulously observe the wedding vows we took according to God’s holy ordinance: To have and to hold each other from our wedding day forward. To forsake all others who might come between us. To love each other, comfort each other and keep each other, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, in health, until death do us part. But wait, said the junior pastor. He had an additional vow to suggest to Christ- following...

The devil has a special place in his black heart for children. He delights in stealing their innocence, using those under his demonic influence to commit the most unspeakable acts against the under-aged. So it was in the time of Moses that Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys be put to the sword to cull the growing Hebrew population. So it was in the time of Jesus that Herod the Great ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem two years old and younger so that he would not be supplanted as King of the Jews. And so it...

“This is for Allah!” So shouted three Islamist jihadis as they drove a van across the London Bridge yesterday, mowing down pedestrians in their path. They then proceeded to the nearby Borough Market where they continued their rampage, stabbing some of those enjoying a night on the town and slashing the throats of others. By daybreak this morning in London, seven innocents had been killed and nearly 50 others injured in the Ramadan terror attack by the three devotees to the supposed “religion of peace.” British Prime Minister Theresa May stated today that there was no apparent connection between last...