Free Republic

Last Friday, April 24, marked the “Great Crime,” that is, the genocide of Christians—primarily Armenians Assyrians and Greeks—that took place under the Islamic Ottoman Empire, throughout World War I. Then, in an attempt to wipe out as many Christians as possible, the Turks massacred approximately 1.5 million Armenians, 300,000 Assyrians, and 750,000 Greeks. Most objective American historians who have studied the question unequivocally agree that it was a deliberate, calculated genocide: More than one million Armenians perished as the result of execution, starvation, disease, the harsh environment, and physical abuse. A people who lived in eastern Turkey for nearly 3,000...

Wake County, North Carolina continues to ban Christians from their central rite of communion while allowing hand-delivered food so long as it's served by restaurants instead of pastors. Like many other locales across the nation, in the name of reducing coronavirus transmission Wake County, North Carolina continues to ban Christians from their central rite of communion while allowing hand-delivered food so long as it’s served by restaurants instead of pastors. After I reported last week on threats against a local church for holding services within government social-distancing and hygiene guidelines while grocery, hardware, and other retail stores are allowed to...

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine’s oft-quoted opening of his influential essay "American Crisis," dated Dec. 23, 1776, was written to inspire patriots to join the American Revolution. Now, 244 years later, the sentence accurately depicts the state of our nation and the world during this health and economic crisis. Paine — conveying personal thoughts about the American crisis when a fractured six-month-old nation with rag-tag militias was fighting to win independence from the world’s greatest military power — wrote, “I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear.” Trust is...

Wisconsinites are signaling they're done playing political games and aren't buying into the idea that they're 'Safer at Home.' MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin stay-at-home orders were supposed to expire Friday. Instead, thousands of disgruntled Wisconsinites descended upon the capitol in protest after the Evers administration extended the Dairy State’s so-called Safer at Home order another month. Endless blaring honks turned to white noise as vehicles backed up East Washington Avenue before circling the capitol, with many waving signs and flags out of windows and sun roofs. One man drove a Yukon decked out with Trump 2020 gear, pulling a trailer...

French has slandered his Christian brothers and sisters by writing that 'millions of Trump-supporting white Evangelicals no longer care about character.' David French remains very disappointed that many of his fellow evangelicals support President Donald Trump. He has used the Wuhan virus pandemic to reiterate and expand his arguments against the president’s character and competence (spoiler: He still thinks Trump is too wicked and incompetent for Christians to vote for him).But he ignores that evangelical support for Trump, warts and all, is justified by principles French has urged on us — namely, that ours is not a Christian nation...

‘It’s great that dog grooming, gin, guns, and garden supplies are essential,’ says Pastor Kevin Martin, chuckling at the irony, ‘but the body and blood of Christ are not.’ It was a parishioner who called local news and possibly the police on Rev. Kevin Martin for continuing to hold services during coronavirus shutdowns, even though he had explicit state permission to do so while taking extra health precautions.Members of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Raleigh, N.C. were filmed by local television as they walked with their spouses and children into the church to worship and receive critical spiritual care at...

Children victims of the Armenian Genocide EDITOR'S NOTE: April 24, 2020 is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, marked annually to commemorate the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago, a mega-crime the nation of Turkey has never acknowledged. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." – Ephesians 6:12Decades ago when I was very young, my grandmother, Mary Kupelian, told me a haunting story I've wondered about ever since. As I sat in the kitchen of her cozy little...

Attorney General William P. Barr issued the following statement:"In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the President has issued guidelines calling on all Americans to do their part to slow the spread of a dangerous and highly contagious virus.  Those measures are important because the virus is transmitted so easily from person to person, and because it all too often has life-threatening consequences for its victims, it has the potential to overwhelm health care systems when it surges.                           To contain the virus and protect the most vulnerable among us,...

I explore the Christian past of North Korea, and read a passage about the life and sacrifice of an early martyr of the Korean Church.

On Easter, Kentucky State Police were circling the parking lot of a church that’s packed for Easter service — defying state orders — and issuing warnings, if not citations. Following Governors’s license plate order, which applies anyone who attends an in-person church service or any mass gathering, police will refer those motorists to local health departments, which will then order 14-day quarantines – although several attendees told The Courier Journal they have no intention of following the order. While situations like this are happening all over the country on Christians, Muslims can hold their daily prayers in the “epicenter” of...

Earlier on Saturday President Trump retweeted reporter Paul Sperry’s tweet on Ramadan and social distancing in the Muslim community. Paul Sperry tweeted: Let’s see if authorities enforce the social-distancing orders for mosques during Ramadan (April 23-May 23) like they did churches during Easter. President Trump re-tweeted this and the left had enough reasons to accuse President Trump of being Islamophobic. One female reporter asked President Trump about his Sperry retweet at the daily coronavirus press conference. Partial transcript: REPORTER: I want to ask you about one of your retweets from Paul Sperry:“Let’s see if authorities enforce the social distancing orders...

On Easter weekend I was profoundly impacted by a Drudge Report linked headline from the U.K. Daily Mail: “REVEALED: U.S. government gave $3.7million grant to Wuhan lab at center of coronavirus leak scrutiny that was performing experiments on bats from the caves where the disease is believed to have originated.” Followed by bullet point subheads related to what you will read below: -- The institute experimented on bats from the source of the coronavirus -- They were captured more than 1,000 miles away in Yunnan -- Sequencing of the Covid-19 genome has traced it to bats to Yunnan's caves (For...

I think the idea that the word or Logos is God is amazing. But what does it mean?

I've found that if you ask a sensible priest or nun these days what might help us keep our sanity in this time of quarantine, they tend to say: The Liturgy of the Hours. It's pretty simple: You wake up and you pray. You stop at midday and you pray. In the evening, you pray, and before you go to sleep, too. When you pray the night prayer, or compline, you really take a look at your day and ask God to forgive you where you need forgiveness. You live your life, guided by prayer. It serves as a reminder...

Marcus Aurelius. Photo: © DEA Picture Library/Art Resource, NY. The year was 166 C.E., and the Roman Empire was at the zenith of its power. The triumphant Roman legions, under the command of Emperor Lucius Verrus, returned to Rome victorious after having defeated their Parthian enemies on the eastern border of the Roman Empire. As they marched west toward Rome, they carried with them more than the spoils of plundered Parthian temples; they also carried an epidemic that would ravage the Roman Empire over the course of the next two decades, an event that would inexorably alter the landscape of...

Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt greatly alarmed the Orthodox Christian church. Many in the church saw the invasion as a fulfillment of Daniel 11:42, where the Antichrist is prophesied to invade and take Egypt. Daniel 11:42: “He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.” The Orthodox church was also alarmed by the attempt made by Napoleon to create a Jewish state in Palestine. This regathering of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel would fulfill many Biblical prophecies that Jews spread out to the four corners of the world would once...

Napoleon had also raised alarm throughout the Christian church all over Europe by his broad appeal to the followers of the dominant religions of the world. It has been believed by the church throughout the centuries that the antichrist would be “all things to all people”, and Napoleon’s use of religion for political purposes seemed to eerily resemble that. In his 1798 Egyptian campaign, Napoleon attempted to win over the Muslims throughout the middle east by announcing his faith in the religion of Islam: “People of Egypt! You will be told by our enemies that I am come to destroy...

With most of the nation under stay-at-home orders, the media are taking an upbeat attitude to the tragic lockdown. Most treat it as a temporary measure that we must endure before getting back to normal. Thus, the Internet is full of lists of things we can do while at home. They present lockdown as an opportunity for projects, hobbies, movies and home cooking that we never had time to do before. People can develop better family relationships and improve their marriages. All these things might help people cope with the crisis. However, I think this is a shallow approach. It...

Easter Sunday is one of the most important days of the year for Christians around the globe. Yet the holiday will look much different this year during the coronavirus pandemic. Instead of celebrating with fellow worshipers, most Christians will be celebrating Jesus's resurrection from their living rooms. Including Vice President Mike Pence. The CDC wants it that way, having issued guidelines that Americans avoid gatherings of more than ten people. However, some churches are defying those guidelines on Sunday and holding Easter services as previously planned. Louisiana Pastor Tony Spell, for instance, was charged with half a dozen misdemeanors last...

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote that his state’s Democratic governor should “take a step back” regarding Easter church service coronavirus measures. This week, Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear announced Easter weekend measures for Kentucky churches and other mass gatherings that included recording license plates of church attendees and turning them into health departments so they can make the attendees “self-quarantine” for two weeks. “Taking license plates at church?” Paul tweeted Friday night. “Quarantining someone for being Christian on Easter Sunday? Someone needs to take a step back here.” It seems that the governor didn’t bother to listen to Rand...