Free Republic

You have to hand it to Barack Obama. He has unmasked in the most thoroughgoing way the despotic propensities of the administrative entitlements state and of the Democratic Party. And now he has done something similar to the hierarchy of the American Catholic Church.

The past week saw a tardy footnote explaining in part how the Administration was able to cram ObamaCare down the throats of Americans who overwhelmingly opposed (and still oppose) it. After the government spent $ 1.8 million dollars to defend the Justice Department lawyers who prosecuted the late Senator Ted Stevens, Judge Sullivan announced he was going to make public the 500 page report of the independent investigation of this team. In doing so he observed what I said long ago: "The government's ill-gotten verdict in the case not only cost that public official his bid for re-election, the results...

You have been waiting in suspense for Me to move in a spectacular way , not for yourselves but for the Body and the Bride and to AWE the lost and stolen those wandering aimlessly in the darkness with no hope ! YEA ! I Declare Hope is Here ! And your Glory Cloud has landed but it is the key of Faith swinging in the incense of worship that causes My smoke to Gather , My wings to spread as over the Mercy Seat ! And My Eyes and My Heart to Rest upon you as I nestle you...

A Michigan pastor has opened a tattoo parlor inside his church. Rev. Steve Bentley says he’s doing everything he can to reach out to people who have never felt comfortable at a traditional house of worship.

I just came across a recap of the happenings at the now famous ELCA and worshippers of Isis conference, officially called “The 5th Annual Faith and Feminism – Womanist – Mujerista Conference,” that was held at the ELCA’s Ebenezer Lutheran church (herchurch) in San Francisco. . .

On Friday's Inside Washington on PBS, as the panel discussed the new Obama administration rule that requires even Catholic employers to provide health insurance coverage for contraception to their employees, both liberal columnist Mark Shields and conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer hit Obama for the decision, while NPR's Nina Totenberg claimed that there were valid arguments in both directions as she made a flawed analogy between contraception and immunization as a defense of the Obama position.

NewSpring Church, a five campus megachurch in Anderson, S.C., is canceling its Sunday night services due to the Super Bowl this weekend. Lead Pastor Perry Noble explained the reason in his blog. "I've been in church work for over 20 years and the one thing I can say is that attendance on Super Bowl Sunday night in church has always been awful! (and…the people who are there are pretending to be looking at youversion on their phone…but they are really checking the score of the game!)," he wrote. Noble said the church has always tried to compete with the Super...

Official Declaration of the ŒCOCW Office of Morals, Doctrine and Spirituality January 30, 2012 The Concerned Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Bishops Coalition Dear Brothers in Christ: It is with mixed anguish and heartfelt affection that we, The Concerned Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Bishops Coalition, have convened an ad hoc coalition with the express intention to offer fraternal counsel regarding reported wayward behavior in some of your jurisdictions. It is to such as have committed simony (giving or receiving money for that which is holy and cannot be purchased) that we address this open letter. It has been bought to our...

CHAPTER II: THE OBVIOUS BLUNDERS I have noted that Catholicism really is in the twentieth century what it was in the second century; it is the New Religion. Indeed its very antiquity preserves an attitude of novelty. I have always thought it striking and even stirring that in the venerable invocation of the "Tantum Ergo," which for us seems to come loaded with accumulated ages, there is still the language of innovation; of the antique document that must yield to a new rite. For us the hymn is something of an antique document itself. But the rite is always new....

The Chicago man who posted on Facebook a picture of his 22-month-old daughter bound and gagged with duct tape thanked members of a South Side church for helping to get him out of jail.

That’s the gist of this piece by writer Cara McDonough, who raises a question that’s increasingly common these days. I get several calls a year from people who ask if I can do a wedding for them in a catering hall or on a beach. (Usually, it’s after a priest has turned them down; deacons, of course, are always the last resort.)McDonough writes: My sister-in-law is getting married this spring. I’ve tried on my bridesmaid dress, jotted down the date of her New York City bachelorette party and also, intrigued, watched her struggle as she strives to book a priest.Like...

Because of a court’s ruling against one particular small church in the Bronx, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has now decreed that come February 12, 2012, all churches and fellowships meeting in public schools – 160 in total - have to be evicted. This terrible decision against religious freedom could impact the souls of thousands of people in New York City. And if this precedent is allowed to stand, the cancer could spread to other cities as well. These churches generally have great relationships with the community. They provide services and revenue for the city. But it seems that is trumped by...

GOOSE CREEK, SC - Investigators say a man armed with a shotgun robbed a choir group at a church in Goose Creek Wednesday night. ... One of the victims told police that a man entered the church through an unlocked door and aimed a shotgun towards the choir area. The victims told police that the suspect then told the choir to get on the floor and to "Keep your heads down, I'll blow your head off."... the suspect continued to demand everyone's wallets and purses

A response to the video "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus". The purpose of this video is to do a response from a Catholic perspective, in a spirit of love, but also with a spirit of passion to defend our Mother the Church. The things that are said are not meant to offend, but we do have to be direct about what we believe and what we stand for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru_tC4fv6FE

LUNDALE - Members of the Lundale Freewill Baptist Church in Logan County are wondering who shot a statue of Jesus in front of their building. They noticed a bullet mark on the forehead of a statue of Jesus. The church is located along Buffalo Creek. The church's pastor Bobby Adkins says he isn't angry, just disappointed that someone would do such a thing. "As far as I know we don't have an enemy in that community or even on Buffalo Creek. If I do I don't know about it," Adkins said. Adkins said he isn't planning to press charges but...

Jarrett’s partisan pulpit speech may have violated IRS church-state rules 12:14 AM 01/17/2012 Valerie Jarrett’s partisan speech at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church may have violated the IRS tax rules for churches’ political activities, said a prominent free speech attorney. “It is problematic under current regulations,” said Erik Stanley, a senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which is campaigning to roll back IRS curbs on believers’ speech. But if the IRS concludes that the church violated the IRS code, the ADF “will represent the church, just as it would represent any church for what is said from the pulpit,”...

Well, the word coming down from on high is that Fr. Haley has been excommunicated and defrocked. This has been personally confirmed to me by someone who should know, but don't expect to hear about it anywhere official. There's something about this case that makes authorities skittish. After all, we can't acknowledge the elephant in the sanctuary, the homosexual priest problem. Every new homosexual scandal is met by the three monkeys with ears, eyes, and mouth covered. ("Psst...ignore the elephant until he goes away.") So Fr. Haley will continue to be the invisible man. Strange, isn't it? The Vatican released...

Saint Peter the Apostle Also known as Simon and Cephas, his feast is celebrated with St. Paul on the 29 th of June. The feast of the Chair of Peter, which stands for the World Unity of the Church is celebrated on the 22nd of February. He was a fisherman, brother of Saint Andrew the Apostle who led him to Christ. The Lord gave him the name of "Peter" to indicate that he would be the rock on which the Church would be built. He had miraculous healing powers, so that people were cured even by his shadow. (Acts 5:15)...

In a landmark religious liberty decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that ministers cannot sue churches for employment discrimination after they have been fired. The high court in a unanimous opinion said that religious liberties guaranteed in the First Amendment prohibit the government from serving any role in religious organizations' selection of ministers, thus precluding ministers from suing churches after their termination. "Requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a 9-0 opinion. "The...

A senior Scientologist has condemned the controversial religion's leader for turning the organisation into an autocratic, heavy-handed fundraising machine. Debbie Cook, one of the most respected members within the Church, sent a shock email denouncing chairman David Miscavige to 12,000 Scientologists just minutes after midnight on New Year's Day. She accuses him of turning the Church, which numbers celebrity followers including Tom Cruise and John Travolta, into a tyrannical regime in direct conflict with the doctrine laid down by founder L Ron Hubbard in the 1950s. Writing under a banner of 'Keep Scientology Working', Mrs Cook called out

As a Jewish convert to Christ via evangelical Protestantism, I naturally wanted to know God better through the reading of the Scriptures. In fact, it had been through reading the Gospels in the "forbidden book" called the New Testament, at age sixteen, that I had come to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and our promised Messiah. In my early years as a Christian, much of my religious education came from private Bible reading. By the time I entered college, I had a pocket-sized version of the whole Bible that was my constant companion. I would commit...

At least 10 people have been killed and many more injured in a bomb blast at a Catholic church near the Nigerian capital Abuja, officials say. The blast tore through St Theresa's Church in Madalla as worshippers gathered for Christmas services. A second explosion is reported to have hit a church in the central city of Jos soon after.

The history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began in the Sacred Grove when fourteen-year-old Joseph Smith prayed to know which church was true. But Heavenly Father had been preparing Joseph Smith throughout his life for that marvelous First Vision—the most important message the world has received since the time of Jesus Christ. This preparation began on December 23, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont, when Joseph Smith, Jr., was born.

Today’s column is not for members of “tithing parishes,” or for those who attend the kind of churches and temples that collect an annual standard pre-arranged amount from their members. Feel free to skip it and read something about politics! But if you belong to a house of worship that passes the collection basket every week, this one’s for you. Most worship communities depend on a mix of just a few types of collections to finance their operations: the regular weekly collections at Sabbath or Sunday services, the collection at a couple of high holidays, and perhaps one or two...

The new internet era of politics has changed a lot of things about the way Presidents go about their daily lives. A stray comment captured on tape can instantly ricochet and cause havoc. Post-9/11 security concerns combined with the ability to find detailed information about virtually any location has made the already challenging job of protecting the President and his family even tougher. But the freedom to attend church and be part of a congregation while living at the White House may be the first true casualty of our new political age. Last Sunday, the Obamas held hands to cross...

A federal lawsuit has led to official recognition for a student-led Christian club that had earlier been banned by the Hicksville Union Free School District in Central Islip, N.Y. Attorneys of the Christian law firm Alliance Defense Fund on Friday started the process of voluntary dismissal of the federal lawsuit against the district after its “decision to change course and grant the club equal access to the rights, benefits, and privileges extended to all other non-curriculum student clubs.” Apart from officially recognizing the Frontline Club, the district also adopted a resolution affirming its “continuing policy to comply with the Equal...

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Agencies) - Some 30 Jewish settlers broke into a Christian baptismal site late Monday in a closed military zone along the Jordanian-Israeli border to stage a protest, Agence France-Presse reported. The Associated Press reported that the radical settlers cut a fence to enter the closed military zone along the border with Jordan on Monday night, quoting security officials. AP said they took over an abandoned church on the Jordan River before Israeli security forces removed them and arrested the 17 people involved, quoting officials. Jordanian officials said the Israelis did not cross the border into Jordan. On Tuesday,...

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (Worthy News)– More than 500 Muslim students assisted by Muslim police burned down a church in the village of Qoto Baloso, Ethiopia, on Nov. 29. The students screamed "Allahu Akbar" as they set fire to St. Arsema Orthodox Church, which was built on land used by the Christian community for more than 60 years. According to Inspector Mustefa Bashir of Silte Province, police had already ruined the roof after a court ruled that the church was built without a permit, but as for the razing of the church by students, we are investigating to determine those responsible.

The archbishop of Los Angeles is among a group of Latino bishops from throughout the US to have called for undocumented immigrants to be seen as a "revitalizing force" -- instead of as criminals. The group of 30, including Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez, released a joint letter vowing to work for immigration law reform, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. [SNIP] "The lack of a just, humane and effective reform of immigration laws negatively affects the common good of the United States. We promise to keep working to bring about this change."

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama and his family are attending a worship service at a church just across the street from the White House where presidents frequently have visited. The president, first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia made the short walk across Lafayette Park to St. John's Church.

Back in 2009, I wrote a piece in which I asked if the Christian church in America was being forced to go underground. As I recently read the news that pastors were being sued for preaching that homosexuality is a sin, I saw clearly that yes, the “real” Christian church in America, in order to continue to stay true to their belief and to God, will be forced to do as the early Christians did – go underground. At the risk of being accused of being a wild-eyed, bible-thumping, Holy Roller, I need to explain what I mean when I...

A longtime Chicago priest who has battled violence and poverty from his South Side Catholic church became a victim of violence himself this morning when two masked men broke into the church rectory and beat and robbed him, authorities said. The robbers, dressed in black like "ninjas," entered 80-year-old Daniel Mallette's upstairs bedroom at the rectory of St. Margaret of Scotland Church at about 12:30 a.m. and woke him up, police said. They dragged him out of bed and forced him to his knees and demanded to know "where the money was," according to the police report.

Anita Perry, the 59-year-old wife of Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, has been very actively campaigning for him on her own all fall. Now, she's taken on a new assignment. Mrs. Perry has launched an online drive to recruit hundreds of volunteers for what she calls the Perry Strike Force. This would consist of Perry fans who would travel to Iowa and work across the state Jan. 2-4, getting out Perry caucus-goers to the hundreds of meeting sites on the evening of Jan. 3. (Don't worry, the BCS Championship Game is not until Jan. 9 this time.) "With over 1,700...

excerpt- St. Peter's of Karachi, which opened its doors this month and can fit around 5,000 people, is a sign of the resilience of a faith that has long suffered from state discrimination and attacks by extremists allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

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Moscow, November 11, Interfax - People will welcome toughened norms of public morality in Russia, the Moscow Patriarchate official is convinced. "I hope that legal proposals to strengthen public morality will appear in Russia as well as in other post-Soviet countries," head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax-Religion. According to him, "an amazing initiative" came from the Belgorod Region where late in October changes to the law on administrative violations were adopted in the first reading. There is a fine established for violating norms of morality and immodesty, for example, pissing in...

MOSCOW – With a resurgence of religion after the collapse of the communist Soviet Union and declining birth rates, Russia is on a moral crusade to ban abortion. "Our two main motives are the fact that Russia is dying out and our religious tradition," Yelena Mizulina, chair of the family issues committee at the Russian parliament, told Reuters. "We cannot forget our faith." Mizulina's committee has floated a bill to amend Russia's law on health to help reduce the number of abortions in Russia. Backed by the Russian Orthodox Church, the bill would cap abortions at 12 weeks and impose...

Some members of a bankrupt Orange County, Calif. megachurch are expressing outrage after fielding an email request for congregants to deliver food to waiting limos so that it can ferried to the founder's sick wife. The appeal comes weeks after a lawsuit charged that the founder of the Crystal Cathedral house of worship, Rev. Robert Schuller, and his family had been paying themselves lavish salaries and other benefits while the church was in financial straits. "They've completely depleted the church's funds," one member, Bob Canfield, told the Orange County Register. "But they have shown that they have absolutely no remorse...

KHARTOUM, Sudan (BP) -- Emboldened by government calls for a Sudan based on Islamic law since the secession of South Sudan, Muslims long opposed to a church near Khartoum have attacked Christians trying to finish constructing their building, sources have told Compass Direct News. The Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) congregation in Omdurman West, across the Nile River from Khartoum, has continued to meet for Sunday worship in a building without a roof in spite of opposition from area Muslims and local authorities, Compass has learned. Claiming that Christianity no longer is an accepted religion in the country, Muslims in...

A new church in San Jose provides beer for attendees – after the service. Bill Jenkins has started the new church in downtown San Jose in a bar call the Loft Bar and Bistro. They hold their service at 9:30 Sunday mornings. "Ninety-two percent of the population in Santa Clara County.. is unchurched. The majority of people there have rejected traditional forms of church. So Jenkins wants to provide church in a new way. Most people that come to ours [church] wouldn’t touch a traditional church with a barge pole..” He made Urbanlife as unchurch-like as possible.

If a church broadcasts the word of God on TV without closed captions, it risks incurring the wrath of the FCC. Some 300 small- to medium-sized churches can expect letters from the commission within the next few days explaining why their closed captioning exemptions were lifted for TV shows like “Power in the Word” and “Producing Kingdom Citizens.” The FCC has been mailing the letters for the past few days to churches from Maine to California, explaining that the hundreds of exemptions are now rescinded and giving the programmers 90 days to reapply. The churches were granted FCC exemptions from...

Charles Borromeo and Catholic Tradition by Matthew Gallegos, appearing in Volume 9Charles Borromeo (1538– 1584), whom the Catholic Church recognizes as a saint, published a summary of Catholic traditions regarding church design fourteen years after the conclusion of the Council of Trent. Borromeo’s publication, Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae, was the central document that applied the decrees of the Council of Trent to the design and furnishing of Catholic churches.2 Borromeo officially wrote the Instructiones to direct construction within the Archdiocese of Milan, but his intention was that it have wider usage. Borromeo published the document in 1577, and it...

http://www.birthersummit.org/news/64-it-is-time-for-the-church-to-break-her-silence.html IT IS TIME FOR THE CHURCH TO BREAK HER SILENCE The Truth Matters Coalition Is Born By: Dean C. Haskins 202.241.3648 dean@birthersummit.org Posted: October 20, 2011 © 2011 The Birther Summit One of the most heartbreaking realities of contemporary Christendom is the obvious exponential decrease in its biblical discernment. While much of the civilized world has been wholly secularized, there was a remnant of believers in America that pushed against that godless agenda snatching this great Christian experiment from us. Sadly, if today's church were transplanted to the first century, we would likely be the ones responsible for the...

She looks like any old bag lady scavenging for cast-offs in the rubbish as the world looks the other way. But this is no ordinary woman - she is Olga Onassis, 90, a woman linked by marriage to one of the richest dynasties in the world. She has now fallen, like her country, on desperate times. She is a regular at a church soup kitchen in the Greek capital Athens and roots around in the overflowing garbage containers of the city for clothes.

In the midst of a grey, damp winter, at the end of a healthy and normal pregnancy, our second child, a daughter, dies at birth. Despite 20 minutes of attempted resuscitation in the delivery room, she never draws breath outside my body. The neo-natal consultant has tears in his eyes when he comes up to the bedside where my husband and I are clutching each other’s hands in disbelief. “I am so sorry. We couldn’t save her.” Our shock is complete. There was no indication this would happen. When we are asked if we would like our baby blessed, we...

Last week, President Obama's Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in a case that pits religious protections against the courts' ordinary ability to intervene in a labor dispute to prevent discrimination.In the early 2000s, Cheryl Perich was a "called teacher" or "commissioned minister" at Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in Redford, Mich. As such, she taught religious classes, led students in prayer and incorporated religious teachings into secular subjects like math, science, social studies and art.But in 2004, she was diagnosed with narcolepsy and became unable to teach the fall semester that year. When she...

LAVONIA, GA (FOX Carolina) - Many think of places of worship as sacred ground, and on Sundays, Sgt. Tony Tilley with the Anderson Police Department puts away his badge and answers to the title of reverend. "In South Carolina the concealed weapons law does allow you to carry in a house of worship," Tilley said. He's a pastor at Freedom Baptist Ministries in Anderson County, and while armed with scripture, he's also armed with a gun. "I really don't feel right leaving home without it," he said. But cross the state line into Georgia and it's illegal to have a...

A source on the Rick Perry campaign tells Hot Air that the Texas governor conducted some Texas-size fundraising in the third quarter. Coming in just a little over halfway through, Perry raised $17.1 million. That number would put Perry somewhere between $4-6 million ahead of Mitt Romney’s rumored total for Q3, according to this report last week from the Boston Globe. It’s also likely to far outpace Herman Cain’s fundraising or that of the other Republicans currently in the race. The pace is even more impressive. Perry had 49 days in which to raise funds, rather than the full 92...

SNIPPET: "A day after a suicide bomb attack wounded 28 at a church in Indonesia..." SNIPPET: "While a suicide bomber struck Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (translated as "Bethel Full Gospel Church") in Solo City in Central Java province Sunday morning, police found another bomb in front of Maranatha church in Ambon Island, the capital of Maluku province, Monday. "This is in a series of bombs that we found there [in Ambon]," the Jakarta Globe newspaper quoted National Police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam as saying. "All are homemade bombs, they are all similar. So the maker is the same.""

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams thinks “atheism is cool” and that’s made it difficult for his church to convey its message. Well, he’s right that there’s been a recent surge in the popularity of atheism, but that’s not the reason the church isn’t growing. Think back to the “cool” people you know in high school. They were the ones willing to say what no one else was saying, the people who always maintained a certain level of confidence, the people who didn’t care what you thought because it just didn’t matter. That’s the position a lot of young atheists are...