Free Republic

841 The Church's relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day."330

The American public has become more tolerant on a number of moral issues, including premarital sex, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia. On a list of 19 major moral issues of the day, Americans express levels of moral acceptance that are as high or higher than in the past on 12 of them, a group that also encompasses social mores such as polygamy, having a child out of wedlock, and divorce.

Would it be weird to say that the Catholic Church under Pope Francis has encouraged a sense of uncertainty about God? After all, this is an institution that has devoted centuries to hammering out and polishing an authoritative system of doctrines concerning who God is and what God expects. It claims to have been founded by Jesus Christ and to be guided infallibly by the Holy Spirit. It has warned of eternal damnation if its authority and precepts are ignored or rejected. In other words: If Catholicism is true, you don't want to be in doubt about its teachings. But...

Immigrants are essential to filling the shortage of STEM workers. #VoteonReform #Pray4Reform

City of Orlando officials have filed a lawsuit seeking to seize a church property through eminent domain, in order to build a soccer stadium on it. The Orlando City Lions, set to enter Major League Soccer in 2015, are seeking to build a new soccer-specific stadium to play in. The Orlando Sentinel published today: If successful, the eminent domain action filed Thursday in Orange Circuit Court would allow Orlando to take the last of 20 parcels needed for the $115 million stadium being built for the Orlando City Lions, an MLS expansion franchise. Newly released records show the city more than...

. America's Gradual Decline since President L.B.J. ... Today (2014-05-18) The Washington Post (George Will) included an article entitled: "The Slow Decline of America since LBJ launched the Great Society" Free Republic post: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3157259/posts by SeekandFind. ==================================================================== George Will's article is a political lament on how LBJ's trillion-dollar (plus) "Great Society" gradually poisoned Amertica's family structure and strong work ethic. With all due respect ... George Will is WRONG, by several light years. Why ? George Will, singing in perfect harmony with most Washington DC Beltway Glee-Club "insiders" (Hillary Clinton, Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, Juan McCain, ad nauseum) haven't a...

Church officials say they will “combat evil” by hosting a positive worship service to counter a Harvard group’s Satanic mass planned for Monday evening. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston will host a Eucharistic procession from MIT to a nearby church for an hour of prayer, The Boston Globe reports. The religious procession will end up at St. Paul’s Parish in Harvard Square, just a 10-minutes walk from the Queen’s Head Pub in Memorial Hall the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club is set to hold a “black mass.” A black mass is a ritual performed as a parody of the...

Virtually every week there’s a new headline of somebody getting in trouble because of something they have said. Perhaps a lifetime’s work has been undone by a thoughtless remark. One of the saddest things I’ve ever heard was when a woman who was about 65 years old said that when she was a young teenager, about to go out on her first date, her dad said to her, “You’re so ugly. Who would ever want to marry you?” That lady went on to go through four marriages and four divorces. Obviously, she made a lot of bad choices for which...

From time to time we hear some telling us that evangelical Christianity must retool our sexual ethic if we're ever going to reach the next generation. Some say that Millennials, particularly, are leaving the church because of our "obsession" with sexual morality. The next generation needs a more flexible ethic, they say, on premarital sex, homosexuality, and so on. We'll either adapt, the line goes, or we'll die. This argument is hardly new. In the early 20th century, this was precisely the rhetoric used by liberal Protestant Harry Emerson Fosdick and his co-laborers. Fosdick was concerned, he said, for the...

This week's demolition of a massive Protestant church in the eastern city of Wenzhou highlights the growing uneasiness of the ruling Chinese Communist Party over burgeoning numbers of Christians in the nominally atheist country, analysts said. Authorities completed on Monday the demolition of the 85,000-square foot (nearly 7,900-square meter) Sanjiang church, which once dominated the city with its soaring spires, gleaming white walls, and stained glass windows, saying it had far exceeded the size allowed in the building permit. Christians in Wenzhou, whose large numbers have earned it the nickname "the Jerusalem of the East," launched a frantic campaign to...

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who became a symbol for gay rights far beyond the church while deeply dividing the world's Anglicans, plans to divorce his husband. Bishop Gene Robinson announced the end of his marriage to Mark Andrew in an email sent to the Diocese of New Hampshire, where he served for nine years before retiring in 2012. Robinson would not disclose details about the end of their 25-year relationship but wrote Sunday in The Daily Beast he owed a debt to Andrew "for standing by me through the challenges of the last decade."

A short time ago I learned of a church building in our neighborhood that was for sale. For years now Grace Fellowship Church has been looking for a building of our own, so we thought we should go and give it a look. This had once been a thriving congregation. Faithful Christians had given sacrificially to construct that building. They had consecrated it to the Lord and had worshipped there for many years. Yet now that building was deserted, decaying, and up for sale. What happened? How did that church go from thriving to dying? How did it slide from...

As the world continues to suffer the onslaught of jihadi wars and Islamic supremacist revolutions, Obama chooses to subtly sanction supremacism and savagery with a Presidential visit to a victory mosque. Will Obama address the oppression of Christian in Malaysia? Will Obama address the persecution of Christians ... Obama’s unquestioning support for and encouragement of Islam’s jihad and sharia only serves to increase the human toll the brutal supremacism demands. ... Barack Obama will be knocking on the doors of one of Malaysia’s most iconic landmarks – Masjid Negara – on Sunday. The visit to the mosque, built in 1922...

The goal of First Amendment was to protect religious expression, not restrict it. In the last 50 years, though, “non-establishment” has been redefined as “separation,” effectively amending the Constitution and isolating Christians from the political process.“Will You Be a Casualty in Their Religious War?” read the headline of an advertisement that almost covered an entire page of the L.A. Times. Underneath were pictures of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Lou Sheldon, along with condemning quotes substantiating their apparent jihad against irreligious secularists.The text of the advertisement read: “The radical religious right has declared war on America. It is a...

American culture is in trouble. It is impossible to watch television for long without concluding that we are all living in one big reality TV show that is defining deviancy one embarrassing episode at a time. Unfortunately, the church isn't doing much to fight against the cultural current. By trying to be "relevant" the church is simply getting pulled into the undertow. Consequently, most churches are slowly drowning in the shallow water of our declining culture. So how do we turn the tide and begin to have a meaningful church experience that also influences the culture in a meaningful way?...

Did Jesus have a wife? According to Karen L. King, an academic from Harvard, the answer might exist in the fragment of an ancient Coptic manuscript. On this slip of papyrus, Jesus is quoted as saying “my wife,” and because of that, King notes, “this fragment seems to be the first case where we have a married Jesus who appears to be affirming that women who are mothers and wives can be his disciples.” This story broke in 2012 and was immediately qualified by protests from other academics, who claimed the textual fragment King cited was likely a forgery. These...

Featured Term (selected at random:CATHOLICITY Universality of the Church founded by Christ. In the Nicene Creed the Church is said to be "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic." The Church's catholicity is first of all spatial, on account of her actual extension over the whole earth. This kind of catholicity may be actual, when the Church is actually extended everywhere; it is virtual in that Christ's intention was to have the Church present among all peoples. Actual catholicity is said to be physical if it embodies all persons of the earth, even if not literally every individual. It is moral if...

It’s not a secret the church has been in decline for a number of years and for a variety of reasons. You can read some statistics and views on why, here and here and here. Everyone has their opinions.Abuse, apostasy, and irrelevance are just a few of the words that keep coming up in the search for reasons for the decline. There are a variety of compelling opinions and I even have a few of my own.But I suggest there is another area of decline more significant and perhaps much less obvious—and one that certainly contributes to the church’s decline...

Communist officials in China have denied waging a “demolition campaign” against churches in the country’s most Christian regions, after reportedly ordering a dozen to be destroyed. The churches - in the eastern province of Zhejiang - are currently facing demolition or having their crosses removed, activists claim. Other churches are said to have been ordered to make themselves “less conspicuous” by turning their lights off at night. Local preachers accuse Party officials in Zhejiang, a wealthy coastal province, of “gross interference” in Church affairs and have urged them to abandon what they believe is an orchestrated campaign. Last week, Christians...

The following outline shows that Jesus intended to create a holy, visible Church; complete with a prime minister, a hierarchy, binding authority, and perpetuity—the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. It is important for Protestants to understand some basic facts. Contrary to the modern belief that the Bible is a “blueprint” or “textbook” which explains how a church should be structured, it is a product of the Catholic Church—a compilation of writings that reflect a structure that was already present. As such, the “Bible alone” has no reason to provide fine details of proper ecclesiology; however, proper ecclesiology is detectable....