Free Republic

MIT professor and Obamacare consultant Jonathan Gruber conducted a government study to determine whether or not church attendance impacts voter turnout, and whether repealing state laws banning retail commerce on Sundays could diminish voter turnout. Gruber drew fire after The Daily Caller published a video Monday in which he revealed that certain aspects of Obamacare’s design were concealed from the public because the “stupidity of the American voter” would have killed the law’s chances at passage. (RELATED: Gruber: Lack of Transparency Was Key For Obamacare) A second video then emerged in which Gruber credited Obamacare’s passage to the American people...

I was talking with a friend a few weeks ago about a church she used to attend. She stopped going because the pastors, who called themselves “team leaders,” never wanted to deal with any topics that might be controversial, like abortion. In fact, their stated goal was that they wanted the church to be safe for people. The thought of a “safe” church has bounced around in my head off and on since then. What in the world is a safe church, especially given that the gospel itself, is not safe. Jesus isn’t safe. God Himself, is not safe. In...

1) You learned how to spell with this song: [video] 2) You survived a Fear Factor inspired eating game. 3) You’ve been to Mexico for a mission/service trip. 4) You’ve given your “testimony” to a large group before. 5) Your public prayers are filled with “Father God” and “just…” 6) You learned just enough on the guitar to lead worship songs with 4 chords.

Obama has summoned the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – making manifest his goal of "fundamentally transforming America.” Part I of “The Four Horseman,” described the growing power of Obama’s plans for the “fundamental transformation” (destruction) of our nation, and the “Four Horsemen” he employs to affect that transformation: Death, War, Conquest, and Famine. We examined in detail Obama’s Magnum Opus, Obamacare, its intended destruction of our healthcare system and the consequent enslavement of the population to the whims and caprice of the Administrative State, and, more alarming than this, Obamacare’s comprehensive obliteration of most freedoms Americans still take for...

Why Did Paul Get Arrested at Philippi, and What Can a Sometimes Timid Church Learn From It? By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is a story of St. Paul’s arrest, beating, and imprisonment at Philippi that serves as a kind of metaphor for the radical nature of true Christianity and why it so perturbs many in this world. The Christian faith, its message, and the transformation it can effect can be very unsettling to a world that figuratively and literally “banks on” sin. Let’s consider this lesser- known story of Paul and see what it ought to mean for us if we take the Christian...

… a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.(Joel 1:6-8)The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O...

It was not Luther’s intention to divide the Church, much less to start a brand new church. To the end of his life, he considered himself to be a faithful and obedient servant of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Though Luther renounced his monastic vows and married a former nun, Katarina von Bora, he never forgot that he had received a doctorate in Holy Scripture. His vocation was to teach the written Word of God and to point men and women to the Lord of Scripture, Jesus Christ. On this Reformation Day, it is good to remember that...

The question we must understand, and answer properly, is, "Are the people to serve the Government, or, is the government to serve the People?" Do you understand the difference between Rules and Laws? Laws are enacted in accordance with the Constitution, where the House of Representatives and the Senate concur on a Bill. The Bill then goes to the President, who can sign it into law. We needn’t discuss veto, here, as that has nothing to do with what we need to understand. A Rule (Note: Rule includes regulations) is the desire of unelected officials in Administrative Agencies to implement...

Elton John called Pope Francis "my hero" for his compassion and push to accept gays in the Catholic church, at his annual AIDS benefit. John hosted the event, "An Enduring Vision: A Benefit for the Elton John AIDS Foundation," Tuesday night in Manhattan. He said Francis is pushing boundaries in the church and told the crowd: "Make this man a saint now, OK?"

Oh good. A Hollywood liberal is doing a sitcom about a church. What could go wrong? With NBC’s popular comedic sit-com “Parks and Recreation” heading into its seventh and final season, lead actress Amy Poehler’s next project is one conservative Christians probably won’t welcome. Deadline Hollywood broke the news October 17 that Poehler and “Parks and Recreation” co-executive producer Aisha Muharrar are re-teaming together to co-write a new series for NBC. The currently untitled new series will be centered around “a young, agnostic woman who inherits a church and the crew of strong-willed characters who make up her new community.”...

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has allowed construction of the country's first new Catholic church in 55 years, the church said Monday. Experts said it's a sign of improving relations between the Vatican and Cuba's communist government. The church, funded by donations from Catholics in Tampa, Florida, will be built in Sandino, a citrus and coffee-growing town in the far-western province of Pinar del Rio. The church publication "Christian Life" said it will have space for 200 people.

The Episcopal Church in Connecticut (ECCT) has sold its property at 35 Harris Road, Avon, former home to Christ Episcopal Church, to the Farmington Valley American Muslim Center, Inc. (FVAMC). The sale, for $1.1 million, was completed on Oct. 21. The building was vacated after the congregation voted in 2012 to dissolve as a parish and close by the end of that year. The following spring, Bishop Ian T. Douglas and other ECCT staff hosted a meeting of community leaders and interested residents to discern how the property could best be used “as an asset to God’s mission of restoration...

The Lutheran church in the territory of park on Blyukher Street will start being built probably this year. About it the E1.RU portal was told by representatives of a Lutheran community in Yekaterinburg. Documents on granting the territory according to the lease contract are already agreed with MUGISO and underwent all necessary procedures, including public hearings. Now parishioners expect the construction license which will allow to achieve, at last, long dream – to return to residents of Yekaterinburg the Lutheran temple. The area of building – about 400 square meters. - We awaited five years for this decision, - the...

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order Friday to stop officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, from forcing two ordained Christian ministers to perform wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples. City officials told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved...

[This is part of Catholic Analysis' special series on Pope Alexander VI. This part, the fourth, details Alexander's election and coronation. Read the third part.] The conclave of 1492 was an awesome, if typical, affair. After the death of Pope Innocent VIII, the primary contenders to succeed him quickly became obvious: Rodrigo Borgia, Ascanio Sforza, and Giuliano della Rovere (who later became Pope Julius II). [1] Rodrigo was the obvious choice, a man of high honors and popularity. However, that he was Spanish, and therefore seen as an outsider, was likely a point of considerable contention. Ascanio, the Italian and...

Last Thursday evening I had my pastor over to Casa de Giles to enjoy one of my fine cigars with the family and me. During the course of catching up, I found out that several new families from a local South Florida mega-church had left that zoo and had joined our church. The reason why they said they absconded had me gobsmacked – and I’m a hard critter to shock. Having been in the ministry for twenty-five years, I’ve pretty much heard it all and have seen it all, but I wasn’t ready for this curve ball. This time it...

Throughout our nation’s history, the Church has been a force for good in America and abroad. But over the last 50 years, government has systematically eroded our free speech and religious expression. The Bible and the Gospel have been banished from our public schools and our public squares. With more than 75% of Americans calling themselves Christians, it’s time for the Church to rise up and take action to turn the tide in our nation! We have the numbers and we have a voice. If we are silent, we have no one to blame but ourselves for a Godless America.

An Armenian Apostolic church constructed in memory of the victims of the 20th century Armenian genocide was “rigged and dynamited” on Sunday by forces loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS), according to reports from Syria’s government news agency. The Armenian Holy Martyrs Church in Der Zor, located in the Syrian desert 280 miles northeast of Damascus, was constructed in memory of the victims of the 1916 Armenian genocide and consecrated in 1991. The site was chosen because Der Zor is believed to have housed death camps in which an estimated 150,000 to 400,000 Armenians were...

Church-sign war!  h/t Kirby

I have argued before that, in their fullest, libertarianism and Catholicism are incompatible -- but to what degree are they so? Leaders of the libertarian movement have certainly said silly, anti-Catholic things. Ludwig von Mises, for example, compared Christ to the Bolshevists and also said, "..[I]t is the resistance which the Church has offered to the spread of liberal ideas which has prepared the soil for the destructive resentment of modern socialist thought" (Socialism, Chapter 29). Translation: opposition to liberalism of one stripe must be blamed for inspiring liberalism of another. Huh? Much of the conflict between libertarians and the...