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Pastors and Christian ministry leaders have a high calling to preach the truth from the Word of God. Speaking the truth is essential all the time but it is especially important to do so when we elect leaders who will make law and policy that affect our faith, our families and our freedom. There is an ongoing struggle for the soul of America. Many people look to pastors and Christian ministry leaders for guidance on important moral and social issues.

Imagine if Pat Robertson called for the demolition of all the mosques in America. It would be front-page news. It would be on every network and cable-news program. There would be a demand for Christians to denounce him, and denounce him they would — in the harshest terms. The president of the United States and other world leaders would weigh in, too. Rightly so. So why is it that when Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, declares that it is “necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula,” the major...

That is what is contained in the 2 Nephi 26-30, the section of the Book of Mormon that will be studied this Sunday in the LDS Church. This critique is set in the context of its supposed prophecy of Joseph Smith finding and translating the Book of Mormon. These chapters contain quite a few condemnations of Christian churches. One that is emphasized and the one that I will be focusing on is its condemnation of the position held today by millions of Christians that the Bible alone is God’s revealed Word. Following are a couple of quotes from these chapters...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (BP) -- Religious leaders in Maryland say citizens will get the final say on a gay "marriage" bill that is set to become law -- with churches playing a critical role in possibly overturning it. The Maryland Senate passed a bill Thursday (Feb. 23) by a vote of 25-22 that would redefine marriage, less than a week after the House of Delegates approved the same bill, 72-67. Democrats control both chambers, and Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley -- who endorsed the bill in his State of the State address -- is expected to sign it. Maryland is but the...

The information in this section comes largely from The Urban Character of Christian Worship, by Rev. John Baldovin, S.J. Footnotes refer to the pages in his text where further information can be found.Station Churches 2012 Each year, the North American College follows the ancient tradition of the Roman stational liturgy. All are invited to join us for the celebration of Mass each day. Using the side bar on the left, you will find the schedule and listing of the churches. Each page contains a short description and history of each church. At the bottom of each page, you will find...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The nation's largest protestant denomination will definitely remain "Baptist," but leaders are thinking about whether it will be "Southern" for much longer.

Although the New York State Senate has passed an amendment that would reverse the New York City Board of Education and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to evict nearly 70 churches from the public school spaces they have been renting, many of them for years, most of these congregations are already packed up and prepared for an exodus as the deadline for departure is this Sunday, Feb. 12. The state Senate overwhelmingly voted Monday 52-7 in favor of Bill A8800A/S.6087A but the NY State Assembly also has to approve its own version of the bill to successfully block the City and...

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...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Sir, I would ask that you would reconsider your decision to evict the houses of worship from public schools in New York City. Do you have any idea of what is going on in your city – let alone the rest of the country? This is not the time to be evicting churches, the lifeline of worship and hope, from the people of your community. Are you deliberately trying to sabotage your own community and increase the crime? Why would you take away something positive, that brings money into your system, when you have nothing to replace...

The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has offered the Palestinians a powerful tool of propaganda: the comparison with Jesus’ passion. “We are to be freshly attentive to the needs of those who, like Jesus himself, are displaced and in discomfort”, Archbishop Vincent Nichols said during his Christmas Mass sermon at Westminster Cathedral. “A shadow falls particularly heavily on the town of Bethlehem tonight … We pray for them tonight”. It would have been more in keeping with Nicholas’ mission to mention hundreds of Christians losing their lives to Islamic terrorism and oppressed by Palestinian Muslim...

A drastic exodus from the church is underway in the Netherlands. With two churches shuttered each week, one man has become the country's top advisor on how to repurpose the once holy buildings. Some are demolished, while others find new life as mosques, stores and even recreation centers. The church pews will be sold according to size. The shortest ones, at 3.6 meters (12 feet) long, can be purchased for €40 ($52), the longer six-meter pews for €60. Churchgoers in the Dutch town of Bilthoven have already carried 17 pews out of their sanctuary. The pews will not be a...

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, California is buying Robert Schuller's celebrated Protestant Crystal Cathedral megachurch for $57.5 million, the LA Times reports. The spacious, light-filled house of worship is a "a monument of 20th century modernist architecture," the Times writes.

An Orange County bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday that the Crystal Cathedral, a monument to modernism in faith and architecture, will be sold for $57.5 million to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which plans to consecrate it as a Catholic cathedral. The ruling was a blow to Chapman University, which had fought bitterly down to the final moments of the bankruptcy case for the right to buy the property as a satellite campus. It also marked the end of a remarkable chapter in the history of American Christianity, one that was written in glass and steel by the Crystal Cathedral's...

Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, MD has penned an interesting Op-ed on the respective church communities of President Obama and Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain. Both worship--worshipped in the case of the President--in a predominantly black church. [quote] Like President Obama, Mr. Cain belongs to a mostly black congregation with a black pastor. But that is where the similarities end. Stark differences between the political philosophies of these two men may be rooted in their profoundly different theological heritages. The churches both men are (or in the case of Mr. Obama, were) longtime members of are...

Pulpit Freedom Sunday, sponsored by the Allied Defense Fund is in its fourth year.   This year has seen participation up nearly five times as many participants as last year's total of 100 pastors.  Pulpit Freedom Sunday is a demonstration, of sorts, and a test of freedom of religion as an IRS law says pastors endorsing political candidates from the pulpit can mean forfeiture of their 501(c)(3) tax exempt status.   Forbes reports: The 1954 version of the Internal Revenue Code added restrictions on 501(c)(3) organizations such as churches so they couldn’t participate in political campaigns.   For many of us who grew...

Nairobi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Chinese companies are building churches in Africa for all the various Christian denominations, taking over a job in the past occupied by Europe, and more recently by U.S. companies. At the Basilica of the Holy Family in Nairobi, for example, the Zhongxing Construction company is building a new building for the offices of the archdiocese of Nairobi. "We worked with them previously, and we had a positive experience. We held a public competition, and they presented the best offer," said an official of the diocese. In the past, countries that sent missionaries to Africa also...

A new faith coalition out in Cleveland, Ohio, raises some interesting questions about the intermingling of organized religion and leftist politics. The founding of the Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC), a group that describes itself as “a non-partisan coalition of faith communities and partner organizations in Cuyahoga County working together to build power for social justice,” claims that its focus is uniting the masses to improve local neighborhoods. While many would see this as a worthy endeavor, others — mainly those with fears about the use of faith to progress the liberal agenda — are questioning the GCC’s motivations. The central...

A member of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is calling for a ban on marriages at Christian churches if they refuse to also perform same-sex unions. “As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples, there will be inequality,” wrote Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade, in an August 21 letter to Cameron. While Weatherley’s proposal is currently a “minority view,” it “could quickly become a main stream point of view,” warned Neil Addison, national director of the U.K.‘s Thomas More Legal Centre. The U.K.‘s 2004 Civil Partnership Act, which legalized...

We ask all who read these words to keep the parish family of St. Andrew, Los Angeles, CA in their prayers during these difficult days. In the early morning hours of 15 August, an intruder broke into the parish Church and desecrated the Holy Altar, Tabernacle, Iconography and the entire altar and sacristy area. The most devastating aspect of this horrendous crime was the scattering of the Reserve Sacrament on the floor among and beneath the various altar crosses, candles and vestments strewn throughout the church. The Holy Altar itself was pulled from its foundation and dragged through the Royal...

Destruction, 1931-1990The site of the Cathedral is a very important one for urban developers. After the revolution this, along with ideological principles, became the reason for the decision to destroy the Cathedral. The plan entailed constructing a grandiose Palace of Soviets on the site of the Cathedral. This palace was meant to be the largest building in the world - a monument to victorious socialism and Lenin - the leader of the world proletariat. A new Moscow, with no vestiges of the "cursed past and its' monuments" was to arise around this Palace. A massive wave of propaganda preceded the...

Scroll down on the Divinely Designed Church entry for this bonus entry: Stephen Huneck’s Dog Chapel, complete with statue of a man walking his dog After his dogs (and loving wife!) helped him recover from a serious illness that doctors thought would kill him, artist Stephen Huneck decided to build a chapel in honor man’s best friend. Huneck built the dog chapel on his mountain-top farm in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Inside, there are four pews with dog sculptures, a fantastic dog stained-glass window and other interesting dog-themed arts.

  Antivirus − Not for Computers, for Ourselves David C. Stolinsky Aug. 22, 2011 Viruses infect computers and cause serious harm. But some viruses attack not computers but human minds. They do similar damage – they interfere with information processing, corrupt memory, and ultimately may cause a crash. The WeShrinkEm Virus. The “core” inflation rate understates real inflation, because it omits food and fuel − hardly an insignificant omission. But beyond this, it omits shrinking value. Paper towels now come in a “Big Roll,” which is half the size of the old roll. A laundry detergent became watery, then...

Edged out by corn dogs and chocolate-dipped bacon, one of the few remaining church dining halls at the fairgrounds is calling it quits. File this one under E, for End-of-an-Era. Or at least the beginning of the end. When the State Fair opens for its 148th year next Thursday, it's going to be the last season for the Epiphany Diner. The landmark dining hall, operated by the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids and one of the fair's three remaining church-run operations, is closing up shop after this year's fair. Its space will be used for tasting Minnesota wines....

At this week's White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, President Obama used the occasion to reiterate his endorsement of a proposed mosque at Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks in Lower Manhattan.

Churches in the U.S. are preparing to read sections of the Torah on Sunday, August 13, in a show of solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people. The move is a response to an initiative by a group of churches that read from the Muslim Koran during their services on Sunday, June 26. According to the Faith Shared project, which initiated the Koran reading, 66 churches from 32 states joined that effort. In an effort to counter the move, a grassroots movement of churches across America is preparing to read from sections of the Torah during their services. According to...

The House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a strongly-worded measure on July 20, pressing Turkey to return all Christian church properties "to their rightful owners." By an overwhelming 43-1 vote, the congressional panel adopted a sweeping amendment to the State Department’s Foreign Relations Authorization Act, urging "the Secretary of State in all official contacts with Turkish leaders and other Turkish officials to emphasize that Turkey should": 1) end all religious discrimination; 2) allow the rightful church and lay owners of Christian church properties to perform religious and social services; 3) return to their rightful owners all Christian churches and other places...

Terror threat -- U.S. churches in danger Becky Yeh - OneNewsNow California correspondent - 6/30/2011 3:55:00 AM With the recent airing of an al-Qaeda video that encourages Muslims to attack religious institutions, Christian churches are being warned. In a video released by al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, the American-born Muslim asks jihadists to quickly obtain guns and carry out terrorist attacks against the West. He states that Muslims are placed in the region to "do major damage to the enemies of Islam, waging war on their religion, sacred places, and things and brethren." "That's very troubling," admits Steve Amundson of the...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — For some believers and church leaders, opposing Alabama's toughest-in-the-nation law against illegal immigration is a chance for Bible Belt redemption. During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and `60s, many state churches didn't join the fight to end Jim Crow laws and racial segregation. Some cross-burning Ku Klux Klan members took off their hoods and sat in the pews with everyone else on Sunday mornings, and relatively few white congregations actively opposed segregation. Some black churches were hesitant to get involved for fear of white backlash. Now that Alabama has passed what's widely considered the...

Sen. Dick Durbin is calling on churches, synagogues and mosques to carve out time this fall to discuss the so-called DREAM Act with their congregations, despite federal restrictions on lobbying that often apply to religious institutions. The Illinois Democrat is reaching out to the faith community as he tries to advocate for passage of the controversial proposal that would provide a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants who attend college or join the military. A coalition of religious organizations -- which see the bill as a humane immigration proposal -- had already been pushing for what they call the...

Just in time for Easter, we've rounded up 10 of mankind's most awe-inspiring odes to faith. Consider this slide show a little piece of heaven on Earth. Whether or not you're religious, there's no denying that churches are among man's most spectacular creations. From a modern glass-and-pine place of worship deep in the Arkansas countryside to a wooden stave church dating back to the Middle Ages in Norway, we scoured the globe to identify the most breathtaking churches in the world.

Aerial view of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. Image © Google Earth. West facade and portico. View from southwest as a funeral comes to a close. Many funerals are held at San Lorenzo due to the adjacent municipal cemetery. Statue of St. Lawrence with his gridiron. West narthex with 13th-century frescoes and ancient tombs. Chancel and crypt with tomb of St. Lawrence. Tomb of St. Lawrence. West end of the Byzantine church, now in the chancel. Detail of 6th-century mosaic on the triumphal arch. Colonnade with Roman spoils in the Byzantine church. East wall of the Byzantine church, now...

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi blamed a little-known local Muslim group of preaching religious intolerance in an area where Christian churches were burnt last week, killing one person. Authorities have said up to 50 churches have been burnt and around 3,000 Christians displaced since March 2 when Muslim youths attacked the community around Asendabo, some 360 km (215 miles) west of the capital Addis Ababa. Meles told a news conference late on Saturday that "elements of the Kawarja sect and other extremists" had been preaching religious intolerance in the area. ... Kawarja, about whom little is known, aimed to set...

Building a Church...lets buy back our Catholic heritage! A marble Angel of the Lord (1 of 2 angels)salvaged from the former Saint Aloysius Church in Philadelphia, being held hostage by King Richard's Religious Antiques.   Throughout the United States, there was a terrible practice of designing our Catholic Churches as “multi-purpose “buildings. Often such a designation included an area for the celebration of the Mass, parish social activities and clerical space for administrative duties of the parish. While the intent was to make the Catholic Church portray a more open and modern religious institution the effect backfired and destroyed our...

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that in the past two days, thousands of Muslims have razed five churches and the homes of two evangelists in Asendabo, Ethiopia. Christian leaders are asking for protection after the Muslim attackers continued burning churches even after the federal police were sent to the town. The Muslims started the attacks yesterday after falsely accusing the Christians of desecrating the Qur’an. More than ten thousand Muslims shouted “Allah Akbar” (Allah is great) as they burned down five evangelical churches. The government sent the federal police force to protect the Christians after the Muslims burned down...

Two Protestant churches are taking some heat from critics for opening their church buildings to Muslims needing places to worship because their own facilities were either too small, or under construction. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/18/churches-open-doors-muslim-worship/#ixzz1EPmLOuYG

Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter (Revelation 1;19)The instruction given to the apostle John, by the Lord Jesus Christ, was threefold, “write the things which you have seen”, that is the vision of Jesus Christ, standing among the lampstands, in glory, as described in Revelation 1. Second he was to write the things which are, that is the condition of the churches, in this world, as described in the seven letters to the churches. From the vantage point of the things that are, the sight of the...

"The city of Mission is taxing churches," he said. "And that’s clearly unconstitutional." In August, the small town just north of Kansas City passed the so-called "driveway tax," a controversial charge, in addition to property taxes, for residents and businesses based on the number of times their driveway is used. A big box store like Target can pay over $60,000 annually, while residents pay a flat rate of $72 dollars a year. "The city of mission is taxing churches based on the number of people that come in and out of their driveway, the number of people that come to...

Even local churches worship money and have very little concern about where it comes from . A crusty old man walks into a local Baptist church and says to the secretary, "I would like to join this damn church." The astonished woman replies, "I beg your pardon, sir. I must have misunderstood you... What did you say?" "Listen up, damn it. I said I want to join this damn church!" "I'm very sorry sir, but that kind of language is not tolerated in this church." The secretary leaves her desk and goes into the pastor's study to inform him of...

More than 1,000 Muslim protesters have stormed a courthouse and burned two churches in central Java, Indonesia. The attacks in Temanggung happened after a Christian man was sentenced to five years in jail for distributing leaflets deemed insulting to Islam. Indonesian police said the crowd considered the sentence too lenient and were demanding the death penalty. The incident came two days after Muslim villagers in western Java killed three members of a minority Islamic sect. A police spokesman told the BBC that the angry crowd began attacking the court building in Temanggung after the verdict was read out. The violence...

CAIRO (AP) - A car exploded in front of a Coptic Christian church as worshippers emerged from a New Year's Mass in the Egyptian city of Alexandria early Saturday, killing at least seven people, officials said. After the blast, enraged Christians emerging from the church clashed with police and stormed a nearby mosque, prompting fights and volleys of stone throwing with Muslims, police and witnesses said—a sign of the sectarian anger that has been arising with greater frequency in Egypt. Nearly 1,000 Christians were attending the Mass at the Saints Church in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, said a...

Churches empty and Christmas decorations are put away after al-Qaida renews deadly threat. Their cathedrals stand silent and their neighbourhoods are rapidly emptying. Now Iraq's Christians face two further unthinkable realities: that Christmas this year is all but cancelled, and that few among them will stay around to celebrate future holy days. It has been the worst of years for the country's Christians, with thousands fleeing in the past month and more leaving the country during 2010 than at any time since the invasion nearly eight years ago. Christian leaders say there have been few more defining years in their...

Iraqi Christians on Wednesday called off Christmas festivities across the country as al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on a beleaguered community still terrified from a bloody siege at a Baghdad church two months earlier. A council representing Christian denominations across Iraq advised its followers to cancel public Christmas celebrations out of concern over new terror attacks and as a show of mourning for the victims of the church siege and other violence.

August 20, 2010 10:55AM Wallis Admits to Soros Funding Jim Wallis has admitted that Sojourners has received funding in the past from liberal billionaire George Soros' Open Society Institute.

“With God on Our Side,” the new anti-Israel movie produced by an evangelical pastor and aimed at evangelical audiences, is touring America this month, with anti-Israel British Anglican priest Stephen Sizer in tow. (Snip) The Evangelical Left is anxious to neutralize evangelicals as America’s typically most pro-Israel demographic, especially by focusing on the plight of Palestinian Christians, who are portrayed as victims exclusively of Israeli oppression. “With God on Our Side,” predictably, portrays pro-Israel Christians as mindless zealots indifferent to Palestinian suffering and exploiting Israeli Jews as merely tools for precipitating the Second Coming.

"See what has the IRS stopped in its tracks" was the headline article by Bob Unruh in the September 23 issue of World Net Daily that tells of over one hundred pastors who plan to defy the so-called "Johnson Law" this year. They have designated Sunday, September 26, as "Pulpit Freedom" Sunday and plan to reach "political sermons" and mail the CDs, DVDs, or transcripts of those sermons to the non-profit division of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C., in order to bait them into a lawsuit to challenge the present law that forbids pastors from participating in partisan...

his year 323 hallowed Catholic sites have been desecrated. All of this happens under the pall of unholy silence. [kreuz.net] Since the 1st of January 2010 there have been 140 Catholic cemeteries and 183 Catholic churches and chapels desecrated. Bruce Hortefeux (52), French Interior Minister, said this in a conference on the 22nd of September. The reason for the Minister's explanation was the violation of almost twenty Catholic graves in the 2,700 population community Frontenay-Rohan-Rohan in Western France.

Editor: a beautiful chapel at an elder home where Holy Mass is said every day for the last fifty years, with murals by artist, Sepp Zöchling, is being threatened with destruction by the Community of Vienna. The desire of the Vienna Blood-Burgermeister is the Head Shepherd's Command. He doesn't want to spoil it with his powerful comrades, not at any price. [kreuz.net] The Archdiocese of Vienna will withdraw its complain against the threatened demolition of the Chapel in the Vienna Resthome Baumgarten, according to 'gloria.tv'. Officially the responsibility for the scandalous decision goes to the low-profile Vienese Auxiliary Bishop Franz...

Over 200 senior pastors of IFCA International churches, usually known locally as "independent Bible" or "community" churches, gathered this week to map out a new strategy to combat the moral and spiritual decline of Christian churches and culture in the United States. Speaker after speaker rose to call upon their leading members to help spark a "renewed passion" for applied biblical eschatology, counseling, missions, piety, personal purity and theology in the USA. Over 400 are registered for the conference and local visitors fill the opening meetings to swell the attendance. Over 900 congregations are related to the tightly organized, almost...

The Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC) has yet really to condemn the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia 35 years ago. Or the Marxist orchestrated famine in Ethiopia that killed almost as many during the 1980s. It never directly condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Saddam HusseinÂ’s hundreds of thousands of murdered victims also failed to arouse the WCCÂ’s concern across 25 years. Nor has the multitude of crimes by IranÂ’s theocracy across 30 years interested the WCC. North KoreaÂ’s slave state for the WCC is a place of pilgrimage but not criticism. Even North KoreaÂ’s recent unprovoked torpedoing of...

Hey Freepers, I need your help once again. My brother has recently returned to Fort Bliss (El Paso, TX) from Iraq, and he's looking for a good church, but is having some difficulty finding one. He went to a mega-church one Sunday, but left when the preacher's wife (wearing jingly gold bracelets and diamond-encrusted everything) got up and started talking about the importance of giving, and noted that if the congregation didn't have cash they could use credit cards. Any recommendations? He's in his 20s and single. Raised Presbyterian, but will condescend to mingle with another denomination. (Ha.) Thanks again...