Free Republic

A Los Angeles Times article exposed part of Big Labor’s undisclosed labor persuader scheme that uses the pulpit to promote compulsory unionism. The Times’ Stephanie Simon reported that the AFL-CIO “… hired more than three dozen aspiring ministers, imams, priests, and rabbis to spread the gospel …”of Compulsory Unionism. Her article provides a solid example of years of labor union bosses’ hiring religious leaders to act as labor persuaders; here the persuaders are attempting to use their religions to cloak the Big Labor message. AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, paid seminary students to organize “… security guards...

"I believe today's hearing is a sham," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., of the first of two session held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during the day. His tone sharp and finger pointed, Connolly went on to declare the witnesses -- who included a Catholic bishop, a Lutheran reverend, an Orthodox rabbi, and two Baptist theologians, all opposed to the administration's recent ruling -- "complicit" in the Republicans' "trampling" of House traditions that would, if observed, have produced a more balanced panel. "You are being used for a political agenda," Connolly told the holy men, after Republicans...

Since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC on January 11, 2012, there has been a lot of discussion regarding whether the court did the right thing when it upheld the ministerial exception and denied jurisdiction in a case involving the termination of a ministerial employee. For reasons outlined below, I believe the Court made the right, albeit difficult, decision. This was the case of the parochial school teacher who in addition to teaching on secular subjects also performed religious functions, Chery Perich, who was fired for threatening to file a lawsuit under the Americans...

It's hunting season, and with all the clamor about "guns and Christian men" in the previous post about "manly Christmas gifts," I did a quick search and found an interesting article about "hunting" in the Catholic Encyclopedia over at NewAdvent.org. There has never been a prohibition against hunting for laymen. However, there is quite a controversial history concerning clerical hunting. The Council of Trent, for example, made the formal distinction between clamorous (clamorosa) hunting and quiet (quieta) hunting. (Session XXIV, 12). "Clamorous hunting" is forbidden to priests. However, "quiet hunting" is allowed. Clamorous hunting likely refers to the large...

Today, the Obama administration will invite the Supreme Court to open a new front in the culture wars. Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC concerns a commissioned minister, Cheryl Perich, who taught elementary school and led chapel devotions at a small Lutheran school outside Detroit. Ms. Perich became ill and was replaced in the classroom by a substitute. In the middle of the school year she sought to return and then, instead of attempting to work out the dispute through the church's reconciliation process, she threatened to sue. As relations broke down, the church congregation voted to withdraw...

WICHITA, Kansas -- He came to fame as a passionate political activist. For years, Father Roy Bourgeois has tried to shut down the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia. He and his thousands of supporters claim it trains Latin American soldiers to defend American backed governments. But in more recent years, Bourgeois has taken on a new target, the Vatican. "Sexism is racism," said Bourgeois on a visit to the Wichita area this week. He is a staunch supporter to have women ordained as Catholic priests. "God created men and women of equal worth and dignity," said Bourgeois. "There's...

From Orwell’s A Clergyman’s Daughter (h/t Hitchens): Nowadays, a clergyman who wants to keep his congregation has only two courses open to him. Either it must be Anglo-Catholicism pure and simple – or rather, pure and not simple; or he must be daringly modern and broad-minded and preach comforting sermons providing there is no Hell and all good religions are the same. Incidentally, Jesus would agree. While poking fun at effeminate religious types in robes, he would also have little time for dumb men absolutely opposed to absolutes (a contradiction in terms). But I digress. In his book review for...

A former youth pastor in Council Bluffs, Iowa, says he had sex with teenage boys because it was his pastoral duty “to help (the teen) with homosexual urges bypraying while he had sexual contact with him.”But law enforcement has a different view of his actions. Earlier this month, Brent Girouex, 31, was arrested on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, reported The Daily Nonpareil.In February, Girouex told Council Bluffs police detectives that he had sexual contact with four young men starting in 2007 in order to help them gain “sexual purity in the...

The Presbyterian Church-USA, one of the nation’s oldest and largest mainline Christian denominations, is in the middle of a crucial vote among its leadership to determine whether or not open homosexuals will be allowed to fill the church’s pulpits. At the denomination’s General Assembly in July 2010, delegates approved by a 373 to 323 vote a measure that would allow open homosexuals to pastor and minister in the flagship Presbyterian denomination’s 11,000 congregations and serve its estimated 2.3 million members. A vote on the amendment is now making its way through the church’s 173 regional presbyteries, a process that must...

I think one of the least utilized assets in all of America is the Clergy, how can you have a pool of College Educated, or Scripturally Wise men and granted, some Women, and shuttle them off to the side as if the knowledge accumulated is akin to those whom are expert at variations of color of sea snails? I also do believe in the concept of "whomsoever" as in a Sheepskin does not a wise man make, in that sense Christians who have served in Congregations worthily should also be included. A roll call perhaps? To the topic, even Lay...

Archbishop John Hepworth The Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion has announced that more than 150 of the group's clergy are actively seeking to reunite with the Catholic Church under Pope Benedict XVI's Anglican Ordinariate proposal.“This is a moment to reflect on the prophetic wisdom of Pope Benedict,” wrote Primate John Hepworth, who heads up a group of 15 traditional Anglican provinces around the world. “It is a moment to thank him for his daring trust that Anglicans would respond. It is a time to intensify our prayers for him.”In his pastoral statement, he noted some “exquisite difficulties” that...

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev go to Church frequently, kiss precious icons of the Virgin Mary and seek political and moral counsel from the Russian Orthodox Clergy. Furthermore, to the surprise of many Americans, particularly Evangelical Christians, Vladimir Putin wears a Christian cross with him at all times. On ABC's Good Morning America Anchor George Stephanopoulos recently interviewed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you, the American public doesn't know all that much about you personally. But I was fascinated to be-- in reading your biography to learn many of the details. You were brought up in Soviet...

The new generation of priests and young Catholics become independent of the decaying Old Liberal ideology. [kreuz.net, Herzogenrath] Beginning this December in the City of Herzogenrath -- by Aachen in west Germany -- a Conference on the Liturgy will take place. This has been organized by the website Liturgische-Tagung.de. They give detailed information about the program and the background of the Conference. The Congress will be carried by several Traditional Societies. Among them are the 'Initiativekreise' of Cologne and Hamburg as well as the Lay Society, 'Una Voce'.

Police say there is enough evidence to indict Religious-Zionist leader, half a year after religious forum charged with handling sexual harassment cases announces he violated agreement barring him from rabbinical activityThe police announced on Sunday that there is enough evidence against Rabbi Mordechai (Motty) Elon, who is suspected of committing indecent acts by force against two minors, to put him on trial. The investigation material was handed over to the Jerusalem District Prosecution, which is slated to hold a hearing prior to submitting an indictment against Elon. In February, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein asked that a police investigation be launched...

Arraignment today for teen in Yule killing Trial date scheduled in Salvation Army murder JOHN LYNCH ARDEMGAZ The teenager accused of gunning down a Salvation Army officer on Christmas Eve makes his first appearance today in Pulaski County Circuit Court to answer capital murder and aggravated robbery charges. Laquan Javaris Fitzpatrick, 19, who has addresses in Little Rock and Helena-West Helena, is to appear before Circuit Judge Barry Sims at 1:30 p.m. for arraignment on charges that carry the death penalty. The judge will also set trial dates for Fitzpatrick. Accused of killing Salvation Army Maj. Philip Wise on Dec....

When Tim Ryan was called to an urgent meeting last year to discuss his duties as children's minister at West Shore Evangelical Free Church, he knew something was amiss. "This is really hard. I don't know how I can do this," said executive pastor John Nesbitt, who helps lead the 2,500 attendee megachurch in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The church, part of the Evangelical Free Church of America, had been growing rapidly but giving was down and well below projections as the recession weighed on members. So Mr. Ryan was losing his job, as was another pastor. While the economy appears to...

PHOENIX (AP) -- A Latino clergy group says it will file the first lawsuit challenging Arizona's tough new law targeting illegal immigration. The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders plans to file the suit Thursday in federal court in Phoenix.

Two of the five sex abuse victims who met Pope Benedict XVI during his April 2008 visit to the United States, and who pledged at the time to "hold his feet to the fire," have announced plans to stage a "Day of Reformation" for the Catholic church in Rome on Oct. 31, amid a mushrooming crisis which threatens to engulf the pope himself. Bernie McDaid and Olan Horne, who met Benedict XVI on April 17, 2008 -- the first-ever meeting between a pope and survivors of sexual abuse -- said today that they intend to gather thousands of victims, along...

What must it feel like to have lost 50 years of your life? For that is what 61-year old Arthur Budzinski has endured. Five long decades of personal pain. And he has to rely on others to speak of his anguish. It is made worse by the fact that no-one has been held to account for the sexual abuse he says he suffered as a child while at the Roman Catholic St John's School for the Deaf in St Francis, Wisconsin. Arthur and around 200 other boys are said to have been sexually abused at the school by Father Lawrence...

The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it. On March 10, the chief exorcist of the Vatican, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican," and that "when one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true—including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia." This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good...

LITTLE ROCK — Salvation Army Maj. Phillip Wise had Christmas plans. All he had to do was drop off the Christmas Eve donations at the Salvation Army headquarters in North Little Rock, pick up his wife, Cindy, who also is a Salvation Army major and was in the building waiting on him, and head home, to West Virginia, for the holidays. His three young children — 4, 6 and 8 — were with him. Then the unthinkable happened. Wise was robbed at gunpoint and as his children watched. He was then shot and bled to death in the parking lot...

‘Work is not done,’ widow says Wife of Salvation Army pastor speaks of prayer for his killer EVIN DEMIREL ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Leading a Sunday service in the building where her husband was shot and killed in a Christmas Eve robbery attempt, Salvation Army Major Cindy Wise said her mission to minister to the people in North Little Rock’s Baring Cross neighborhood has not changed. “I believe I have peace today because I know the work is not done here yet,” Wise told nearly 50 people on Sunday. Standing before the congregation in her navy blue uniform, she said she will...

Salvation Army major shot dead in front of 3 children By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette A Salvation Army major was fatally shot in front of his three children Thursday afternoon as he walked into the the organization's community center in North Little Rock, authorities said. Around 4 p.m., two black men dressed in black approached Philip Wise, 40, of Maumelle outside the community center at 1505 W. 18th St., Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper said. Wise’ children — ages 4, 6, and 8 — were walking with him when the men came up to them, police said. His wife, Cindy, also...

A Pastor, a Rabbi and an Imam - It May Sound Like a Joke Setup, but the "Interfaith Amigos" are Serious about their Mission (CBS) As more details of an attempted Christmas terror attack emerge, it's clear that achieving peace on earth remains elusive. But three clerics of different faiths have teamed up to chase it, by provoking laughter and thought, as CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.

Why We Are Going to Hell – Part 5,291 The Abomination in the Temple bythelastcrusade.org A Canadian Roman Catholic bishop has been charged with the distribution and selling of child pornography after a random search of his laptop at the Ottawa airport, a police source confirmed to the press. His Eminence Raymond Lahey, 69, was returning to Canada from the United States when Canadian Border Services Agency officials found images on his computer. Bishop Lahey resigned from governing the diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia last weekend. In his letter to his flock, the Bishop said that he needed time...

Findings from a nationwide study reveal that clergy sexual misconduct is more prevalent than many people believe.According to research by Baylor University, 3.1 percent of adult women who attend religious services at least once a month have been victims of clergy sexual misconduct since turning 18. In other words, seven women in every congregation of 400 adults have been victimized.Ninety-two percent of the sexual advances were made in secret and 67 percent of the offenders were married to someone else at the time of the advance."Because many people are familiar with some of the high-profile cases of sexual misconduct, most...

Many members of the clergy must be using the Bible like the old Sears catalogue – for toilet paper – because they obviously don't read it. Last week, another once-great church succumbed to the relentless, media-savvy campaign of determined homosexuality. "Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America voted to lift the ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers," reported the Associated Press. In July, the Episcopal House of Bishops and laity approved liturgies for same-sex couples and endorsed the right to elect gay bishops. Lutherans and Episcopalians join other denominational giants, Unitarians and...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a controversial vote late Friday afternoon to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. Despite strong opposition, the ELCA passed the vote 559 to 451, marking a historic change, and repealing a ban on gay clergy. At 4.7 million members and about 10,000 congregations in the United States, the ELCA would be one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance on clergy. "We are today part of a church denomination that is changing, and it will make possible...

The President's Schedule yesterday included calls with two different clergy groups trying to enlist them in selling Obamacare to their "flocks," the first to 1,000 Rabbis from across the country, ...The second call was to 14,000 clergy of all faiths The President's religious arguments were a bit disingenuous. While the POTUS was correct that revising the health care system in America is a moral issue, the argument, is not as he claims whether we should reform health care, its how we should reform health care. His opponents don't like Obama's plan

If undocumented immigrants are valuable enough to be counted in the Census, then they ought to be legalized. That’s the argument being made by a national group of Latino evangelical clergy, led by a Ridgefield Park pastor, that wants undocumented immigrants to boycott the 2010 Census unless immigration reform is passed this year. The group also plans to expand the call in December to Latinos who are U.S. citizens and legal residents if Congress does not pass reform legislation by then, said the Rev. Miguel Rivera of Ridgefield Park, president and founder of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and...

The United Methodist Church's top court recently ruled that clergy, both active and retired, cannot perform same-sex marriages or civil unions. Performing such services is "a chargeable offense," Bishop Beverly J. Shamana ruled last Friday. UMC's Judicial Council affirmed her decision. The council further ruled that an annual conference, or regional body within the UMC, "may not negate, ignore, or violate provisions of the Discipline with which they disagree, even when the disagreements are based on conscientious objections to the provisions." The council’s ruling was on a resolution passed by the California-Nevada Annual Conference last year, months after the California...

(My beautiful daughter had died in a tragic garage fire only days before, but I asked the paper to please publish this as planned. A previous OP-ED piece by a local councilwoman cited Martin Luther King as well as she reveled in the impending inauguration of Barack Obama. It made it that much more imperative that my pro-life piece be published.) _______ On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, I’ve been reminded of and contemplating the glaring cultural polarity which jumps out at us when abortion is discussed. On one side we have an ever-growing...

We refuse to be deceived again by lies and fear tactics. Those who supported Barack Obama are not anti-American, communists, leftists or whatever limited label is used to scare others away. We do not agree that the conservative right is the sole possessor of values and morality. Killing, torturing and lying are immoral to anyone.

Vatican implements new guidelines for seminarians By FRANCES D'EMILIO VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued new psychological screening guidelines for seminarians Thursday — the latest effort by the Roman Catholic Church to be more selective about its priesthood candidates following a series of pedophile scandals. The church said it issued the new guidelines to help church leaders weed out candidates with "psychopathic disturbances." Sex abuse scandals by pedophile priests have rocked the church in recent years, triggering lawsuits that have cost hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements. "(The guidelines) became ever more urgent because of the sexual scandals," Monsignor...

The average senior pastor in U.S. churches today makes more than $80,000 a year, a recent national survey shows. Compensation packages, including benefits such as retirement, life insurance, health insurance and continuing education allowances, have increased to $81,113 per year for the average senior pastor. And pastors who hold a higher academic degree are paid up to $30,000 more per year than pastors without any post-secondary education. The statistics come from the 2009 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, an annual analysis of compensation packages at churches across the country, and at a time when churches begin planning their budget for...

In recent years, our society has begun to better understand the widespread problem of child sexual abuse. Conservative studies indicate that one out of three girls and one out of seven boys will be sexually abused before reaching 18 years of age, regardless of religious or socio-economic demographic. Law enforcement sources estimate nearly 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse are living in America today. Sexual abuse is not limited to any racial, ethnic, or socio-economic class. It is no respecter of any religious denomination or creed. Sexual abuse can happen anywhere. Parents allow their children to participate in ministry...

Hynes’ office dissuaded families ready to let their children testify about alleged abuse. Questions about Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes’ willingness to press cases in the Orthodox community are now being reignited. by Hella Winston and Larry Cohler-Esses In a surprise move, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, the Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with having sexually molested his students, pleaded guilty Monday to two lesser counts of child endangerment and was sentenced to three years’ probation. Under the plea agreement, Rabbi Kolko, 62, made no admission of sexual wrongdoing. He will not have to register as a sex offender, and pleaded guilty only to...

PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday he was "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church and will work to make sure pedophiles don't become priests. Benedict was answering questions submitted in advance by reporters aboard a special Alitalia airliner as he was flying from Rome to Washington to begin his first papal pilgrimage to the United States. "It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the Church in general and for me personally that this could happen," Benedict said. "It is difficult for me to understand...

What most needed reforming was left in place, the clergy and the laity as two distinct classes.

The evangelical Australian based church Hillsong has been linked to claims of abuse against women, including allegations of emotional manipulation. Fairfax Media reports that both the Hillsong Church and Gloria Jeans Coffee are linked to the organisation Mercy Ministries, which has been accused of emotional manipulation when treating women. Three women have now blown the whistle on a program operated by the Ministry, including allegations they entered as "independent" people, however came out of the program as "broken" and "suicidal". The women say as part of the program they were taught to believe that they were possessed by the devil,...

When the Catholic Church's sexual-misconduct scandal became nationwide front-page news six years ago, the Rev. Philip Lee Erickson of the Archdiocese of Louisville was just 34. The young priest had just obtained the canon-law license that would let him function as a lawyer within the church's internal legal system when the cover-up of priestly sexual abuse in Boston and elsewhere, mostly against boys and young men, became widely reported in early 2002. "Newly ordained, as the saying goes, you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed," Father Erickson told The Washington Times in a telephone interview.

SCHENECTADY -- To commemorate Tuesday's 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman's right to an abortion, clergy blessed this city's new Planned Parenthood clinic in a ceremony dubbed "On Sacred Ground.""Today is more than about the building and about bricks and mortar," Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Linda Scharf said. "It's a blessing to demonstrate the support of the clergy." Since Jan. 22, 1973, when the high court handed down the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, two sides of the issue have squared off. Opponents have campaigned to overturn unrestricted abortion laws, while proponents have stood firm for...

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor January 24, 2008 Albany, NY (LifeNews.com) -- In an act that is sure to generate guffaws from the pro-life community, a group of pro-abortion clergy in Schenectady held a ceremony at a local abortion business to bless it and call it "sacred ground." Religious officials who are pro-life call the ceremony sacrilegious by blessing a place that kills the life God creates.

EthicsDaily.com reported 11 arrests, three convictions, two lawsuits and one suicide involving alleged sexual abuse by clergy in 2007.Other stories included a church that allowed a convicted sex offender to preach from its pulpit while knowing about his past and comments by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention denying clergy predators are a "systemic" problem and accusing victim advocates of using the issue for personal gain. Those stories were part of ongoing coverage of efforts by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests to pressure the 16.3 million-member convention to establish an independent review board for clergy sex...

Monsignor removed from parish after admitting misconduct from 30 years ago BY PETER KADUSHIN and ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS WRITERS Tuesday, December 4th 2007, 4:00 AM A Brooklyn monsignor has been yanked from his parish after admitting "inappropriate behavior" with up to five young people more than 30 years ago, authorities said. Msgr. George Zatarga, 65, admitted allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a relatively new priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn in the late 1970s, according to a letter the Bishop of Brooklyn Nicholas DiMarzio sent to Zatarga's flock. A law enforcement source said investigators also were checking...

America by the Numbers How long does it take us to get to work? How happy are we in our jobs? How much beer do we drink? A statistical look at the lives of the average American nationwide

Dog collar clergy 'risk attack' There is no need to wear the dog collar in supermarkets, advice says. Members of the clergy are being advised to take off their dog collars when they are on their own, to reduce the risk of being attacked. National Churchwatch, which provides personal safety advice, says vicars are attacked more often than professions such as GPs and probation officers. The organisation's Nick Tolson said all clergy should consider the advice, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. The group also produces security advice for all UK churches and churchworkers. In the past decade, five vicars have...

In an effort to hold their church together, leaders say they will try to not pick another gay bishop or authorize rites for same-sex couples. Episcopal leaders, who are struggling to hold together their increasingly divided church and maintain its place in the global Anglican Communion, pledged anew Tuesday to "exercise restraint" in consecrating another openly gay bishop. In the final hours of a crucial meeting in New Orleans, Episcopal bishops promised not to authorize official rites for the blessings of same-sex couples and asserted that a majority of bishops do not allow priests to bless such unions. The statement,...

A government plan to use members of the clergy to quell dissent and objections to government orders during a time of national emergency has been revealed by a Shreveport, La., television station. The story by reporter Jeff Ferrell on television station KSLA says such "Clergy Response Teams" already have been used – following the hit on New Orleans by hurricane Katrina. The station's video is available on a link on its website, and also available on YouTube. It asks if martial law ever could become reality in the United States, following a nuclear, biological or chemical attack. "KSLA News 12...

Could martial law ever become a reality in America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil might trigger just that. KSLA News 12 has discovered that the clergy would help the government with potentially their biggest problem: Us. Read More