Free Republic

He's known in MSNBC ranks as "the most radical preacher in America." But it's not the message that makes him radical. Rather, it's the messenger himself. Allyson Dylan Robinson is the first openly transgender ordained in the Baptist church. Donning long red hair and thick-rimmed glasses, he told the Alliance of Baptists he was a "white, straight, lower/upper middle class, European-descended man" when he first arrived at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary. As Robinson tells the story, he prayed for 30 years that God would change him and even tried deliverance ministry to find freedom. But God did...

- A new survey says most Americans think the Obama administration’s federal contraception mandate is unfair to the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious groups defending themselves before the U.S. Supreme Court. About 53 percent of Americans said the process required by the government is “unfair,” while only 32 percent did not, according to a new Marist Poll commissioned by the Knights of Columbus. The federal government has exempted many other organizations’ employee health care plans from a requirement to provide contraception and drugs that can produce abortions. But it has no exemption for the Little Sisters of...

A bleeding Host in Poland that “has the hallmarks of a Eucharistic miracle” has been approved for veneration. The announcement was made by Bishop Zbigniew Kiernikowski of Legnica on Sunday, according to reports. On Christmas Day in 2013, a consecrated Host fell to the floor, the bishop said in a statement. It was put in a container of water and red stains subsequently appeared on the Host. After the discovery, the former Bishop of Legnica set up a commission to observe the phenomenon, the statement said. “In February 2014, a tiny red fragment of the Host was seperated and put...

In a question-and-answer session with reporters who accompanied him on his April 16 visit to the Greek island of Lesbos, Pope Francis acknowledged that his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia has changed the Church’s approach to the reception of Communion by Catholics who are divorced and remarried. But he stressed that the question was by no means the most important issue covered in his apostolic exhortation. The Pope remarked that the media coverage of the Synod did not reflect the reality of the discussion. He said: When I convoked the first Synod, the great concern of the majority of the media...

A Northern Ireland Presbyterian minister is creating waves after she began advocating for abortion against the church’s teachings. The Rev. Lesley Carroll, who is running for election in the Irish Assembly, recently waded into the abortion debate when she gave a public statement to the pro-abortion Belfast Feminist Network, according to the News Letter. Abortion is illegal in Northern Ireland, but abortion activists are pushing to change that. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has vocally opposed changes to the law, saying it “protect[s] both the life of the mother and the unborn child,” according to the news outlet. However, Carroll...

+Metropolitan Constantine (Papastephanou), 1924 – 2016 It was with great sadness that we learned of the falling asleep in our Lord Jesus Christ of His Eminence Metropolitan Constantine (Papastephanou) on Sunday April 17th, 2016. I was personally blessed to know Metropolitan Constantine during my time in Damascus, and I can certainly testify to his holiness, and prayerfulness. It can truly be said that he was a man of God. Metropolitan Constantine was born in 1924 in Damascus, Syria where he was educated in the city's parochial schools. Desirous of entering upon an ecclesiastical career, His Eminence was blessed to study...

“Covenant College has elected to forfeit the Women’s Tennis USA South Conference championship match, scheduled for April 17, 2016. The championship match takes place on a Sunday, and as an institution owned and operated by the Presbyterian Church in America we observe the Sabbath by not competing in athletic events on Sunday. This conviction is clearly stated in our Student Handbook and is informed by the Bible, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the PCA Book of Church Order. In national tournaments, the NCAA makes accommodations for institutions that do not compete on a particular day for religious reasons. Bylaw...

Reflections by Don Elia* and a message from Our Lady of the ‘Tre Fontane’ “Neither is there at this time prince, or leader, or prophet, or holocaust, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place of first fruits before thee, that we may find thy mercy:” (Daniel 3,38). It is the triumph of darkness. The authorization, if not the order, has finally arrived ... to feed hardened, obstinate public sinners, His Most Precious Body, which I provided for Him from my own most pure substance, united in an indissoluble way to His Divinity; that flesh with which He immolated Himself...

FULL TITLE: UPDATED: Former church youth volunteer pleads guilty to sexual abuse, facing 171-489 years in prison PRINCETON — A former Bluefield church youth volunteer pleaded guilty Monday morning to charges he sexually abused teen boys. Timothy Probert, 57, of Princeton, pleaded guilty to 37 charges, including first-degree sexual abuse, third-degree sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, first-degree sexual assault, sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian and one count of delivery of a controlled substance. Probert, a former youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church and mentor for the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program, entered...

Below is a very abbreviated and incomplete chronological summary list of troubling quotes, headlines, and happenings which have taken place so far in the very young Pope Francis papacy. These news stories and quotes are intentionally presented in very brief format simply to demonstrate that there is an overall most suspicious and undeniable pattern of oddity surrounding Pope Francis. It should also be known that all of the items on the list below are from established, mainstream news sources and may easily be searched in google to confirm. The WILD VOICE has not used any sources on the list below...

Pope Francis had sharp words Saturday for people who are saying his brief exchange with Bernie Sanders at the Vatican is meddling in the U.S. presidential race, recommending they “find a psychiatrist.” The pope made the remarks hours after Sander, the Vermont senator seeking the Democratic nomination, said they met briefly at the Vatican and discussed such issues as income inequality and climate change. The pope later told reporters aboard a plane bound for Greece that he shook hands with Sanders, wife Jane, and another couple as he was leaving the Vatican. “This is called good manners, and it is...

Pastor J.D. addresses what may be the most important development of the year concerning Israel, which is that of how the jury may be out on whether or not the US President vetoes a UN Security Council Resolution for a Palestinian “final-status solution.”

Any student of prophecy knows that in the end times, the entire secular world will be turned against Israel. They want to deny her inheritance and even, if it were possible, erase her existence and any evidence of it from the annuls of history. Daniel was told by God to seal up the book until the time of the end. And it may just be that the book is now being opened, and the world stage being set for the greatest confrontation in the history of the world. Join John Haller and his return to the pulpit as he delves...

SEATTLE, Wash. — A viral video released this week by the Family Policy Institute of Washington shows students at the University of Washington outlining that they have no issue with a short white man identifying as a tall Chinese woman, and would not tell him that he is wrong. Joseph Backholm, the executive director of the Washington chapter of the Family Policy Institute, went to the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle to see if students believe that one can ever be wrong about their identity. “If I told you that I was a woman, what would your...

April 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – On the flight returning from Greece, Pope Francis was asked if the Apostolic Exhortation contained a "change in discipline that governs access to the sacraments" for Catholics who are divorced and remarried. The Pope replied, "I can say yes, period." The Pope then urged reading the presentation of Cardinal Schönborn for the final answer to the question, calling Schönborn a “great theologian who knows the doctrine of the Church.” Schonborn’s presentation boiled down Pope Francis’ more than 60,000 words in the exhortation to 3000, but in that short space made sure to include the “smoking...

A resounding question asked by many today is, “Where is America in Biblical prophecy?” The simple answer is that our nation will still exist during the Great Tribulation period, but our military power and socio-economic position will have been diminished to the level of a godless, base nation. For many years this was a hard reality for many American believers to grasp because in many ways it was so hard to see! But by faith in God's Word we knew it must be! When Almighty God the Son calls His Body ( the Church) out of the world by means...

Pope Francis has affirmed that his recent apostolic exhortation on family life has opened up "new concrete possibilities" for Catholics who divorce and remarry without first obtaining annulments. In a press conference on his way back from a one-day visit to Lesbos, Greece, a reporter told the pontiff that some had interpreted the language in his exhortation to mean that there were no specific changes to the church's pastoral practice for remarried Catholics while others thought there were. "Are there new concrete possibilities that did not exist before the publication of the exhortation, or no?" asked the journalist. "I can...

<p>On board the Papal plane en route to the Greek island of Lesbos where he is visiting refugees, Pope Francis remembered his predecessor in his prayers saying, "I would like to remind you that today is the 89th birthday of Pope Benedict XVI. Pray for him"</p>

Everyone agrees that there is something different about today’s angry politics. The ordinary issues that have shaped the political debate for years have largely remained the same. The economy is still in bad shape, terrorism remains a top concern and the deficit is still growing as fast as ever.The mood of the nation, however, has undergone a great shift. People are angry. They are not angry about something, but rather angry at someone.Digging a bit deeper, one finds that, more often than not, people are venting their rage not at any particular individual, but rather a class, institution or...

BATON ROUGE, April 14, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has signed an executive order that critics say will open the floodgates for discrimination lawsuits to be filed against businesses and will prevent people of faith from freely exercising their religion. The order, which was signed yesterday, adds “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” alongside such immutable characteristics as race, sex, and national origin in the state's anti-discrimination policy. All firms that accept state contracts must adopt a similar policy. “We are fortunate enough to live in a state that is rich with diversity,” said Gov. Edwards on Wednesday....