Free Republic

States: California's in trouble. Businesses are leaving along with intellectual and investment capital and skilled workers. But rather than face up to serious problems, legislators pass silly laws. One would think that given the serious nature of the state's problems, the legislature would focus on solutions at the exclusion of all else. Instead, lawmakers — what would we ever do without them? — found the time in 2011 to trespass even deeper into Californians' personal lives. Topping off Sacramento's monument to foolishness is a law requiring children younger than 8, except for those taller than 4 feet 9 inches,

by John HillStand With ArizonaThe numbers are dramatic, although you shouldn't expect to hear it trumpeted on your evening news. It simply doesn't fit the media's narrative about "traumatized Latinos" and "crops rotting in the fields" that we heard all Summer long after Alabama's Governor Bentley signed their tough immigration law H.B. 56. What was really happening in all that time is nothing short of an economic miracle. As we reported last month, in the wake of tens of thousands of fleeing illegal aliens from Alabama, thousands of Alabamans were being hired - producing a sharp drop in the unemployment...

Reporting from Moscow — Over a bottle of vodka and a traditional Russian salad of pickles, sausage and potatoes tossed in mayonnaise, a group of friends raised their glasses and wished Igor Irtenyev and his family a happy journey to Israel. Irtenyev, his wife and daughter insist they will just be away for six months, but the sadness in their eyes on this recent night said otherwise. . . . Experts believe that 100,000 to 150,000 people now leave the country annually and warn that the exodus reached dangerous dimensions in the last three years. "People are going abroad for...

When (always) Jewish Jerusalem - Beit-Hamikdash was translated into: Bayt al-Makdis / al- MuqaddasIbn Khallikan's biographical dictionary‎ - Page 235 - Ibn Khallik�n - Authors, Arab - 1843Makdisi means belonging to Bait al-Makdis (the House of the Holy Place, or Jerusalem). http://books.google.com/books?id=6p0TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA235Description of Syria: including Palestine‎ - Page 11 - Muhammad ibn Ahmad Mukaddasī - History - 1886 - 116 pagesAmong its cities are : Bait-al-Makdis (Jerusalem), Bait Jibril, Ghazzah (Gaza), Maimas, 'Askalan (Ascalon), Yafah (Joppa), Arsuf, Kaisariyyah (Caesarea), http://books.google.com/books?id=JCYYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11Palestine under the Moslems: A description of Syria and the Holy Land from A description of Syria and the Holy Land...

Without any reputable evidence, the entertainment culture, uneducated media, and sexual activists have seduced today's teenagers, in particular, to believe that people are born homosexual. However, science has found no biological basis for homosexuality, bisexuality, or transsexuality. Study after study has found the “LGBT” lifestyle to be unhealthy, with the highest rate of sexually-transmitted diseases, and higher cancer rates and earlier deaths. While all people are worthy and valuable, the fact is people are not "born this way," as a popular song insists.On this page you will find: 1. The facts on homosexuality2. Resources to overcome homosexual behavior and gender...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- A major seven-year study published in a mainstream journal is challenging the secular notion that gays and lesbians cannot change their sexual orientation. The longitudinal study followed 61 subjects for between six and seven years and found that 23 percent of them reported successful conversion to heterosexual orientation and function and another 30 percent reported stable behavioral chastity with a significant dis-identification with gay orientation. Twenty percent of the subjects had given up and embraced a gay identity. It is believed to be the first study of its kind -- that is, one that followed people...

Good-bye, California, I'm going to Texas It’s hard to say “good-bye” – perhaps “au revoir” is better (till we meet again). As some of my friends know, our family has been caring for my aged in-laws, 86 and 82. As with many people who have seen a full life of war and work and raising a family, they need our help. This assistance has consumed our whole family – in fact, it’s the toughest thing – and the most important thing – we’ve done, even more so than running for statewide office. In addition, as with many in the Golden...

As the exodus of taxpayers from the Empire State1 continued during the past decade, which other states gained the most at New York’s expense? And how were migration patterns affected by changing economic conditions?  This paper, second in a series on New York population trends, uses the latest available Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data to answer those questions.  Our key findings include the following: Between 2000 and 2009, nearly 60 percent of the New York out-migrants moved to southern states—with Florida alone drawing nearly one-third of the total. Thirty percent moved to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.Migration slowed after real...

Reading a skan-original "first printed" of the Ostrozhsky (OstRih) Bible of 1581 y. (see - Sources), auxiliary I've used traditional Synodal (RST) and Church-slavic (CS) versions. Soon I began to notice a difference of senses in texts of Bibles. Reading, only for the sake of acquaintance with a curiosity, has turned to the most fascinating detective research. The book "Exod", in (RST), (CS), (OstRih), (Torah), and parts of other books, a line by a line - in parallel, has been read, and the differential table is made. (drafts: bible-exodus.narod.ru) Gradually I linked up other canonical and uncanonical Bibles to comparison...

Can you imagine being trapped inside your home country, unable to leave? It may be closer to a reality than you realize. I’ll tell you a quick story to explain. This weekend I rented a car in Bulgaria with the aim of driving through Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and eventually into Greece. Now, I’m no virgin to land border crossings in the developing world and understand the corruption and incompetence that typifies customs checkpoints. But this weekend’s experience was much more. With documents in hand, I drove to my first border crossing in Strezimirovci, Bulgaria. After clearing customs on the Bulgarian...

Published on National Catholic Reporter (http://ncronline.org) Home > The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants The hidden exodus: Catholics becoming Protestants Apr. 18, 2011 Article Details Any other institution that lost one-third of its members would want to know why By Thomas Reese ViewpointThe number of people who have left the Catholic church is huge.We all have heard stories about why people leave. Parents share stories about their children. Academics talk about their students. Everyone has a friend who has left.While personal experience can be helpful, social science research forces us to look beyond our circle of acquaintances to see...

Our world is host to a mind-boggling number of religions and sects. Each has its unique approach, so that there remains little that men of the cloth agree upon. Nonetheless, there is one fact that all Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a total of over 3.5 billion people – acknowledge: the historic fact that the Torah was given to the Jewish People on Mount Sinai. Considering that the followers of these three religions constitute more than half of the world's population, this point of agreement is amazing. In addition, we find that, to one degree or another, all...

Where is Mt. Sinai? And does it matter? The second question is easier to answer than the first. If God's giving the Ten Commandments to Moses there is a historical event then yes, wanting to attach a genuine geographical location to the mountain makes sense. But finding Mt. Sinai presents a problem different from locating the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, or the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Unlike those two holy sites, Mt. Sinai's exact location isn't attested by any clear tradition among the people you would expect to be most likely to remember -- that is, the people...

What support is there for the claim that God spoke to all the Jewish people at the foot of Mount Sinai?Who did God give the Torah to at Mount Sinai? Most people reply, "God gave the Torah to Moses." And what were the Jewish people doing while Moses was receiving the Torah? "Worshipping the Golden Calf." Correct answers -- but NOT according to the Bible. The above answers come from Cecil B. DeMille's classic film, "The Ten Commandments." Amazing the impact one movie can have on the Jewish education of generations of Jews. It's a great film, but DeMille should...

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy. "As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an...

What support is there for the claim that God spoke to all the Jewish people at the foot of Mount Sinai?Who did God give the Torah to at Mount Sinai? Most people reply, "God gave the Torah to Moses." And what were the Jewish people doing while Moses was receiving the Torah? "Worshipping the Golden Calf." Correct answers -- but NOT according to the Bible. The above answers come from Cecil B. DeMille's classic film, "The Ten Commandments." Amazing the impact one movie can have on the Jewish education of generations of Jews. It's a great film, but DeMille should...

Click on the Wensday 30th video and skip to a little over half way through. If you see desert or rocky images, you've gone too far. Here are some articles from Gordon Franz that opposes the theory that Jebel El-Lawz is Mt Sinai. http://www.ldolphin.org/franz-ellawz.html http://www.ldolphin.org/franz-sinai.html Here is an open letter Franz sent out(I could only find it on archive.org) and Cornuke's response. http://web.archive.org/web/20021021081348/http://www.ldolphin.org/cornukeletter.html http://www.baseinstitute.org/franz.pdf Touches for a second about the Shroud of Turin and the Davinci Code too.

"There's an app for that." The catchphrase coined by Apple and their advertising gurus to sell iPhones and iPads has become so ubiquitous that it's even been parodied on Sesame Street. Still, few would have ever thought that the tech giant—which, like many other Silicon Valley concerns, boasts a progressive profile on many cultural issues, and extends domestic-partner benefits to gay and lesbian employees—would condone an app that purports to "cure" homosexuality. It would seem an even greater stretch for Apple and company founder and CEO Steve Jobs to make such an application available through its iTunes store. Yet the...

Two Aberdeen police officers were called to a meeting Thursday night at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, which is considering leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The second vote on the issue will be taken this Sunday at 10 a.m. Jack Hieb, president of the church’s congregation council, asked that the police be called during the meeting, which was held in the Fellowship Hall. The meeting was held to give individuals the opportunity to be considered members for Sunday’s election, Hieb said. He said he knew the meeting was going to be contentious. Two people, he said, continued to disrupt...

Irish voters go to the polls this week as an ailing economy is forcing record numbers of disillusioned citizens to flee the country in search of a better life overseas. Less than three months after the government accepted an international bailout worth $115 billion to rescue an economy on life support, the public is furious with the entire political class. Fianna Fail is the centre-left party which has been in government for 60 of the 89 years of Ireland's independence. Polls indicate they will be trounced in Friday's election and will be lucky to come away with 20 seats out...

A larger-than-expected exodus over the past 10 years reduced the population of Chicago to a level not seen in nearly a century. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that during the decade ended in 2010, Chicago's population fell 6.9% to 2,695,598 people, fewer than the 2.7 million reported back in 1920. Blacks remain the most-populous race in Chicago, Mr. Frey said, while the number of whites fell during the decade by about 52,000 to just under 855,000 and Hispanics' ranks rose by about 25,000 to just below 780,000. The population of Cook County, which is dominated by the city of...

CHICAGO—A larger-than-expected exodus over the past 10 years reduced the population of Chicago to a level not seen in nearly a century. The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that during the decade ended in 2010, Chicago's population fell 6.9% to 2,695,598 people, fewer than the 2.7 million reported back in 1920. Chicago's Exodus View Interactive ..After peaking at 3.62 million people in 1950, Chicago underwent a half century of decline that ended only when the 1990s boom years produced a small gain in the 2000 count. At that time, the city loudly celebrated its comeback. But the recent recession accelerated...

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...

Bishop Stephen S.Talmage, Grand Canyon Synod ELCA, sent a letter to synod pastors stating that Shepherd of the Hills, Fountain Hills, AZ was removed from synod rolls, December 11, 2010 because of their dual affiliation with the LCMC. Their pastor, Steve Berges, resigned from the ELCA clergy roster as well. It is quite amazing that ELCA congregations across the country are being held to the constitution of the national church body when it comes to voting. Yet, the rules for congregations holding dual membership in other Lutheran bodies are enforced differently from synod to synod. Literally hundreds of ELCA congregations...

Clive Runnels reports from the border on the liberal masses scampering northward. The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration. The recent actions of the Tea Party are prompting an exodus among left-leaning citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and to agree with Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck. Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists and Unitarians crossing their fields at night. "I went out to milk the cows...

Superficially at least, California’s problems are well known. Are they well understood? Apparently not.About a year ago Time ran an article, "Why California is Still America's future," touting California's future, a future that includes gold-rush-like prosperity in an environmentally pure little piece of heaven, brought to us by "public-sector foresight."More recently, Brett Arends' piece at Market Watch, "The Truth About California," is more of the same. California's governor elect, Jerry Brown, liked this piece so much that he tweeted a link to it.The optimist’s argument about California’s future ultimately hinges on the creativity of the state’s vaunted tech sector,...

The legal battle over the demise of Augsburg Fortress Press' pension plan is seven months along, but the case remains hung up on one key question: Was it actually a "church plan?" About 500 people were part of the plan that was terminated late last year. A federal lawsuit filed last spring by pensioners argues that the plan isn't actually a church pension plan. The pensioners instead say their retirement plan should be governed by the federal Employee Retirement Security Act, or ERISA. "This is the type of situation that led Congress to enact ERISA in the first place," Ron...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recommended constitutional amendments to the 2011 ELCA Churchwide Assembly regarding a 3-year cycle for churchwide assemblies, council membership, eliminating program committees and strengthening interrelationships. . . . David D. Swartling, ELCA secretary, said a committee of the "Living Into the Future Together: Renewing the Ecology of the ELCA" task force, proposed the four constitutional amendments on structure and governance. The council adopted the amendments and sent them to the 2011 Churchwide Assembly, which must approve amendments to the ELCA Constitution, Bylaws and Continuing Resolutions. The council...

An Upper Arlington-based church that was one of the 10 largest in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) officially has left the denomination after disagreements over homosexuality. Most members of the 5,800-member Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, which has three campuses, were troubled by what they viewed as the liberal drift of the ELCA, the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. On Oct. 31, members voted 558-28 to leave the ELCA. It was a second vote, as required; the first vote passed in June. The ELCA angered some conservatives last year when it voted to allow people in same-sex relationships...

CLEAR LAKE — Zion Lutheran Church in Clear Lake voted Sunday to end its affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — but what that means remains unclear. Those attending approved the measure by just over 85 percent, or 340-59, according to Church Council Secretary Beth Ann Schumacher. It marked the fifth vote taken by the congregation on the issue. Sunday’s vote, at least in the eyes of the ELCA, does not count toward disaffiliation, according to Northeast Iowa Synod Bishop Steven Ullestad, Waverly. Ullestad cautioned the leadership and its pastors earlier this month that any vote taken would...

This 11/15/10 update includes the following additions and changes since our last report 11/04/10. * indicates first vote; ** indicates second vote 1. St. Peter Lutheran Church, Mesa, AZ * 84% in favor. 121-21 2. Hayti Lutheran Church, Hayti, SD * passed first vote 92% - 77-7: Voted to join NALC 3. New Hope Lutheran Church, Hayti, SD* passed first vote 92% 59-5; Voted to join NALC 4. St. Paul Lutheran Church, Williams, IA** passed second vote 40-9 5. Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Everett, WA* first vote 75% 6. Salem Lutheran Church, Bark River, MI * passed first vote...

The martyr in their midst was known all around the area. But in case anyone had missed it, a mourning sign had been posted outside Saad Adwar's house in the Baghdad suburb of Kampsar, revealing exactly where he lived. It said simply that Adwar had been killed "by the hand of a spiteful and hateful enemy while he prayed to his holy God in Our Lady of Salvation church" nine days ago. This morning, the terrorists who had killed 44 of Baghdad's Christians at their place of worship, came hunting them once more – this time in their homes. They...

A Brookfield church has voted overwhelmingly to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the first Milwaukee-area congregation to begin severing its ties since the ELCA's 2009 decision to allow gay and lesbian clergy. Members of Calvary Lutheran Church, 1750 N. Calhoun Road, voted 185-40 this week to leave the nation's largest Lutheran denomination, the first of two ballots needed to break with the church. Although the sexuality issue dominated the debate, the vote became a referendum of sorts on the ELCA's "activist" and "social justice" agendas, according to church leaders. "It certainly confirms what we felt the congregation wanted,...

Another five churches from the Northwestern Minnesota Synod have parted ways with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, according to information on the synod website. Those congregations are First Lutheran Church of Roseau, Folden Lutheran Church of rural Vining, Faith Lutheran Church of Mentor, First English Lutheran Church of Menahga and Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church of Badger. A total of 15 NMS congregations have left the ELCA this year, Synod Bishop Larry Wohlrabe wrote in an Oct. 26 letter. That represents a decline of just over 5 percent of the synod’s total number of congregations. The letter also states that...

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church has left its expansive six-acre complex at 2000 Country Club Road and moved into a smaller, one-acre church property currently owned by nearby River West Church. The Lutheran church held its first services in its new digs this past Sunday. The property sale and swap is the most visible result of a painful division that occurred at Our Savior’s earlier this year over the issue of gay clergy in the Lutheran church. The split has left Our Savior’s, formerly one of the metro area’s largest and wealthiest Lutheran congregations, with half of its former members, few...

After the attempt last spring to break the Israeli security blockade off the coast of the Gaza Strip, the British government denounced the Israeli navy’s forceful seizure of the blockade-runners as “completely unacceptable.” Long forgotten is Britain’s disgraceful history as a blockader of the Zionist Jews, and as a violent enforcer of that blockade. A brief account of this travesty would be instructive: Following the end of WWI, the Jewish survivors of Hitler’s Holocaust were desperate to leave the European killing grounds for a new life in Jewish Palestine. Knowing that the Palestinian Arabs were in the habit of launching...

September 21, 2010 BOULDER—The biblical account of the parting of the Red Sea has inspired and mystified people for millennia. A new computer modeling study by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) shows how the movement of wind as described in the book of Exodus could have parted the waters. The computer simulations show that a strong east wind, blowing overnight, could have pushed water back at a bend where an ancient river is believed to have merged with a coastal lagoon along the Mediterranean Sea. With the water...

Background Wind setdown is the drop in water level caused by wind stress acting on the surface of a body of water for an extended period of time. As the wind blows, water recedes from the upwind shore and exposes terrain that was formerly underwater. Previous researchers have suggested wind setdown as a possible hydrodynamic explanation for Moses crossing the Red Sea, as described in Exodus 14. Methodology/Principal Findings This study analyzes the hydrodynamic mechanism proposed by earlier studies, focusing on the time needed to reach a steady-state solution. In addition, the authors investigate a site in the eastern...

Greece is struggling to reform its spending practices and stimulate future economic growth because it has a large and growing debt burden to deal with. The nation has been hit by the double-whammy of rising debt and a contracting economy, which means there is more and more debt which needs to be supported by less and less tax revenue and economic output. But here's another threat -- What if there are fewer and fewer Greeks responsible for the nation's debt burden in the future? Essentially, if you are young and you see that your country is burdening you with a...

Tuesday August 31, 2010 Charitable Status Revoked from New Zealand Homosexual Reorientation Group By Thaddeus M. BaklinskiWELLINGTON, August 31, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The New Zealand affiliate of U.S.-based Exodus Global Alliance has had its charity status revoked by the NZ Charities Commission.Exodus is a Christian organization that says it is dedicated to equipping agencies and individuals to communicate the message of “freedom from homosexuality.”   The NZ Exodus Ministries Trust Board has had charitable status for more than ten years. However, the status was removed by the government's Charities Commission in a decision dated August 18, as part of a...

A new Lutheran denomination will be born over the next two days in Columbus, made up of Christians disturbed by what they consider a liberalizing of their church, particularly on issues of homosexuality.The North American Lutheran Church, or NALC, will be mostly made up of theologically conservative congregations who have left or will leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, the country's largest Lutheran denomination.The ELCA angered some conservative members last summer when it voted to allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as clergy members and professional lay workers. Prior to that, gay clergy and lay workers...

A year ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Minnesota's largest Protestant faith, held a close and controversial vote that opened its doors to non-celibate gay clergy. Disappointed opponents predicted a fracture that would cause 1,000 congregations to withdraw.A year later, the ELCA remains largely intact."That 1,000-congregation figure has proven to be wishful thinking on the part of those who wanted it to happen," said Larry Wohlrabe, Bishop of Minnesota's rural Northwestern Synod. "Our culture has changed on this." . . . Meanwhile, plans for the new alternative North American Lutheran Church (NALC) will form this week at a gathering...

In an August 24 e-mail to ELCA churchwide staff, ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson said wrote that that those drafting a churchwide restructuring proposal will present that proposal to the ELCA Church Council Oct. 8. . . . "Notification of the changes in personnel, programs and operations will begin the week of October 11, 2010," Hanson wrote.

More than 1,000 Lutherans from throughout North America will gather this week in Grove City, Ohio, to form a new church body for confessional Lutherans. At this week’s two-day gathering, members of Lutheran CORE will adopt a constitution that will give birth to the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), which the movement’s director says “will embody the center of Lutheranism in America.” “The NALC will uphold confessional principles dear to Lutherans including a commitment to the authority of the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions," said the Rev. Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE, in an announcement. "We have a great...

More than 1,000 Lutherans from throughout North America will gather Aug. 26-27 in suburban Columbus, Ohio, to form a new church body for confessional Lutherans. The annual Convocation of Lutheran CORE will adopt a constitution that will give birth to the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). "The NALC will embody the center of Lutheranism in America. The NALC will uphold confessional principles dear to Lutherans including a commitment to the authority of the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions," said the Rev. Mark Chavez, director of Lutheran CORE. The Convocation will take place at Grove City Church of the Nazarene in...

The face of Lutheranism in East Central Illinois will change this fall. Three small-town congregations that have been part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. – for 22 years are switching affiliations. The dispute pits orthodox, or traditional, ministry against progressive changes. The trigger point was a vote almost a year ago, at the denomination's biennial national meeting, to open its clergy roster to gay and lesbian ministers who are in committed, same-gender relationships. Previously, homosexual clergy had to remain celibate to stay in the pulpit. "That's just the spark and...

Exodus: the Primer of Freedom Posted on July 4, 2010 by billrandles “Let my people go that they may worship me”(Exodus 10) Exodus is a book of freedom. Even the name Exodus proclaims liberty. The ‘Exodus’ is out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. The God of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob is the God of liberty. His purpose is to liberate the whole world, using a liberator people, Israel. But before Israel could be used to liberate the world, Israel herself needed to be set free from her sevitude. Therefore God would raise up a vessel to set them free, Moses....

Exodus: the Primer of Freedom Posted on July 4, 2010 by billrandles “Let my people go that they may worship me”(Exodus 10) Exodus is a book of freedom. Even the name Exodus proclaims liberty. The ‘Exodus’ is out of slavery and bondage in Egypt. The God of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob is the God of liberty. His purpose is to liberate the whole world, using a liberator people, Israel. But before Israel could be used to liberate the world, Israel herself needed to be set free from her sevitude. Therefore God would raise up a vessel to set them free, Moses....

Upper Arlington Lutheran Church voted Sunday to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). A second vote is required before the departure is considered final. Upper Arlington Lutheran, which has three campuses, is among the Lutheran churches that might leave the denomination because of its increasingly liberal stance on homosexuality. The first vote was 538 to leave the ELCA and 48 to stay, an assistant to the Rev. Paul Ulring said. The next vote must be at least 90 days later and probably will be held this fall. Before then, Bishop Callon W. Holloway Jr., leader of the Southern...

It has taken him more than a decade, but Italian-Israeli archeologist Prof. Emmanuel Anati now believes his controversial view that the biblical Mount Sinai is in Israel’s Negev desert rather than Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula will soon be adopted by the Vatican. On Friday, he presented his theory in the form of a new book at a seminar at the Theological Seminary in the northeastern Italian city of Vicenza. “Actually it’s not a theory, it’s a reality. I’m sure of it, Anati told The Jerusalem Post by telephone from his home in Capo di Ponte. “My archeological discoveries at Har Karkom...