Free Republic

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan stopped by a soup kitchen in Youngstown, Ohio, over the weekend for what seemed to be your typical campaign photo opportunity. During his 15-minute visit on Saturday morning, the vice presidential candidate donned a white apron and offered to wash some dishes that—as several bloggers and a pool reporter later pointed out—did not appear to be dirty. But according to the president of Mahoning County's St. Vincent De Paul Society, the faith-based charity that runs the soup kitchen, the campaign did not have permission and "ramrodded their way" into the facility.

Through their U.S. front groups, Muslim radicals overtaking the Middle East have found support in the Obama administration The last time we saw one whole despotic region of the world come tumbling down we could name the heroes and the moments that propelled it: An electrician named Lech Walesa, jumping a wall at the Gdansk shipyard. Boris Yeltsin atop a tank in front of the Russian White House, defying the Communist old guard in 1991. Pastor Laszlo Tokes, refusing an eviction notice from his Romanian flat as crowds of demonstrators gathered. A playwright named Vaclav Havel before a joint session...

Big ups, as the kids say, to FOX News for airing a segment this past weekend on Convoy of Hope, the praiseworthy faith-based organization. My acquaintance with Convoy of Hope dates back five years or so, when I was member of a church that partnered with the charity on an annual community event, reaching out to the poor and needy in surrounding neighborhoods. The event, financed by a special offering collected by our church, staffed primarily by church volunteers, attracted thousands of mostly struggling families. Every one of those families was offered free groceries. There was a job fair for...

President Barack Obama signed an executive order on November 17 outlining the allowable religious practices of faith-based social service organizations that receive federal funds. Such organizations will not be permitted to offer federally-funded social services in the same location in which “worship, religious instruction, or proselytization” takes place. Among the key points in the executive order: “Organizations, in providing services supported in whole or in part with Federal financial assistance, and in their outreach activities related to such services, should not be allowed to discriminate against current or prospective program beneficiaries on the basis of religion, a religious belief, a...

In yet another scandal-waiting-to-happen linked to the Obama White House, a close friend, advisor and donor of the president’s is being investigated by federal officials for allegedly misusing public funds on faith-based minority outreach programs while he ran the State of Illinois’ health department. With Obama pal Dr. Eric Whitaker at the helm, Illinois spent millions of taxpayer dollars on highly questionable publicity campaigns to educate African-American and other minorities about common diseases such as AIDS and Herpes in their communities. Dr. Whitaker was the powerful director of the Illinois Department of Public Health from 2003 to 2007, thanks to...

Harry Knox, an adviser to President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is standing by a statement he made last March that Pope Benedict XVI is “hurting people in the name of Jesus.” When asked on Tuesday whether he still holds that view, Knox said, “I do.” In addition to serving on the president’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Knox is the director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a homosexual activist group.

Atheist David Miliband Sends Son To Faith School David Miliband has been accused of hypocrisy for sending his son to a Church of England school even though he himself is an atheist. By Alastair Jamieson 24 Jan 2010 The foreign secretary and his wife, Louise, have sent the eldest of their two adopted sons to a faith school more than one mile from their north London home despite living close to a secular primary. The headteacher of their chosen school is an outspoken critic of government education policy and does not support controversial tests for 10 and 11-year-olds. Children should...

MIAMI (Reuters) - As international aid agencies rush food, water and medicine to Haiti's earthquake victims, a U.S. faith-based group is sending Bibles to Haitians in their hour of need. Not any Bible. These are solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time. Called the "Proclaimer," the audio Bible delivers "digital quality" and is designed for "poor and illiterate people," the Faith Comes By Hearing group said. It added 600 of the devices were already on their way to Haiti.

More than a decade ago, Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell started looking for 20 acres near his Windsor Village United Methodist Church to build a 24-hour prayer center. The center still hasn't been built, but it's not because Caldwell abandoned his plans. He simply took them in a different direction. Instead of buying 20 acres, Caldwell purchased 234 for $1.3 million and oversaw the development of more than 450 homes, a 200,000-square-foot community center, retail space, medical facilities, schools and a YMCA. A 124-unit senior housing project is under construction, and a new sanctuary and the prayer center are planned for 2010...

UN-Doing America: My Two Cents on Faith-Based Diplomacy By David J. Aland 25 September 2009 It has been said that diplomacy is the art of letting someone have it your way, or, as Will Rogers put it, “the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.” Americans have long been accused of having little diplomatic sophistication, but, as a European friend once put it: “It’s part of the charm.” Lately, it appears our President is trying to foist charm off as sophistication, and it’s failing. President Obama’s speech this week to the General Assembly of the United...

State officials are examining whether public money has been improperly used to pay for Islamic mosques on charter school campuses in Blaine and Inver Grove Heights. Chas Anderson, deputy commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education, said officials will study Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy's (TiZA) use of state "lease aid'' grants, which were created more than a decade ago to help charter schools rent adequate facilities. "If it is subsidizing a mosque, in our view, that would be a violation of state and federal law,'' Anderson said. The probe is the latest in a series of church-vs.-state conflicts involving TiZA...

Health-care reform supporters rally Aug. 17 in Phoenix. (CNS) At 5 p.m. Eastern time today, President Barack Obama will participate in a BlogTalkRadio discussion about his health-care reform plans. The discussion is sponsored by faith-based groups who back reform. The meeting is sponsored by “40 Days for Health Reform,” a group organized by more than 30 religious organizations to support Obama’s reform initiative. Three Catholic organizations are listed on the “40 Days for Health Reform” website as sponsors: Network — A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Catholics United; and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Along with those...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Wednesday said America, as the world's richest nation, had a moral duty to offer health care to everyone, in a fresh bid to bolster support for his top domestic priority. Obama addressed thousands of people in a call with left-leaning religious faith leaders, as the White House tried to still disquiet among liberals, and fierce opposition among Republicans, to his under-fire health care plan. "The one thing you all share, is a moral conviction, you know, that this debate over health care goes to the heart of who we are as a people," said Obama....

A decision has been handed down in the British Court of Appeal that sets a monumental precedent for those wishing to place their children in a faith-based school. Reading this sorry saga, Americans will be grateful for separation of church and state and for the independence afforded parochial schools. The British school crisis started this way: one of two couples whose children were rejected by the Jewish Free School in 2007 went straight to the High Court because in one case the rejection was based on a view that the mother had “stopped living an Orthodox lifestyle.” Mr. Justice Munby...

The Secular Coalition for America moved into spanking new K Street offices this week and the swagger – and implicit political heft – that such an address confers on the lone Washington lobby representing America's proudly godless couldn't come at a better time. Back on Election Day, Barack Obama was a favorite of the religiously unaffiliated, winning an overwhelming 75 percent of a bloc that is growing fast – from nine percent of the electorate in 2000 to 12 percent in 2008 –and one that figures to be crucial to Obama's chances in 2012, especially as his once-stratospheric approval numbers...

Tomorrow morning at 10:45 Eastern time, the president is hosting a round table at the White House for members of the Catholic press. The National Catholic Register’s publisher, Father Owen Kearns, will be among eight religion reporters and editors in attendance at that gathering. The purpose of the gathering, according to Chris Hensman, press secretary with the National Security Council, is a “preview of the president’s upcoming visit with Pope Benedict XVI.” The president is meeting with the Pope on July 10. Father Kearns just received the invitation to the meeting yesterday via e-mail. At this point, there isn’t a...

The conventional wisdom was that George W. Bush was the most faith-based president in recent history, by a long shot. Citing Jesus as his favorite philosopher and Billy Graham as a mentor, Bush won evangelical voters in numbers not previously seen. In office, he launched a controversial office of faith-based initiatives and consulted religious leaders in developing science policy. Bush routinely opened cabinet meetings with prayer and acknowledged conferring with "a higher father" before going to war in Iraq. How remarkable, then, that religion might be playing an even bigger role in Barack Obama's administration. While Bush invited megapastor Rick...

If you're drowning, and someone throws you a rope, you're not likely to spend much time worrying about where the rope was manufactured. You grab the rope, and cling to it gratefully. Someone in desperate need is not in a position to question a benefactor. But when the need is no longer so desperate, the questions are bound to come. Who are you, and why did you help me? Were you acting out of pure Christian charity, or were you just doing your job? Were you motivated by compassion, or were you, perhaps, simply carrying out the requirements of a...

There's an important article in the Politico titled, "Obama invokes Jesus more than Bush." President Barack Obama, says the article, has mentioned Jesus Christ "in a number of high-profile public speeches," more so than did President George W. Bush, and in much less "innocuous contexts." Obama has done so in order to promote certain policies, especially his economic policies, and "to connect with a broader base of supporters." He does this via various "targeted messages." Most remarkable, the article considers whether Obama is using the bully pulpit to pursue "an even larger goal" of resurrecting the Christian left, of appealing...

A Pepsi Company distribution center that has reportedly given close to 18 tractor trailer loads of its Gatorade product to an emergency relief ministry has now stopped the flow because it has a problem with the organization's name. According to WSET-TV in Lynchburg, Va., the distribution center dropped the donations because God's Pit Crew, which has distributed the Gatorade to people in need following natural disasters, has the word "God" in its name. "We make absolutely no excuses for being a faith-based, a religious-based organization," Randy Johnson, founder and director of God's Pit Crew, told the station. "We don't discriminate;...