Free Republic

Just a week after a scandal was sparked by a preacher slating Islam as "satanic", a second preacher has launched a broadside against the faith. The minister at Lord Bannside's former church, Martyr's Memorial Free Presbyterian in east Belfast, has blasted Islam as a "violent intolerant wicked religion". The Rev Ian Brown was speaking at a recent Sunday evening service in defence of Pastor James McConnell, whom he described as a "prophet". The Free Presbyterian minister told his flock last Sunday evening he felt the situation had become "thoroughly ridiculous". In an sermon posted on the Martyr's Memorial website, Rev...

A Free Presbyterian Church minister who sparked protest at Belfast Pride on Saturday has defended his actions, calling the parade “a very unpleasant experience”. Rev David McIlveen, of Sandown Free Presbyterian Church, amassed a crowd of protesters at the corner of Waring Street and North Street on the parade route. He criticized the Pride event claiming: “I certainly do not see it as an asset to Belfast in any way. It is something that is grieving to a good number of people”. The Irish Times report that McIlveen, who organizes an annual anti-Pride protest, did not see his actions as...

DAN Brown’s bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003. By April 2005 it had sold 17 million copies in 44 languages and it is still selling well, as any traveller by plane, bus or train will confirm. It is a novel of the popular, conspiracy theory type. The central thesis is that “the Church” has covered up the fact that Mary Magdalene married Christ. Christ’s divinity was a myth invented by Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD and the pair had descendants. Brown suggests that Mary Magdalene’s character was unjustly impugned by “the Church” in...