Free Republic

ROME (JTA) – Despite renewed tensions over his decision to move a controversial wartime pope closer to sainthood, Pope Benedict XVI is still expected to make a historic visit to the main Rome synagogue. "For now, the visit is still on," the spokesperson for Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni told JTA on Tuesday. The visit is scheduled for Jan. 17, marked annually by the Italian Catholic Church as a day of dialogue with Judaism. Benedict provoked outrage in the Jewish world and cast a cloud over the visit when he signed a decree on Saturday certifying Pope Pius XII's...

'In God We Trust' conspicuously absent at launch of Capitol Visitor Center,Yesterday, individuals across the country who were willing to stand up on behalf of our nation's religious heritage saw a major victory," announced U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., in a website statement this week. Last year, WND reported Forbes responded to concerns the Christian heritage of the United States had been scrubbed from the 580,000-square-foot facility. He worked with other members of Congress until the Committee on House Administration and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee agreed to include references to the nation's

ISLAM & PROSTITUTION = IN CHRISTIAN VALUES = OUT thelastcrusade.org In our vibrant American Democracy every citizen has the right to his personal beliefs. Americans, private citizens, and political figures alike, are free to choose their friends and enemies according to their world-view or personal agenda. These rights have served the nation well since the founding of the Republic and must be respected. However, it is critical that the beliefs and personal/political agendas of our elected officials be clearly defined and made known to those who have placed them in positions of power. It is unreasonable to allow our lawmakers...

Polling data has revealed a trend indicating that “America is not a Christian nation.”[1] Although a large majority of Americans outwardly claim to be Christian, their inward beliefs are actually non-Christian. Why is this so? Classic Christianity is based on certain fundamental doctrines that are clearly taught in the Bible, such as the universality of sin, the universality of access to the Savior, and the exclusivity of that Savior.[2] But apparently, many of those who call themselves Christians deny that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. Newsweek reported, “According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of us believe...

"Islamic lands that were occupied by the enemies will once again become Islamic...We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once, and as it will be conquered again." - Ali Al-Faqir, the Jordanian Minister for Religious Endowment Britain, birthplace of parliamentary democracy, has fallen to Islam. Oxford, once home to the likes of C.S. Lewis, now houses a giant Eastern Islamic Studies Center. If this were the only Islamic addition to Oxford, the mood would be less somber, but when Oxford citizens are forced to awake every morning to the Muslim call to prayer with the full...

Is the right responsible for inspiring murder, such as that of late-term abortionist George Tiller by Kansas native Scott Roeder?  Some certainly seem to think so.  For instance, the Friday before last Bill O'Reilly had as a guest on his show Joan Walsh, the editor of leftist news site Salon.com.  She appeared because she had criticized O'Reilly for engaging in what she called a "jihad" against Tiller.  Her thesis is that O'Reilly and, presumably, the rest of us who are passionately pro-life are culpable Tiller's death. Of course, this isn't a novel idea among the left.  If there is any...

Congressman Forbes asks the questions "Did America ever consider itself a Judeo-Christian nation?" and "If America was once a Judeo-Christian nation, when did it cease to be?" on the floor of the US House.

WASHINGTON - Former President Bill Clinton has told an Arab-American audience of 1,000 people that the U.S. is no longer just a black-white country, nor a country that is dominated by Christians and a powerful Jewish minority In a speech to the group on Saturday, Clinton said that given the growing numbers of Muslims, Hindus and other religious groups here, Americans should be mindful of the nation's changing demographics, which led to the election of Barack Obama as president. Clinton said by 2050 the U.S. will no longer have a majority of people with European heritage and that in an...

While our current president says that we are not a Christian nation, and that we can be seen as Muslim country, million of Christians completely disagree with him. One of those Christians is Rep.Randy Forbes (R-Va.), who will challenge President Obama with this bill.

Congressman Randy Forbes of Virginia asks the questions "Did America ever consider itself a Judeo-Christian nation?" and "If America was once a Judeo-Christian nation, when did it cease to be?" on the floor of the US House. MUST SEE VIDEO!

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) believes that the United States is a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and hopes that his sponsorship of a bill designating the first week in May as “America’s Spiritual Heritage Week” will make that belief official. “Our Founding Fathers unanimously said we have a Creator who gave us those rights,” Forbes told CNSNews.com, referring to the Declaration of Independence, which says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” “If...

Judges should never show special "empathy" for the downtrodden and unfortunate. To do so not only undermines the integrity of the legal system, but goes against Biblical morality. How do we know? Because the Hebrew Scriptures are explicit and unequivocal on this issue, as I explained in a column a month ago. The controversy over the Sotomayor nomination gives that column fresh (and, if I do say so, prophetic) relevance. In fact, I suspect that in her confirmation hearings Judge Sotomayor will display the good sense to back away from some of the most controversial recent statements that she has...

Will 2010 be the year of the Bible? Rep. Paul Broun [R-GA] hopes so. He introduced what some are calling the Bible bill on May 7, 2009. While the H. Con. Res. 121 has 15 co-sponsors (all republicans), it has also stirred not so favorable reactions from atheists, Jews, and those of other faiths in the blogosphere. Critics of this resolution are dismissing it as unconstitutional and just a waste of time.

While Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. is "no longer a Christian nation," several members of Congress have taken a stand to boldly disagree. A bipartisan group of 25 members of the House of Representatives earlier this month submitted H.Res. 397, which calls on Congress to affirm "the rich spiritual and religious history of our nation's founding and subsequent history" and to designate the first week of May as America's Spiritual Heritage Week for "the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith." Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., specifically challenged the president's claims that America is not...

Is Christianity Dying in America? Only, perhaps, at the hands of political entanglement. Jon Meacham, following Newsweek's tabloid trash journalistic standards, has completely botched an article on Christianity in America. He slants his report on the latest American Religious Indentification Survey to make is seem as if Christianity is dead in America. He was obviously in over his head, so I won't spend too much time on his pathetic effort. I'll only point out the grossest stupidities. Atheism isn't Overtaking Christianity The survey report concludes that self-identification confusion among deists, atheists, and agnostics clouds the true numbers, but that perhaps...

A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. (John 15:20) Are social conservatives hurting or helping the cause of conservatism? The answer to this question has not yet been decided. Christian conservatives can be the saving grace of the conservative movement -- if they can step back and carefully consider how they are perceived in the abortion debate, imagined (and actual) racial and religious bigotry, and in the temptation to claim to know that these are "the last days." Conservative Christians love and respect the law and the Constitution. Most recognize...

President Barack Obama said in Turkey : "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values." Do you know the Preamble for your state? Alabama 1901, Preamble We the people of the State of Alabama , invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution. Alaska 1956, Preamble We, the people of Alaska , grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land......

Several members of Congress and one of America's most prominent religious leaders criticized President Obama on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a seeming brush-off during National Day of Prayer observances and for not referring to America as a "Judeo-Christian" nation in remarks last month in Turkey. "We are disappointed at the lack of emphasis on prayer at the National Day of Prayer," James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, told reporters at the Cannon House Office Building after a three-hour prayer observance. "There are tens of millions of people praying across this country - 40,000 prayer events taking place...

Thursday is the National Day of Prayer and major events are planned at the U.S. Capitol. But unlike the last eight years of the Bush administration, the White House will not hold a big event. The Bible reading has begun from Genesis to Revelation as hundreds have come to the U.S. Capitol this week to read the Bible cover to cover in honor of Thursday's National Day of Prayer. The event became law back in 1952. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va. is leading events this week on Capitol Hill. How would this nation be different? How would we have weathered those...

The Council on American Islamic Relations CAIR is caught red handed selling Sayyid Qutb (the father of Jihad) books and anti-Judeo-Christian material which state that those who wrote the Bible should "burn in hell for blasphemy."

Barack you go overseas show respect to the Muslim country of Turkey and turn around and disrespect the 82% of Christians in this nation. You dont speak for us when you promote the killing of babies. You don't speak for us when you trash free markets and the hard working successful people. You don't speak for us when you want to push immigration reform dow our throats putting our nations sovereignty at risk. You don't speak for us when you claim climate change is a science when its nothing more than way to get into our pockets. You don't speak...

Barack Obama devoted his Saturday weekly address to Passover and Easter greetings to Jews and Christians. That was nice. But listen to what he said. "These are two very different holidays with their own very different traditions," he explained. "But it seems fitting that we mark them both during the same week. For, in a larger sense, they are both moments of reflection and renewal. They are both occasions to think more deeply about the obligations we have to ourselves and the obligations we have to one another, no matter who we are, where we come from, or what faith...

Who is this guy? Has he ever studied history? Read anything from the Founding Fathers? I understand "freedom of religion", but should he be saying this in a Muslim country? Oh... that's right! This is Barack Obama who hates America, hates capitalism and wants to destroy us from within! This is nice; now he's attacking religion and our Judeo-Christian value system this country was built upon.

NEW YORK – The city's ultra-Orthodox Jews took the Pennsylvania Amish on a walking tour of their world Tuesday "It's reinforcing to the Amish community to see us Jews living the way the Bible says Jews are supposed to live, and have lived since the time of Moses and Abraham," said Yisroel Ber Kaplan, program director for the Chassidic Discovery Center in Brooklyn. "The Amish are also living their lives as the Bible speaks to them." Dozens of Amish residents from Lancaster County, Pa., toured a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn's Crown Heights to learn more about their culture. Today's Lubavitchers...

As America's Muslim population grows, so too does the influence of Islamic law, or Sharia, in daily life in the U.S. "Sharia Law is the totality of the Muslim's obligation," said Abdullahi An-Na'im, a professor of law at Emory University in Atlanta. According to An-Na'im, Shariah is similar to Jewish Talmudic Law or Catholic Canon Law in that it guides an adherent's moral conduct. "As a citizen, I am a subject of the United States," An-Na'im said. "I owe allegiance to the United States, to the Constitution of the United States. That is not inconsistent with observing a religious code...

In a recent book review, Jerry Coyne, professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, admitted that the secular worldview of macroevolution (the development of complex life from “simpler” forms) is at odds with Christian faith...

Story of King David Sets Base for New NBC Series A modern-day retelling of the biblical story of King David will be premiering on NBC next month as a network television series. It's "the new coming from the old," said Michael Green. Fri, Feb. 27, 2009 Posted: 10:44 AM EST A modern-day retelling of the biblical story of King David will be premiering on NBC next month as a network television series. “Kings,” created by Michael Green (“Heroes,” “Everwood”), centers on the drama surrounding David Shepherd, a young soldier in the war-torn country of Gilboa, who will rise to fame...

A modern-day retelling of the biblical story of King David will be premiering on NBC next month as a network television series. “Kings,” created by Michael Green (“Heroes,” “Everwood”), centers on the drama surrounding David Shepherd, a young soldier in the war-torn country of Gilboa, who will rise to fame after inspiring the nation through his fearless rescue of the king’s son. Amid Shepherd's thrust toward destiny and peace for the kingdom, however, the country's power players will go to great lengths to see him fall, blurring the line between his allies and enemies. It’s “the new coming from the...

When is the last time you saw $10 Million dollars being spent on special programs in schools that taught school-age children about Judeo-Christian values and why they are important in our laws today? Better yet, funded by the Government? Well, I can answer that for you. Never! But, the Government sure is interested in getting some bills passed that will do just that for certain select minority groups such as homosexuals while putting Christians in prison. $10 Million dollars in funding will be allocated annually for the administration of hate crime prevention including special programs about this in our schools....

In an effort to connect with Israel both spiritually and physically, tens of thousands of Christians across the globe have watched live webcasts of Jerusalem holy sites on the Internet since the free service was launched several months ago, the head of a new Christian on-line broadcast provider said Friday. More than 30,000 people have viewed the webcasts on www.ipraytv.com since its launch four months ago during the Feast of the Tabernacles/Succot, said Mike Peros, founder and CEO of IPrayTV. The site, which rose to prominence after its live webcasts of Christmas in Bethlehem, has attracted Christians of various denominations...

America’s Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion was delivered to me a while ago. I read the book shortly after I received it, and was amazed at how the author, Herbert London, could possibly put so much information that would normally fill volumes into a small, 97 page book. The number of pages fooled me, however. I did not move through the material nearly as quickly as I thought I would. Contained within the pages of Herb London’s small book is a huge message. Mr. London meticulously researched the material, and wrote the book in such a...

The universe’s birth certificate Once you let go of the Bible as history, all Christian doctrine begins to disintegrate. Dr Nigel Leaves, the Warden and Dean of Studies at John Wollaston Anglican Theological College in Perth (Australia), provides a typical example in The God Problem: Alternatives to Fundamentalism.1 He says ‘the major factor in the waning of the Christian faith is its continuing insistence on a supernatural God—the Almighty, the lawgiver and judge.’ He considers four alternatives to ‘fundamentalism’ (i.e. believing in the God of the Bible), saying, ‘Traditional beliefs about God cannot be sustained in the light of the...

Long a key voice in Catholic-Jewish relations, Cardinal Sean O'Malley OFM Cap. of Boston issued a response to the week's events late last night: The Vatican announced this week that the Holy Father has lifted the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. I was pleased with the news which shows, once again, the Holy Father’s concern for unity and reconciliation in the Church.... [The Pope's] outreach to the communities who follow these bishops is just one more manifestation of his ardent desire to bring these people (which some estimate to be as many as...

Pope emphasises his 'solidarity with Jews' after provoking outrage by readmitting bishop who denies Holocaust By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 29th January 2009 Pope Benedict has expressed his 'full and unquestionable solidarity' with Jews, after outraging many by rehabilitating a bishop who denies the Holocaust. Speaking at his Wednesday audience, the German-born pope tried to heal the rift with Jews by saying the attempt to exterminate them in the Holocaust should remain a warning to all humanity. Recalling his visit to the Auschwitz death camp in 2006, Benedict condemned the 'pitiless killing of millions of Jews, innocent victims of blind racial...

ROME, JAN. 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Dialogue between Jews and Christians is a sensitive issue, and there have been many misunderstandings about the new Good Friday prayer for the Jews, says a scholar in the matter. According to Father Michel Remaud, director of the Christian Institute of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Literature of Jerusalem, the Good Friday prayer for the Jews used in the "extraordinary rite" is not a prayer for their conversion, but rather a prayer for the Jewish people. He said the text approved by Benedict XVI does not say "Oremus pro conversione Judæorum" (Let us pray for the...

NEW YORK, January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for Rabbinical Alliance of America, will be in Rome Thursday meeting with high ranking Vatican officials. While there he will express solidarity regarding the recent Vatican criticisms of US President Barack Obama and his executive order which has permitted US taxpayer funds to be given to organizations performing and lobbying for abortion internationally.  Levin will be representing over 800 Orthodox Jewish Rabbis who form the Rabbinical Alliance of America. His visit is being coordinated by the Rome office of Human Life International. Following Obama's overturning of the Mexico City...

Dozens of American and Canadian Lutheran bishops arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday for their annual Academy, a meeting for theological discussion. Planned many months in advance, they gathered in the shadow of the war in Gaza. Bishop Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, called for a cease-fire ahead of his visit, urging "officials of both parties to the conflict to... refrain from all violent acts, which only bring destruction and tragedy, and urge them instead to work to resolve their differences through peaceful and nonviolent means," the church said in a statement. The church believed...

I recently read a book that deserves the widest possible readership: "The Trouble with Textbooks -- Distorting History and Religion," by Gary A. Tobin and Dennis R. Ybarra. I never have met or talked with either of these gentlemen, but I can't say enough good things about this book. For all who believe that there is a fairly objective rendition of history that we are obliged to teach our children, this book reveals how shockingly far from that objective American education -- particularly in schools' textbooks -- has fallen. In their conclusion, the authors quote the great historian of Islam...

Take note all ye cultural fascists out to annihilate Christmas: The Catholic League has a nativity scene on public property in New York City, right in Central Park. We deliberately put it on the corner of 59th and 5th so that New Yorkers taking the 5th Avenue bus downtown can’t avoid seeing it. Indeed, it’s impossible to miss. Next to it will be the world’s largest menorah, a religious symbol that some dunce lawyers still think is a secular symbol. “Every year we get a permit from the New York City Parks Department to display our life-sized crèche in Central...

Marc Shaiman, the Tony Award-winning composer of the film and stage musical “Hairspray,” has done the country a major, if inadvertent, service. He has composed a brief musical piece against California Proposition 8 that takes only three minutes to reveal the ignorance and hate that pervades so much anti-Proposition 8 activism. This short musical, viewed more than 2 million times on the Internet, features major Hollywood talents playing (through song) two groups on a beach -- gay men and women in beach clothes and a stuffy formally dressed church group composed of whites and blacks. Its message begins with a...

The writer Andrew Sullivan sits across the table from you on Chris Matthews' Hardball praising gay-marriage as a symbol of the homosexual community's desire to join the mainstream. He is a Catholic, conservative in many things, and a highly articulate spokesman for his point-of-view. What do you say? The requisite conservative on pundit panels usually falls back on citing heterosexual marriage's 5,000 year history as society's basic building block. Marriage has always been between a man and a woman. 65% of the American people are against homosexual unions. Etc. That's not going to get it. It's a way of brushing...

Above the Hate.com Letter Against Hate to President Monson November 15, 2008 President Thomas S. Monson Office of the First Presidency Church Administration Building 47 East South Temple Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 Dear President Monson: We write firstly to express our deep gratitude to you and the entire LDS community for the large and impressive contributions of your church and its members in protecting marriage in California and Arizona. Anyone who participated in this process has come to admire the competence, diligence and moral courage that so many members of your faith community displayed as part of this coalition...

More than 3,000 people, including longtime Mormon critic James Dobson of Focus on the Family, have signed an online petition thanking the LDS Church for its efforts on behalf of California's traditional marriage initiative known as Proposition 8. "Anyone who participated in this process has come to admire the competence, diligence and moral courage that so many members of your faith community displayed as part of this coalition effort -- as Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons and people of other faith communities all came together to fight this great battle for marriage," says the petition, which is addressed to LDS President Thomas...

This is my public apology to John McCain, Sarah Palin, Republican voters, Christian evangelicals, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Mike Gallagher and everyone else in the non-Jewish universe who stands four-square behind the State of Israel. While you have written, spoken and, yes, even prayed in strong opposition to any retrofitting of American policy on behalf of the Jewish state, nearly eight out of every 10 American Jews failed to demonstrate similar resolve on Election Day.

News bulletins every day abound with stories of moral unrest somewhere in the world. The Columbine high-school massacre in America a few years ago focused world attention on a once-average community which suffered the outrage of brutal murders. The atrocities that resulted in the deaths of thousands in the World Trade Center terrorist acts brought to light how wicked human beings can be towards one another. Society’s laws are being violated at an ever-increasing rate, as evidenced by the rapid expansion of police forces and proliferation of all manner of ‘security’ devices and services to protect life and property. Clearly,...

Perhaps the PBS Nova producers should have consulted the Naked Archaeologist or The Bible as History before making a show whose purpose is to debunk the Old Testament. Here is the description of the special two hour edition of Nova as reported by Reuters/Hollywood Reporter: LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Bill Maher, on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher," frequently refers to the Old Testament of the Bible as the Book of Jewish Fairy Tales. The description might anger the pious and the fundamentalists, but guess what? Maher's close to the truth. A visually stunning two-hour special edition of "Nova"...

Five months and thousands of weddings after California's highest court sanctioned same-sex marriage, anxious eyes around the nation will closely follow voters Tuesday as they decide whether to turn back the clock. Given the state's size and influence, the vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage has become a referendum on sexual orientation and civil rights. Both sides call it the "Gettysburg" of the power struggle between the gay rights movement and the Christian right, with the victors capturing momentum in other states. "As California goes, so goes the nation," Mayor Gavin Newsom boldly predicted at a City Hall...

Whether disapproving churches could be forced to choose between providing services to gay couples or losing their tax-exempt status is one of the questions swirling around Proposition 8, the Nov. 4 ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage. AdvertisementIn its May ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, the state Supreme Court made clear that it did not intend for the decision to be interpreted as interfering with a church's right to determine who it marries. Yesterday, 59 California law professors released a one-page position paper making their case that the state and federal constitutions provide ironclad protections for churches. “No church's tax-exempt...

Polls continue to slide for No on Prop 8 Equity for All, as reports leak out that the campaign’s management structure is in utter disarray. A series of orchestrated, factually false press statements have been issued alleging the sky will fall if Proposition 8 passes on Tuesday. “Clearly, this is nothing more than a floundering campaign grasping at straws to save its effort,” said Chip White, Protectmarriage.com – Yes on 8 campaign spokesman. “It’s quite sad because those who are hurt most are voters. We invited the No on Prop 8 campaign to debate Proposition 8 this weekend in a...

Dozens of pastors and rabbis across the country are urging their peers to pray for Barack Obama’s repentance and telling their congregations to do the same on Sunday before Election Day. They contend that Obama’s liberal policies on marriage and abortion will fuel tensions with the Muslim world. Packaged with the inaugural edition of The Judeo-Christian View, a new "multimedia journal" mailed to more than 325,000 clergy this week, is a "video sermon" mixing Bible verses with the positions of the Democratic candidate and his Republican opponent Sen. John McCain. It also includes a copy of "Obsession: Radical Islam’s War...