Free Republic

A prison minister is reaching out for the third time to child-actress-turned-troubled-celebrity Lindsay Lohan, who has battled DUI, felony grand theft, and drug charges. In his latest letter to the “Mean Girls” star, Marty Angelo, who himself was arrested in 1980 for two counts of cocaine possession, said he is “saddened” to see her face yet another formal charge. “Lindsay, I am speaking to you today as not just a prison minister and friend of your father but as a person who has traveled down the same road you are on,” writes Angelo in a letter released Thursday. “I know...

Powerful worship song, He is jealous for me Loves like a hurricane I am a tree Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by Glory And I realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me

The messages appear when the sky is clear: Trust Jesus. God Forgives. U + God = :) With the heavens as their pulpit, pilots Jerry Stevens and Keith Poeschl deliver their sermon from a bright-yellow crop duster dubbed ``Holy Smoke.'' ``These are God's love letters to his children,'' explains Stevens, 68, a retired aviator who started the sky writing mission 12 years ago when living in Boca Raton. Since then, Stevens has taken Poeschl, 33, under his wing, teaching the novice pilot the art of skywriting. There are now two versions of the Holy Smoke -- one stationed in Fort...

WASHINGTON -- During his visit to Indonesia next month, President Barack Obama will give a speech that will include themes of democracy and development, and U.S. outreach to Muslim communities around the world, said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, on Thursday. At a White House briefing to preview Obama's Asian travels, Rhodes said the President would arrive in Indonesia from India on Nov. 9. In his speech to the Indonesian people the following day, Obama will also speak about pluralism and tolerance in Indonesia, which, while the world's largest Muslim-majority country, is "host to a broad

House Democrats are touting their work during the August recess, claiming their members held 1,800 district events to promote their accomplishments and bash Republicans.The frenzied pace is a response to the growing sentiment among the political class that the Democrats’ majority is in danger this November. The party hopes to argue that the doomsday predictions in Washington do not reflect the reality across the country, where they say their candidates are gaining traction.

Recently, Senator John Kerry introduced a bill in the Senate intended to create a two-way professional exchange program that would allow young Americans to work in Muslim countries and citizens of those countries to live in the US. Forgive my cynicism but our government has expended massive resources in the form of money, manpower, and bureaucracy in order to track down terrorists. Multiple arrests recently of homegrown terrorists illustrate the dangers of shipping young Americans off to Muslim countries. Furthermore, many of the 9/11 terrorists were in the US on student visas. Does the Department of Homeland Security really need...

KABUL, Afghanistan - A group of servicemembers from the International Security Assistance Force Volunteer Community Relations Program here donated more than 300 bags of food, clothes, toys and other supplies Thursday to a local Afghan Refugee Camp during a Humanitarian Aid mission. The team of volunteers, led by U.S. Air Force Chaplain (Maj.) Michael Goecker, ISAF chaplain, collected hundreds of supplies donated by ISAF members and U.S. volunteers to give to local Afghan orphanages, camps and families in an effort to help with their state of living and support the ISAF Counterinsurgency plan. “We receive the donations from private organizations...

Lawmakers across Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans, were surprised to learn recently that the Obama administration has made reaching out to Muslim nations a top priority for the space agency NASA. They will probably be more surprised to learn that administration officials told the Middle East news organization Al Jazeera about it before they told Congress. Rep. Pete Olson, the ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, got a call from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on June 28, the day the White House released its new long-term plan for the space program. "He ran down some...

It's been a year since President Obama addressed the Islamic world in Cairo, his most visible gesture to a people, culture and religion he believes the Bush administration antagonized unnecessarily. But, according to a new poll, the Muslim world has not exactly grasped his extended hand. In fact, Muslims have lost confidence in Obama over the past year, the poll found. And in Egypt, the Arab bellwether nation where Obama chose to deliver his speech, the U.S. standing today is worse than during the final year of the Bush administration.

  Story by Senior Master Sgt. Jessica D'Aurizio PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Zormat District in Paktya Province is considered a very dangerous area, according to Afghans that live in eastern Afghanistan. But this did not stop the Air Force Medical Embedded Training Team at Forward Operating Base Lightning and their Afghan national army counterparts at FOB Thunder from setting up a free medical clinic and addressing some concerns of the Afghan villagers, May 18.Each month, the joint AF and ANA medical team travels to a designated village to provide medical care as part of a village medical outreach mission....

During World War II Nazi Germany tried to rally support in the Arab world, often trying to find common ground in anti-Semitism. The extent of the Nazi propaganda in Arabic has been revealed in a book titled Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World. Historian Jeffrey Herf based his book on wartime broadcasts in Arabic that were transcribed by the American embassy in Cairo. Thousands of transmissions were sent from 1939 to 1945.

ORLANDO, Fla. – A newly released LifeWay Research survey of 1,004 Protestant pastors found only 3 percent of their churches served as the primary sponsor of a church plant (new congregation) during the previous 12 months, and only 14 percent gave financial support in partnership with other churches to help start new congregations. However, a second study completed in partnership with Leadership Network revealed more churches open than close yearly. Only in recent years has the annual number of new churches in the United States outpaced the annual number of churches closing their doors. Twenty-eight percent of the congregations participated...

It was the basketball game for the ages. On Monday night, the Duke University Blue Devils survived a desperate, last-second shot by the underdog Butler University Bulldogs to win the NCAA men’s basketball championship. It was a great game-a classic “David and Goliath” matchup, given that Duke has appeared in eight championship games under head coach Mike Krzyzewski, and that Butler had never even made it to the Final Four. You may hear folks talking about the game for some time. When you do, you can add to the conversation by revealing an interesting fact: Basketball was invented more than...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, the moderate Santa Maria Republican running for lieutenant governor, opened his speech to party convention delegates Saturday afternoon by acknowledging the discomfort many of them have with him for supporting new taxes, among other votes he has taken. When he walked into the room, he said, a delegate greeted him by saying, "Hey Abel, I think you're with the wrong party." "And I looked at him, and I said, 'I'm not with the wrong party, I'm with the right party. Let me tell you why.' " Maldonado, who spoke after the room had somewhat emptied following...

The LifeWay Christian Store on South State Street in Salt Lake City has a shelf of LDS literature. These are books, however, that probably not one Mormon in a million will ever read. Basically, they are "defense manuals," handbooks for helping Protestants deal with this ambitious, upstart religion that's out to perform a baptism for every soul who has ever set foot on earth. Last Monday, I spent about an hour thumbing through the books on the Mormon shelf at LifeWay. The books range from "kind and honest" to "kind of honest." The best remind me of the volume "I...

AUSTIN – A bent to conservatism and family makes Hispanics a promising pool of votes for Republicans, but the party's targeting of illegal immigrants has withered its attraction. Regardless, Gov. Rick Perry has fared relatively well, perhaps because of his anti-Washington rhetoric and his careful immigration stance, a recent poll indicates.

Last month, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her senior staff privately met in Washington, D.C., with a select group of Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organizations. Among the mix were three organizations directly associated with an outlawed terrorist entity — the Muslim Brotherhood. Secretary Napolitano spent an hour and a half briefing them on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) counter-radicalization and anti-terrorist programs. The intensive briefings spanned two days (January 27 and 28) and were called by the DHS. Although there is no evidence of an exchange of classified information, this meeting was the beginning of an Obama administration...

The Obama administration's efforts to find common ground with congressional Republicans ran into two pockets of resistance Tuesday: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner. At a closed-door White House session, Pelosi expressed skepticism over an administration proposal to offer tax breaks to business that create new jobs. And Boehner urged Obama to abandon much of the Democrats' current agenda on the ground that it's killing jobs by creating uncertainty in the markets. The White House session with congressional leaders was supposed to be a step toward bipartisanship, with a focus on jobs. But Pelosi made it...

Pastor Rick Warren, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) ,and Valerie Jarrett Warn Against Stereotyping Muslims Pastor Rick Warren, left, shakes hands with Yusuf Islam, best known by his former name Cat Stevens, after speaking at the convention. [Pic in URL] Ahmed Mohamed Staff Writer Washington — More than 30,000 Muslims from across America attended the 46th annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) July 3–6 in Washington, where they heard calls for building bridges of understanding and for increased involvement in community service programs. The ISNA meeting is described as the largest annual gathering of Muslim Americans. Also...

This video is arranged with a short instrumental medley of the hymns; Softly and Tenderly, Lord I’m Coming Home! Also with an animated hummingbird!