Free Republic

No matter how ineptly Barack Obama continues to govern, his chances of winning reelection remain strong. As the results from Iowa suggest, the GOP is too addled and divided to field a formidable and philosophically coherent opponent against him. Say this at least for the Democrats: They have the sense to run nominees who actually support the platform of their party. This rudimentary task is too tricky for Republicans to perform. They haven't been able to locate in over a generation a presidential nominee who supports theirs. George Bush Sr., Bob Dole, George Bush Jr., John McCain, and now Mitt...

Pets rejoice! A recent survey shows that many pet parents are making New Year’s resolutions to spend more time with their pets and make sure they are loved even more than they were last year. More than 1,000 pet parents, including hundreds of Kibblers, recently participated in the Halo, Purely for Pets Pet Parents’ New Year’s Resolution Survey. According to the survey, many pet parents want to do a better job grooming their pets, with 68.1 percent resolving to trim their pets’ nails more often, 52.6 percent planning to give their dogs and cats more baths, and more than 80...

Is the real issue hidden beneath a catchy headline “the war on Christmas?” A war on Christmas is a war against what we call a decorated tree. It is a war against what we call the school break that arrives each year around Christmas time. It is a war against public display of Christian themed decorations. It is a war of political correctness of whether one should wish you a Merry Christmas, offer you a sanitized season’s greeting, or refer to an alternative list of faith based and made up celebrations, all so as not to offend. To that extent,...

Durham Crematorium wants to install turbines in two of its burners, which would use the heat generated during the cremation process to provide the same amount of electricity as would power 1,500 televisions. A third burner is to be used to provide heating for the site's chapel and its offices. The scheme would be the first of its kind in the UK but industry experts say that it could be followed by other similar projects. Many crematoria are currently replacing their furnaces, to meet government targets on preventing mercury emissions from escaping into the atmosphere. Up to 16 per cent...

Air Force Academy Adapts To Pagans, Druids, Witches and Wiccans Officials say an $80,000 Stonehenge-like worship center underscores a commitment to embrace all religions. (Pic in URL) Cadets gather for the dedication ceremony of the Air Force Academy's Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle worship center this spring. The center serves cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of “Earth-based.” (Jerilee Bennett, (Colorado Springs) Gazette / May 3, 2011) By Jenny Deam November 26, 2011 Reporting from Colorado Springs, Colo.— In the still of a cold November evening, a small gathering of pagans, led by two witches, begins preparations for the...

For the first time in Senate history, a bill has been introduced to encourage agencies not to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples seeking to adopt. “As more and more LGBT couples are getting married and starting families, we have a great opportunity to place children without a family into happy homes,” said Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, New York Democrat and lead sponsor of the Every Child Deserves a Family Act, Monday at the Huffington Post. The past year has seen many moves toward gay equality, and “the momentum is there to build on our progress,” she said,...

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.(Psalm 2:1-3)The Psalmist looks ahead to a tumultuous time when “Nations are in an uproar and the people imagine a vain thing”. Indeed we are living in a time when the nations are in turmoil, raging like the sea, even as Jesus warned us that they would in the last days, And there shall be...

I always appreciate a story where an individual who enjoys hunting animals simply for sport or who torments animals for pleasure- get his comeuppance. Good for the bull.

Earthquakes. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Floods. Fires. Some natural disasters can be anticipated. Others can't, but we can prepare for them - and our emergency plans should include our pets. In the wake of large disasters in recent years, even federal, state and local emergency managers have realized the importance of providing information for pet owners and including the welfare of animals in their own plans. Probably one thing that many pet owners don't think about with those plans are the dangers that pets are susceptible to in the hours and days immediately following the destruction from a disaster.

LAS VEGAS — While religious service attendance has decreased for all white Americans since the early 1970s, the rate of decline has been more than twice as high for those without college degrees compared to those who graduated from college, according to new research to be presented at the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association. "Our study suggests that the less educated are dropping out of the American religious sector, similarly to the way in which they have dropped out of the American labor market," said lead researcher W. Bradford Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University...

[Still looking for that scary youtube video of State Dept. official warning illegal aliens from south of the border seeking "work", that they could be banned from the U.S. for life if caught working here illegally.] [So far, not having any luck finding that video. Mabye they just made one for the benefit of young Israelis thinking about coming here to work illegally.] From INN: "The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv released a video warning young Israelis not to be tempted by illegal offers of work in the United States. The YouTube video features testimony by young Israelis who were...

Comparing Christianity and the New Paganism The most serious challenge for Christianity today isn't one of the other great religions of the world, such as Islam or Buddhism. Nor is it simple atheism, which has no depth, no mass appeal, no staying power. Rather, it's a religion most of us think is dead. That religion is paganism — and it is very much alive. Paganism is simply the natural gravity of the human spirit, the line of least resistance, religion in its fallen state. The "old" paganism came from the country. Indeed, the very word "paganism" comes from the Latin...

The U.N. Meddling with Religion: Part 7 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Rio de Janeiro, June 3-14, 1992 Informally called the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil.Another example of the United Nations trying to blend all religions together into a New Agey "Global Consciousness aka: the coming Planetary Transformation aka: World Awakening aka: Shift to the New Aquarian Age" and get rid of the "exclusive" Christian Gospel.Conference Secretary-General: Maurice StrongFrom this UN page:The two-week Earth Summit was the climax of a process, begun in December 1989, of planning, education and negotiations among all Member States of the...

A rather unexpected voice just joined the chorus of the liberal media outcry over sex scandals among some Catholic clergymen: none other than Evo Morales, Bolivia’s socialist and neopagan president. A Neopagan Socialist... Indeed, Mr. Morales, leader of the Movement to Socialism, figured he should teach the Pope how things in the Church ought to be run. For those who may not know, he was inaugurated President of Bolivia in 2006 using indigenous pagan rituals.1 The Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos, of Cochabamba (6/20/2006), described the ceremony: “Evo Morales assumed political power with a spectacular display of religious rituals alluding to...

The ELCA has placed their opinion over God’s Word. The denomination's actions and teachings show us that they place their own authority over God’s authority. They have made themselves god and that is idolatry. Not surprisingly this isn’t the only form of idolatry happening in the ELCA. ELCA church Ebenezer Lutheran, otherwise knows as herchurch, in San Francisco posted highlights from their Christ Sophia Mass in 2009 on youtube. Pastor Stacy Boorn opens the service this way, “Welcome to the Christ Sophia mass, the incarnation of she who is all wisdom. . .” At the 2:33 minute mark of the...

More than eighty years ago, America began moving away from its' founding Biblical-based worldview to what President Calvin Coolidge identified as "pagan materialism." Fearing for the future of our Constitutional Republic he said in a speech delivered on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926: "Democracy is Christ's government in church and state," said Coolidge as he quoted John Wise (1710). "Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the theory of inalienable rights....When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration...

As a nation we have been going down the drain quickly. Over the last several years we have been bombarded everywhere we look with all kinds of evil. The Libertarians say “close your eyes if you don’t like it after all it’s my choice to see and do as I please”. Over the last few years on my Facebook page I have been arguing with them over the fact they want to make drugs & prostitution legal. Our nation slips ever so slowly into more and more filth and no one seems to see it or care. Now the courts...

Newman about Mary, Mother of God. By Bertrand de Margerie. S.J. We can contemplate with Cardinal Newman the Virgin Mary as earthly co-operator of our redeemer, as our earthly mediatrix and as our heavenly advocate. We can ask ourselves how he would react today to the petitions of millions of Catholics, including numerous Bishops, asking Pope John Paul to define as dogma the Mother of God, Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate of mankind.At first sight it would seem that Newman, avoiding the signature of any petition, would have rejected any affirmation contending that Mary was co-redemptrix if this word was...

By | Published: Jesus told his listeners, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). For many people, this verse provides the heart of “replacement theology”—the idea that the Christian Church has replaced the old physical nation of Israel as God’s chosen people and priestly nation (1 Pet. 2:9–10, et al). Without requiring the use of the label “replacement,” this is essentially what the verse teaches. It does not mean that Jewish people can never again taste of God’s grace, it simply means that the Old Jewish...

Top 10 Reasons I Hate the UN10. UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationMay 28, 2009:I’d think that seriously advocating book burning at any time would disqualify you, since presumably there are equally qualified candidates for the UN’s cultural heritage agency who’ve never advocated destroying cultural heritage. But Israeli society is toxic anyway – especially compared to the glory that is the contemporary Egyptian public sphere – so no loss:Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, a candidate for the top job at the United Nations culture agency UNESCO, apologised on Wednesday for calling for Israeli books to be burnt… Hosni...

Last Updated: Wed, 10/06/2010 - 3:40pmStill tainted by a major scandal involving officials who view pornography on taxpayer time, the federal agency that funds science research and education has awarded a New York theater company $700,000 to finance a show about climate change. The perplexing arts grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) was first reported in a brief that appeared in the Sunday Arts section of the New York Times. The one-paragraph announcement even mentions that the grant is a rare gift to an arts organization from a federal agency that pays for science, engineering and mathematics research and...

In a letter to parishes dated October 4-- the memorial of St. Francis of Assisi-- Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles will announce the formation of the Archdiocesan Creation Sustainability Ministry, according to the electronic newsletter of the Catholic Climate Covenant. “We exhort our faith communities and all our brothers and sisters to take the St. Francis Pledge, an initiative that urges Catholics nationwide to pray for, learn about, assess, act and advocate for populations affected by climate change, especially those that are most vulnerable,” Cardinal Mahony adds. “The St. Francis Pledge is a promise and a commitment by Catholic...

Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC: The Grand Procession of the Ghouls, Blessing of the bicycles, the creepy Peace Fountain, The Peace Altar, Paul Winter’s Earth Mass and Summer/Winter Solstice concert, Blessing of the Animals, Rev. Dr. James A. Kowalski, The Temple of Understanding, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, William Irwin Thompson, The Lindisfarne Association, Madeleine L’Engle, Rev. James Parks Morton, United Nations Sunday, and Christa: a crucifix depicting Christ as a woman… and more!

"You are already satisfied, you have already grown rich; you have become kings without us...We are fools on Christ's account...we are weak but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute" --1 Cor. 4: 7-13. "I saw a lot of kelly green shirts. It's cool. It was nice to have that crowd of 81,000...[so] obviously into it, rooting for your team" --Fighting Irish Coach Brian Kelly, when asked what struck him the most about coaching his first game at Notre Dame Stadium. Sitting in Mass Saturday morning, and listening to the day's first reading from Paul's...

Factory farming, green living among topics sparking discussion Animal advocates gain ground in religious circles In Genesis, the Lord created animals, said they were good and then gave man permission to eat them. While not a universal belief, many Christians traditionally have embraced a biblical stance on animals as a source of companionship, food and labor, but not much else. "We know from the Bible that God created animals, he cares about them intimately and he wants us to care about them," said Ben DeVries, 30, of Kenosha, Wis., who started a blog, "Not One Sparrow," to encourage his conservative...

Hendricks Chapel recognized Mary Hudson as its first pagan chaplain on Feb. 1, in line with its goal of being more inclusive of all religions on campus. This is the first new chaplain since the appointments of the Buddhist and the historically black church chaplains and the 11th chaplain at Hendricks. As a chaplain, Hudson will work at Hendricks two days a week, sponsor community outreaches and be apart of the Chaplains Council. Syracuse University may be only the second university in the nation to have a pagan chaplain, Hudson said. The only other one she was aware of is...

Oh boy. I don't even know where to start with this one. This story is just a microcosm of so much that's wrong with so many of our "Catholic" universities. The Jesuit run University of San Francisco has removed a number of confessionals and replaced them with a "pagan" art gallery. Yup. You read that right. And they say they're doing it as a "testament to St. Ignatius of Loyola." You know the St. Ignatius whose Exercises state:In consequence, having made a better Confession and being better disposed, one finds himself in condition and prepared to receive the Blessed Sacrament:...

Ever wonder about the final straw that will bring down western civilization? A British judge may have created it. On November 3rd, Mr Justice Michael Burton, the same judge that allowed continued showing of An Inconvenient Truth to children in British schools even while recognizing it to be a dishonest political propaganda film decided that: "A belief in man-made climate change, and the alleged resulting moral imperatives, is capable if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations." The ruling means that an employment tribunal will decide whether Al Gore should...

The New York Times has an interesting article today. Apparently, Paganism is growing, and that's just fine, at least according to the NYT. Paganism has always been seen as the "alright religion" by the left. It's hip, cool, different. Not at all like those stuffy christians. "In several ways, though, Paganism was waiting for modernity to catch up with it. The emphasis on the worship of nature in virtually all variations of Pagan faith, and the embrace of a female divinity in many, situated the religion to mesh with the environmental and feminist movements that swept through the United States...

Last Halloween, Gina Uberti took vacation days to celebrate the Wiccan new year in Salem, Massachusetts, the town infamously known for the witch trials of 1692 that ended with the hanging of 14 women. Less than a month after Uberti took part in the festivities of Samhain, one of the holiest days in the Wiccan calendar, she was fired from her job as a district sales manager for Bath & Body Works.

Mankind has really been put in its place over the past 500 years. Why only the other day, back in 1400, the sun orbited the earth; man was God's consummate work of art; humans were masters of themselves and the domain God provided for them. Our secular fall from grace began with Copernicus, who dislodged the world from its celestial catbird seat. Later, Darwin established that man, far from being the animal kingdom's pièce de résistance, was a bit like a baboon in... --snip-- One activist author posits that the planet can support only one billion people -- a number...

In his commencement address to the University of Notre Dame’s 2009 graduating class last month, President Obama recognized an obvious truth with his statement that pro and anti abortion advocates have certain irreconcilable differences. Those differences were obvious when Obama’s invitation to Notre Dame was subject to controversy and pronounced public disagreement. It was obvious again during the President’s commencement address when anti-abortion advocates vocally challenged the President and were, in turn, vocally challenged by others in the audience. What might not be so obvious, however, is that one of the differences between the two sides of this issue, whether...

James Von Brunn’s writings don’t sound very “right-wing.” On June 10, the nation tragically witnessed a memorial dedicated to commemorating an atrocity become the site of yet more death. Just before 1 p.m., longtime neo-Nazi James Wenneker Von Brunn entered the Holocaust Museum on the National Mall and opened fire in an attempt to complete the Final Solution his hero had left tentative, an omission Von Brunn dubbed “Hitler’s biggest mistake.” As former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen wandered the museum grounds, Von Brunn killed Stephen T. Johns, a black security officer, then was shot himself. As of this writing, the...

During the 17th century in England, someone urinated in a jar, added nail clippings, hair and pins, and buried it upside-down in Greenwich, where it was recently unearthed and identified by scientists as being the world's most complete known "witch bottle." This spell device, often meant to attract and trap negative energy, was particularly common from the 16th to the 17th centuries, so the discovery provides a unique insight into witchcraft beliefs of that period, according to a report published in the latest British Archaeology.

It seems to me that many on the cultural left are, while secular when it comes to conventional religion, very much believers in something that might be called secular religions—the religion of global warming, the religion of embryonic stem-cell research.My Creators Syndicate column discusses the Obama budget and how it caters to the religion of global warming by imposing huge costs on what now is an ailing economy in order to fight disasters which we are told will strike us—we area told that there can be no argument—you must have faith!—40 or 50 years from now.As for embryonic stem-cell research,...

The obvious problem arising out of the Golden Calf is how could the Jewish people, fresh from the miracles of Egypt, Sea of Reeds, manna and the revelation at Sinai revert to paganism and to the worship of a man-made deity. What possessed them to be so blind as to their own recent experiences and to their stated destiny? Of course, this incident is the ultimate proof of the allowance for free will in human affairs, even for the most destructive form of free will. And, yet, it is most troubling to realize how seriously error prone the Jewish people...

A Tennessee historian and author best known for his searches for the Ark of the Covenant – the box containing the Ten Commandments – is now challenging much of modern Christianity, claiming the traditional version of the faith has more in common with ancient paganism than actual biblical content. "Today, it is amazing what is being presented as Christianity," says Richard Rives of Lewisburg, Tenn., who has just released a book and DVD collection titled, "Time is the Ally of Deceit." "First century believers would have never accepted [today's practices]," the 56-year-old ark hunter told WND. "We must earnestly contend...

In a bizarre ritual, two minor girls, both seven, from the remote Pallipudupet village in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district were married off to frogs on Friday night. The ceremony, an annual feature during the Pongal (harvest) festival, is conducted "to prevent the outbreak of mysterious diseases in the village''. The girls, Vigneswari and Masiakanni, dressed up in traditional bridal finery -- gilded sarees and gold jewellery -- married the frog 'princes' in separate, elaborate ceremonies at two different temples in the presence of hundreds of villagers. Amidst chanting of vedic hymns, the temple priests garlanded the brides and tied the...

America has an ever-growing belief that "Christmas" should be taken out of...well, Christmas! We are inundated with stories about the "indignity" visited upon others by simply wising them a "Merry Christmas." At what point does this censorship of the season's greeting cross the line from mere annoyance to utter madness? Read today's "Geeks On Caffeine" and find out for yourself! NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying it within this thread. Thank you very much!

For a blind watchmaker, Evolution is quite the seer. Science articles often personify Evolution into a wizard and worker of miracles. This is odd, considering that evolution is supposed to be an aimless, purposeless process of chance and necessity with no goals in mind. Evolution, the Learner: Evolution learns from past environments, we are told by Science Daily. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute believe that evolution learns its lessons so well it can parry them into inventions by digging into its bag of mistakes. The article states nonchalantly, “evolution can learn the rules of the environment and develop organisms that...

Are witches real? Of course they are. Are they skinny old women with green skin, pointy chins and warts on their noses, who cackle over cauldrons? Of course not. Do they attend an academy called “Hogwarts,” play a form of hockey on their broomsticks and battle mythical beasts? Is “Samantha,” a pretty middle-class suburban wife with magical powers and a gaggle of kooky and spooky family members, a witch? Of course not. All of that is an attempt to make us believe that there are not really such things as witches.

The Pagans for Obama Group is planning a magickal working tomorrow (FRIDAY) night. We're going to perform a "Rolling Circle" Healing Ceremony for the election. That means that are sisters and brothers in the East will begin and then those in each successive time zone will join half an hour later. This ceremony was the result of a discussion among us about Palin's authorization of aerial hunting of wolves and bears and the horrendous lies and distortions being propelled from the campaign in order to damage Barack. After much discussion and wise counsel, we are united in creating this ceremony...

Prison bosses have been instructed to let pagan inmates keep twigs in their cells...to use as wands. Officers have been told to allow prisoners to collect and decorate the twigs which they need for their rituals. It is the latest in a series of rulings to protect convicts' rights and ensure equality among different faiths. Followers of other faiths are allowed items such as a prayer mat to allow them to worship. The policy regarding pagans was announced by Justice Reform Minister Maria Eagle in a parliamentary answer. She said: "Prison service policy is to enable prisoners of different faith...

You couldn't have missed it, if you tried. There were TV specials on National Geographic, CNN, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel, among many others. Oprah commemorated the event and every newscast seemingly reminded viewers of the day's significance. It was Earth Day, a holiday meant to celebrate the Earth, but something just didn't feel right about it. Perhaps it's because Earth Day seems to be transforming into ...

March 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This past Monday Oprah Winfrey, considered by many to be the world's most influential woman, began a ten-week long online course on the best-selling book, "A New Earth," by New Age guru, Eckhart Tolle. "A New Earth" has already sold some 3.5 million copies worldwide, thanks largely to the publicity given to it by Oprah. According to Oprah, 500,000 people from across the world signed on to the first segment of the online course, to spend an hour and a half listening to Ekhart and Oprah talking about chapter 1 of the book, and taking calls...

I used to be a pagan. Not a neo-pagan with phony stilted semi-Tolkienesque speech (“Bright blessings! Merry meet!” “An it harme noone do as thou wilt”). Nor was I an adherent of some recently minted group of Gaia-worshippers playing dress-up in their Society for Creative Anachronism costumes and pretending they are living by Ye Olde Religion like somebody from The Da Vinci Code’s central casting department.No. I was a real pagan, which is to say, I was like jillions of other kids raised in American suburbia in the 1960s and ’70s, so remote from God that I didn’t even know...

Yoga Cred by: Deborah Lambert, January 29, 2008 Although students at Needham (Mass) High School may have felt a lot less stressed after principal Paul Richards stopped publishing the list of honor roll recipients last year, it seems the relaxation guru was just getting started, according to Michelle Malkin, who noted that his latest idea was for the school to sponsor “in-school yoga classes.” “It’s not that I’m trying to turn the culture upside down,” Richards told the New York Times, explaining that his goal was simply to bring “the culture to a healthier place.” These health concerns not only...

In 2000, when scientists declared that the Earth's temperature was rising, much anxiety ensued, even though the increase was only half of a degree over sixty years. In just the past year, however, the Earth's temperature has reversed, yielding back one-half of that increase. Last month, I wrote that the past month's (November's) global oceanic data from the National Climatic Data Center was .2548 degrees warmer than the 1880-2007 average. That was down from .5250 last year and .5597 roughly a decade ago. Well, they have dropped even further. This past month's average reading, .2493 degrees above average, is the...

Former Episcopal Priest Explores Christianity and Druidry in New Novel http://www.bloggernews.net/112455 December 17th, 2007 by suzanne evans On March 22nd 2005, The Rev Walter William Melnyk was forced out of the priesthood of the US Episcopal Church after facing charges of “holding private opinions inconsistent with the teachings of the Church.” This allegation, effectively a heresy charge, ended his 23 year-strong vocation as a priest, even though his only transgression was to look into Celtic Christianity and its connection with pre-Christian Druidry. Now, Walter William Melnyk has delved further into those links in a new novel written with Druid priestess...

Green MartyrdomSeveral months ago I heard a provocative description of martyrdom from Fr. Robert Cook, President of the new Wyoming Catholic College. His idea was that martyrdom in the modern age is not necessarily one of bloody (red) martyrs who die violently for the Faith. Neither is it the daily, silent and sacrificial (white) martyrdom of humble believers. He says that modern martyrs will manifest their heroic courage economically; that is, we will be called to pay dearly for our principles, not necessarily at the cost of lives, but at the cost of dollars. This is “green” martyrdom, and it...