Free Republic

The 62-year-old Chinese shopkeeper had waited nearly his entire adult life to see his dream of building a church come true — a brick house with a sunny courtyard and spacious hall with room for 200 believers. But in March, about a dozen police officers and local officials suddenly showed up at the church on his property and made the frightened congregants disperse. They ordered that the cross, a painting of the Last Supper and Bible verse calligraphy be taken down. And they demanded that all services stop until each person along with the church itself was registered with the...

Truncated title. Full title:Letter by climate change scientists urging prosecution of skeptics deemed a 'mistake' and 'withdrawn' You would think the group of 20 or so climate change scientists who sent a letter to President Obama urging him to prosecute climate skeptics under the RICO statute would have consulted a PR firm before they made asses of themselves to the whole country. But now, the learned men of science have hired Climate Nexus, a PR firm specializing in spinning global warming news. The letter - a move the PR firm called a "big mistake" - has been "withdrawn" and a...

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei says authorities have begun razing his Beijing studio. The frequent government critic says on his Instagram account the demolition began Friday without prior notice and posted videos of an excavator smashing the windows of his "Zuoyou" studio. The studio in the northeast Beijing suburbs has been Ai's primary work space since 2006, although his has mostly been based in Europe in recent years. It's unclear whether the demolition is targeting Ai. Beijing authorities have demolished large swaths of the suburbs in the past year in a building safety campaign, typically giving at least several days' notice....

In the old days you had to be rather literate if you wished to be an anti-Christian. That is, you had to read a few books. You had to be able to follow an argument. Two centuries ago you would read Voltaire or Tom Paine. And in the late 1800s you’d read Herbert Spencer or Thomas Henry Huxley. And in the first half of the 20th century you would read Freud or Bertrand Russell or John Dewey. (Dewey never explicitly attacked Christianity. He simply took it for granted that we are already living in a post-Christian world.) Since then, however,...

Over at Mahound’s Paradise, St. John Cantius parishioner Oakes Spalding has a post up about Fr. Frank Phillips, who, having not been allowed to return to the parish he built up as a center of Catholic restoration in America, will be sent to St. Louis by his superior, where his larger order, the Resurrectionists, have a seminary. In a series of simple photographs, Spalding contrasts the differences between where Fr. Phillips is going and what he has created. Here’s a sample: As you can see, the “Where Fr. Phillips is Going” images, below, are the three featured photographs on the...

The American Left equates sincere religious faith with bigotry. That’s why Kavanaugh will face a religious test from Senate Democrats in his confirmation hearings. n his remarks Monday night upon accepting President Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh said this: “My judicial philosophy is straightforward. A judge must be independent, and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret statutes as written, and a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.” You’d think that would be enough to settle the question of whether Kavanaugh is fit to...

People on the left are outraged when you question their patriotism, their dedication to the nation as founded and their respect for the Constitution as originally written, but they continually vindicate our concerns. The most recent example is the left's unhinged mania at Judge Amy Coney Barrett's inclusion on President Trump's list of potential Supreme Court appointees. In times of perceived crisis — and this is certainly one of those times for leftists — they show their colors, and you can color them militantly opposed to Barrett, in large part because of her Catholicism. And guess what else. Rumor is...

“Power Made Perfect in Weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:1-10) The words that engage our attention this morning and that will bring comfort to our souls are these verses from our Epistle reading, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, where St. Paul writes: “But he [the Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am...

A Christian bus driver in Toronto has been charged with a "hate crime" for distributing pamphlets saying homosexuality can lead to diseases and that Jesus can save gay people if they repent. Bill Whatcott "distributed anti-gay material which promoted hatred toward the gay community," Toronto Police Service said in a statement, adding that he was arrested in Calgary and later returned to Toronto. The 51-year-old Christian man was charged with "willful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group, namely the gay community." The pamphlets he allegedly distributed said homosexuality is associated with sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV of the rectum,...

As FBI director Christopher Wray started giving his response to the blistering report on the Hillary Clinton investigation, I hoped he would accept the findings as proof the agency lost its way and must be shaken to its foundation. By the time he finished talking, I felt ­naive for daring to hope. Wray’s performance was worse than disappointing. It was infuriating proof that it will take more than one election to change the corrupt culture of Washington.

"Supreme Court of Canada says 7-2 decision will ensure open access for LGBT students" A B.C.-based evangelical Christian university has lost its legal battle over accreditation for a planned new law school, with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling today saying it's "proportionate and reasonable" to limit religious rights in order to ensure open access for LGBT students. In a pair of 7-2 rulings, the majority of justices found the law societies of British Columbia and Ontario have the power to refuse accreditation based on Trinity Western University's so-called community covenant. The mandatory covenant binds students to a strict code...

BREAKING: Newly disclosed text among FBI officials says ‘We’ll stop’ Trump from becoming president. The message is included in a forthcoming Justice Department inspector general report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation.

The New York State attorney general’s office filed a scathingly worded lawsuit on Thursday taking aim at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity and the Trump family of sweeping violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign. The lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the foundation and bar President Trump and three of his children from serving on nonprofit organizations, was an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president. The attorney general also sent referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission for possible further action, adding to Mr. Trump’s extensive...

A Burma medic, Joseph, treats Yezidi IDPs from Afrin.This is the first of a three-part report on Syria and our recent mission there. This was our fifth mission to Syria to give medical and other humanitarian help, build playgrounds in areas previously held by ISIS, and share the love of Jesus. We were a 17 person team; five ethnic medics and cameramen from Burma, three American volunteers, our Kurd, Iraqi, and Syrian coordinators and our family. We entered Syria from Iraq and traveled to Raqqa, Tabqa, Deir ez-Zor, Ayn Issa, Membij, Kobani, Qamishli, Tel Tamir, Hasakah, and surrounding areas. Background...

Missouri state prosecutors have dropped their criminal case against the Republican governor. Gov. Eric Greitens had been accused of invasion of privacy for taking a nude picture of the woman with whom he’d been having an affair. According to ABC News, prosecutors still want charges brought against the governor, but want a special prosecutor to bring them later. Prosecutors have acknowledged not having the supposed picture.

Three-quarters of California’s state assembly supported a bill that has striking implications for American citizens’ first freedoms, in that state and nationally. It is ostensibly a ban on gay and transgender “conversion therapy,” but the bill’s vague and sweeping text could affect essentially every institution of every religion that affirms sexual complementarity.We’re talking churches, schools, religious charities, summer camps — every forum that involves a financial transaction could be banned from allowing any discussion of basic doctrines of sexuality that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, among others, have held for thousands of years. We’re talking core doctrines of religions adhered...

“‘If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you’” (John 15:18-19). Because they are not part of the world’s system, Christians should expect it to hate and oppose them. If you’ve been a Christian for a while, you doubtless remember how soon you realized that you were no longer in step with the world’s culture. You were no longer comfortable...

The North Indian state of Uttarakhand is now the eighth state in the country to pass legislation that is officially named the "Freedom of Religion Act" but has the allegedly hidden intent to punish those who facilitate religious conversions, especially conversions from Hinduism to Christianity. The latest law carries a jail term of up to two years. The Governor of Uttarakhand, Krishna Kant Paul, signed the Uttarakhand Freedom of Religion Bill of 2018 into law this month, according to local media reports. The law will be in force as soon as the state government, governed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya...

IMPORTANT: For live updates on the Alfie Evans case, click here. LIVERPOOL, England, April 25, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Liverpool police are warning that social media posts about “Alder Hey Hospital and the ongoing situation involving Alfie Evans” are “being monitored” and what they deem as “malicious communications” will be investigated. “Merseyside Police has been made aware of a number of social media posts which have been made with reference to Alder Hey Hospital and the ongoing situation involving Alfie Evans,” Merseyside Police Chief Inspector Chris Gibson said. “I would like to make people aware that these posts are being monitored and remind social...

The church of the village of Hutuo has been reduced to a pile of ruins; the tomb of the bishop of Luoyang, not recognized by the government, was desecrated; children are forbidden to enter churches; threats against Catholic parents and seniors: if they continue to believe they will not receive government subsidies or pensions.Rome (AsiaNews) - "The Catholic Church in the province of Henan, in central China, is violently persecuted! Pray for them! ": This is the appeal we received yesterday from different parts of China, along with a list of violent acts that have occurred in recent weeks and...