Free Republic

*** Russia has no honest allies in issues relating to the prevention of aggressive IslamismMoscow, May 22, Interfax - Radical Islamism is now present in 55 regions of Russia, General Anatoly Kulikov, former interior minister of Russia and president of the Russian Military Commanders Club, said at the conference Islamism and National Security of Russia held on Wednesday. "Of all existing threats, the most real threat to Russia is radical political Islam, or Islamism, which has declared a jihad in our country," Kulikov told the conference. Kulikov recalled that "Islamist centers have been at war with us since the time...

It is often believed that people who have PhDs are possessed of higher self-esteem and greater independent thought than the average population. As a PhD myself, I fully understand why people believe this. The rigorous studying, testing, and writing required to receive a doctorate should free the PhD's mind from the idols of the marketplace and teach him that great truth that Socrates discovered: the more we learn, the more we realize what we do not know. That's what should happen. What I have more often found (in myself, as well as in others) is that the knowledge acquired puffs...

“Freemasonry, Vatican II and 1960” By John Salza Consecration Now Conference Rome, May 13, 2011 There is a body of clear and compelling testimony from the likes of Cardinal Pacelli (future Pope Pius XII), Fr. Fuentes, Fr. Alonso, Fr. Schweigl ,Cardinal Oddi, Cardinal Ciappi, Fr. Malachi Martin, and even Cardinal Ratzinger (the future pope Benedict XVI) that the Third Secret of Fatima, not yet revealed by the Vatican, predicts a spiritual crisis in the bosom of the Church. In this presentation, I am going to elaborate on this theme, by demonstrating that this crisis is nothing less than a world...

First Prayer in Congress, September 1774, in Carpenters Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Washington D.C., May 22, 2013 / 12:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a move that could have national consequences for prayer in public life, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a federal case challenging the constitutionality of opening prayers at the town council meetings of Greece, New York. “It is perfectly constitutional to allow community members to ask for God's blessing according to their conscience,� Brett Harvey, Senior Counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, told CNA May 21. “A Supreme Court ruling reaffirming this historic tradition and...

Questioning “the motive and the reasoning” behind support for regime change in Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Libya, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church said that Islamic fundamentalist regimes are “even worse” than authoritarian ones. Under such regimes, Christians “will be considered second class because of their religion in a country in which Islam is the only standard,” said Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako. “I think moderate Muslims should be aware and assure Christians that they, indeed, will be respected as equal citizens.” The patriarch made his remarks amid rising violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq. The nation’s...

The following is the homily Katherine Jeffords Schori read in Caracas, Venezuela. The topic is the passage from Acts, wherein Paul drives out what the bible plainly identifies as a demon from a girl. The beauty of this place is legendary. It is beautiful – and fragile, for its beauty depends on a dynamic balance among the parts of this island system. Many people don’t notice beauty around them until it’s gone. When we go somewhere that looks very different, often it takes a long time to appreciate that it has beauty, even though it’s a different kind of beauty....

The American Atheists of Cranford, N.J., announced Friday they will be sending books on atheism to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to be placed next to Gideon Bibles inside every cabin and lodge at the state's parks. On April 28, Ed Buchner, the former president of American Atheists, a nonprofit organization that was founded by Madalyn Murray O'Hair in 1963, complained to the Department after he found "nine Bibles" inside his cabin, according to American Atheists. In a move to avoid controversy, and a potential lawsuit, the decision was made to remove all Bibles from the state's parks that...

The revelations of the scandals within the Obama administration in the past couple of weeks make those of us who are old enough recall 1973, when Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s investigative reporting and then the hearings of a special Senate investigative committee brought to the public one astounding detail after another about Watergate. The current developments have been even more striking. One scandal or possible scandal after another, reaching across different executive branch agencies, have come to light in breathtakingly brief succession. There has been the apparent cover-up about the Benghazi episode, the Justice Department’s open-ended seizure of phone...

The linear conception of history is so seductive, even antagonistic groups like Enlightenment philosophers and Marxists adopt it. It pervades their attitude toward religion. Both believe society matures as it sheds its religious heritage. Infantile societies practice religion, but progressive societies are secular, they maintain.

RICHLAND, Wash. (BP) -- A florist who was told by the state of Washington she must provide her services for a gay wedding is countersuing the state, saying she has served gay customers her entire career and is concerned the state's position on gay weddings will harm religious freedom. The countersuit by Arlene's Flowers came weeks after Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued the florist when its owner, Barronelle Stutzman, declined to design a wedding floral arrangement for a longtime customer who is gay. Washington legalized gay marriage last year. The countersuit, filed by the group Alliance Defending Freedom, says...

New York City, N.Y., May 18, 2013 / 06:02 am (CNA).- Bill Donohue of the Catholic League said he was “stunned” that the IRS investigated his organization in 2008, charging that the Democrat-leaning group Catholics United filed the complaint and used it to argue that CNN should drop him as a commentator. “This was a fishing expedition meant to intimidate me and create a chilling effect on my freedom of speech,” Donohue said. “I still couldn’t believe that a couple of weeks after the election, I was being asked to spend my entire Thanksgiving trying to defend the Catholic League...

I got an interesting port on my Facebook page. Yes, I still have one that I use to keep up with friends and family, but it is quickly becoming very adversarial. I'll let the comments below speak for themselves. Let me know what you think.

The 2011 census puts the Muslim population of the UK at around 5 per cent, a total that has been boosted by around 600,000 Muslim immigrants who have arrived in the UK over the past decade. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said to UK daily the Telegraph that the decline of Christianity is “inevitable.” “In another 20 years there are going to be more active Muslims than there are churchgoers,” he said.

Many Vatican-watchers interpreted the election of Pope Francis as Rome’s counter-offensive against the rise of neo-Pentecostalism in the global South. Pentecostalism is the fastest growing sect in the Latin America, where a third of the world’s Catholics live, and is giving the established Roman Church a run for its money — so to speak. The latest figures show that the numbers of Pentecostals throughout Latin America has soared since 1970 — when they represented a mere 4 percent of the population — to nearly 30 percent. In Guatemala it is estimated that four in ten are Pentecostals. Reasons for the...

New allegations claim the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) not only delayed the applications of new conservative groups, but also targeted a Christian group, Family Talk Action, and a well-established group, the Leadership Institute. In September 2011, well-known family advocate Dr. James Dobson's newest Christian ministry, Family Talk Action Corporation, filed a Form 1024 with the IRS requesting 501(c)(4) status. The attorney in charge had 26 years experience of filing these forms. "The Family Talk application was every bit as compliant as the ones he'd filled out in the past," said Alex McFarland, the group's Director of Apologetics. McFarland told The...

Isaiah 26:8 O Lord, we Love to Do Your Will! Our Heart's Desire is to Glorify Your Name.

Dennis Prager and others have done an excellent job of highlighting the genuinely anti-Semitic content of a recent Church of Scotland publication entitled “The Inheritance of Abraham? A Report on the ‘Promised Land,’” and Prager has even called it “ugliest depiction of Jews since medieval times.” What has not been mentioned, however, is the great tradition of philo-Semitism in recent Scottish Church history, making the contrast all the more extreme. Some of the great Scottish Presbyterian leaders of the 19th century built on the heritage of English Puritan theologians like John Owen (1616-1683), who wrote, “The Jews shall be gathered...

The memorable play of Irish author and playwright Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for Godot," has become a metaphor for situations in which people wait for someone unlikely to come, or do not even know what they are expecting. They just keep waiting and waiting. The handful of Orthodox Greeks left in Turkey appear to be waiting for Godot, too, caught in a very typical Turkish situation. The Theological School of Halki, which is attached to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has been closed down since 1971. Almost every day for the past 42 years, the Orthodox community has been anticipating the news of...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied asylum to a Christian family that came to America to homeschool their children. As previously reported, Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled to the United States in 2008 after German authorities demanded that they stop homeschooling their six children. Homeschooling was made illegal in the country in 1938 under the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler, and the law has never been repealed.......

Syrian troops crushed armed insurgent groups on Saturday at the southern edge of the capital. According to a Syrian military source, as a result of the anti-terrorist operations, the Deraa-Damascus highway, which leads to the border with Jordan, has been completely cleared of terrorist and insurgent forces, Voice of Russia Reported.The Army, reports the SANA news agency, has engaged in a successful offensive in the southern direction.“In the area of ​​Khirbet Gazzalya the army encircled and destroyed large patches of armed extremists who terrorized citizens, and engaged in sabotage and looting,� said the agency.The army also liberated Jassem on the...

The Controversy Over the Third Secret: Objections and Responses | Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R. | Appendix D from Fatima For Today: The Urgent Marian Message of Hope The Third Secret has been dealt with in two chapters in this book. Chapter 8 presented the content of the Third Secret as Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta saw it revealed to them. Chapter 16 presented how Sister Lucia wrote the Third Secret on a separate manuscript and then placed it in a sealed envelope. The chapter also traces what popes John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II did after reading it. The...

Proposed legislation would legalize abortion when the mother’s life is at risk. But the measure is medically unnecessary, many Irish doctors say.Ireland’s coalition government is pushing ahead with controversial plans to legalize abortion despite growing opposition from within the medical community. Pro-life campaigners have also dismissed claims by Prime Minister Enda Kenny that the draft law is limited in scope, saying it will lead to widespread abortion. Ireland and Malta are currently the only countries in Europe where abortion is still illegal. A draft of the so-called Protection of Life in Pregnancy legislation was published after protracted negotiations between the...

Beijing, May 13, Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia believes the Russian Orthodox Church and religious organizations of China could work together on strengthening morals in the world. "We have common moral tasks. These are global tasks. We see a sharp moral decline in many countries of the world, especially in the Western civilization," the patriarch said during a meeting with representatives of Chinese religious communities in Beijing on Monday. All laws are based on morals and moral decline "will lead to the collapse of the entire system of human relations and mankind will commit suicide," he...

The Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated under this title following apparitions to three shepherd children — Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco — in Portugal in 1917. The message of Fatima includes a call to conversion of heart, repentance from sin and a dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially through praying the Rosary. This optional memorial is new to the USA liturgical calendar and is inscribed on May 13. According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Robert Bellarmine. He was famous throughout Europe as a theologian,...

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY is being redefined in America, or at least many would like it to be. Our secular establishment wants to reduce the autonomy of religious institutions and limit the influence of faith in the public square. The reason is not hard to grasp. In America, “religion” largely means Christianity, and today our secular culture views orthodox Christian churches as troublesome, retrograde, and reactionary forces. They’re seen as anti-science, anti-gay, and anti-women—which is to say anti-progress as the Left defines progress. Not surprisingly, then, the Left believes society will be best served if Christians are limited in their influence on...

On 10 May the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church was received by President Xi Jinping, leading to the creation of a new Moscow-Beijing axisThe overture to Patriarch Kirill’s official visit to China marked an important moment in relations between China and the Orthodox Church. Yesterday, in the Great Hall of the People, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church had the privilege of meeting Chinese President, Xi Jinping. “You are the first Patriarch of Moscow and the first supreme religious leader from Russia to visit our country,” Xi told Kirill, presenting this unprecedented event as a “clear sign of...

I wrote HERE about Jesuit-run Boston College’s plan to have anti-Catholic catholic, pro-abortion Prime Minister of Ireland Enda Kenny speak at commencement and then confer on him an honor.Outrageous. Shades of Notre Shame.Now I read at the site of the Cardinal Newman Society (see their feed on the side bar) that the local Archbishop, Sean Card. O’Malley, will boycott the event. Cardinal Sean O’Malley Will Boycott Boston College CommencementArchdiocese of Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley said today that he plans to boycott Boston College’s commencement ceremony May 20 because it will feature Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as its commencement speaker....

Archdiocese of Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley said today that he plans to boycott Boston College's commencement ceremony May 20 because it will feature Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as its commencement speaker. The College is scheduled to award Kenny an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Kenny supports loosening the country's legislation against abortion. “Since the university has not withdrawn the invitation and because the Taoiseach (prime minister) has not seen fit to decline, I shall not attend the graduation,’’ O’Malley said in a statement released this afternoon. “It is my ardent hope that Boston College will work to redress the...

HOUSTON, TX (Catholic Online) - Finding that there is no law against what they were doing, a judge ruled that the cheerleaders violated no laws by holding banners during football games that made references to God. Koutnze Middle School cheerleaders say they have a tradition of making biblical and religious references on the banners which they hold at the end of halftime and the players run through when they return to the field. It's a widespread tradition practiced at schools across the nation. However, when the "Freedom from Religion Foundation" a litigious atheist organization whose purpose is to destroy any...

A few weeks ago Mitt Romney spoke at a college commencement exercise and encouraged the graduates to marry early and have a lot of children. He used the words “quiver full” taken from the Old Testament.The comment was unremarkable, particularly for a Mormon to make. They are known for marrying early and having quivers full of children. Contra the contraceptive culture, even among Evangelicals, the notion of a quiver full from the Psalms is gathering steam among orthodox believers.Here is what he said, “You only live one life. Don’t spend it in safe, shallow water. Launch into the deep. If...

Vatican City, May 10, 2013 / 07:06 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt met with Pope Francis at the Vatican and spoke about the urgent need for unity among Christians in the Middle East. “We must prepare our people for this very real and needed unity that we know and live, we must work quickly and seriously,� said Pope Tawadros II in May 10 remarks provided to CNA by his office. His visit to the Vatican is significant because he leades Egypt’s largest Christian Church with ten million members, as well as historic,...

The evangelical "Pray for Reform: 92 Days of Prayer and Action to Pass Immigration Reform" campaign called on Congress in a press call on Wednesday to pass meaningful legislation in the next 92 days, throwing further support behind the current momentum in Congress to finally pass a immigration reform bill. The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, explained in the press call that the number 92 is significant for evangelicals because the Hebrew word for immigration is mentioned 92 times in the Old Testament. "This number represents the biblical call to welcome the stranger. I'm...

Isaiah 25:1 O Lord, I will Honor and Praise Your Name, for You are my God; You Do Such Wonderful Things!

The Vatican (LifeNews.com) The Catholic Church has made it clear in the past that it strongly opposes abortion and wants pro-abortion politicians to rethink their views or consider refraining from taking communion. Pope Benedict XVI stepped up those warnings Wednesday saying pro-abortion politicians have excommunicated themselves. He also said he elected officials who support abortion would be prevented from receiving communion. The pontiff was asked about the topics in reference to a threat from the Catholic bishops in Mexico to excommunicate members of the Mexico City legislative assembly who recently voted to legalize abortion in the nation’s capital. “Yes, this...

The liberationist philosophy underpinning Obama’s co-ed, gay-friendly military holds, on the one hand, that sexuality is inherently fixed and thus beyond the control of individuals, and on the other that sexuality is subject to re-shaping “through changes in culture.” The social engineers of the military promised that age-old problems between men and women thrown together in close quarters would suddenly vanish under enlightened training. It hasn’t happened. Out of the military’s confused culture of loose moral philosophy, strict feminism, and combustible masculinity has come an endless stream of reports on sexual misconduct in the ranks. This week Congress mulled over...

How did scholars of the Middle East and those engaged in moonlighting (non-specialists who write about the region) react to the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013? Before the smoke cleared, some were predicting that the perpetrators would be "right-wingers" who sought to "disrupt tax day," "neo-Nazis," or "lone wolves." Given that Muslims constitute 30 of 32 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of most wanted terrorists, this represents either wishful thinking or willful blindness.Accordingly, after brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were identified as the perpetrators, scholars resorted to apologetics and obfuscation to explain away Islam's role: the...

HOUSTON (AP) - A judge ruled Wednesday that cheerleaders at a Southeast Texas high school can display banners emblazoned with Bible verses at football games. State District Judge Steve Thomas determined the Kountze High School cheerleaders' banners are constitutionally permissible. In a copy of the ruling obtained by Beaumont station KFDM, Thomas determined that no law "prohibits cheerleaders from using religious-themed banners at school sporting events."

This is a request for information assistance. Last night, I received a disturbing email from a longtime friend and pastor from my hometown church, which is breaking from the corrupt, mainline Presbyterian Church (USA), like many others are doing. Apparently PC (USA) has asked the congregation for an exorbitant sum of money, and is threatening the church manse and other property in an effort to force the congregation back into the corrupted fold. I've been out of the Presbyterian loop for a while but want to help, and so I'm wondering if anyone has any specific information about what is...

Washington D.C., May 8, 2013 / 12:08 am (CNA).- Uncertainty over what constitutes coercive “proselytism,” which is barred by military policy, has led to concern and criticism of recent statements by the U.S. Department of Defense. “Service members can share their faith (evangelize), but must not force unwanted, intrusive attempts to convert others of any faith or no faith to one's beliefs (proselytization),” Defense Department spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen said May 2. Military commanders take action on complaints of religious harassment “based on the gravity of occurrence on a case by case basis,” he said in a statement. Christensen...

Washington D.C., May 7, 2013 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- An Illinois-based Bible publisher has secured temporary relief from the federal contraception mandate after the Obama administration asked an appellate court to dismiss its challenge to a preliminary injunction. Matthew Bowman, senior legal counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending the publisher, told CNA that the move indicates “that the government knows it is taking an extremist view against religious freedom, and it is afraid to defend that in court.” As a result of the court order, the Bible publisher will remain protected by a temporary injunction, and will therefore...

Bishop Ross Bay New Zealand became the 13thcountry to legalise same sex marriage two weeks ago. This week the Anglican Bishop of Auckland is being taken to the Human Rights Tribunal over allegations he is discriminating against a gay man who wants to become a priest. Right Reverend Ross Bay (pictured) has been accused of preventing a gay man entering the Anglican Church's training or discernment programme for priests because he is unmarried and in a sexual relationship with his male partner. Bay denies the allegation. The complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he had been signalling his desire to train...

See that headline? It is the disingenuous creation of self-important anti-Catholic protestors. Joseph Amodeo writes at the Huffington Post about the "raw emotions" about being "denied a seat at Christ's table" and how as a result he feels "disowned, abandoned, and lost. " Oh the melodrama of it all. See, Joey and nine of his pals protested at St. Patrick's Cathedral in favor of gay rights. Their protest signs were their dirty hands. This junior high tactic was in response to Cardinal Dolan's column last week in which he said that LGBT people were welcome in the church so long...

<p>On Wednesday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said President Barack Obama needed to clear up and "renounce" the "un-American" and "amoral" reports from the Pentagon that U.S. soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their Christian faith. She called on Obama to do so "today, right now."</p>

Dear Spiritual But Not Religious Friends, Are your ears burning? You’re causing quite a stir in my circles these days. Many of my colleagues claim you are the biggest challenge of the church today. You probably didn’t know this was going on. You are Spiritual But Not Religious (SBNR) and most of us talking about you all the time are Spiritual And Also Religious. No offense, but the endless strategizing about you is getting a bit wearisome to me, so I wondered if we could have a frank conversation. As I am sure you’ve noticed, the institutional church in America...

As Orthodox Christians held Easter masses Saturday in the Middle East, North Africa and around the world, President Obama greeted the faithful saying Jesus' sacrifice "so that we might have eternal life" is an apt reminder this year with the region facing violent persecution. "For millions of Orthodox Christians, this is a joyful time," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House on Saturday. "But it's also a reminder of the sacrifice Christ made so that we might have eternal life. His decision to choose love in the face of hate; hope in the face of despair is...

Pope Francis has directed the bishops of Argentina, his home country, to govern the Church there following a document that makes clear that holy communion should be disallowed for any person who facilitates abortion, including politicians. “These are the guidelines we need for this time in history,” the pope wrote to the bishops. According to LifeSiteNews, Pope Francis emphasized use of the Aparecida Document as a framework in a letter to the Argentine Assembly of Bishops sent in late March. In 2007, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio--now Pope Francis--first presented the document on behalf of the bishops of Latin America. Cardinal Bergoglio...

. 2013-05-03 "RENDER UNTO CAESAR ..." =============================== The "strategic goal" of the pro-gay-marriage-farce movement is "NOT" about homosexual marriage or child adoption. All of that is a political smokescreen for the Low-Information-Voters ... which by the way ... including MILLIONS of Twenty-Somethings (like my four adult children) who know NOTHING of history and DESTRUCTION of a nation. The real goal of the pro-gay-marriage-farce movement is to create a Perfect Storm to REMOVE the Churches' IRS 501 C-3 tax-exempt status. This SATANIC PERFECT STORM is designed to force genuine Christian Churches into FINANCIAL POVERTY by having their (idolatrous) IRS 501 C-3...

Faithful America refused on Thursday to verify a claim that it had collected signatures from more than 20,000 Christians petitioning ESPN to suspend sports analyst Chris Broussard for what they feel are "hateful" comments towards NBA player Jason Collins who recently revealed he is gay. Collins announced in a Sports Illustrated article on Monday that he was a gay man who took his faith in Jesus Christ seriously. In a later interview on ESPN's "Outside the Lines"show, however, Broussard – who is a practicing Christian – said Collins' position was inconsistent with biblical teachings. "Personally, I don't believe that you...

Few Democratic Party constituencies were quicker and more vociferous than the union brass in commending President Barack Obama’s announcement on May 9, 2012, endorsing state court decisions and statutes that change the traditional definition of marriage by formally instituting same-sex unions. The top bosses of the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and a host of other unions all issued statements clearly implying that all right-thinking people should agree with Mr. Obama’s...

2Chronicles 7:14 If My People, which are Called by My Name, shall Humble themselves, and Pray, And Seek My Face, and Turn from their Wicked Ways; Then will I Hear from Heaven, and will Forgive their Sin, and will Heal their Land.