Free Republic

“Francis is more interested in leftwing politics than in Catholic theology”, George Neumayr, contributing editor of The American Spectator, states talking to Tom Woods on July 14th on tomwoods.com. Woods describes Francis as a result of John Paul II who - as he puts it - appointed "absolutely terrible people" as bishops: "Catholics have suffered under Bergoglios for decades now”. Neumayr agrees that a lot of the liberal bishops were appointed by John Paul II and Benedict XVI. He sees Francis as the “culmination of a century” of liberalism and modernism in the Church. For him it is "highly unlikely"...

On Tuesday, June 27, it will be 50 years since the first automated cash dispenser – which came to be known as an automated teller machine (ATM) – was inaugurated in London. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face. I belong to the generation who stood 45 minutes to an hour to deposit or cash checks in the pre-ATM era. I remember getting yelled at for taking my bicycle through the drive-up line at the National Bank of Detroit to avoid the much longer line inside. It did not take me very long to become an early...

It was a hot day in July, a Saturday afternoon, and Kim James was bored. Her older sisters had taken her to a church event in their small hometown in Indiana, where the girls were spending their summer. Her parents were back in Bangladesh, working at the remote Baptist missionary compound where the family had lived, on and off, for five years. For an adventurous and high-spirited 13-year-old like Kim, Indiana seemed dull compared to Bangladesh. She missed her friends, the dozen or so missionary kids everybody called “MKs.” She missed the menagerie her parents let her keep: goats, cows,...

As my colleague Roger Aronoff reports, the media are livid that President Donald Trump is dismantling former President Barack Obama’s “climate change” legacy of deindustrialization and federal government control of energy resources. Meanwhile, factions of the U.S. Catholic Church and some Protestants are brainwashing church members into accepting the non-Christian idea that religious faith involves a belief in an Earth Spirit. A so-called “Little White Book” was handed out in a number of American Catholic churches on April 16, supposedly to offer reflections based on the Resurrection narrative of the Gospel of Mark. Instead, the book included a number of...

Researchers looked at 22 Protestant churches in CanadaA study of Protestant churches in Canada has found that growing churches tend to be more orthodox, while shrinking ones are theologically liberal.Terry Mattingly, author of the Get Religion blog, covered the findings of the study, which appeared in the peer-reviewed journal, Review of Religion Research.The researchers, David Millard Haskell, Kevin N Flatt and Stephanie Burgoyne, looked at 22 mainline Protestant churches in Canada. Nine of the churches were growing in attendance, while 13 were declining. The researchers found that when other factors were controlled for, ”the theological conservatism of both attendees...

It seems referring to the Catholic Church as a “Middle Ages dictatorship” and religious Americans as “backwards” might just cost you in the polls. Donald Trump is up 13 points against Hillary Clinton among American Catholics, according to a new IBD/TIPP Presidential Election Tracking Poll out Nov. 2. The same poll reports that Trump is up 22 points with American Protestants. This stunning new poll is a dramatic change from numbers reported earlier, particularly before the Clinton campaign’s disparaging emails about Catholics were leaked. In the now infamous “Catholic Spring” emails, Sandy Newman, president and founder of the progressive nonprofit...

A national poll out Thursday shows Hillary Clinton ahead of Donald Trump by double-digits. The poll also breaks down support by religion and finds that white Protestants are Trump’s most supportive demographic. The Public Religion Research Institute found that Clinton leads nationwide among registered voters with 48 percent, Trump follows with 35 percent and two percent backed Libertarian Gary Johnson. This poll, unlike others, broke down support for each candidate by registered voters’ religious preferences. Trump’s support is strongest among white evangelical Protestants. Sixty-two percent of them back Trump and 23 percent support Clinton. Trump also leads among white mainline...

Gallup released a new poll this week that examines people’s positions on abortion based on their religious affiliation. The poll asked people about a series of moral issues, including abortion and doctor-assisted suicide, and then examined their answers based on their religious affiliation. Researchers found major differences among religious groups, with Protestants, Catholics and Mormons taking a pro-life stance and Jews and the non-religious taking a more liberal stance. Gallup reports: Jews and those with no religious preferences have virtually identical views on the morality of abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, gay-lesbian relations and cloning animals. Jews are somewhat less likely than...

The latest Pew Research poll reveals that while Ted Cruz is supported by white evangelical Republicans and those who regularly attend church service, the GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is preferred by white mainline Protestants and those who attend religious services less frequently. The poll released Friday shows that 41 percent of white evangelical Protestant Republican voters back Cruz, compared with 38-percent support for Trump. And 44 percent of Republican voters who regularly attend religious services are likely to back Cruz, while Trump has the backing of only 29 percent in this category. The poll also suggests that 57 percent of...

Planned Parenthood, which makes money from selling dead baby parts, has a Clergy Advocacy Board, which released a statement defending the abattoir.I tried to find the names of the board members, but came up with this when I clinked their link.  HEREI want to know who the Catholics are.A commentator (below) found it. I dates to April 2015, but we can assume it is still accurate for the most part.Here is a screen shot.

There are many reasons the Roman Catholic Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ, however, some of those reasons are necessary for discussions with those outside the Catholic Church. Jesus prayed for unity of believers and unity begins with understanding. The understanding of the Church’s beliefs is essential in working toward that unity. Here are some key reasons to keep in mind when speaking to non-Catholics: 1.) Authority- Jesus gave specific instructions regarding dealing with members of the Church who were in sin. Matthew 18:15-18 says “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between...

[The following are just excerpts from the first 5 sections of an extensive very revealing multifaceted 2014 Pew Research survey. My focus is mainly on the Protestant and Catholic views. Complete Report PDF] Religion in Latin AmericaWidespread Change in a Historically Catholic RegionLatin America is home to more than 425 million Catholics – nearly 40% of the world’s total Catholic population – and the Roman Catholic Church now has a Latin American pope for the first time in its history. Yet identification with Catholicism has declined throughout the region, according to a major new Pew Research Center survey that...

The Absurdity of Separated Brethren Before Protestants were "separated brethren"... Q. Does the Lord make use of apostate Catholics, such as Martin Luther, Calvin, John Knox, Henry VIII., King of England, to reform the manners of the people? A. The thought is absurd. The lives of those men were evil, and it is only the devil that makes use of them to pervert the people still more. The Lord makes use of His saints, such as a St. Francis of Assisium, a St. Dominick, a St. Ignatius, a St. Alphonsus, to convert the people and reform their evil manners...

Baden-Baden has been a spa town since Roman times, drawing tourists for its therapeutic waters, and more recently for a festival hall that features prominent classical artists. It also has a Faberge museum, which seems appropriate at this time of year: Christmas in Germany is like a brightly decorated eggshell with no egg inside. The forms of the holiday are merrily observed, but not the faith. To declare one’s belief in a personal God counts for proof of mental defect here as well as in most parts of Europe, especially among educated people. Nonetheless there is more faith left...

Questions abound over the recent vicious actions of the Chinese government towards Christians in the prosperous Zhejiang Province just south of Shanghai. The actions of the government during the fortnight after Easter against both Protestants and Catholics are unprecedented in recent decades and, justifiably, have received world attention. As with all actions in a country as vast as China, whose government could never be accused of transparency, it is difficult to discover who is making the decisions and what they hope to achieve. But one issue that has surprised many people outside China is both the size of its Christian...

Few people engaged in the "War on Christmas" are aware that at one time it was a crime in Massachusetts to celebrate Christmas. Oh sure, some will say, count on liberal Massachusetts to pass a law against Christmas. But it was Calvinist Massachusetts, in the days of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, the Pilgrims and Puritans, that established penalties for the observance of Christmas Day "by abstinence from labor, feasting, or any other way." The noisiest opposition to public celebration of Christmas today comes from professed agnostics and atheists, particularly those seeking "freedom from religion." But there are still...

Karlo Broussard does a very good job of explaining the sacraments without the distortions or misrepresentations of Protestants who never even walked the earth until more than 14 centuries after Christ established the sacraments.

Police had to storm into a church to break up an angry protest staged by part of a congregation demonstrating against their minister. At one stage officers had to stop a man trying to pull the power plug to the church organ. Tensions between two groups within the Ballynahinch Congregational Church reached breaking point during angry scenes yesterday. The dramatic climax in the evening service came amid a furious row between some members of a congregation and Rev George Speers. Years of underlying issues came to a head at both the morning and evening service in the rural church in...

The Reformed Catholic Church which is spearheaded by married priests plans to have an African pope. The church bishops who included Peter Njogu of Mt Kenya region diocese and John Karimi of Kirinyaga said on Saturday they are planning to have one centre of power in Africa where they will install a pope. "We may not necessary call him pope like the Roman Catholic but we may get another name similar to that. Our church is growing very fast and it is the high time we Africans have one centre of power in Africa," said Karimi. The bishops said since...

Likening religious schools to segregation--a racist system that forced blacks to attend different schools and use different facilities than whites in the American South--President Barack Obama told a town hall meeting for youth in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Monday that there should not be Catholic and Protestant schools because such schools cause division. "Because issues like segregated schools and housing, lack of jobs and opportunity--symbols of history that are a source of pride for some and pain for others--these are not tangential to peace; they’re essential to it,"