Free Republic

A MOB attacked Alexander Aan even before an Indonesian court in June jailed him for two and a half years for “inciting religious hatred”. His crime was to write “God does not exist” on a Facebook group he had founded for atheists in Minang, a province of the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Like most non-believers in Islamic regions, he was brought up as a Muslim. And he has been punished. .. Sharia law, which covers only Muslims unless incorporated into national law, assumes people are born into their parents’ religion. Thus ex-Muslim atheists are guilty of apostasy—a hudud crime...

December 6, 2012 Thursday of the First Week of Advent   Reading 1 Is 26:1-6 On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah: "A strong city have we;he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.Open up the gatesto let in a nation that is just,one that keeps faith.A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace;in peace, for its trust in you." Trust in the LORD forever!For the LORD is an eternal Rock.He humbles those in high places,and the lofty city he brings down;He tumbles it to the ground,levels it with the dust.It is...

Late last week on the blog I made mention of the sins that “cry to heaven for vengeance.” The traditional list, is summarized in the Catechism which states The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are “sins that cry to heaven”: the blood of Abel, the sin of the Sodomites, the cry of the people oppressed in Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan, injustice to the wage earner (# 1867).It probably does not surprise you that I got push-back from certain homosexuals who wrote in to “remind” me that the sin of Sodom “has nothing...

Lawsuit threat cancels Christmas concert HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - A threatened lawsuit had put a halt to what's become a Christmas tradition for members of the Moanalua High School orchestra. For the past six years, the award-winning group and volunteers from the New Hope Church have raised more than $200,0000 for a charity that treats poor people in Hawaii. But that all came to a halt on Monday when the Department of Education decided to cancel the concert just four days before the event. In a letter to the Department of Education, Mitch Kahle, founder of the Hawaii Citizens for the...

Featured Term (selected at random):DRUSILLA The youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I, the king who ordered the Apostle James beheaded and who persecuted Peter. She was the wife of Felix (Acts 24:24), the Roman procurator who presided at the trial of Paul in which Tertullus, the prosecutor, described the accused as follows: "The plain truth is that we find this man a perfect pest; he stirs up trouble among the Jews the world over, and is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect" (Acts 24:5). Drusilla listened with interest to Paul explain his faith later in a private hearing before Felix....

“Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:7, 9-10 KJV

Havana, Cuba, Dec 4, 2012 / 12:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Local Catholics say that the reinstatement of Christmas as a national holiday in 1997 after decades of being outlawed has brought enormous good “to the life of the nation,” but that its deeper meaning still needs to be understood. “Once again Christmas proves to be a source of happiness: however, we cannot forget that this beneficial aspect of Christmas has its roots and its nature in the religious event of the birth of Jesus Christ,” wrote editors from the Diocese of Pinar del Rio's magazine titled Vitral. “The more Christmas...

An anonymous donor has purchased five acres of land adjacent to the flagship church of the U.S. Anglican Ordinariate and donated it for building a chancery. “This will be the future home of the chancery of the Ordinariate as well as serve future expansion needs of this wonderful, growing parish. It is an incredible blessing, and I know you all will want to say with me: To God be the glory,” Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, the ordinary of the structure, said on Dec. 2 during a Mass at the parish. The property, which cost the donors $5 million, will allow...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican is offering a new app that provides live streaming of papal events and video feeds from the Vatican's six webcams. "The Pope App" also will send out alerts and links to top stories coming out of the Vatican's news outlets, said Gustavo Entrala, founder and CEO of the Spanish firm 101.es, which developed the free app. "You'll have almost everything that the pope does or says" delivered to a mobile device and app users "will be able to watch the pope live every time he speaks," he told reporters during a Dec. 3 news...

About ninety percent of faculty and administrators from America’s top Catholic universities who contributed to presidential campaigns in 2012 gave to President Obama, a Campus Reform investigation has revealed. The strong support for President Obama from Catholic schools came despite Democrats’ controversial health care legislation which could force employers to provide contraception for employees even though it is explicitly forbidden under Catholic doctrine. A Campus Reform investigation revealed that faculty and staff at Catholic universities gave overwhelmingly to President Obama's reelection campaign. The findings, based on official Federal Election Commission data made available by the government transparency site OpenSecrets.org, revealed...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem A New Journey…The Names of God in The Scriptures The Potter Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

December 5, 2012 Wednesday of the First Week of Advent   Reading 1 Is 25:6-10a On this mountain the LORD of hostswill provide for all peoplesA feast of rich food and choice wines,juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.On this mountain he will destroythe veil that veils all peoples,The web that is woven over all nations;he will destroy death forever.The Lord GOD will wipe awaythe tears from all faces;The reproach of his people he will removefrom the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken. On that day it will be said:"Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!This...

An excerpt from How Close Are We?The Blessed Hope With Christ’s I will come again! still fresh in memories, the early Christians eagerly waited and watched for their Lord’s return. He had said that they were not of this world, but that He had chosen them out of it. Paul would soon write under His Lord’s inspiration: “For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20,21). The world held little interest for...

What are the sources or inspiration for these subjects?Basically they are inspired by the documents of the Holy See, and in particular by the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its Compendium. This was a deliberate choice so as to create an awareness of the vast richness, completeness and beauty of these documents which are, in some circles, hardly known at all. In this way, it is possible to present the essential and fundamental contents of the faith which are professed, not just by the individual Catholic, but by the Catholic Church throughout the world as it adheres to the...

Meridian Magazine, a Mormon magazine, (its website is http://ldsmag.com) has published an excellent article by Warren Aston, titled “The Other Half of Heaven: Debunking Myths About Heavenly Mother.” (Read) It’s refreshing to see this piece published in Meridian, which is often a vanilla-plain LDS-themed publication. (Hat tip for learning about the article goes to LDS writer Joanna Brooks, via her Facebook page).For a divine individual who is presumably equal to her spouse, Heavenly Father, Mormons are hesitant to discuss Heavenly Mother. As Aston points out, the most condescending reason sometimes offered for the silence on Heavenly Mother is that to...

Closing the book after reading, "Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet," the new biography by George Mason University religious studies professor John G. Turner, published by Belknap Press of Harvard University, causes some swirling emotions for this Latter-day Saint reader. From reading Turner’s fantastic — and it is by far the best that has been written of Young’s life — biography, it’s easy for a faithful Mormon to agree that God called Young to the task of moving 20,000-plus Mormons across the plains to Utah territory and over a generation-plus, to set up hundreds of Mormon settlements. No man in U.S. history...

ChurchMilitant.TV TODAY

WASHINGTON — An independent Roman Catholic newspaper in the United States called Monday for a campaign to reverse the Vatican's refusal to allow women to become priests. "Barring women from ordination to the priesthood is an injustice that cannot be allowed to stand," the National Catholic Reporter said, waving a red flag in front of the Vatican over one of its most strongly held teachings. The call to the priesthood "is a gift from God," it said, and excluding women from responding to that call "has no strong basis in Scripture or any other compelling rationale." With bishops and theologians...

* Disclaimer: The following should not be considered legal, financial or tax advice. Every individual situation is unique and you are encouraged to consult with your tax and financial advisor before year end. There's a lot of hype, confusion and speculation related to the so-called "fiscal cliff" America is facing as the calendar rolls over from 2012 to 2013. At the Presbyterian Lay Committee, we're getting questions from donors and churches alike about what they might anticipate in terms of the impact on charitable giving. The answer all depends on what happens between now and the end of the year...

An elderly Jesuit priest has been suspended from ministry in the Milwaukee archdiocese after he joined in a liturgical celebration with a woman who claims to be a Catholic priest. Father Bill Brennan told the National Catholic Reporter that his Jesuit superiors had barred him from public ministry at the request of Milwaukee’s Archbishop Jerome Listecki. The 92-year-old priest said that he was also told not to contact the media—an order that he apparently ignored in speaking with the National Catholic Reporter. Jesuit, 92, penalized after eucharistic liturgy with woman priest (National Catholic Reporter)