Free Republic

An atheist advocacy group is attacking state-owned Auburn University for the role three of its coaches played in an evangelical Christian worship event at the Alabama school last week. The “Unite Auburn” event on Sept. 12 was held in the school’s Neville Arena, with the rent funded by private donations. About 200 students were baptized after the event in a small lake on campus, illuminated by automobile headlights. Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze, who formerly helmed the squad at Liberty University, the nation’s largest evangelical Christian school, baptized one of his players that night.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the government will draw up a law banning churches affiliated with Russia, saying the move is necessary to prevent Moscow being able to "weaken Ukraine from within." The National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, which groups top security, military and political figures, told the government to draft the law following a series of raids on parishes that Kyiv says could be taking orders from Moscow. ...

A pair of 84-year-old religious statues were smashed to pieces early Saturday by a woman outside a Queens church, the latest in a disturbing spate of incidents targeting local Catholic properties, church and police officials said. The incident occurred at the Our Lady of Mercy parish, where the venerable statues of the Blessed Mother and St. Therese the Little Flower were knocked over, dragged into the middle of the street and broken with a hammer around 3:30 a.m., said John Quaglione, a spokesman for the Diocese of Brooklyn....

A Mississippi family is alleging religious discrimination against their third-grade daughter’s elementary school after officials there forced her to remove her face mask with the phrase “Jesus Loves Me.” Matthew and Jennifer Booth filed a federal lawsuit Monday against Simpson County School District in Mississippi because their daughter, Lydia, was ordered to remove the mask on Oct. 13 and replace it with one her school, Simpson Central, supplied. All students are required to wear masks to help slow the spread of Covid-19. Booth could be suspended if she continues wearing her faith-themed mask. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the family....

For the second time since the COVID-19 pandemic became a daily battle between disease control and civil liberties, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken to Twitter to criticize the peaceful assembly of Jews in a city that boasts over a million Jewish residents. This time, de Blasio specifically targeted children meeting at a yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish elementary or secondary school. Just a few weeks ago, the mayor slammed his city’s Jewish community for gathering to grieve at a large funeral for a beloved rabbi. Writing for The Daily Signal, I said de Blasio’s behavior was un-American and...

The day after a Lincoln Memorial confrontation with some Catholic schoolboys that went viral, American Indian activist Nathan Phillips and his drum-and-chant group reportedly tried to disrupt a Catholic Mass in Northeast Washington. The Catholic News Agency reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, that the group of about 20 activists sought to enter the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Saturday during its 5:15 p.m. Vigil Mass. “It was really upsetting,” a shrine security guard on duty during the Mass told CNA. “There were about twenty people trying to get in, we had to lock the doors...

Democratic senators quiz judicial nominee over membership in men's Catholic charitable groupSenate Democrats are facing renewed charges of anti-Catholic discrimination after quizzing a federal judicial nominee about his membership in the Knights of Columbus. Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono were accused of “religious profiling” after they zeroed in on judicial nominee Brian Buescher’s membership in the 137-year-old fraternal Catholic charitable organization earlier this month in written questions. “The Knights of Columbus has taken a number of extreme positions,” said Ms. Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, citing the group’s opposition to same-sex marriage. “If confirmed, do you intend to end your...

Violence, racism, intolerance and religious bigotry made headlines this summer and the American Academy of Pediatrics took notice. These issues are impacting children and the organization wants to address the societal problems proactively with kids and their families.“We need to talk more about this, definitely,” said Dr. Sylvia Blaustein of St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson. “I think everybody should be discussing these issues because of what’s going on nationally and internationally.”  The AAP was pushed to action in early July after shootings in Baton Rouge and Dallas. It announced an initiative aimed at addressing gun violence as...

MSNBC analyst David Corn claims that there are "serious issues" about Ben Carson's Seventh Day Adventism faith. Great point, David. After all, for twenty years, Carson sat in the pews of a preacher who spewed "God damn America" hatred, a pastor that Carson chose to officiate his marriage and baptize his children. Oh, wait: that wasn't Carson. It was Barack Obama, who chose Jeremiah "Chickens Coming Home to Roost" Wright as his personal pastor and faith guide. Never mind. On this evening's Hardball, Corn claimed that Carson's religion needs to be investigated because it professes an end time. Guess what,...

The False Pope, In Great Need For the Church, Will Fall Silent! “In This Supreme Moment Of Need For The Church, The One Who Should Speak Will Fall Silent”! (Our Lady of Good Success in Quito, Ecuador, on January 20, 1610). Dear friends, As we know, it is very important to struggle everyday to seek the Truth in a world filled with confusion, sown by “the father of lies” (Jn 8:44), more than ever before. As I wrote at the beginning of my main blog site (http://josephdwight.blogspot.com): “I do not think it was by chance that when Pope John Paul...

The religious bigots at the Virginian Pilot have run editorials, news stories and carefully selected letters to the editors to smear E.W. Jackson, a Black minister who won the Republican nomination for Lieutenant governor of Virginia. Why so much hatred for a Black man? The answer is simple religious bigotry combined with the political bête noir of the Left: a Black conservative. Black conservatives are vilified as a matter of course because they represent the runaway slave to the slave masters of the Democrat Party. In the 21st Century they don’t send the dogs out after them anymore; instead they...

The Venice Film Festival awarded a special jury prize Saturday to “Paradise: Faith.” The film is part of a trilogy; Strand Releasing has acquired the U.S. rights and plans to release it early next year. Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows: One of the hallmarks of cultural charlatans is the propensity to insult Christians, especially Catholics, and then declare their offense creative. If anyone wants to know why a special jury prize was given to “Paradise: Faith,” let me spare you the need to read about it: it won because it shows a devout Catholic woman masturbating with...

Tiger Woods failed to make the cut yesterday at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C. – the second straight year he has done so. It is the first time in his otherwise illustrious pro career he has missed the cut at the same event more than once. Tiger attributed his failure to make the weekend in Charlotte to swing changes he has been working on with his coach Sean Foley. But I don’t think it has anything to do with swing changes. I believe Tiger’s on-the-course struggles – not only this week, but the past two years – have...

Some of the nine ways: "3. Team chaplain Tebow's role as the Jets' unofficial team chaplain would blend nicely with his duties as custodian of the locker-room Swear Jar. All proceeds would go to a year-end pizza party. 4. Team chaperone ... Based on our casual perusal of the sports pages, football players are no strangers to the social scene... 6. Make him the designated 'Hail Mary' guy.... 7. Convert him to tailback.

I leave and heave A sigh and say goodbye

With Mitt Romney campaigning...his Mormon religion is coming under increasing scrutiny. SNIP Now Mark Driscoll, pastor of the high-profile Seattle-based Mars Hill Church, has added his voice to the fray -- agreeing that Christians should consider Mormons as members of a "cult" and not "brothers and sisters in a common faith." Writing on his website Tuesday, Driscoll goes on at length about the various definitions of a cult. He is careful to say that Mormonism has "outgrown" the popular culture and sociological definitions of a cult because of its enormous growth and general acceptance in the nation. But, Driscoll writes,...

I subscribe to a Mormon apologetic Newsletter titled FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research). Normally it falls into my junk email account and I don't even open it, but today I had a few minutes and scanned the latest offering and was stunned to see the hypocrisy of the authors. Please note the entire email is posted below. This particular issue has a great deal of whining about those mean Christians who make the spurious claim that Mormons are not Christians, but are a cult. A couple of examples: -"Mormons are a cult" epithets into the national spotlight. In...

Ack, the headline reminds me of a grade school report card. While there seems to be no way to predict to what end Team Romney may eventually calculate itself, most every "smart" move they make serves to confirm how unsuitable Romney is for what's needed right now. He appears to be completely out of touch.Naturally, he's sensitive to being painted as a rich white Republican, which he is, for the most part. So, I get why the brain trust would think, hey, let's not go too hard on this Wall Street stuff. Maybe we need to back off a bit....

A leading Southern Baptist theologian spoke out Monday -SNIP- ........In a posting today on his influential blog, the theologian, R. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., spelled out why traditional Christians do not consider the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to be simply a different denomination of Christianity. “Mormonism rejects the Bible as the sole and sufficient authority for the faith, and insists that The Book of Mormon and other authoritative Latter-Day Saints writings constitute God’s final revelation,” he wrote. “By its very nature, Mormonism borrows Christian themes, personalities, and narratives. Nevertheless,...

The Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Mormons and a few other faiths have three things in common – they believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God and that He died and was resurrected for our sins. So what's the problem? The political pundits continue to try and make Mitt Romney's religious beliefs a big issue as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination. Different denominations of Christianity are just that – different denominations – which means different worship practices of the same fundamental Christian beliefs. Some people have commented that they cannot support Mitt Romney...