Free Republic

I'm a huge Beck fan, in fact I'm listening right now here http://www.ksfa860.com/common/gap_streamer.php but something really confuses me. It takes the ability to use real critical thinking to know what Beck (and most of us know about the state of the country and where we are heading). That is, we have the ability to discover the truth no matter how much the media or conventional wisdom try to hide it. Yet on Mormonism, Beck is cleary wrong. Any Christian knows that the book or momonism is severely flawed and that Joseph Smith was no prophet. How can Beck cut through...

This past week, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church raised a strong voice of warning in defense of religious freedom... Those who see his talk solely, or even primarily, as a reaction to the Proposition 8 battle in California and its aftermath either have not read the talk or willingly wish to minimize its importance. SNIP It is fair to say that no other religious group in the history of the America has greater standing to rise to the defense of religious liberty than do the Latter-day Saints. SNIP Without meaning...

There's a bookmark in my Bible that shows the winsome faces of two attractive 20-something dark-haired, brown-eyed Iranians with a kind of alluring beauty that makes Persian women some of the loveliest women on earth. What natural beauty Maryam Rostampour, 27, and Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad, 30, had at the beginning of the year has certainly disappeared after a six-month stint in one of the world's worst jails.

LDS apostle Dallin H. Oaks on Tuesday likened the post-Proposition 8 backlash against Mormons to the persecution blacks endured during the civil-rights struggle. Now Oaks faces a backlash himself. "Were four little Mormon girls blown up in the church at Sunday school? Were there burning crosses planted on local bishops' lawns? Were people lynched and their genitals stuffed in their mouths?" asked University of Utah historian Colleen McDannell. "By comparing these two things, it diminishes the real violence that African-Americans experienced in the '60s, when they were struggling for equal rights. There is no equivalence between the two." Oaks, in...

My dear young friends, I am pleased to speak to this BYU-Idaho audience. I am conscious that I am also speaking to many in other places. In this time of the Internet, what we say in one place is instantly put before a wider audience, including many to whom we do not intend to speak. SNIP And now, in conclusion, I offer five points of counsel on how Latter-day Saints should conduct themselves to enhance religious freedom in this period of turmoil and challenge. SNIP Fifth...Latter-day Saints must be careful never to support or act upon the idea that a...

Minneapolis firefighter and paramedic John Ackerman joins Fightin Words to discuss recent cases where parents faced homicide charges for turning to religion as medicine rather than modern science. What are the proper bounds of parental authority? How much religious freedom is too much? Who gets to decide, and where do they derive their authority? Part one of a two part interview, to be continued next week.

It seems to me raising one’s children in the manner one sees fit, including the propagation of one’s religious, political, and other beliefs, including as they relate to medicine, is as fundamental an individual right as any other. I am frankly amazed by the extent to which that view is not shared. I find personally offensive the idea that someday, for whatever reason, some government agent may come knocking on my door questioning the means by which I choose to raise my child. I find it as offensive as the idea my “papers” might be arbitrarily checked without cause by...

Resurrecting Religion It was a commonplace of the late 1960s that religion was obsolete and that modern 20th-century people had no need of faith. "Is God Dead?" Time asked in 1966, and books such as The Gospel of Christian Atheism seemed to prove that religion was something modern people could confidently ignore. In the 1990s, books such as Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man explained to intellectuals that religion was as dead as Communism (or history). The Economist even decided to commemorate the millennium by publishing God's obituary. But in our century, religious news is, more...

TASHKENT CITY, Uzbekistan (ABP) -- Authorities in Uzbekistan cracked down on Baptists after a government-sponsored news agency ran articles alleging illegal religious activity at a summer camp for children. Forum 18, a Norway-based news service that monitors alleged violations of religious freedom, reported July 28 that Pavel Peichev, head of the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of Middle Asia, faces criminal charges of unlawfully teaching children religion and misusing resort facilities. Local Baptists fear huge fines, confiscation of the property, imprisonment or some combination of penalties if Peichev is convicted

A witches' coven leader has accused the Roman Catholic Church of prejudice after her group was banned from a parish social club. Sandra Davis, 61, high priestess of the Crystal Cauldron group, booked Our Lady's club in Stockport, Greater Manchester for a Halloween Ball.

In a move to preserve our Christian culture and religious freedoms in America, an Ohio teacher has filed a lawsuit against the Mount Vernon City School District in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The District continues to be the center of controversy over issues of religious freedom. John Freshwater, a 24-year veteran teacher, filed suit June 9 in U.S. District Court against the district, district administrators, and other parties for violations of free speech and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution.

British street preacher Andy Robertson says all he wants from his community in eastern England is the freedom to disagree. Police have threatened to arrest the U.K. preacher for allegedly making homophobic statements. Once a month Andy Robertson makes his way to this street corner in Gainsborough, England. He says he's been doing it for ten years as part of the Open Air Mission, a Christian organization that first began street preaching in England 146 years ago.

Religious freedom recently clashed with arrogant bureaucracy in San Diego County, Calif. Religious freedom prevailed.

Wednesday, 27 May 2009 Religious Freedom in England Today ( On the 20th May I gave a talk on Religious Freedom to the Young Catholics Group at the Brompton Oratory a number of people have asked me for a copy of what I said so here it is) I begin by referring to a story that some of you may have heard of a couple of years ago a Crematorium in Devon removed its crosses on the basis that they did not want to Cause Offence” to non Christians and in particular to Muslims. The subject of this Crematorium was...

A San Diego pastor says county officials have told him he needs a permit to host a weekly Bible study in his home. Pastor David Jones and his wife, Mary, were hosting the weekly study near their church, when they say they were visited by a county code enforcement officer. According to Dean Broyles, an attorney for the Joneses, the county official asked the pastor if they hosted a regular weekly meeting in their home, and if they prayed and said "Amen" and "Praise the Lord" at those meetings. After replying in the affirmative to those inquiries, a subsequent citation...

A Law suit was filed in federal court May 13, 2009 against a radical anarchist group that openly advocates the use of riots and crime to further its views in favor of homosexual behavior. The complaint was filed on behalf of Delta Township’s Mount Hope Church in Michigan against the group “Bash Back!,” which invaded the church’s building during a worship service on Nov. 9 of last year. “The use of violent threats and criminal behavior to make a political point should never be acceptable in America,” said ADF attorney Gary McCaleb. “Bash Back! revealed how dangerous the homosexual agenda...

Plano, TX (May 12, 2009) – Liberty Legal Institute announced today that the Internal Revenue Service found that pastors who gathered in 2006 for a series of public policy conferences had every right to do so and that the organizers of the events did not violate any tax laws that govern non-profit organizations. “This liberal attempt to intimidate pastors has backfired,” said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of Liberty Legal Institute which represented event organizers. “There is now a clear IRS statement outlining these pastors’ events and approving them as valid under the law.” In January 2008, the IRS began its...

Pope: "Non-Negotiable Human Rights" include "Right to Life and Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion" VATICAN CITY, MAY 5, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI addressed members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences yesterday at their plenary session which is focused on the theme of Catholic social teaching and human rights, and called for the promotion of universal human rights based on both faith and reason, affirming the "right to life and the right to freedom of conscience and religion as being at the center of those rights that spring from human nature itself." The Holy Father noted...

The U.S. military is confirming that it has destroyed some Bibles belonging to an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Reuters News says the Bibles were confiscated and destroyed after Qatar-based Al Jazeer television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages.

The flip-side of same-sex marriage Those who object on religious grounds need legal protection too. By Robin Wilson May 3, 2009 As a growing number of states stand poised to pass same-sex marriage laws, they should consider this: It's possible to legalize gay marriage without infringing on religious liberty. But it takes careful crafting of robust religious protections. And no state has gotten that right yet. The country is deeply divided on same-sex marriage. But once it is recognized legally, all kinds of people -- clerks in the local registrar's office, photographers, owners of reception halls, florists -- might not...

MOSCOW, April 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A delegate of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), being held in Geneva this week, has asked that Christianophobia be included in international law as a form of discrimination and intolerance. "It is very important to the Russian Orthodox Church to raise the issue of introducing to the list of threats the notion of Christianophobia in addition to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia," deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Georgy Ryabykh told the Interfax news service. Ryabykh pointed out...

WASHINGTON — Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize same-sex “marriage” — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote. With traditional marriage, religious liberty has also come under an avalanche of attacks. Overturning the governor’s veto by one vote, Vermont joins Iowa, Connecticut and Massachusetts in giving homosexual and lesbian couples the right to “marry.” On the same day Vermont fell, the Washington, D.C., Council voted to recognize same-sex “marriages” performed in other states. Last month, 15 homosexuals and lesbians in Massachusetts also filed a suit to challenge the federal 1996 Defense of Marriage Act as...

Last week, many Americans celebrated Holy Week and Passover. Both of these traditions remind us that we must continue to stand for religious freedom for all. I agree with Britain’s Anglican Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali. He says that we Christians should treat our Muslim neighbors with love and with respect. We believe, even if they do not, that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. We believe that they share with us the civil rights that are enjoyed by all Americans. But we also believe, with George Washington, that each one here...

When President Obama gave his economics speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday, several folks noticed something was missing. That "something" was an ancient monogram -- the letters IHS -- that symbolizes the name of Jesus. It was missing from a wooden archway above the dais in Gaston Hall where the president delivered his 45-minute speech. The gold-lettered monogram appeared near a painting of three female figures -- symbolizing morality, faith and patriotism -- and decorative edging along the wall that spelled out the Jesuit motto "Ad majorem Dei gloriam"—"To the greater glory of God." Georgetown was founded by the Jesuits....

The rights of conscience, Pope John Paul II once wrote, are the "primary foundation of every authentically free political order." If that is so, then we better redouble our vigilance. Here in the United States, where we fancy ourselves religiously tolerant, recent high-profile cases suggest that First Amendment rights are widely misunderstood. In an ongoing imbroglio, Catholics around the country have lodged objections to the University of Notre Dame's decision to grant an honorary degree to President Barack Obama. They are upset that the university's honor comes in the wake of a series of decisions that flout Catholic teaching on...

Some Christians are concerned that their conservative Christian values could soon put them at risk of becoming terrorist suspects by Homeland Security. A recent report circulating around the Internet has engendered the worry because of a newly distributed U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assessment called “Rightwing Extremism: Current economic and political climate fueling resurgence in radicalization and recruitment.” The intelligence assessment was sent to law enforcement officials across the country and defines rightwing extremism in the United States as follows: "Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented...

Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama has proposed overturning the conscience protections the Bush administration put in place and pro-life advocates have until Thursday to respond. Prominent pro-life groups are urging every pro-life advocate to issue a public comment by this week's deadline.

DETROIT — School officials at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) dismissed a student from the school’s counseling program for not affirming homosexual behavior as morally acceptable. The school ousted Julea Ward from the program because she would not agree prior to a counseling session to affirm a client’s homosexual behavior and would not retract her stance in subsequent disciplinary proceedings. EMU requires students in its program to affirm or validate homosexual behavior within the context of a counseling relationship and prohibits students from advising clients that they can change their homosexual behavior. Ward has never addressed homosexual behavior in any form...

An Arab-American owner of a Chicago-area Dunkin' Donuts store has to give up his franchise after he lost his long-running legal battle with the restaurant chain over his religious objections to selling pork products. A lawyer for Walid Elkhatib said Tuesday that his client is in the process of removing Dunkin' Donuts signs from his Westchester outlet, but apparently not fast enough for the company. Dunkin' Donuts went to federal court in Chicago on March 27 to stop Elkhatib, 59, from using the company's trademarks and other proprietary materials. The company's lawsuit came two weeks after a federal jury found...

A Christian minister who has had heated arguments with Muslims on his TV Gospel show has been brutally attacked by three men who ripped off his cross and warned: 'If you go back to the studio, we'll break your legs.' The Reverend Noble Samuel was driving to the studio when a car pulled over in front of him. A man got out and came over to ask him directions in Urdu. Mr Samuel, based at Heston United Reformed Church, West London, said: 'He put his hand into my window, which was half open, and grabbed my hair and opened the...

Is this the change you really voted for? President Obama has only been in office for two months. Now we have HR 1388. The Bill was sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) with 37 others. The Bill was introduced to the floor of the House of Representatives where both Republicans and Democrats voted 321-105 in favor. Next it goes to the Senate for a vote and then on to President Obama. This bill’s title is called “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education” (GIVE). It forms what some are calling “Obama’s Youth Brigade.” Obama’s plan is require anyone receiving school loans and...

Middle East Miracle? by: Heather Latham, March 23, 2009 On March 15, 2008, a miracle occurred. Mass was held for the first time in the first church in Doha, Qatar. Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church is the first Christian church in the predominately Muslim country. Qatar is in an area famous for religious injustice. Its biggest neighbor, Saudi Arabia has no religious freedom. Islam is the official religion, and those from other religions are not allowed to worship publicly. Other surrounding nations carry laws or policies that “protect” non-Muslim religions, but do not act when groups discriminate...

The first time she was ever called the most offensive of racial slurs, Tamu Smith was in the Salt Lake LDS temple. An elderly man spied Smith, a new bride, and asked aloud what a [racial epithet] was doing there. Instead of reprimanding him, temple workers defended him, saying he didn't know better. Smith didn't leave the LDS Church over such hurtful language then, and she remains faithful, but frustrated, nearly 15 years later. She will join other Mormons this week to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the June 8, 1978, revelation that opened the church's priesthood to "all worthy...

Here is video of Glenn Beck today with "The One Thing" segment. He focuses on the attack on God going on in America today. He then talked with a roundtable about the encroachment of government on religious freedom . . . . . (Watch Videos)

When the head of Georgia's Orthodox Church offered to become godfather to every third child born to a family last year, the response was nothing short of miraculous. Birth rates among Georgian families soared by nearly 20 percent and within a year the patriarch, Ilia II, had presided over enough mass baptisms to become godfather to more than 2,000 children. Nearly two decades after Georgia split from the staunchly atheist Soviet Union, such is the influence of the country's Orthodox Church, which has undergone a remarkable resurgence to become one of the most trusted and powerful institutions in Georgia. From...

http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=3155 Excellent rebuttal from James White.

Tony Blair, Architect of Britain's Anti-Christian Culture, Complains Christians Are Being Marginalized LONDON, March 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of Britain and leader of the ruling Labour Party for ten years, has decried in an interview the "ludicrous" recent decisions by which the religious expression of Christians is being suppressed in Britain. "I hope and believe that stories of people not being allowed to express their Christianity are exceptional or the result of individual ludicrous decisions. My view is that people should be proud of their Christianity and able to express it as they wish,"...

An evangelist cop who saw a demon at 1 Police Plaza and acted "godlike" is suing the NYPD to get his gun back.Lt. Dominic Maglione contends police brass discriminated against his religious beliefs by putting him on desk duty at Brooklyn's 90th Precinct stationhouse and stripping him of his badge and gun after a psychotic episode in April 2006."[The NYPD's] wrongful confiscation of [Maglione's] badge and gun have compromised [his] ability to do his job," says the Manhattan Supreme Court suit.Documents attached to Maglione's suit describe the 21-year veteran as a "practicing evangelist," and say the 2006 hospitalization was because...

Why is religion taboo in American schools? Christian attorney John Whitehead addresses that question. "God has become THE four-letter word in most public schools in the United States," says Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute. And he explains in a commentary why that has come to pass: "An elite segment of society that views God as irrelevant has come to predominate." (View video commentary) Whitehead gained his legal insights into the phenomenon through the many cases of religious discrimination that have crossed his desk. "What's happened is [that] the elitists -- the people who run American society, from the public...

A family in New York is fighting for the rights of parents to opt their children out of vaccines. Ron and Rita Palma of Bayport, New York, have been fighting for the right to opt their children out of the vaccines that public schools require children have before attending school. Parents are allowed to opt out of the medical requirement if they cite objections on religious grounds. The Palmas did so, citing their Catholic faith as a reason, but they were met with resistance from the Bayport-Blue Point Union Free School District. Rita Palma explains. "I handed in my letter,...

Stimulus bans universities and colleges from using funds to renovate buildings where students engage in "religious worship." WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) made the following statement after Democrats voted 43-54 against his amendment to strike language from the economic stimulus bill that discriminates against students of faith. Senator DeMint’s amendment would have eliminated a provision that bans any university or college receiving funds to renovate buildings, from allowing “sectarian instruction” or “religious worship” within the facility. This would in effect bar use of campus buildings for groups like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Campus Crusade...

No Permits Needed for Faith by: Bethany Stotts, January 30, 2009 In response to an Alliance Defense Fund-backed lawsuit, Yuba Community College District in California has decided to drop disciplinary actions against a Christian student who had proselytized on campus without a permit. As the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, “The plaintiff in the case, Ryan Dozier, had been preaching Christian beliefs in a Yuba College walkway last February when the campus police stopped him and told him he needed a permit. He later received a letter accusing him of violating college policy and telling him he faced expulsion if...

On November 13, 2008, Cardinal J. Francis Stafford, head of the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, gave a speech at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in which he discussed the role of religion in public life. It was an important speech, and critical for understanding contemporary Catholic teachings on religious liberty and the relation of church and state. . . . Jefferson’s ideas, far from being the cause of infringement on conscience, are the remedy. Rather than rejecting them as evil, Stafford should embrace them as the proper response. This is our American heritage; it protects...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A California appeals court has ruled that a Christian high school can expel students because of an alleged lesbian relationship. The 4th District Court of Appeal in Riverside on Monday upheld California Lutheran High School's right as a private, religious organization to exclude students based on sexual orientation. Two girls sued claiming they were discriminated against after they were expelled from the Wildomar school in 2005. A lower court said the school isn't bound by the same anti-discrimination laws as a business establishment. John McKay, attorney for California Lutheran, says the school's goal is to educate based...

On January 8, 2009, Richard John Neuhaus, 72, the intellectual force behind an influential coalition between Catholics and Protestants passed away after a long battle with cancer. A Lutheran pastor who converted to Catholicism in 1990 a priest in 1991, Neuhaus served as the president of The Institute on Religion and Public Life, the conservative think tank that publishes First Things magazine. Neuhaus was active in liberal politics until Roe v. Wade was handed down. His view on the importance of upholding religious orthodoxy is sumarized by “Neuhaus’s Law”, which states that “Where orthodoxy is optional, orthodoxy will sooner or...

Attorney General Jerry Brown's legal challenge to California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage marks the first time that the state's top lawyer has refused to defend a newly enacted ballot measure since 1964 - another epic discrimination case that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In November 1964, an overwhelming 65 percent majority of the state's voters approved Proposition 14, a constitutional amendment that overturned a fair-housing law and allowed racial discrimination in property sales and rentals.Attorney General Thomas Lynch - newly appointed to succeed Stanley Mosk, a Prop. 14 opponent who had just been named to the state Supreme...

Calif. AG Urges Court to Void Gay Marriage Ban SAN FRANCISCO – The California attorney general has changed his position on the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8. In a dramatic reversal, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters. But Brown...

California’s Rush To Judgment on Same Sex Marriage December 20th, 2008 By JERRY REMMERS Only in California can the bizarre become the norm. In a spate of a few hours Friday afternoon, briefs were filed with the state Supreme Court challenging, supporting and extending a ban on same sex marriages. Backers of Proposition 8, the initiative that bans same sex marriage, petitioned to nullify the 18,000 marriages conducted after the high court voted 4-3 approving such nuptials. State Attorney General Jerry Brown countered with a brief indicating he could not support the proposition because “the amendment process cannot be used...

SAN FRANCISCO - California's attorney general has changed his position on the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now joining forces with homosexual activists to overturn the results of Proposition 8. In a dramatic reversal, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters. But Brown said he reached a different conclusion "upon...

SAN FRANCISCO — In a sharp rebuke to supporters of a contested state ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage, the California attorney general said Friday that the measure was constitutionally indefensible and should be overturned. The attorney general, Jerry Brown, had previously hinted of his opposition to the measure, Proposition 8, but made his legal opinion concrete on Friday in a brief to the California Supreme Court, which is reviewing the measure. “Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification,” Mr. Brown said in a statement. The attorney...