Free Republic

(RNS) — For the first time in its 134-year history, the Evangelical Covenant Church has voted to remove a congregation from its roster over its position on LGBTQ inclusion. The vote to expel the First Covenant Church, a prominent and historic Minneapolis congregation, for being “out of harmony on human sexuality,” took place at the denomination’s annual meeting in Omaha on Friday (June 27). The Minneapolis church has never performed a gay marriage, though a lesbian couple had an off-site wedding performed by its music director in 2014, which produced a series of conversations about its future over the past...

NEWARK — The community college serving one of New Jersey’s largest counties has been embroiled in controversy for the better part of the last two years. What started with the quick, unexpected ouster of its president last Spring has spiraled into one scandal after another that are now threatening the federal funding that keeps Essex County College’s doors open. The six scandals below have contributed to the Middle States Commission last week putting the college on probation. The school has another year to fix its finance and governance issues or risk losing its accreditation.

Did a key official in the ObamaCare chain of command lie to Congress about funds recouped from state-based exchanges? Andy Slavitt, acting Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) testified in a House Energy and Commerce hearing last December that CMS had recouped over $200 million from state-based exchanges (SBEs) that have failed. Further investigation, however, shows that Slavitt’s claim was false — that the actual grant dollars recovered was about a tenth of what he claimed, and that even those dollars were not “recouped,” but just never transmitted in the first place. The executive summary lays...

Emerald Goals Green Our Cities Our goal is to achieve significant reductions in the carbon footprint and energy consumption and increased energy savings and efficiencies. To this end, we encourage cities to: Substantially increase the energy efficiency of citywide building stock over ten years while prioritizing poor communities. Buildings are the largest national source of energy consumption, costing $400 billion annually in energy bills and comprising 80 percent of local carbon emissions in some cities. Yet, efficiency gains between 30 and 50 percent are possible using existing, cost-effective technology. Reducing energy consumption requires a comprehensive retrofit of building stock. The...

Academic publisher suspends publication of ‘too Christian’ encyclopedia CNA STAFF, Feb 12, 2009 / 03:37 am (CNA).- The scholarly publisher Blackwell is being accused of censorship for suspending the publication of the “too Christian” Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization and seeking to destroy existing copies pending a full revision of the text. The encyclopedia’s Editor-in-Chief is filing two lawsuits against the company to require the encyclopedia be published without removing its “Christian content, tone and character.”George Thomas Kurian, Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization (ECC), has circulated a letter protesting Blackwell’s actions, which he calls a “looming crisis” in the...

According to ABC News, 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., may have recently called his moderate-right credentials into question. "McCain has tapped a controversial academic to be a member of his virtual 'kitchen cabinet,'" ABCNews.com noted. That academic – Niall Ferguson of Harvard University – is, according to David Weigel of Reason magazine, a "foaming-at-the-mouth 'national greatness conservative.'" This academic has presented, according to Priyamvada Gopal of Cambridge University in Britain, an "aggressive rewriting of history, driven by the messianic fantasies of the American right." Who is this dastardly intellectual twisting the liberal media's beloved "Maverick" McCain into a...

No sooner had Israel raised its hand in self-defense Finland, speaking as the rotating president of the European Union, denounced it for “the disproportionate use of force.” This position, echoed by France, Spain, the United Nations, and others, is wrong legally, morally, and strategically. From a legal standpoint, Israel is the victim of multiple unprovoked aggressions. It withdrew entirely from Lebanon in 2000 and from Gaza in 2005. (Both of these occupations had come about as acts of self-defense: the former against rocket fire from Lebanon in 1982 and the latter against a war of annihilation declared by Egypt in...

Like Catholic priests everywhere, Bishop Peter Hickman dons a white tunic each Sunday to celebrate Mass in a sanctuary laden with incense and crosses. Unlike most, he'll often have lunch with his wife and children afterward. "Marriage promotes growth," says Hickman, 50, who has fathered five children, been married three times and divorced twice. "People who've never been married have a hard time knowing themselves." Marriage and children aren't the only things separating Hickman from nearly all Roman Catholic clergy. The church he has pastored for more than 20 years, St. Matthew in Orange, operates much like any other Catholic...

Last Wednesday Joe Van Holsbeeck, 17 years of age, was murdered in Brussels Central Station. He was stabbed five times in the heart by North African youths. They demanded that he give them his MP3 player. When Joe refused he was savagely murdered. The atrocity happened during the evening rush hour on a crowded platform. Though there were hundreds of people on the platform, no-one interfered – perhaps because many people do not notice what is happening around them on a crowded, noisy and busy platform where passengers are rushing to catch their trains. Joe’s murderers escaped and have not...

Union officials at Peugeot-Citroen are to ask their French colleagues for "solidarity action" after the car giant's shock decision to shut its UK factory with the loss of 2,300 jobs. Production at the Ryton plant in Coventry was suspended this morning as workers met with management to discuss plans for the factory over the next 12 months. There were further meetings planned between shop stewards from the Amicus and Transport and General Workers Union to discuss the unions' response to the closure announcement - and the mood was said to be one of anger and defiance. One union source said...

A 19-year-old Turkish man has been jailed for nine years and three months by a German court for shooting his sister in a so-called "honour killing". Ayhan Surucu had confessed to shooting his sister Hatun Surucu, 23, at a bus stop in a Berlin suburb last year. Two other brothers were cleared of charges of conspiring to murder her. Prosecutors said the brothers felt dishonoured by their sister, who lived on her own with her son after leaving a cousin she had been forced to marry. The death of the 23-year-old shocked Germany and led to street protests by Turkish...

Austin church breaks with denomination Disagreements over homosexuality, church's direction prompt Episcopal congregation to move on By Eileen E. Flynn, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF, Tuesday, June 22, 2004 A Northwest Austin congregation has voted to sever ties with the Episcopal Church over long-festering theological disputes and to align itself with a Chicago-based evangelical denomination. It came down to a matter of conscience, said the Rev. Jeff Black, vicar of St. Barnabas the Encourager. "I was trying to respect my people and myself and the word of God," he said. On Sunday, the congregation voted almost unanimously — 196-2 — to leave the...