Free Republic

NORTH CONWAY. N.H.—Vivek Ramaswamy isn’t making much of a dent in the polls yet, but judging from the audience reaction at a packed Masonic lodge in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, it won’t be long. Everyone was paying close attention. There was no sense in the room of skepticism over why this 37-year-old guy—out of nowhere and standing there with his doctor wife—had the temerity to run for president. They got it. He had done his homework and then some. Several people during the lengthy question session prefaced theirs with “I voted for Trump but I’m going to vote for you.” Others...

Absolutely arrogant. For Timothy P. Schmalz, an Ontario-based sculptor, that’s really the only way to describe the renewed push to tear down statues that commemorate people who are now deemed out of step with modern morals. When a Confederate figure gets toppled in the U.S., or a prime minister who was part of brutal treatment of Indigenous people is destroyed in Canada, it says more than just disagreeing, Mr. Schmalz said. It’s a claim that we would have known better, acted otherwise. And that’s the hubris. “When one destroys or puts a Confederate statue in a museum, out of sight,...

The first documented executions of heretics in medieval Europe occurred on this date in 1022 in Orleans, when 13 or so were burned at Orleans. The French king at this time was Robert II, known to history as “Robert the Pious” because he was so violent with the sub-orthodox.* In addition to this date’s burnings, he’s noted for inciting anti-Jewish persecutions that in some places drove local Jewry to drown themselves fleeing pogroms. For those within Christianity, starting now, Robert’s Piety meant much tighter scrutiny of potentially deviant doctrines. Now, these were not the first-ever Christian-on-Christian heresy executions in the...

On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” President Barack Obama said his former Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton was careless in how she handled her emails, which is under investigation by the FBI. Obama said, “I continue to believe she has not jeopardized America’s national security. Now what I also said is that — and she’s acknowledged — that there’s a carelessness in terms of managing e-mails that she has owned. And she recognizes that. But I also think it is important to keep this in perspective. this is somebody who served her country...

Former congressman Allen West (R., Fla.) is making a statement on the right to bear arms on his right bare arm with a new tattoo. Aces High Tattoo Shop in West Palm Beach, Fla. showed off the former Republican’s ink on its Instagram account over the weekend.

They may be good at making movies, but Hollywood celebrities’ lifestyles are far from an environmentalist’s dream. Their globetrotting, multiple mansion owning ways are inconsistent with the environmental agenda they loudly promote. Showtime’s new climate change series, “Years of Living Dangerously,” premiered April 13, 2014, slightly more than a week before Earth Day 2014. It relies on several wealthy, Hollywood celebrities to spread fear about climate change. While these actors and directors talk a lot about reducing carbon footprints and saving the world, they haven’t given up their own enormous mansions and private jets. Director James Cameron, former Governor Arnold...

NEW YORK) — The New York Police Department has secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorism organizations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Designating an entire mosque as a terrorism enterprise means that anyone who attends prayer services there is a potential subject of an investigation and fair game for surveillance. Read more: http://nation.time.com/2013/08/28/nypd-designates-mosques-as-terrorism-organizations/#ixzz2dH35MYzO

Several big-name Hollywood stars appear in a new anti-gun public service YouTube video calling for Americans to demand that their elected officials come up with a strategy to curb gun violence. In the video, A-listers like Cameron Diaz, Paul Rudd, and Chris Rock read the names of the sites of the most horrific gun massacres before calling on viewers to “demand a plan” to stop mass shootings. But now a new video called “Demand a Plan – Demand Celebrities Go F*** Themselves” has been created that highlights the gun violence many of these same stars have taken part in in...

I beg all of us here on Free Republic to STOP the dogpiling on Sandra Fluke. No joke. Don't follow Rush's bad example. Name-calling will get us NOWHERE. Remember the much better example of the woman at the well, and how Jesus dealt with her. That's a MUCH better way to behave.

THE PROBLEM WITH SANTORUMFebruary 29, 2012 Even when I agree with Rick Santorum, listening to him argue the point almost makes me change my mind. I also wonder why he's running for president, rather than governor, when the issues closest to his heart are family-oriented matters about which the federal government can, and should, do very little. It's strange that Santorum doesn't seem to understand the crucial state-federal divide bequeathed to us by the framers of our Constitution, inasmuch as it is precisely that difference that underlies his own point that states could ban contraception. Of course they can. States...

[snip] "Here’s the quotation that’s getting the most attention: “Rick Santorum is a good man. He is a good father. He is a good Catholic. But he hasn’t always been a good conservative. And I make exceptions with his vote for Sonya Sotomayor as a for instance. That is a really liberal jurist that he helped put on track to become a Supreme Court jurist back when he voted to allow her to be on the Appellate Court. I mean, she is pro-abortion, would be my estimation of that. I mean, Obama is a very liberal president and she is...

Here it is again Resty, so you can pick out three things that are untrue. Any three. Mormon Missionary Deception Method: 1. Convince you of their sincerity 2. Trick you into expressing faith first in the Book of Mormon by praying and asking for a sign (this takes you off the objective ground of Biblical truth and puts you into subjective ground of feelings) 3. Convince you that the Bible has errors in its translation 4. Trick you into expressing faith in the prophet Joseph Smith 5. Trick you into expressing faith in the Restoration of the “Gospel” (see Galatians...

We hear it over and over again. "We never put down other churches. That's not Christian." Or, a variant on this theme is, "You have strengthened my testimony, because you are persecuting the Church!" Often LDS people interpret any disagreement with their beliefs as "persecution" or "bashing," and claim that theirChurch would never do that!Yet, in reality, disagreement and refutation is not persecution. If it is, then Paul was "persecuting" the Judaizers in Galatia when he wrote such a strong letter denouncing their beliefs (the book of Galatians). Christians are to stand for the truth, and "refute those who contradict"...

INTRODUCTION The provision provided by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most key and critical doctrine in the Bible. The death and resurrection of Christ is the culmination of the Biblical narrative and the heart of the gospel message It may come as a shock to Christians to be told that the Mormon church does not believe that the death of Christ provides for the salvation from sins as is taught in historic, traditional Christianity. It must be remembered that Mormon doctrine is not based on the doctrines and teachings of the Bible. Almost every traditional...

Why I Despise Progressives Ward Dorrity – June, 2010 The classical liberal contemporary of our Founding Fathers believed in individualism, in a society of free individuals organized as far as possible through mutual consent. The individualism that informed the Founder’s ideas regarded every man as an independent, spiritually sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life. The right to live is derived from Man’s nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a rational society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful coexistence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition...

Dallin Oaks' Harvard appearance part of LDS drive to increase understanding, awareness of religion ... The tripartite structure of the Godhead is one of the central aspects of LDS theology that Elder Oaks stressed as critical to LDS beliefs. “We maintain that … God the Father is not a spirit but a glorified Being with a tangible body, as is his resurrected Son, Jesus Christ. Though separate in identity, they are one in purpose.” In addition, the purpose of existence in this reality has a definite purpose in LDS: “to qualify for the glorified celestial condition and relationships that are...

" Historically, only until recently have Mormons wanted to be called Christians, preferring not to be included with Christian denominations which Joseph Smith said were, "all wrong...all there creeds were an abomination in his sight, and that those professors (Christians) were all corrupt." (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith, 2:18-19) In the past Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) have preferred to be called "saints." However, in the recent years the LDS church has spend millions in an intense public relations campaign aimed at moving their church into the mainstream of Christianity. (slice) First: Mormons do not...

The Gospel Principles 2009 manual essentially calls classical Christianity “false Christianity” and its theology of God “pagan” and its adherents those who are “called” Christian. If we talked about Mormon beliefs and Mormonism and Mormon members this way, we’d get priesthood-slapped. Yes, you heard me right. Let me explain. In chapter 16 it implicitly taps into popular assumptions about Nicaea and then says that “false Christianity” (that the “Roman emperor adopted”) “taught that God was a being without form or substance.” My first reaction was that the New Testament teaches that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and...

 10. Blog hawking (I know, I know, we're supposed to be nice.)  9. Run-on, single-paragraph posts 8. Pings to Jim Robinson with kiss ass complements 7. Posting "hugh and series", "stuned beeber" or "Bush's fault" 6. A post asking a noOb if they are sure they're logged in 5. Passive-aggressive keyword epithet war 4. Satire posts that fool you (the rest are hilarious) 3. Viking Kitties (just kidding... love ya'... really...  who'd poke fun at you...  rah roh.) 2. Vanities 1. ...

I asked for it. My column last week was met with an overwhelming response from active Latter-day Saints, objective religious observers and fervent anti-Mormons. It made its way onto several message boards and blogs, sparking discussions that ran the gamut from the insightful and constructive to the snarky and fruitless. All in all, the column -- in which I encouraged Mormon readers to genuinely ask aggressors why they so dislike the church and its members -- garnered hundreds of replies. There was no way I could have responded to every message. Still, many of their responses were insightful and, I...