Free Republic

My childhood memories are vague. Still, I do recall with some surprising detail the passing of the offering plates in my first church. I never questioned its validity or efficacy. It was just something churches did. Most churches used an offering plate or its equivalent prior to the pandemic. Now, most churches do not. It has been that stark and sudden. The offering plate is disappearing. One of the members of our Church Answers community conducted a simple poll that asked other members of the community if their church still passed an offering plate. The results were clear and profound....

Challenging popular Evangelical belief, controversial televangelist Creflo Dollar, one of America's most flamboyant proponents of the prosperity gospel, has renounced tithing and all his previous teachings on the subject as "not correct." He also urged his followers to "throw away every book, every tape and every video I ever did on the subject of tithing" but says he will not apologize for his error. In a Sunday sermon billed "The Great Misunderstanding," the founder and senior pastor of the nearly 30,000-member World Changers Church International headquartered in College Park, Georgia, said he is aware that his declaration will cause him...

A member of the German Parliament has offered Tommy Robinson asylum in Germany following his arrest for livestreaming outside the trial of a child grooming gang. He has now sent a letter to the imprisoned British activist and independent journalist offering to fly to the UK so that he may sign the asylum paperwork in prison. Robinson, a 35-year-old independent journalist and activist was arrested on Friday for suspicion of breaching the peace for his reporting and is now serving a 13 month sentence for contempt of court, as he already had a suspended sentence for a similar offense. He...

On Tuesday, June 27, it will be 50 years since the first automated cash dispenser – which came to be known as an automated teller machine (ATM) – was inaugurated in London. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my face. I belong to the generation who stood 45 minutes to an hour to deposit or cash checks in the pre-ATM era. I remember getting yelled at for taking my bicycle through the drive-up line at the National Bank of Detroit to avoid the much longer line inside. It did not take me very long to become an early...

The Obama administration is quietly pushing Sunni Arab allies in the Persian Gulf to create an advanced missile defense system, and is preparing to ramp up sophisticated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia in an effort to ease regional fears over a potential nuclear deal with Iran. With Secretary of State John F. Kerry set to visit Saudi Arabia Wednesday and Thursday, officials privately say the administration is weighing whether to offer Riyadh — already a major buyer of American and European weaponry — GBU-28 bunker buster bombs Washington has so far only been willing to provide to Israel. The discussions...

CHICAGO — Working on a tight timeframe, Illinois is building an 800-person army of temporary workers to help people sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The “in-person counselor” jobs, located in every corner of the state, range from a $9-an-hour part-time evening job in Clinton County to a $45,000-a-year project coordinator position in Chicago for someone with experience in community organizing and public speaking. The workers will help consumers apply for coverage, and will answer questions and explain differences between the insurance policies offered on the new online marketplace. They will help consumers figure out

10. Gross, not net—as usual! 9. Hush Money 8. Casino winnings! 7. For voice lessons for worship team!

Indian minister said offering $10m for beheading cartoonistBy Haaretz Service Last update - 08:38 19/02/2006 An Indian state minister has offered a reward of more than $10 million and a prospective killer's weight in gold to anyone who beheads one of the cartoonists who angered Muslims by depcting the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, the London Sunday Times reported this week. The offer follows a Pakistani cleric's reward of $1 million and a car for the killing of one of the cartoonists. The new, larger reward was announced by Yaqoob Qureshi, minister of minority welfare in the Indian state...

Tithe and offerings MARK 12:42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called [unto him] his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all [they] did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, [even] all her living. Tithe means ten percent but as Christians we need to do more than ten percent. Jesus wants all...

A teenage motorist fired at an off-duty University of Houston-Downtown police officer who offered help for his stalled vehicle early today, police said. Officer Jaime Cortez was trying to drive around the car in the 5700 block of Broadway about 1:45 a.m. when he rolled down his window and asked if the 16-year-old driver needed help. HPD investigators said Cortez was not in uniform and didn't identify himself as an officer. The teenager apparently was offended by the gesture and fired three rounds, striking the officer's car once, police said. Cortez then followed the vehicle to a motel in the...

Fox News Plans to Expand Its Radio Offering Mon Sep 29,12:13 AM ET NEW YORK -- Armed with one of the most powerful brands in news, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News now hopes to do for radio news what it did for television news: deploy a feisty mix of talk and information to unseat the industry's entrenched players, according to Monday's Wall Street Journal. News Corp.'s radio arm, Fox News Radio Service, which launched last spring with one-minute news updates from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, plans to expand in November, selling news updates to radio stations around the clock...

NEW YORK (Talon News) -- Ousted President Saddam Hussein is paying a bounty for killing U.S. troops according to the leader of an Iraqi exile group on Tuesday. Eyewitnesses have spotted Saddam Hussein hiding out just north of Baghdad on several occasions. He has been seen near Diyala, around the Tigris River, near his hometown of Tikrit and in the Dulaimi areas. Saddam is suspected to have $1.3 billion in cash in his possession that was taken from the Central Bank on March 18. Saddam Hussein is undoubtedly seeking revenge for the war the United States perpetrated against his regime...

In the strongest attempt yet to create a legitimate alternative to free music-trading sites, America Online will introduce a service today that lets users download and listen to a large catalog of songs. For $8.95 a month, users will be able to listen to a catalog of music, now at 250,000 songs and growing, on their computers. Moving songs to CD's or portable players will cost more. AOL is selling a version of a service from MusicNet, which is a consortium of RealNetworks; the BMG unit of Bertelsmann; EMI; and Warner Music, which like America Online is a unit of...

There are a number of "churches" represented out there. What are your thoughts on this: it's not a "denominationally bound" question. It applies to all groups. 1. How to withhold money? First, the larger the group withholding, the better. Second, if you just give it to some other church agency or group from your denomination, the leadership will just funnel that money to the general fund. To truly withhold you need to either put the money in some personal escrow account or spend it for God according to your understanding of His interests. Notice that this is not a recommendation...