Free Republic

Catholic Dog Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside with only a pet dog for company. One day the dog died, and Muldoon went to the parish priest and asked, 'Father, my dog is dead. Could ya' be saying' a mass for the poor creature?' Father Patrick replied, 'I'm afraid not; we cannot have services for an animal in the church. But there are some Baptists down the lane, and there's no tellin' what they believe. Maybe they'll do something for the creature.' Muldoon said, 'I'll go right away Father. Do ya' think $5,000 is enough to donate to them...

Victim wearing Star of David assaulted by group of Syrian migrants, German news outlet claims. Targets of assault may also have been Syrian.German police arrested 10 people Sunday over an alleged anti-Semitic attack in a Berlin park, with local media reporting that both victim and suspects are Syrians. The group, aged between 15 and 25, including three women, were detained following the assault in the early hours of Sunday morning. Police did not give the names or nationalities of the suspects or the victim, but German daily Welt had reported that all involved are Syrians. Police said the victim had...

Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves. Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in...

On the first day of Essence Fest 2018, Snoop Dogg created a gospel concert where there was none. And it was good. The multitudes that filled the Mercedes-Benz Superdome witnessed a performance that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago when Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. emerged on the California gangster rap scene. For the first few songs on Friday (July 6) night, the braided and bespectacled Snoop touched on tried and true topics, such as the consumption of cannabis, mayhem and serial romance. Two scantily clad women added scintillating choreography to the songs. Snoop's mascot, a dude in a plush...

Pope Francis urged governments on Friday to make good on their commitments to curb global warming, warning that climate change, continued unsustainable development and rampant consumption threatens to turn the Earth into a vast pile of “rubble, deserts and refuse.” Francis made the appeal at a Vatican conference marking the third anniversary of his landmark environmental encyclical “Praise Be.” The document, meant to spur action at the 2015 Paris climate conference, called for a paradigm shift in humanity’s relationship with Mother Nature. n his remarks, Francis urged governments to honor their Paris commitments and said institutions like the IMF and...

A growing number of Americans now broadly support equal rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people. It’s tempting to view this as inevitable, but less than a decade ago many Democrats, including Barack Obama, didn’t even publicly support same-sex marriage. The speed at which L.G.B.T. rights became a mainstream issue, including for many religious denominations, represents nothing less than a dizzying cultural transformation. What does this revolution mean for the Catholic Church, an ancient institution that thinks in centuries, and holds a view of human sexuality at odds with the shifting cultural winds?

My Proposal to deal with Abortion and take it off the table politically: Given that we may likely see Roe vs. Wade overturned when RBG leaves the court how can we take this issue off the table? The republicans in congress and the president should write a constitutional amendment with the following wording: Abortion shall be legal up to 13 weeks after conception. All other laws dealing with abortion shall be left to the individual states It gets put to the states and they have 7 years for 36 states to agree. If after 7 years 36 states do not...

No country venerates its “Founding Fathers” like the United States. Academics, legislators, judges, and ordinary citizens all frequently seek to validate their opinions and policy prescriptions by identifying them with the statesmen who led America to nationhood. It is not surprising, therefore, that debates about the role of religion in the United States are infused with references to the faith of the Founding Fathers and to the two greatest documents they gave to the fledgling republic: the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. People across the religious spectrum, from the most devout believers to the most committed...

O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and...

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders would not disclose any details about which four candidates the president interviewed Monday, including any names of the contenders he met with, but she did reveal that the president will look for "certain characteristics" he'd like his nominee to embody. "He's looking for individuals that have the right intellect, the right temperament, and that will uphold the constitution," Sanders said. Sanders added that the president met for about 45 minutes with each candidate on Monday at the White House. "The president is being very thoughtful about this process," Sanders said. "Beyond that, I can...

In early September, the Senate held a confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor nominated for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Sen. Dick Durbin grilled her about her use of the term “orthodox Catholic” to describe those who try to practice the teachings of her church. “Do you consider yourself an ‘orthodox Catholic’?” asked Durbin of Illinois, himself a Catholic, taking issue with Barrett’s use of that term to describe those who strive to align their lives fully with their church’s teachings. Hawaii’s Sen. Mazie Hirono suggested Barrett would be beholden to Catholic teaching when...

A South African woman was mistakenly brought to the morgue and stored in a fridge after she was declared dead following a car accident. The unnamed woman was discovered breathing by a morgue worker who was reportedly writing a report and checking on the body, according to TimesLive, a South African news site. The Distress Alert paramedics who brought her in said that she had shown “no form of life.” She is currently being treated at a hospital. “There is no proof of any negligence by our crew,” Distress Alert operations manager Gerrit Bradnick told TimesLive. "This did not happen...

JESUS used cannabis and was an early champion of its medicinal properties, a growing consensus of experts agree. And acceptance of this theory could help promote the controversial drug’s use in treating a range of illnesses. Cannabis historian, author and journalist David Bienenstock is one who believes cannabis oil even explains the “miracles” attributed to Jesus. Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Online, he said: “Historical records show that cannabis was widely available at the time – they would’ve known how to grow it and exploit its medicinal properties. “There is nothing different in the efficacious cannabis oil used today that...

Last month, Albuquerque, N.M., resident Ralph Rodriguez Jr. died. One of the last “Battling Bastards of Bataan” survivors of a death march through the Philippines jungle, methodical malnutrition, and sadistic torture by the Japanese in World War II, he was 100 years old. In northern New Mexico’s high desert, bounded by the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in the town of Taos, is a memorial to him and men with whom he served, including those whose remains were never recovered. Its cross drew the ire of a deep-pocketed anti-religion group, but help is on the way if the Supreme Court grants...

In a bid to bolster its position as a maritime powerhouse, secure key supply chains, enhance its international trade capacities, and build up geo-economic leverage, China has been buying up the development and operational rights to a chain of ports that stretch from the southern realms of Asia to the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and even South America. While big Chinese state-owned firms began acquiring ports around the world rather quietly roughly a decade or so ago, now, under the strategic framework of what has been dubbed the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) — the watery part of the...

For evangelical Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., this is their political holy grail. Like many religious conservatives in a position to know, the Liberty University president with close ties to the White House suspects that the Supreme Court vacancy President Donald Trump fills in the coming months will ultimately lead to the reversal of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade. But instead of celebrating publicly, some evangelical leaders are downplaying their fortune on an issue that has defined their movement for decades. “What people don’t understand is that if you overturn Roe v. Wade, all that does is...

Assad’s cleverly crafted narrative has for years gained acceptance from some DC policymakers, religious freedom communities, and Christian activists that my organization, In Defense of Christians, operates among. That is, he portrays himself as the protector of Syria’s Christians and other religious minorities, such as the Druzes, Yezidis, and his own Alawites, to name a few. In the face of the Islamic State scourge and many other Islamist rebels who despise Christians and other minorities, Assad was right. Christians were better off living in government-controlled areas and have stuck by, reluctantly, to his regime. But the narrative has quickly crumbled...

'We knew what has happening to the Jews in Germany and we wanted Germany to lose the war,' Shapiro says NEW YORK (JTA) — Growing up in Imperial Japan during World War II, Isaac Shapiro’s best friend was a member of the Hitler Youth. The friend wore the organization’s brown shirt uniform to their international school every day, but not because he wanted to — he was German and Japan was an ally of the Nazi regime, so he was expected to project support for the Fuehrer. Instead of instilling fear into his classmates, however, the uniform had the opposite...

“Today, Russia ranks among the worst violators of religious freedom and human rights,” Ambassador Callista Gingrich said during a roundtable discussion on Ukraine held at the US embassy in Rome. “There is no sign that its persecution of religious minorities and foreign missionaries is coming to an end.” “Russia routinely conducts sham trials to persecute Ukrainians,” she explained. “Religious freedom also remains heavily constricted in areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation and control." The ambassador is married to former House of Representatives Speaker, Newt Gingrich, an adviser and ally of the president, who has repeatedly stressed there is no evidence...

Professor Ying Fuk-tsang, director of the divinity school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says that during the early years of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) some Christians became disappointed with church institutions. They thought God had taken away the power of Christianity to save humanity, so they joined the CCP as secret, or underground, members. He cited Yan Baohang, who was baptized when studying at the Fengtian (now Shenyang) Normal School and served as a trainee student secretary in the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He was later sent to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland for further...