Free Republic

World history, as most Westerners interprets it, very much revolves around nations like France, Russia/Soviet, Britain, Italy and USA. These corners of the Earth, undeniably, have played major roles in the development of mankind. BUT, there seems to be a gap in the historical knowledge of several, otherwise well educated, Westerners concerning what took place during the period of approximately 1620-1720 on European soil. A lot of people seem aware that Britain at that time was not really, yet, the world's leading power and that France, Spain, Austria and Holland excersised much of influence over world affairs. However, during this...

I stopped for a cup of coffee at Starbucks today. They have the NY Times on their news rack. I always look to see what they are writing about; opposition research you may call it. Today's Times has a front page story with the above headline. A mere 50 years ago that would have been a positive thing. Today, that headline is supposed to scare the "bejesus" out of the typical Times reader. Here's the point of the story: Ms. Palin’s religious life — what she believes and how her beliefs intersect or not with her life in public office...

Archbishop Chaput’s book makes NYT Best Seller List, beats Biden’s book New York, Sep 5, 2008 / 05:38 pm (CNA).- Just three weeks into the publication of “Render Unto Caesar,” Archbishop Charles Chaput’s new book has made the New York Times Best Seller list. The archbishop’s book is currently one place ahead of “Promises to Keep,” written by Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden. “Render Unto Caesar” is currently number 27 on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers List for the week of September 14, outpacing Sen. Biden’s book by one spot. During the week of August 29,...

In order to legitimize your stealing from me. Over at Blogher, quite a spirited discussion about universal healthcare and other entitlement programs. Of course those most likely to banish God completely from the public square use their misunderstanding of the Bible to call me a hypocrite because I don’t see a Constitutional mandate for socialism. After I pointed out that being a conservative Christian is not an oxymoron, I received this reply (following verse after verse of Scripture admonishing me to give up everything I own, blah, blah, blah): "Christ was a radical who was working against corrupt government, selfishness...

The Obama campaign talks a lot about new ideas and expanding the political map, but in the swing state of Pennsylvania, which the campaign has focused on almost exclusively since the Democratic convention, old-school issues still rise to the fore. The latest example came Friday during a small political event at SCHOTT North America Inc., a glass factory in Duryea, Pa., where even a hand-picked crowd threw Barack Obama a curve ball. A woman in the crowd told Obama she had “heard a rumor” that he might be planning some sort of gun ban upon being elected president. Obama trotted...

Apparently Ted Anthony of the Associated Press thinks it is somehow "contradictory" of the GOP to show VP candidate Governor Sarah Palin's kids at the GOP convention on TV. He seems to imagine that, since the GOP objected to the media attempting to use the kids against Governor Palin, that the GOP shouldn't be allowed to have the kids attend the convention to see their Mother accept her nomination. Anthony's "analysis" hit the nets on September 3, the day after Palin's wonderful acceptance speech on night 3 of the proceedings. Naturally, the AP trolls our left leaning universities to find...

Fundamental Evolution: a Biologist reads Genesis Everybody should read the Bible. Several times. When I was a child, I had to: my mother insisted. So I read. But soon I became so entangled with who begat unpronounceable who, I lost interest. For a time I struggled with seemingly endless tales of pillage, rape, massacre, genocide, and tedious ritual, but eventually I put the book on the shelf, and there it remained for thirty years. The Jehovah's Witnesses drove me back to scripture. My wife and I were living in the Florida Keys. Every so often a group of earnest ladies...

Gaia Orders Hurricane Gustav to interrupt GOP convention. Gaia, a jealous and wrathful deity, has sent Hurricane Gustav to dampen the spirits of Republicans gathered at their convention, a group of fundamentalist secular humanists said in a news release. "Your sins of extravagance and ignorance have angered the one true non-God," said Jerry Fellwell, pastor at the Tabernacle of the Indifferent Shepherd in Lynchburg, Tenn. "And now she or he has unleashed a relatively well-known meteorological event to strike on a random date. Repent now for the end is nigh!" According to Fellwell, Gaia is also referred to as...

The Massacre in Hebron Posted Saturday, August 23, 2008 on IsraCast.com Headline in the newspaper "Baltimore" on the massacre in Hebron The Hebron Massacre refers to the mass murder of 67 Jews on 23 and 24 August 1929 in Hebron, then part of the British Mandate of Palestine, by Arabs incited to violence by false rumors that Jews were massacring Arabs in Jerusalem and seizing control of Muslim Holy Places Related Articles bloodbath at jerusalem yeshiva .audiocontainer { <p> font-size: 11px; color: #996633; text-align: center; padding-top: 3px; padding-bottom: 5px; border-top-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-top-color: #CCCCCC;...

Previous posts in this series: Introduction - Have We a Visible Succession of Baptist Churches Down from the Apostles?Chapter 1 - The Colonial Period: Pilgrims and PuritansChapter 2 - The Banishment of Roger WilliamsChapter 3 - The Settlement of Rhode IslandChapter 4 - The Providence and Newport ChurchesChapter 5 - Chaunce, Knolly, Miles and the Swansea ChurchChapter 6 - The Boston BaptistsChapter 7 - New Centers of Baptist Influence: South Carolina - Maine - Pennsylvania - New JerseyChapter 8 - The Baptists of VirginiaChapter 9 - Baptists of Connecticut and New YorkChapter 10 - The Baptists of North Carolina, Maryland,...

In 1943 during WW2, an army Sgt., Ed Davis, was working in Iran near the Turkish border, in charge of locals hired by our army to build a road through Iran to the Soviet border, which would carry supplies to the Soviets instead of flying them in. In short, Ed did a tremendous favor for a little Kurdish village near Ararat. His workers were mostly Kurds and the chief of the village came to Ed and asked if he would like to see Noah's Ark. He said the summer on the mountain had been hottest in many years and the...

In 1972 Sen. Joseph Biden, the Democrat nominee for vice President, lost his wife and young daughter in a car accident. Losing your family in a auto accident is a gut wrenching tragedy, to be sure. No one underestimates that and no ever blamed Mrs. Biden for the accident. Right up there with despicable things one human can do to another, is falsely accusing the innocent of a crime. “Bearing false witness” is even in the 10 commandments, but Mr. Biden’s feigned Catholicism doesn’t let that stop him. Last night CBS Inside Addition reports, “In a striking moment in December...

On God By P. J. O'Rourke Is faith compatible with science? Does science take faith into account? Should scientists keep religious faith in mind while they do their scientific theorizing, their scientific experimenting, their scientific... But here I begin to lose faith in my ability to ask the question. I have some idea what God does. I have no idea what scientists do. My entire store of information about scientific activity comes from what I've seen in the movies. There, scientists used to be represented as men in white coats busy with incomprehensible jumbles of glass tubing connected to foaming...

Addiction, more often than not, is recognized as an unceasing need for a particular drug. But there are also those addicted to certain behaivours! When you're planning an intervention for someone addicted to violence and drunk on power, it better come with one heck of a guarantee if you're hosting it!! NOTE: The author has requested that you refrain from pasting a copy of the comic within the thread and instead visit his web site. Thanks!!

Addiction, more often than not, is recognized as an unceasing need for a particular drug. But there are also those addicted to certain behaivours! When you're planning an intervention for someone addicted to violence and drunk on power, it better come with one heck of a guarantee if you're hosting it!!

I am neither against Scientology or am i a Scientologist. I am trying to educate myself and I want to know what other FReepers think about it. Please give me your honest impressions good or bad. Let it rip

DENVER, August 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- Kicking off their week of inclusion at the Democratic National Convention, the party will host its first-ever "interfaith gathering" on Sunday afternoon at the Colorado Convention Center. However, among its featured speakers will be Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). The ISNA is suspected of having ties to radical terrorism organizations worldwide. In fact, the ISNA is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. ISNA is also supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical organization that calls on Muslim organizations in America to dedicate themselves...

How do Muslims see Barack Hussein Obama? They have three choices: either as he presents himself – someone who has "never been a Muslim" and has "always been a Christian"; or as a fellow Muslim; or as an apostate from Islam. Reports suggests that while Americans generally view the Democratic candidate having had no religion before converting at Reverend Jeremiah Wrights's hands at age 27, Muslims the world over rarely see him as Christian but usually as either Muslim or ex-Muslim. Lee Smith of the Hudson Institute explains why: "Barack Obama's father was Muslim and therefore, according to Islamic law,...

...In February, the Florida Department of Education modified its standards to explicitly require, for the first time, the state’s public schools to teach evolution, calling it “the organizing principle of life science.” Spurred in part by legal rulings against school districts seeking to favor religious versions of natural history, over a dozen other states have also given more emphasis in recent years to what has long been the scientific consensus: that all of the diverse life forms on Earth descended from a common ancestor, through a process of mutation and natural selection, over billions of years. But in a nation...

It's often said that America was founded on "Judeo-Christian" values.

Arab Muslim Palestinians' Persecution of Christians DHIMMITUDE, ISLAMIC APARTHEIDArab "Palestinian" Christians have been suffering and STILL suffer from Arab "Palestinian" Muslim majority.Just like the Arab Christian Lebanese in "Damour" (Yasir Arafat´s Planned Christian Genocide http://www.chretiens-et-juifs.org/article.php?voir%5B%5D=594&voir%5B%5D=3532 , Hobeika - Damour http://www.free-lebanon.com/LFPNews/hobeika_damour/hobeika_damour.html), where "Palestinian" Muslims massacred Christians senselessly, which brought the reprisal by Arab Christians upon Arab "Palestinian" Muslims in Sabra & shatila. The Islamization of Bethlehem that has started by Yasser Arafat has forced Christians out.The "Palestinian" Christians are forced to join the senseless criminal violence against Israeli victims, otherwise they are threatened. Some Arab "Palestinians" that might be Christian won't...

As many of you know, over the last couple of months I have had the opportunity to speak with Sen. Barack Obama a couple of times—even interviewing him here on the website last month. His campaign has expressed a desire to have an ongoing dialogue with the Christian community, and I’ve gladly taken them up on that offer. I have regular conversations with his campaign staff about issues that are important to Christians, talking honestly about areas of disagreement and discussing ways we can work toward a common good. It’s a positive dialogue that, as a registered Republican, I have...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - A slim majority of Americans, including more conservatives and Republicans than previously, want to keep religion out of politics, a survey released on Thursday found. The results come as Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain actively vie for the support of religious voters among others ahead of the November 4 presidential election. The survey by the Pew Research Center found that 52 percent of Americans thought that churches and other religious institutions should stay out of politics, an increase of eight percentage points since 2004, when the last U.S. presidential election was held.

No Theocracy Here: Saddleback Does What American Christians Have Always Done John Mark ReynoldsPolitics 08.21.2008 And lo it is a few days after the Saddleback Civil Forum and the republic is still safe. Extremists on both sides of religion and government issues are deeply disappointed. The thin slice of religious people in America who are theocrats have long viewed Warren as an enemy. The Civil Forum confirmed their worst fears. Warren held a civil conversation with people whom he is not in agreement. He was polite to the “enemy” and yet he has not yet been smitten with boils or...

Hi! There has been a lot of encouraging feedback regarding the week of prayer and fasting for America! Just wanted to encourage people who are interested to check out the website and consider standing with us in prayer and fasting this week! Even if you can't fast, you can prayer! We all know the following verse! "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.” II Chron. 7:14. Lets take...

This is a video of, Old Fashion Revival Singing and Church, with imaginative animation of frogs that have been inspired and singing a short version of the hymns, "Rock of Ages" and "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow". The instrumental is the "Doxology”. This is an o7jimmy/Revski Classic. :)

Should historical amnesia be an option for the average Christian? Knowing church history, particularly as it relates to the early years of Christianity and the theological issues which faced leaders in that age is important for all believers, essayists in the summer edition of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology argue. The latest SBJT examines the early church and encourages Christians to learn from important church fathers such as Athanasius, Augustine and Irenaeus. Essayists include Southern Seminary professor Michael A.G. Haykin, author and pastor John Piper, Westminster Theological Seminary professor Carl Trueman, Western Seminary professor Todd L. Miles, and Scottish...

The average senior pastor in U.S. churches today makes more than $80,000 a year, a recent national survey shows. Compensation packages, including benefits such as retirement, life insurance, health insurance and continuing education allowances, have increased to $81,113 per year for the average senior pastor. And pastors who hold a higher academic degree are paid up to $30,000 more per year than pastors without any post-secondary education. The statistics come from the 2009 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, an annual analysis of compensation packages at churches across the country, and at a time when churches begin planning their budget for...

We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion. What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies....

Dems detail religious eventsDemocratic National Convention will demonstrate that party members are people of faith Associated Press Vail, CO Colorado DENVER, Colorado - Pastor and Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Leah Daughtry says the Democratic National Convention will demonstrate that party members are people of faith. **SNIP** Social activist Sister Helen Prejean and Islamic Society of North America President Ingrid Mattson are among those to be featured at an unprecedented interfaith service Aug. 24 to open the gathering. During the convention, the Faith Caucus will meet in a separate venue on topics including how an Obama administration would engage people...

Some Olympians Dissatisfied With Religious Center By Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, August 14, 2008; A13 BEIJING, Aug. 13 -- The Olympic Village's religious center has become the target of a quiet protest by athletes, coaches and other delegates who say its staffing and services fall woefully short of the promises made by Chinese organizers. Previous Olympic hosts welcomed foreign chaplains, but China has banned them from living with the athletes. It has instead pledged that it will provide equivalent services from its pool of state-employed pastors, imams and other clerics. Josh McAdams, 28, an American athlete...

Secret Tapes: The History Of Xenu, As Explained By L. Ron Hubbard In 8 Minutes Click here to hear 8.03 min. audio Most of what we know about Scientology's "supreme ruler" we learned from South Park: 75 million years ago, the evil alien brought humans to earth in a spaceship and killed them; the psychic trauma of the event has affected us ever since. The Church of Scientology, embarrassed by the story, has always tried to hide its existence. Until now. The Church has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with YouTubers, getting it removed in many cases; we have the...

Laura's E-Blast http://www.LauraIngraham.com July 9, 2008 MADRASSAS FOR AMERICANS: On today's show we were joined by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) and producer Ericka Pertierra, who discussed the new documentary "Karachi Kids." The film tracks two brothers from Atlanta whose father, a Pakistani immigrant, shipped them off to a Pakistani madrassa and informed them their return was conditional upon memorizing the entire Koran. The boys, their father felt, had become too absorbed in American culture. In 2004, the filmmakers discovered that the boys were being held against their will at the Jamia Binoria Institute in Karachi, one of Pakistan's most radical...

David Freddoso, Bane of the Obama left for daring to dirty the Obamessiah's brilliant white robes, has written an excellent article about Obama's support for infanticide. He begins by describing a nurse's eye-witness account of cradling a four month old baby boy, victim of a botched abortion, and watching him die because Illinois law and hospital staff permitted it. I think abortion is abhorrent, and words can't do justice to the evil of the Illinois infanticide law. But other things in the article caught my eye as well: The hospital where the botched abortion turned into a baby killing is...

Science tried to purge other scientists who disagree with the establishment http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=19904502&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8

Barack Obama has cultivated a rock star persona and used “change” as a rallying cry, attracting young, secular voters, but it could be the large segment of religiously-oriented youth who make or break the Democratic presidential candidate and his Republican opponent John McCain this election year. Three swing states — Ohio, Missouri and Colorado — could tip the scales if religious youth show up the way they have in recent elections, said John Green, director of the Bliss Institute at University of Akron in Ohio. “These ‘battleground states’ are good reflections of the nation as a whole,” Green told FOXNews.com....

Beijing, Aug 11, 2008 / 11:48 am (CNA).- Sunday morning in Beijing, President Bush attended the Beijing Kuanjie Protestant Christian Church.  After the government-established church service, the U.S. president gently encouraged the Chinese government to consider granting religious freedom to its citizens, telling them not to fear Christianity.The president expressed that he and his wife experienced “great joy and privilege of worshiping here in Beijing, China.”  Bush explained that the service showed “that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion.” He also thanked the pastor and the...

Kay Pharmacy in Grand Rapids, Mich., looks like any other pharmacy. But ... some things are not for sale: condoms and other forms of birth control. Owner Mike Koelzer sent a letter to his customers in 2002, advising them that he would no longer be filling prescriptions for contraceptives. "I was and am willing to lose the business in order to not be a part of something I don't agree with. ...While the number of pharmacies that refuse to sell contraceptives remains relatively small... Brian Bundy is one of those pharmacists. That's why he was fired from a pharmacy in...

The writhings of worldwide Anglicanism are another reason to disestablish the Church of England IN THE end it held together, but only just. The 650-odd bishops who attended the once-a-decade Lambeth conference went home with open schism between the liberal and conservative wings of the worldwide Anglican Communion averted. A split may prove no more than postponed, as the agreed mechanisms for making minds meet are oh-so-slowly put in place (see article). But at least the unedifying spectacle of comrades in Christ tearing strips off each other over gay sex will vanish from the headlines for a bit. Does it...

The truth about IslamofascismCoffee break: Kanchan Gupta Although the immediate context of his argument was far removed from events in India, well-known Arab journalist Abd al-Rahman al-Rashid, in an article he penned four years ago, ripped the veil off the Muslim cult of denial, which is so adroitly preached by the clergy and naïvely practised by the ghetto, that the ummah and its faith have nothing to do with terrorism; that all talk of Islamist terror or jihad is no more than fiction propagated by Zionists and their patrons in the Christian West. "It is certainly true that not all...

Censorship is when the government prevents you from publishing something. When the subject is Islam, the government does not have to do anything to block publication. Our publishers decide on their own that it would be best for them not to publish anything that could possibly offend Muslims. Random House is leading the way. Random House pulls novel on Islam, fears violence Publisher Random House has pulled a novel about the Prophet Mohammed's child bride, fearing it could "incite acts of violence." "The Jewel of Medina," a debut novel by journalist Sherry Jones, 46, was due to be published on...

Just watch the VID..

“At some fundamental level, religion does not allow for compromise. It’s the art of the impossible.” -- Barack Obama “If God has spoken, then followers are expected to live up to God’s edicts, regardless of the consequences. To base one’s life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime, but to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing.” Barack Obama in the same June Speech. [transcript from his own senate website]http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060628-call_to_renewal/ [Here is part of Obama's speech] Moreover, given the increasing diversity of America’s population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once...

DNC organizers reassure Denver's faith community By Jean Torkelson Monday, August 4, 2008 On Aug. 24, the eve of the Democratic National Convention's opening gavel, the convention committee will hold its first official kickoff event - a huge Sunday afternoon gathering dedicated to religious inclusiveness and diversity. Final plans for the event in the 5,000-seat Wells Fargo Theatre will be announced soon, said DNCC spokesperson Natalie Wyeth. Since the early planning stages of the convention, Democrats signaled that they planned to seek out "many voices" of faith. The party's commitment to religious issues was highlighted by its choosing the Rev....

Religion may have helped protect ancient humans from disease, new research has claimed. Divisions between people caused by religion may have actually helped reduce the spread of infections. Scientists claim this is why hotter countries which are more prone to disease have more religions when compared to similar-sized nations from cooler climates. 'Why does Cote d'Ivoire have 76 religions while Norway has 13, and why does Brazil have 159 religions while Canada has 15 even though in both comparisons the countries are similar in size?' the report asked. The scientists found that across many societies the number of different religions...

..the closest AP's Douglas Birch came to mentioning the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Christian faith was by remarking how the bearded author and Soviet dissident looked like a religious icon: In a 1978 speech at Harvard ** Solzhenitsyn denounced the Western view that liberal democracy was fated to triumph in non-Western civilizations, which he called "worlds" unto themselves. ..in that speech-"A World Split Apart"-Baptist theologian Albert Mohler argues, that Solzhenitsyn famously diagnosed secularism as a disease corrupting the West and, what's more, he did so thoroughly anchored in his Orthodox Christian faith (emphasis mine): *** Solzhenitsyn railed against the secularism and...

Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant. [SNIP] Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays -- the same number as the old contract. Eid al-Fitr -- which falls on Oct. 1 this year -- marks the end of Ramadan,...

Religions thrived to protect our ancestors against the ravages of disease, according to a radical new evolutionary theory of the genesis of faith. Prof Richard Dawkins the atheist and sceptic, has condemned religion as a "virus of the mind" but it seems that people became religious for good reason - actually to avoid infection by viruses and other diseases - according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences. Dr Corey Fincher and Prof Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, come to this conclusion after studying why religions are far more...

Food workers at the Shelbyville, Tenn., plant for Tyson Foods, which boasts on its corporate website that it strives "to honor God," will have time off for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday closing the month of Ramadan, instead of the American tradition Labor Day. Officials with the company told WND the labor union representing the 1,200 plant workers, including about 700 immigrants from Somalia who largely are Muslim, sought the holiday change in the new five-year contract, and the company agreed.

The son of one of the most popular leaders in the Hamas terrorist organization has moved to the U.S. and converted to Christianity, it has emerged. In an exclusive interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Masab Yousuf, son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, slammed Hamas, praised Israel and said he hoped his terrorist father will open his eyes to Jesus and to Christianity. "I know that I'm endangering my life and am even liable to lose my father, but I hope that he'll understand this and that God will give him and my family patience and willingness to...