Free Republic

An evenly divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that states cannot provide funding to religious charter schools, turning away from a potential decision that would have fundamentally changed K-12 education.The 4-4 split meant the justices upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling that both Sooner State law and the US Constitution prohibit taxpayer funding from going toward religious schools. Justice Amy Coney Barrett had recused herself from arguments, having taught at the University of Notre Dame’s law school for about 15 years. The school’s religious liberty clinic had been representing one of the parties in the case, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic...

"Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own," wrote Pope Leo XIII, in his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, laying down the basics of Catholic social teaching. The plans of contemporary socialists to seize private property, Leo XIII denounced as "emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community." The last Pope Leo's defense of private property adds no small amount of irony to the small Chicago suburb of Dolton, Illinois' plan to honor the new American-born Pope Leo XIV by seizing...

NEW YORK, NY — According to sources, a group of Episcopalian parishioners has found a strange old book hidden underneath one of their church's pews. The book, labeled "Holy Bible" on the front of it, was apparently unknown and completely foreign to everyone at the church, leaving leaders in fear that the church may have been infiltrated by right-wing religious extremists. "It contained strange text and verses we had never seen before," said Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe. "Just a cursory glance through this ‘Bible' was troubling. It appears to speak of an almighty deity none of us are familiar with...

Isn’t honoring Mary a Roman Catholic thing? This general ethos can cause Evangelicals to get particularly squeamish around the language of “theotokos” the Mother of God… In the garden of Eden, after Adam had disobeyed God and before he was forced out of the garden, God promised in Genesis 3:15 that a seed would come from the woman, who would crush the head of the Serpent, thereby turning back the curse and putting an end to the enmity between man and God. This Seed, therefore, would need to be a new Adam—a new head of a new human race, since...

Disappointment brings discouragement. Constant failure to realize our plans or expectations will cause us to lose confidence and hope, and inability to handle disappointment becomes a great tool. The following story, given to me by a friend and mentor 45 years ago, written by Walter Knight, illustrates. Discouragement It was advertised that the Devil was going to put his tools up for sale. On the day of the sale the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with its sale price. They were a treacherous lot of implements.... Hatred, Envy, Jealousy, Deceit, Lying, Pride, and so on comprised...

President-elect Donald Trump used a “forceful hand” to get his Drug Enforcement Agency pick to drop out on Tuesday after hearing “concerns” about the Floridian’s record, sources familiar told The Post — leading outgoing Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) to make a bid for the position. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister issued a lengthy statement indicating he was withdrawing his name for the DEA slot — but did not reveal the specific reason he was dropping out of the confirmation process after just three days. “Everyone knows President Trump calls the shots,” a well-placed source spilled. “The president heard the concerns...

An Episcopal congregation here, after facing months of backlash from some neighbors in response to its proposal for a 17-bed homeless shelter, now has been targeted by ersey]the town for possible public seizure of the 11-acre church property through eminent domain. The congregation, Christ Episcopal Church, says the property is not for sale, yet the elected town council on April 30, during a raucous and contentious meeting, agreed to begin the process of buying or seizing the church and five other properties to create two new town parks. The Rev. Lisa A. Hoffman, Christ Church’s rector, said that a Toms...

Our Constitution does not forbid government entities from working with religious groups, and the ‘separation of church and state’ is an ahistorical misnomer.Sometimes, a phrase takes on a life of its own and becomes so rhetorically powerful that it can be deployed almost mindlessly, without real consideration of its original meaning. “Separation of church and state” is one such phrase.Consider a couple of examples.In 2011, middle-schooler Brian Hickman auditioned to dance to a contemporary Christian song for his public school’s talent show. Days later, Brian’s mom was told by the school principal that the “separation of church and state” prohibited...

Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed surprise Tuesday that schools in a state founded on religious liberty are now banning parents with religious objections from opting their young children out of LGBTQ storybook lessons. In Mahmoud v. Taylor, a majority of the Supreme Court appeared ready to side with parents who want to opt their children out of Montgomery County Board of Education’s mandated storybook readings involving pronouns, transgender children and pride parades. “I guess I am a bit mystified, as a lifelong resident of the county, how it came to this,” Kavanaugh said during oral arguments. “Can you just tell us...

VATICAN CITY, — Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church for the past 12 years, has died at age 88. The head of the Catholic Church died Monday morning at 7:35 a.m. He had been the pope for 12 years, ascending to the head of the papacy on March 13, 2013.

Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) claimed on Friday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” that the Trump administration was attacking the freedoms of speech, religion and the press. Co-host Pamala Brown said, “You talk about due process, that brings me to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen was able to finally get a face to face meeting with him. The administration admitted that he was wrongly deported to El Salvador. Where do you think this goes from here?” Dingell said, “You know, I don’t know where it goes. I’m glad that the senator was able to see...

Sydney Johnston grew up in a nondenominational Christian household — but now the Upper West Side millennial is a devout Catholic. “There’s just something so beautiful and transcendent about the rituals and the ancient history in the Catholic Mass that’s been preserved,” Johnston, 30, told The Post. “The church really communicates a degree of reverence that I didn’t find in the more liberal, laissez-faire approach of nondenominational churches.” Confirmed in December 2024 at the Church of Notre Dame in Morningside Heights, Johnston is one of a growing number of young people turning to the Catholic Church from other denominations, religions...

You probably haven’t heard much about Holy Tuesday when people talk about Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem. This day may not have any of the exciting moments that happened at the end of Holy week, but it shows hints of the coming danger and gives us some vital lessons about Jesus' values.

For the first time in modern American history, more young men than women are claiming religious affiliation. NBC News’ Morgan Radford explores the connection between the religious growth, the rightward political shift and the growing gender gap.

Gary Hermesch, the man charged for allegedly shooting and killing a Catholic priest in Seneca had previously shared his opinions in a local newspaper. From January 2021 to March 2024, Hermesch submitted entries to The Courier-Tribune, a newspaper covering Seneca and Nemaha County. The Courier-Tribune shared copies of six issues with 27 News, where Hermesch shared his thoughts on religion and a wide range of other topics in the ‘Letter to the Editor’ column...

The medical staff looking after Pope Francis considered stopping his treatment so he could die, according to the lead doctor, while the 88-year-old pontiff was hospitalized with a drawn-out respiratory illness. Professor Sergio Alfieri told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera the most critical moment came on February 28 when the pope had a breathing crisis and inhaled his own vomit. “We had to choose whether to stop and let him go or force it and try with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the very high risk of damaging other organs. And in the end, we took this path,”...

Among the 34 largest U.S. metro areas surveyed, the Portland-Vancouver region stands out as the only place where nonreligious people outnumber Christians, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study. Surveying more than 35,000 Americans across all 50 states, the study provides a detailed analysis of religious affiliation and spiritual practices nationwide. “The study was designed to capture people’s religious identity, their beliefs and practices, as well as things related to their spiritual beliefs and practices and experiences,” said Becka Alper, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center. “We wanted to get a really broad assessment of that,...

As Pope Francis approaches death, millions of Catholics around the world put aside their differences with the man to pray for him. Some pray for what Catholics call a “happy death” free from mortal sin. Some pray for his return to health. Some pray for his conversion or repentance.“It’s a sad thing to say but there should be no controversy whatsoever about people sincerely praying for the salvation of the pope’s soul,” said Frank Wright, a British Catholic journalist. “I see nothing but good intentions for that. I pray for the soul of the pope myself. It’s our duty.”It might...

A religious row has erupted among conservative Christians over President Donald Trump’s decision to re-appoint Paula White-Cain to run the White House Faith Office, with theological fissures erupting within Trump’s Christian coalition as leaders stake out different positions on the Florida pastor. The debate escalated on Tuesday (Feb. 19), when Doug Wilson, an influential Reformed pastor who has emerged as an oft-cited religious thinker in conservative circles, derided White-Cain, a Pentecostal pastor, on his podcast. While responding to others on his show who were critiquing White-Cain, the Idaho pastor referred to her appointment as “a bad pick for all kinds...

Americans repeat certain words with mindless ease without once regarding their definitions, their real meanings or their connotative meanings. Their use or perhaps their misuse is a good reflection of the health of our culture or the lack of it. Without including four letter words and expletives with the exception of…love, you will not be able to reach the end of this list without remembering that you have probably heard one or more of these words today alone. If you do not recall hearing them for a while it may be that you live an isolated life in the mountains...