Free Republic

Since 1990, the fraction of Americans with no religious affiliation has nearly tripled, from about 8 percent to 22 percent. Over the next 20 years, this trend will accelerate: by 2020, there will be more of these "Nones" than Catholics, and by 2035, they will outnumber Protestants. The following figure shows changes since 1972 and these predictions, based on data from the General Social Survey (GSS):

A three-judge court panel ruled Wednesday that a World War I memorial in the shape of a cross in Bladensburg, Maryland, is unconstitutional, a decision that a legal scholar says could imperil other similar memorials. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the 40-foot cross erected 92 years ago violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. “The monument here has the primary effect of endorsing religion and excessively entangles the government in religion,” Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote for the majority. “The Latin cross is the core symbol of Christianity. And here, it is 40...

America’s oldest veteran is Richard Overton who was 109-years-old when this video was filmed by National Geographic. He has since celebrated two more birthdays and is now 111 years old. He was born on May 11, 1906, and has lived in the same house since 1945. This cigar-smoking Veteran has lived more years than most of us could imagine. His Overton diet includes multiple cups of coffee and butter pecan ice cream. His secrets to life aren’t complicated and he has the attitude of Never Give Up!

Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. (Isaiah 66:5)Isaiah predicted that the larger, more staid and respectable congregation, whose religion was active, busy and very aggressive, but which wasn’t individually spiritually searching, would inevitably persecute those whose religion was acceptable to God, approved of the Holy Ghost. Your Brethren hated You… Why did they hate them? It is an age old Biblical pattern which...

The Christian nationalists Trump has emboldened pray in public and prey on the people in private. On Friday, President Donald Trump went before the annual Values Voter Summit and declared America "a country that never forgets that we are all, everyone one of us, by the very same God in heaven." Trump invoked the name of Jesus just a day after he announced his executive order to stop the federal government's Cost Sharing Reduction payments, which subsidize health care for lower-income families under the Affordable Care Act. The Christian nationalists Trump has emboldened do not follow the Jesus I know...

The Christian baker in Colorado who was sued for declining to make a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding reception received a strange request last month: Design and bake a cake celebrating Satan’s birthday. “I would like to get a quote on a birthday cake, for a special event,” the email request to baker Jack Phillips, sent Sept. 30 and exclusively obtained by The Daily Signal, reads. It continues: It is a cake that is religious in theme, and since religion is a protected class, I am hoping that you will gladly bake this cake. As you see, the birthday...

Turning to the future, Brown said technological change and the development of artificial intelligence would transform the concept of the divine. "We will start to find our spiritual experiences through our interconnections with each other," he said, forecasting the emergence of "some form of global consciousness that we perceive and that becomes our divine". "Our need for that exterior god, that sits up there and judges us ... will diminish and eventually disappear."

Dan Brown, the author of "The DaVinci Code," is back with another blockbuster anti-religion novel, and CBS "Sunday Morning" rolled out the red carpet on Oct. 1 to honor him and his massive commercial success. The segment began with what he called his "fortress of gratitude" -- his house loaded floor to ceiling, over several stories, with bookshelves ... stuffed with copies of Dan Brown's own books. So we know who Dan Brown worships. CBS correspondent Tony Dokoupil vaguely noted Brown has been attacked by "religious groups" for his "depictions of Christianity." Brown complained that the Vatican told Catholics to...

A veteran flight attendant at Southwest Airlines says she was fired from her job after speaking out about her faith and criticizing her union. Charlene Carter of Aurora, Colo., filed suit against the company and union in a Texas federal court. She said her employment was terminated after she expressed her religious beliefs regarding abortion in Facebook posts and messages to union president Audrey Stone.**snip** and activity in opposition to Local 556." Carter criticized the union for using employee dues to fly two dozen officials and flight attendants to attend January's Women's March protest.

Pope Francis flew to Bologna, Italy, Sunday and met with a large group of migrants and refugees, calling them “warriors of hope” while insisting that nations open broader avenues for immigration. During a full day in Bologna, Francis spent an hour meeting hundreds of migrants personally while posing with them for selfies under light drizzle. Later, the pontiff hosted a luncheon for asylum-seekers and prisoners in the St. Petronius basilica. He even donned a yellow plastic ID bracelet used by asylum-seekers to express his solidarity with them. “Do you know what you are? You are ‘warriors of hope’!” Francis exclaimed...

To the utter consternation of the abortion rights movement, the issue of abortion simply will not go away. Decades after abortion rights activists thought they had put the matter to rest with the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, America’s conscience is more troubled than ever, and near-panic appears to break out regularly among abortion activists. Such a panic is now under way, and the defenders of abortion are trotting out some of their most dishonest arguments. One of the worst is the claim that Christians have only recently become concerned about the sanctity of human life and the evil...

Folks on all sides of the political spectrum are absolutely muddled trying to understand President Donald Trump. Those on the left and right are apoplectic over his jibes, tweeting and directness. “He certainly isn’t a true conservative,” they say. Before the election, Lock Piatt [1] described him in a way we are slowly beginning to understand: "The current tribal view of Donald is wrong. How many have lived in New York City for years but never became part of the real NY culture? Queens, Staten Island, New Jersey and other boroughs are very loud and harsh speaking people. They sound...

UK: Over 100 Muslim “extremist speakers” invited to speak at universities SEPTEMBER 30, 2017 12:14 PM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS 7 COMMENTS British universities hosted 110 events featuring extremist speakers in the last academic year, 2016/17, with the highest proportion taking place in London institutions….The extremist events listed were overwhelmingly organised by Islamic societies and groups and speakers included former Guantanamo Bay detainees and Islamists The Henry Jackson Think Tank report authors “suggest that despite Prime Minister Theresa May’s claim that ‘enough is enough’, universities continue to be a vulnerable target for extremists promoting their messages.” All of the UK remains...

As you know, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, begins today at sundown and ends tomorrow at sundown. The evening service begins with the Kol Nidre. It has a haunting melody. Listen. This is the translation from Aramaic: All vows, obligations, oaths, and anathemas, whether called ‘konam,’ ‘konas,’ or by any other name, which we may vow, or swear, or pledge, or whereby we may be bound, from this Day of Atonement until the next (whose happy coming we await), we do repent. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of no effect;...

The Orthodox Church in the United States has problems. One of the problems the Orthodox Church currently suffers in this country is a lack of converts. There are other problems as well: overlapping jurisdictions, lack of communication across jurisdictional lines, and a tendency to isolate ourselves from communities in which we live. But it is our lack of converts that strikes me as particularly troubling. Doubtlessly, some will correct me and remind me that the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Orthodox Church in America are made up largely of converts. While this is certainly the case, it may...

A federal court issued an order Friday that requires the city of East Lansing to allow a farmer to return to its 2017 farmer’s market after city officials developed a rule for the purpose of keeping him out because of his marriage views. The city ousted Steve Tennes and Country Mill Farms after reading a post on his Facebook page that expressed his religious belief in marriage as the union between one man and one woman. “Just like all Americans, a farmer should be free to live and speak according to his deeply held religious beliefs without fear of government...

On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Nabeel Qureshi, age 34, entered into the joy of his master, Jesus Christ, after enduring a yearlong battle with cancer. Islam Was All Nabeel was born in California as a U.S. citizen to Pakistani immigrants who fled religious persecution at the hands of fellow Muslims. His parents were devout members of the peaceful Ahmadi sect of Islam, which differs from orthodox Islam on some minor doctrines but shares with it a belief in the six articles of faith belief in tawheed [absolute monotheism]belief in the prophetsbelief in the booksbelief in the unseenbelief in the day of judgmentbelief in...

Shumaila Shah knows how to cook her husband's favorite dish the way one might say the Pledge of Allegiance. "Cook onions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger crushed together," she said, articulating something so familiar it didn't need words, English or Punjabi. "Salt, pepper, garam masala. Put meat in and add water to make a gravy. Cook until the meat is soft, not tough." How long? She thinks for a moment. "A half-hour; it depends on the meat," she said. "Then add the potatoes, because they take a shorter time to cook. We eat it with naan." The recipe for her aloo...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein defended Sunday her much-criticized grilling of a judicial nominee over her Catholic faith, saying that Amy Coney Barrett had made “questionable” statements in her writings. Ms. Feinstein said that she considered Catholicism to be a “great religion,” but that it was appropriate for the Senate Judiciary Committee to quiz Ms. Barrett about her religious beliefs. “Having said that, this is a woman who has no real trial or court experience,” said Ms. Feinstein on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And therefore there is no record. She’s a professor, which is fine, but all we have to look...

The anti-Trump demonstrations we now see in the streets are not just examples of the immaturity of many modern secular liberals, who seem to think that everyone else is somehow obligated to agree with them. They’re also a symptom of the distorted influence politics now exercises over our culture. But in addition to being a symptom of our culture, the dominance of politics in every aspect of life is also a consequence of liberalism itself. The tendency of liberalism has always been to politicize everything. Thanks to liberalism, we have a politicized media that has abandoned journalistic standards in a...