Free Republic

A Republican lawmaker with a mission to save Christmas is aiming his latest salvo at President and first lady Obama, who've followed in a recent tradition to eliminate the mention of Christmas in the White House holiday cards. The card selected by the Obamas announces: "Season's Greetings." Inside, it reads: "May your family have a joyous holiday season and a new year blessed with hope and happiness." But Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., said abandoning Christmas at Christmas is just plain wrong. On Tuesday, he introduced a resolution calling for the protection of the sanctity of Christmas. So far, 44 lawmakers,...

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - President Obama's brief proclamation of Thanksgiving Day on November 26 was unique among all recorded Thanksgiving proclamations by his predecessors: it is the first one that fails to directly acknowledge the existence of God. The beneficence shown by God to America is a theme that traditionally defines the Thanksgiving holiday, and this theme is strongly emphasized in the original Thanksgiving Day proclamations and consistently acknowledged even by modern presidents. Obama's unprecedented proclamation, however, only makes indirect mention of God by quoting George Washington, stating: "Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed our...

Atheist Student Groups Flower on College Campuses ASSOCIATED PRESS November 21, 2009 AMES, Iowa (AP) -- The sign sits propped on a wooden chair, inviting all comers: ''Ask an Atheist.'' Whenever a student gets within a few feet, Anastasia Bodnar waves and smiles, trying to make a good first impression before eyes drift down to a word many Americans rank down there with ''socialist.'' Bodnar is the happy face of atheism at Iowa State University. Once a week at this booth at a campus community center, the PhD student who spends most of her time researching the nutritional traits of...

Hartford, Conn. - A new study of the 34 million American adults who do not identify with any particular religious group finds that they now largely mirror the wider population in other aspects. However, the group tends to be young, male, politically independent and of Irish ancestry. The number of “Nones” grew greatly in the 1990s. In 1990 they made up 8.2 percent of the population and grew to 14.2 percent by 2001. In 2008 they made up 15 percent. The Nones were the only group to have increased in every state and region of the country during the past...

HARTFORD, CT - A new report finds that American adults who claim no religious affiliation increased from 14 million in 1990 to 34 million in 2008. The new profile of America's "No Religion Population" takes a deeper look at data collected for the American Religious Identification Survey 2008, which was released by Trinity College. The new report says those who don't claim any religious affiliation are more likely to be male, young, living in the West and politically independent.

According to a new study from Trinity College, 15% of Americans don't associate with a religious denomination. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/09/22/2009-09-22_new_study_americans_are_losing_their_religion_choosing_to_be_nones_instead_of_nu.html#ixzz0SDnQoSOr

HARTFORD, CN - A new survey suggests that the number of American Jews who consider themselves religiously observant has dropped by more than 20 percent over the last two decades. The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that around 3.4 million American Jews call themselves religious, out of a general Jewish population of about 5.4 million. Those who call themselves only culturally Jewish rose from 20 percent in 1990 to 37 percent last year according to the study, which also found Jews more likely to be secular than other Americans.

Go West, young man! For most evangelicals, Jesus instruction in Matthew 28:19 to ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations … ’ is a serious command, and it is an integral part of the mission statement of most churches. A great many churches take up special offerings and allocate funds towards missionaries they support. The western world countries (where Christianity once flourished) are still where the majority of missionaries are supported from, often by the prayers and small monthly donations from faithful Christians that want to be the ‘hands and feet of Jesus’ in countries they will probably...

July 25, 2009 Huge public support for change in law to allow the right to die Rosemary Bennett, Social Affairs Correspondent Overwhelming public support for a change in the law to allow medically assisted suicide is revealed in a poll for The Times. Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of people want doctors to be allowed to help terminally ill patients to end their lives. Support is particularly strong among those aged 55 to 64. Six out of ten people also want friends and relatives to be able to help their dying loved ones to commit suicide without fear of...

I begin by referring to a story that some of you may have heard. A couple of years ago a crematorium in Devon removed its crosses on the basis that they did not "want to cause offence" to non-Christians and in particular Muslims. The subject of this crematorium was subsequently discussed in the House of Lords during the debate on the 2006 Equality Bill, when various speakers discussed ways of making crematoriums "Muslim-friendly". Two points are worthy of note during this debate. First, hardly anyone discussed the offence caused to Christians by the removal of the crosses. Second, absolutely nobody...

It's the Christian Coalition's worst nightmare. Gay and lesbian marriage, prostitution, marijuana, abortion on demand, physician-assisted suicide -- all are part of everyday reality in the Netherlands, and completely legal. What's more, the Dutch are happy with it, and the experiments are spreading elsewhere in Europe, as described by journalist Gilbert Charles in the December 7 issue of the French weekly news magazine L'Express. Beginning April 1, gays and lesbians have been able to marry. No "domestic partnerships" here -- these are full-fledged marriages indistinguishable from heterosexual marriages, and bearing all the same rights, including the right of adoption. ...

Sometimes it seems that an atheistic tsunami has hit. Anti-Christian books land high on bestseller lists. Polls purportedly show a decline in belief. Newsweek this spring had one of its traditional Easter cover stories on "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." Whenever the conventional wisdom points in a particular direction it's good practice to ask: What if the opposite is true? What if nominal Christian affiliation is declining but serious biblical belief is actually on the rise? What if Christianity in America is not dying, but instead getting its second wind—or maybe its sixth wind? After all, the American...

Forty years ago the major Catholic universities in the U.S. decided that the Catholic Church needed to reform her teachings, especially that of sexual morality, to conform to the times, and that they should lead that reform. In 1967, at Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin, they declared their independence from the Church, exchanged the faith of their founders for an evolutionary heresy, proclaimed themselves to be an alternate magis­terium, and transferred control from their founding religious orders to secular boards of trustees. Not coincidentally, by these actions they qualified themselves for lucrative financial grants from foundations controlled by leaders of the Culture...

Commentary The Notre Dame Brand BY Patrick LencioniMay 17-23, 2009 Issue | Posted 5/8/09 at 10:57 AM   Lest anyone think that the current graduation speaker controversy at the University of Notre Dame is merely a matter of partisan politics and media hype, it is worth a closer look. What is happening right now in South Bend, Ind., is not simply a critical moment of truth for a vaunted institution; it is also one of the greatest case studies ever about organizational identity and core principles.When Jerry Porras and Jim Collins published their classic book Built to Last almost...

Thank God For Our Dinner? Cambridge Students Axe Tradition Of Saying Grace Before Dinner As It Is 'Too Religious' By Daily Mail Reporter 14th May 2009 Students lucky enough to have won a place at Cambridge have plenty to be thankful for. So it is not surprising that grace is said before formal dinners at the university's Newnham College. However, the Christian content of the prayer has proved too much for some students and they have brought in a secular version. Enlarge All change: Newnham College, Cambridge, where undergraduates think saying grace is 'too religious' Their only concession is that...

Pope Benedict XVI will tonight attack the rise of aggressive secularism in western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'. The Bavarian-born Pontiff will use his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to purge religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified. He will say said that 'religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and held up to scorn and ridicule. 'We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink,' he will...

Do you regard the Easter weekend as a religious festival rather than just an opportunity to pick up bargains at the mall and stuff yourself with chocolate? Do you attend church on a Sunday rather than just lounging in bed? Do you sometimes pray or read the Bible? And do you believe in God or life after death? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then, according to some of the greatest minds that Europe has produced, you really ought not to exist. From the 18th century onwards a succession of European sages predicted that modernization would...

The End of Christian America The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become. By Jon Meacham | NEWSWEEK Published Apr 4, 2009 It was a small detail, a point of comparison buried in the fifth paragraph on the 17th page of a 24-page summary of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. But as R. Albert Mohler Jr.—president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest on earth—read over the document after its release in March,...

Jeremy Vine, the BBC presenter, has claimed that it is becoming "socially unacceptable" to be a Christian in Britain The Radio 2 host said that he feels unable to talk about his faith on his show because he fears how people would react. He argues that society has become increasingly intolerant of the freedom to express religious views. "You can't express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago," he said. "Arguably, the parameters of what you might call 'right thinking' are probably closing. "Sadly, along with that has come the fact that it's almost socially unacceptable to...

The Radio 2 host said that he feels unable to talk about his faith on his show because he fears how people would react. He argues that society has become increasingly intolerant of the freedom to express religious views. "You can't express views that were common currency 30 or 40 years ago," he said. "Arguably, the parameters of what you might call 'right thinking' are probably closing. "Sadly, along with that has come the fact that it's almost socially unacceptable to say you believe in God." His comments follow the claim from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the head of the Catholic...

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-All of the nation's state attorneys general have signed onto a brief to include references to God in President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration this month. Authored by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the amicus brief was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the case of atheist Michael Newdow v. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Newdow, a Sacramento physician, seeks to eliminate prayer from the ceremony and prevent Obama from being able to say "so help me God" in the presidential oath of office.

American taxpayers have spent more than $600 million on a new visitors' center at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and it will have acres of marble floors and walls, photographs of Earth Day, information about an AIDS rally and details about the nation's industrial sector. What it will not include is America's Christian heritage, raising objections from members of Congress and drawing an inquiry from Chuck Norris about whether he can help fix it. The new 580,000-square-foot center, mostly built underneath the grounds just east of the U.S. Capitol to protect the scenic views of the historic building, is about...

Are there more atheists and agnostics in this country than is commonly supposed? Two studies -- last week's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum and one published two years ago -- suggest so. The 2006 study from the University of Minnesota does not examine the question of how many non- believers there are but rather makes clear the troubling depth of Americans' distrust of them. Asked whether they would disapprove of a child's wish to marry an atheist, 47.6% of the 2,000 randomly selected people interviewed said yes. When asked the same question about Muslims and African Americans,...

Pope Benedict XVI will use his trip to America next month to present Catholic educators with a powerful challenge, one whose effects could ripple from Notre Dame, Ind., to Tarrytown, N.Y., prominent Vatican watchers are predicting. The expected message: Become more Catholic, or else.In one of just a few major addresses planned for his six-day visit to America, Pope Benedict is scheduled to speak about education at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before an audience that should include the president of every Catholic college and university in the country, plus representatives from every archdiocese, which oversee Catholic...

» 03/08/2008 14:51 VATICANPope: secularisation is invading all cultures, and even the ChurchBenedict XVI reveals that an increasing number of people live "making do without God", and he exhorts the Church to carry forward dialogue with cultures, in order to bring back to them the "lofty values of existence". Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Secularisation - living without God - is invading every aspect of human life, and for some time has stricken the Church itself.  It is a tendency fostered by the consumerist mentality, with its tendency to superficiality and egocentrism.  This is the cry of alarm raised today by...

Education ministers in the United Kingdom evaluating sex education programs have produced a new booklet for school children that warns Christian values should not be taught in schools, and sex education classes should teach only "how to," not "whether to." Now it's coming under criticism from those who say the material borders on propaganda and is completely inappropriate for schools to provide, according to a report in the Daily Mail. One such comment came from Norman Wells, the chief of Family and Youth Concern. He told the newspaper the booklet is being used to manipulate impressionable youngsters. "It's verging on...

Fewer People Claim Religious Affiliation Survey Of 35,000 Finds Religious Landscape Changing POSTED: 1:10 pm EST February 25, 2008 UPDATED: 2:29 pm EST February 25, 2008 The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds. The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for it sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population. While much of the study...

In an age of cynicism, nothing is sacred and everything is for sale. Religious artifacts are being auctioned off to private collectors in the United States and Europe, writes Jennifer Green. The trend has some asking, 'If this religious heritage is valuable for the Americans, why not us?' CREDIT: Bruno Schlumberger, the ottawa citizen Ron McDermid is a warden at Gatineau's St. Thomas church. In 1993, thieves stripped the building of its contents, including the church's stained-glass windows. Priests' robes used as paint rags. Magnificent church carvings tossed out for garbage collection. Gold and silver altarware melted down. Chalices for...

Vatican, Dec. 19, 2007 (CWNews.com) - At his weekly public audience on December 19, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) said that a secular Christmas celebration is impossible. "If we do not recognize that God was made man, what sense does it have to celebrate Christmas?" the Holy Father asked. "We Christians must reaffirm with profound and heartfelt conviction the truth of Christ's Nativity." Speaking to about 5,000 people in the Paul VI auditorium, the Pope acknowledged that many people make the effort to separate the Christmas celebration from the message of the Incarnation. He added that the Christian joy...

Mike Huckabee doesn't wish you happy holidays. He wants you to have a Merry Christmas. And keep the Christ in it, please. That's the subtext - as well as the text - of Huckabee's latest TV ad, which began airing this week in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Wearing a red sweater, the surging Republican presidential hopeful looks into the camera, acknowledges America's fatigue with political spots, then declares that, this time of year, "what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ." "God bless," he says at the end, "and Merry Christmas."

In 1961, only one half of 1% of Canadians told census takers they were not attached to any religious body. The figure rose to 4.3 % in 1971 and 16.2% in 2001. After the Second World War, 67% of Canadians told Gallup they had been in a church or synagogue over the previous seven days. By 1990 this figure had fallen by nearly two thirds to 23%. Gallup says it's now less than 20%. In 1961, 90% of Quebecers said they had been to church in the last seven days, and the Catholic church had one priest for every 500-700...

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has removed religious content from a memorial service for murder victims planned for next week after a watchdog group complained. A religious hymn called "This Too Shall Pass" and a closing prayer by a Lutheran pastor will not be included in the ceremony as initially planned, department spokesman Kevin St. John said Friday. The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation complained Tuesday that the hymn and the prayer at the state-sponsored event would violate the separation of church and state guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. After a review, St. John said the department agreed the content...

"A priest in Stockholm has come under fire for not allowing a bride to be walked down the aisle by her father. But church authorities have defended the decision, saying that the tradition is foreign and sexist. The row started when a bride due to marry on Saturday in a church in the Stockholm archipelago asked to be given away by her father. The priest conducting the ceremony refused the bride's request. "These are two equal people, and being given away has never been a Swedish tradition," said Rev Yvonne Hallin, priest in charge of the Church of Sweden parish...

We are now living in what some scholars call the "post-Christian West."By this they mean that Christianity no longer influences culture in Europe or in North America in a way that it once did. Of course there are many inherited influences still evident in the law, but for the past 50 years Europe, then the United States, has jettisoned Christian influences in arts and entertainment, politic, and education.It is becoming, some scholars say, an "ABC moment" -- "Anything But Christian."While well over 90 percent of Americans still say they believe in God, and many still identify as "Christian," the values...

Alarming Trend: Broken Homes will be One in Four by 2011 in Spain Since election of Socialists Spain has become a leading anti-family EU country By Elizabeth O?Brien MADRID, August 24, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Calling for Spanish policy makers to commit to providing greater support for families, the Institute for Family Policy (IFP) reported an alarming trend than one in four homes will be single-parent by 2011, Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports. Mariano Martinez-Aedo, Vice President of the IFP, pointed out that recent trends in Spanish families have caused increased "fragmentation" that has weakened the structure of society. He said,...

The release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the final book in the series, has momentarily diverted the public's attention from certain realities: The weather, which normally depresses during winter months when there is less sunlight, has been crying unmercifully on Britain, bringing what the Daily Telegraph calls "chaos and misery" as homes are flooded, flights are canceled or delayed, and train and subway service is disrupted. A government document obtained by the media reveals Britain has nearly "run out of troops" to defend the country or fight abroad. The Conservative Party, under leader David Cameron, failed to win...

[snip] In a country where barely 3% of the population goes to church each week, the affair seemed just another step in Christian Europe's long march toward secularism. Then something odd happened: A national furor erupted. A conservative bishop announced a boycott. A leftist radical who became a devout Christian and talk-show host denounced the biblical purge in newspaper columns and on television. A young evangelical Christian organized an electronic letter-writing campaign, asking Scandic: Why are you removing Bibles but not pay-porn on your TVs? Scandic, which had started keeping its Bibles behind the front desk, put the New Testament...

For well over a century now, the idea that something about modernity will ultimately cause religion to wither away has been practically axiomatic among modern, sophisticated Westerners.1 Known in philosophy as Friedrich Nietzsche's famous story of the madman who runs into the marketplace declaring that "Gott ist tot," and in sociology as the "secularization thesis," it is an idea that many urbane men and women no longer even think to question, so self-evident does it appear.2 As people become more educated and more prosperous, the secularist story line goes, they find themselves both more skeptical of religion's premises and less...

For many Americans, Sunday is unlike any other day of the week. They spend its luxurious hours curled up in bed with the paper, meeting friends for brunch, working off hangovers, watching golf, running errands and preparing themselves for the workweek ahead. But Sunday is also, for many, the Sabbath--a special day for religious reasons. Not that you would notice. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," we are told in Exodus. Of all the gifts Jews gave the world, that of a weekly day of rest is certainly one to be cherished. And yet the Sabbath is now...

For well over a century now, the idea that something about modernity will ultimately cause religion to wither away has been practically axiomatic among modern, sophisticated Westerners.1 Known in philosophy as Friedrich Nietzsche’s famous story of the madman who runs into the marketplace declaring that “Gott ist tot,” and in sociology as the “secularization thesis,” it is an idea that many urbane men and women no longer even think to question, so self-evident does it appear.2 As people become more educated and more prosperous, the secularist story line goes, they find themselves both more skeptical of religion’s premises and less...

I want to talk a little bit about three different approaches to religious liberty: one in atheist countries such as France and two different approaches within the United States. Then I will conclude with a few words about Islam--a story not yet fully developed but of great importance to the rest of this century. Atheists in Europe have their own approach to religious liberty. In personal life, they take religion seriously, as a dangerous social reality that needs to be curbed. Politically, the atheist aim since the French Revolution of 1789 has been to expel religion from public life, and...

Mother's Day is, to be honest, somewhat of an annoyance. It's manifestly one of those tedious Hallmark holidays wherein everyone is supposed to run out and support the revenue stream of cardboard manufacturers in the name of expressing gratitude to mothers, fathers, grandparents and anyone else to whom we might be related. I imagine it won't be long until Sept. 18 is declared Anonymous Sperm Donor's Day, which will probably be celebrated by giving matching card sets to one's two mommies and lighting a candle for dear old anonymous sperm donor, whoever he might be. Mothers are not only important,...

by Charles S. LiMandri Other Articles by Charles S. LiMandri 9/11 in Perspective: Thomas More — A Man for This Season 09/11/06 In 1929, G.K. Chesterton said, “Blessed Thomas More is more important at this moment than at any moment since his death, even perhaps the great moment of his dying; but he is not quite so important as he will be in about 100 years’ time.” In This Article...Conflict of Interest?Threats Within and WithoutIn God’s Hands Conflict of Interest? The prophetic import of Chesterton’s words has become increasingly poignant in our own time. My introduction to Thomas More came, as...

Do you know what the C in YMCA stands for? You may know it stands for “Christian,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t. The YMCA has come far from its founders’ intent when it was organized in 1844—so far that many people have forgotten its roots as a Christian organization established to disciple young men. Today, as John Alexander of the Danville, Illinois, YMCA says, “Unfortunately, people look at us and just see a swim and gym.”

RIMINI, Italy, AUG. 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Jacobinism, Nazism and Communism have not succeeded in banishing God, and "Christ is the greatest revolution of history," a sociology professor told a mass gathering in Rimini. Rosa Alberoni, writer and professor at Milan's IULM University, was summarizing the content of her latest book, "La Cacciata di Cristo" (The Expulsion of Christ), published by Rizzoli. She made her presentation Sunday at the weeklong 27th Meeting of Friendship among Peoples. Alberoni referred to words of Pope John Paul II, according to whom "history has amply demonstrated that to make war on God to extirpate him...

Sometimes the DUmmies come up with a proposition so absolutely ABSURD that it falls into the category of the comical. In this case it is this PROPOSITION, "Should religion be outlawed as it seems to be at the epicenter of most of the worlds strife." Even FUnnier than the fact that a DUmmie made this proposal is that the other DUmmies have joined in the chorus of agreement. So let us now watch the DUmmies once again toss all reason to the wind in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, praying fervently that the DUmmies continue...

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Indifference or hostility to religion is a well-established phenomenon in many Western countries. Recent events such as the Mohammed cartoon controversy point to the serious consequences that follow when secular society is unable to appreciate religious sensibilities, giving rise to needless offense. In this context a document made available a short while ago on the Vatican's Web site merits a closer look. "The Christian Faith at the Dawn of the New Millennium and the Challenge of Unbelief and Religious Indifference" contains the conclusions of the March 2004 plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for...

"Not too many years ago, Americans had never heard of sensitivity training, and if a facilitator of it had tried to convince them that they needed to be conditioned by it, he would have been told, very quickly and in no uncertain terms, to take a hike. However, step by careful step, sensitivity training began to be stealthily inserted into our society. Today, Americans simply submit to it without much thought, let alone any protest." ("Psychopolitics: Joe Six-Pack and the Crocodile" Linda Kimball) Sensitivity training, hate-crime laws, political correctness, multiculturalism, and the group dynamics and/or 'facilitated consensus process'---all of these...

Minister of Knowledge Øystein Djupedal wants schools to stop saying grace at meals. "Norwegian schools shall not be preachy. They shall be all-embracing. Grace is not consistent with how Norwegian schools should be," Djupedal told newspaper VG. According to VG saying grace at meals is still a common practice in schools across Norway. Djupedal wants an end to simple verses like: "O du som metter liten fugl, velsign vor mat, o Gud. Amen" (Oh you who satisfy small birds, bless our food, Oh Lord. Amen). Djupedal made it clear that he wants an end to all types of rituals that...

TAMPA -- In the most contentious school board meeting in years, five Hillsborough County School Board members voted Tuesday night to restore Good Friday, Easter Monday and Yom Kippur to the 2006-07 school calendar. The decision was "bittersweet," said a spokesman for the Muslim community, whose request to recognize one of their holy days ignited the public debate. "It is a temporary solution," said Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We've been adamant the last two weeks that we would give up on our request for a holiday so the other religions won't lose theirs."