Free Republic

The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009. Both Protestantism and Catholicism are experiencing losses of population share. Currently, 43% of U.S. adults identify with Protestantism, down from 51% in...

It’s one thing when a humanist attacks the Bible. That’s expected. It’s another thing when a humanist attacks a Christian denomination for using the Bible as a moral guide. But that’s exactly what humanist author Clay Farris Naff did on the Huffington Post on April 29th.Naff was upset that the highest court of the Methodist Church struck down the consecration of Bishop Karen Oliveto, since her only infraction was being married to another woman. How, he wondered, could the church punish her for love?He writes, “To anyone free of ancient prejudices, the injustice of condemning Oliveto is plain. How can...

The Democratic Party has a “religious illiteracy” problem that prevents them from reaching out to evangelicals, according to a former Democratic staffer. Michael Wear, a former Obama White House staffer, explained three reasons why the Democratic Party fails to reach out to evangelical voters or voters with different theologies. Wear, speaking with The Atlantic, pointed out that many young Democrats don’t know how to discuss or deal with religious topics. This “illiteracy” contributes to why Democrats fail to reach out to evangelicals, Wear explained. “It’s tied to the demographics of the country: More 20- and 30-year-olds are taking positions of...

During the Christmas season, one might think the newspapers would refrain from trashing Christianity. In reality, the opposite happens. On Sunday, Washington Post book editor Ron Charles celebrated the liberal fun zone “between blasphemy and hilarity.” The oxymoronic headline was “DIY for the (irreverently) devout.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a conservative Republican and potential 2016 presidential candidate, said on Breitbart News Sunday this weekend for the Easter Sunday special show that Democrats and liberals are waging an open assault on Americans’ religious liberty rights.

Rush Limbaugh answered a caller’s concern about the “anti-Christians that are taking over” by saying those in that particular activist camp are being fueled by Democrats who simply hate Christianity. First, the caller, a self-described U.S. Coast Guard veteran, speaking of the recent furor generated by Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act: “What am I supposed to do? These anti-Christians that are taking over, it seems like, don’t realize this country was founded on Christian values and morals. Have they lost their mind?” And then, Limbaugh’s response: “No. They just have always opposed the founding of the country. This is...

The so-called "God Gap" between Republicans and Democrats continues to play an important role in partisan differences, according to a new Gallup poll.Among very religious Americans, about half, 49 percent, identify as Republican or are likely to vote Republican. Among nonreligious Americans, also about half, 52 percent, identify as Democrats or are likely to vote for Democrats. This God gap, sometimes called the "religious participation gap," has characterized party politics in the United States for at least the seven years that Gallup has been measuring it, Frank Newport, editor in chief for Gallup, pointed out in a blog post.Religiosity was...

UPENN PROFESSOR SAYS GOD IS A WHITE RACIST I didn't think it could get any more bizarre, rediculous...or ultimately dangerous...and then you have this. A University of Pennsylvania Professor, Professor Anthea Bulter (shown above), who is an associate professor of Religion at the University of Pennsylvania, blogged the following to her readers and students regarding her thoughts after the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict: "God ain’t good all of the time. in fact, sometimes, God is not for us. As a black woman in an nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a...

I should say at the outset that I was turned down by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for a post they advertised. I'd never have dared apply had it not been for Trevor Phillips, who headed it at the time. "Why don't you have a Christian on board?" I had asked him. "Why don't you apply?" he'd graciously replied. Alas, he was leaving the Commission when he said it. But when I saw his replacement – Baroness O'Neill – I wasn't upset about my failed application: the philosopher is, at least on paper, Christian. She'd look after the...

If CNN’s coverage of the election of Pope Francis I on Wednesday afternoon is any indication, Jeff Zucker and his minions are not ready for prime time — or any time for that matter. I stopped counting the number of errors from CNN’s anchor team after three pages of notes. The following are only the most egregious: • The network reported Francis is the first non-European pontiff in the history of the church. Well, how about modern-day history? St. Peter, the first pope, came from near the Sea of Galilee. A number of early pontiffs came from Africa and Asia....

Think about this: there have been three presidential/vice-presidential debates thus far, and not one question about Barack Obama's historic advocacy of gay marriage. That seems a rather curious omission given the gravity of the issue. No other issue among the candidates is as transformative as this one. Name another issue that involves completely redefining something as ancient as the Garden of Eden. You can't. The question ought to be asked in the next debate, and, even more intriguingly, within the context of how the two presidential candidates' faith relates to their stance-similar to how Martha Raddatz asked Joe Biden and...

Guess what? God’s name has been removed from the Democratic National Committee platform. This is the paragraph that was in the 2008 platform: “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.” Now the words “God-given” have been removed. The paragraph has been restructured to say this: “We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple principle that in America, hard work...

A veteran Republican says the religious right has taken over, and turned his party into anti-intellectual nutsHaving observed politics up close and personal for most of my adult lifetime, I have come to the conclusion that the rise of politicized religious fundamentalism may have been the key ingredient in the transformation of the Republican Party. Politicized religion provides a substrate of beliefs that rationalizes—at least in the minds of its followers—all three of the GOP’s main tenets: wealth worship, war worship, and the permanent culture war. Religious cranks ceased to be a minor public nuisance in this country beginning in...

Maine has fewer residents who claim a religious affiliation than any other state in the union. The Pine Tree State is the only one in the country in which less than 30 percent of the population belong to a religious denomination or independent Christian church, according to a census conducted every 10 years by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. This follows a Pew study that found 40 percent of Mainers pray daily — the lowest percentage in the nation. “What’s alarming about those numbers is that more than 300 years after the country was founded by people...

America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U. S. President When one observes President Obama’s unwillingness to accommodate America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct. Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years. So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate. He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling...

Rick Santorum has been called a latter-day Savonarola. That’s far too grand. He’s more like a small-town mullah. “Satan has his sights on the United States of America,” the conservative presidential candidate warned in 2008. “Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition.” When, in heaven’s name, did sensuality become a vice? Next he’ll be banning Barry White. Santorum is not merely engaged in a culture war, but “a spiritual war,” as...

God is dead, so why should I be good? The answer is that there are no grounds whatsoever for being good. There is no celestial headmaster who is going to give you six (or six billion, billion, billion) of the best if you are bad. Morality is flimflam. Does this mean that you can just go out and rape and pillage, behave like an ancient Roman grabbing Sabine women? Not at all. I said that there are no grounds for being good. It doesn't follow that you should be bad. Indeed, there are those – and I am one –...

1. Vermont 2. New Hampshire 3. Maine 4. Massachusetts 5. Alaska 6. Washington 7. Oregon 8. Rhode Island 9. Nevada 10. Connecticut

Why do atheists face bias in office holding? Community columnist Al Westerfield picked some good examples of discrimination against the religiously impaired in his Dec. 6 column, "No more discrimination? In a 1987 interview, George H.W. Bush revealed his true wish to see atheists denied all of their constitutional rights. Like many of strict religious faith, he assumes that without religion, these people lack a moral compass. Apparently Bush sees no duplicity in his post-presidential work for the Carlyle Group. This private equity firm got its start exploiting inside information about America's war planning to invest in the defense industry....

It seems like everywhere you look these days while driving on the road – especially on college campuses – an odd-phrased bumper sticker with religious symbols spelling “COEXIST” can be seen. This phrase contains the spiritual ideologies of the major world religions. Every letter in the “COEXIST” phrase has a symbol representing a religious system or spiritual ideology: “C” for the crescent and star (representing Islam); “O” being dotted with the Karma Wheel (Buddhism) “E” as energy in the relativity equation (Science); “X” illustrating the star of David (Judaism); the “I” representing the pentagram (Wicca/Pagan); “S” for the Tao symbol;...