Free Republic

Heirs of the Terror, the French left are at it again. The socialist government of Francois Hollande will shortly be posting a set of 15 secular principles in all 55,000 French public schools. Article 9 thereof states: "Secularism implies the rejection of all violence and all discrimination, guarantees equality between girls and boys. There is a separation of the private and public sphere." Which usually means: The public sphere can interfere with the private sphere, but not the reverse. Militant secularism has a long and distinguished history of rejecting violence – from the French Revolution to the Bolshevik Revolution to...

John Rossomando Follow John on Twitter A reporter’s question to GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich whether or not he would impose Christian values “on everyone else” Wednesday during the announcement of his 21st Century Contract With America showcases the growing intolerance of Christians on the part of militant secularists. This is also true of the other relgiously motivated attacks on other GOP presidential candidates. My question to this secularist journalists is: “When will you keep your secular utilitarian worldview to yourself and stop trying to force everyone else to accept it?” The First Amendment’s establishment clause aimed to prevent Congress...

In bestselling books, on websites, and with a national lobbying effort, atheists and other nontheists are challenging the growing religious influence in government and public life. Some are attacking the foundations of religion itself. Two particularly provocative books, in fact, hit the top of Publishers Weekly's religion bestseller list in December. No. 1, "The God Delusion," by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and No. 2, "Letter to a Christian Nation," by writer Sam Harris, are no-holds-barred, antireligion polemics that call for the eradication of all manifestations of faith. "I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever...

A federal judge Thursday turned down the request of a prominent suburban atheist's son to prohibit Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 from filling a teaching spot they had previously offered to him. Richard Sherman, 23, appeared before Judge Charles R. Norgle to argue that he is being discriminated against by the school district because his father is an atheist. "The district is not releasing me based on my teaching philosophy (as they claimed)," Richard Sherman, acting as his own attorney, told Norgle. Instead, Richard Sherman claimed, they were releasing him based "on what they perceive my religious beliefs to be."...