Free Republic

* The director of the Survey Center on American Life, Daniel Cox, notes that US birth rates have dropped alongside a sharp decline in religious participation—weekly church attendance has fallen to 30% from 42% two decades ago. * He studied the correlation, finding that Christians ages 40–59 average 2.2 children, compared with 1.8 for the unaffiliated. The fertility decline has been steeper among less religious Americans. * Young religious adults are nearly twice as likely as nonreligious peers to want children (62% vs. 32%). Cox said that upbringing that emphasized family and marriage is more likely to result in a...

Posted on Wed, Jul. 03, 2002 Ventura's 'Indivisible Day' proclamation riles some ASSOCIATED PRESS ST. PAUL (AP) _ Gov. Jesse Ventura's proclamation of the Fourth of July as "Indivisible Day" in Minnesota, an order sought by an atheist group, has upset the secretary of state and others who see it as a slap at religion. The proclamation, which Ventura signed Tuesday, emphasizes the constitutional separation between church and state. "Eternal vigilance must be maintained to guard against those who seek to stifle ideas, establish a narrow orthodoxy, and divide our nation along arbitrary lines of race, ethnicity and religious belief...

You have probably heard that something extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church in France. The French bishops’ conference announced in April that more than 10,000 adults were due to be baptized in 2025 – a 45 percent increase on the year before. It’s not just adult baptisms that are booming. A record 19,000 people , many young, attended this year’s Paris to Chartres pilgrimage. An unprecedented 13,500 high school students took part in the 2025 Lourdes FRAT pilgrimage, a major annual youth event. The country is also seeing what French media call a “boom biblique” : a rapid rise...

Last weekend’s memorial may show the way home.There is a through line that connects several recent news headlines: the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Luigi Mangione murder trial, and Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral candidacy. It is the crisis of meaning in modern American life. Mamdani — an avowed Democratic Socialist — cruising to a surprise victory in the New York City Democratic primary (and maintaining a durable polling lead for the general election since) spotlights the decline of secular materialism. New York, once thought to be ungovernable, became a playground for the rich and increasingly livable for the middle and...

The Rapture is upon us, according to TikTokers, some of whom have latched on to a prediction that on Tuesday, Sept. 23 — today — Jesus Christ will return to Earth and take true believers to Heaven.

WHAT?! The BIBLE GATEWAY the most popular online Bible website/app in the world, which is used by millions and millions of Christian’s around the world to find Bible verses bas been removed in the UK due to the ONLINE SAFETY ACT.

1:45 Look at 3I Atlas at 12 O'Clock and Swan at 6 O'Clock (think strategic)🚨

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is applauding Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, saying the two-time NFL MVP showed "courage and conviction" after facing criticism for sharing Kirk’s faith-based post on X that read, "It’s all about Jesus." "I just want to say to Lamar… you are more than welcome in this big movement that we are building…" the conservative influencer told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday, referencing reports of a Christian revival in America. "You could be a Democrat, you could be on the left. I don't care. Jesus is honestly the most important thing." The quarterback’s X timeline...

Promises Made, Promises Kept. Since taking office, President Donald J. Trump has made history again and again for the faith community. Since the founding of our nation, nobody has fought harder or gained more for believers, reversing the catastrophic policies of the previous administration while building on the winning legacy of his first term. President Trump has protected religious liberty and affirmed faith in America. He has fought anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and other forms of anti-religious bias while ending the weaponization of government against all people of faith. He has expanded school choice, protected parental rights, restored biological truth, uplifted families,...

A mysterious manuscript hidden for centuries in Shakespeare’s childhood home has just been reattributed—and it wasn’t written by who everyone thought. =============================================================== Portrait Of William Shakespeare. Credit: Britannica | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel A centuries-old manuscript once thought to be the work of William Shakespeare’s father has been reattributed to his sister, Joan Shakespeare Hart, in a new peer-reviewed study published in Shakespeare Quarterly. The findings challenge longstanding beliefs about the Shakespeare family’s religious affiliations and offer a rare glimpse into the intellectual life of a woman previously all but erased from history. The research, led by Dr....

Pastors and activists Andy Oliver and Benedict Atherton-Zeman were arrested Friday night during the state's removal of St. Petersburg's "Black History Matters" mural. Crews from the Florida Department of Transportation arrived around 8 p.m. to paint over the mural outside the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, according to a spokesman for the St. Petersburg Police Department. That's when Oliver and Atherton walked past police, then sat and knelt down to pray in the road and refused to move "in an attempt to block the FDOT machinery." They were both charged with misdemeanor obstruction and "Pedestrian obstructing or hindering...

Suicide in America has been rising for two decades, with rates for white Americans consistently well above those for Asian-Americans, Black Americans and Hispanics. In data released in 2017, the rate for white Americans was around 19 per 100,000, 7.1 for both Hispanics and Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders, and 6.6 for Black Americans, according to the CDC. One explanation may be a racial disparity in suicide data…But misclassification cannot fully explain the racial difference in suicide. Dawne Mouzon, a sociologist and associate professor at Rutgers University, suggested that religious involvement is one source of protection. Black Americans overwhelmingly identify as Christian. “Because...

Written in Rishikesh, ‘Dear Prudence’ has transcended its original inspiration to become one of The Beatles’ best-loved songs.Over the end of the Esher demo of “Dear Prudence,” John Lennon can be heard explaining the origin of the song: “No one was to know that sooner or later she was to go completely berserk under the care of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. All the people around her were very worried about the girl because she was going insane. So we sang to her.” The girl in question was Prudence Farrow, the 19-year-old sister of American actress Mia Farrow. During the stay, Prudence...

For generations, The Miccosukee Tribe have lived and created a connection with the land that now hosts the Immigration Detention Center known as Alligator Alcatraz. Since the facility’s opening, members of the tribe have protested its rapid development, and the impact it has had on their way of living. WGCU’s Eileen Kelly ventured into the heat of The Everglades as members of the Miccosukee joined other faith leaders as part of a mass prayer for those being held

Today's video is a reflection on the 40th anniversary of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s chilling speech, "Men Have Forgotten God." There are many sobering parallels between the collapse of spiritual life in Soviet Russia and today’s cultural crisis in America like how the rise of materialism, scientific atheism and nihilistic worldviews are contributing to a decline in faith especially among Gen Z. If you've ever wondered why belief in God seems to be fading, and what can be done about it, this is a conversation you can’t afford to miss... As a special gift Dr. Meyer would like you to download his...

In the past, the younger generation tended to rebel against the religious norms of their parents. Young people’s resistance to the rules and institutions of religion was assumed and expected. But that’s not the case anymore. According to a recent article from Axios, members of Gen Z—which includes young people born between 1997 and 2012—are actually more likely to go to weekly religious services than millennials and young Gen Xers.According to some reports, church attendance has quadrupled amongst Gen Zers in recent years.America witnessed a steady decline in Christianity from the 1970s through the 1990s, with only about 46 percent...

The FBI spied extensively on a Roman Catholic priest who declined to disclose private conversations he had with a parishioner, according to a report released earlier this week from the House Judiciary Committee that has raised religious liberty concerns. “This new information demonstrates that the FBI not only used its federal law enforcement resources to surveil certain Catholic Americans, but it also used these resources to investigate a clergy member,” the committee said, according to the July 22 report that Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, shared with the Catholic News Agency. After he expressed reluctance to comply with a January 2023...

TABYEHThe Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theopolis III-visiting the Christian town of Tabyeh with other Jerusalem -based clerics-said settlers had started a fire near a cemetery and a 5th century church there last week. "These actions are a direct and intentional threat to our local community...but also to the historic and religious heritage," the patriarch told diplomats and journalists at a press conference in Tabyeh. Settlers had also attacked homes in the area, he said...

China has reacted to the announcement from the Dalai Lama that he will be reincarnated after his death and a successor will be appointed. The Tibetan spiritual leader ended years of speculation by saying Wednesday that the next Dalai Lama should be found and recognized according to past Buddhist traditions, signaling that China should stay away from the process. However, China's foreign ministry was quick to issue a statement, saying that the Dalai Lama's reincarnation "must be approved by the central government." "The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama and other great Buddhist figures must be chosen by...

For much of the past century, the Dalai Lama has been the living embodiment of Tibet’s struggle for greater freedoms under Chinese Communist Party rule, sustaining the cause from exile even as an increasingly powerful Beijing has become ever more assertive in suppressing it. As his 90th birthday approaches this Sunday, the spiritual leader for millions of followers of Tibetan Buddhism worldwide is bracing for a final showdown with Beijing: the battle over who will control his reincarnation. On Wednesday, the Dalai Lama announced that he will have a successor after his death, and that his office will have the...