Free Republic

There was a time when 10 Commandment displays sat untouched in government halls and schools, when Nativity scenes were placed in parks and in front of government buildings, and when children sang traditional Christmas songs at holiday concerts. I remember my elementary school calendar, which read, “Christmas Vacation” marking a week or so off for the Christmas season. Slowly and methodically, it’s all disappearing thanks primarily to two organizations that are on a mission to eradicate any vestige of God – particularly Jesus Christ – from the public square. The Madison, Wisconsin based Freedom From Religion Foundation, (FFRF) and American...

There has been a huge 13 percent drop in the number of people in Britain identifying themselves as Christian, according to new data released from the 2011 Census. The shocking statistics reveal that the number of Christians has fallen from 37 million to 33 million since 2001. Christians now make up only 59 percent of the population, as opposed to 72 percent in 2001. Meanwhile, the number of Muslims has risen from 1.5 million to 2.7 million - or 5 percent of the population - while the number of people describing themselves as having no religion rose by 10 percent...

Catholic colleges that have maintained a strong religious identity also have the strongest core curricula, according to a new study from The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS). The study finds that students at most other U.S. Catholic colleges can avoid the study of Catholic theology altogether. Dr. Kimberly Shankman, dean of Benedictine College and a research fellow for the CNS Center for the Advancement of Catholic Higher Education, finds that Catholic colleges generally devote a larger share of undergraduate requirements to general education than other U.S. colleges. Many also require particular courses for all students instead of offering a menu of...

The number of unaffiliated is now at its highest point ever and has increased 5% in the past five years,the Pew/PBS poll found. More Americans than ever say they don’t identify with an organized religion — a trend that is growing among all segments of the population, a poll released Tuesday found. One in five American adults, or 19.6% of the population, are now religiously unaffiliated, a Pew Center/PBS survey finds. Atheists and agnostics now make up about 6% of the U.S. population. The number of unaffiliated is now at its highest point ever and has increased 5% in the...

A new poll suggests that 1 in 20 Americans now call themselves atheists, a fivefold increase from the last time the survey was taken in 2005. The Religion News Service reports that, to go along with the jump, just 60 percent of Americans now identify as religious, down from 73 percent the last time the Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism poll was taken seven years ago. The decline has also been felt in many other countries around the world, including double-digit drops in several European and North American countries. Here's the question pollsters asked 50,000 or so people from...

One of the great losses to Western Culture is the increasing refusal to accept that there is a Natural Law to which we may commonly refer. This is especially problematic in pluralistic and secularist societies like the post-Christian West where reference to the sacred text of Scripture is not considered authoritative by many.Hence, it has been the long practice of the Church, even before secularizing trends to base her witness to the truth not only on Scripture but also on Natural Law. The recourse to such a basis for discussion is now largely impossible for us, as most secularists have...

  Empty Churches – Where Should We Draw The Line? May 9th, 2012by Gary Zimak.  “Religion is popular only when it ceases to be truly religious. Religion by its very nature is unpopular – certainly unpopular with the ego.” (Archbishop Fulton J Sheen)Recently, an interesting article was brought to my attention. Appearing in The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), the point was raised that organized religion was on the decline throughout the area. More and more, organized religion is coming under attack, as evidenced by the recent YouTube video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus”. While the idea of individuals...

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...

Australian history books will no longer use Jesus' birth as a reference point for dates, to the outrage of some religious and political leaders. Under new government curriculum, the terms BC, translated "Before Christ," and AD, translated "The Year of Our Lord," will be replaced with neutral, non-religious language. The land down under will now use the politically correct BCE and CE, meaning "Before Common Era" and "Common Era" respectively. The terms are popular in academic and scientific publications. Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen has condemned the move, calling it an "intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human...

OMAHA, Neb. -- Omaha’s YWCA is dropping a letter from its name along with its affiliation with the national YWCA. The board of directors for the local YWCA said they have determined the organization would be more effective as an independent agency. With the transition, the organization is also changing its name to the Women’s Center for Advancement. "To better reflect our local mission of helping women and their families build lives of strength, growth and self-sufficiency, we have adopted a new, vibrant and more inclusive identity,” WCA board chairwoman Sandy Parker said. The WCA will remain at 222 South...

Every year, researchers from the British Social Attitudes survey ask a representative sample of British people whether they regard themselves as belonging to any particular religion and, if so, to which one? When the survey first asked these questions in 1985, 63% of the respondents answered that they were Christians, compared with 34% who said they had no religion (the rest belonged to non-Christian religions).Today, a quarter of a century on, there has been a steady and remarkable turnaround. In the latest 2010 BSA report, published earlier this month, only 42% said they were Christians while 51% now say they...

Based on current advertising, below is a list of companies that avoid, ban, or use the term "Christmas" in their advertising. We will continually update the list, so check back often. Criteria - AFA reviewed up to four areas to determine if a company was "Christmas-friendly" in their advertising: print media (newspaper inserts), broadcast media (radio/television), website and/or personal visits to the store. If a company's ad has references to items associated with Christmas (trees, wreaths, lights, etc.), it was considered as an attempt to reach "Christmas" shoppers. If a company has items associated with Christmas, but did not use...

It's not often you see an obituary as snarky and bitter as the one written by British columnist Johann Hari announcing what he called the "slow, whining death of British Christianity" in the UK edition of GQ and online at The Huffington Post. Citing an unlinked ICM study, which is not available on the organization's website, Hari called on reader to "put your hands together and give thanks, for I come bearing Good News. My country,Britain, is now on the most irreligious country on earth." Hari called Christianity, "superstition," "weak," "cruel," and based on "intimidation." He predicted that, "As their...

NEW HAVEN — All it took was one complaint for the school district to make a small but significant change to diplomas that will be handed out at graduations this week. For the first time in as long as anyone can remember, diplomas for New Haven high school students were printed without the phrase “in the year of our Lord.”

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) -- A federal judge ruled Monday that two public high schools can't hold their graduations inside a church because that would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall's ruling followed an Enfield school board vote in April to hold graduation ceremonies for the town's two high schools at The First Cathedral in nearby Bloomfield. Board officials said the church, which fits 3,000 people, had enough space at the right price. Two students and three of their parents sued, claiming the decision was an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion. The judge agreed, citing...

Two top evangelical leaders sounded a defiant tone on the eve of National Day of Prayer -- warning that the American right to freedom of religion “is being eroded every day” and may be lost in an onslaught of secularism unless Americans “have the guts to stand up.” The Rev. Franklin Graham, who last month was officially “dis-invited” by the Army to speak at a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the Pentagon for statements he made about Islam, said he will not back down in preaching the Gospel as he sees it. “We’re living in a time where we...

Dear Grandson: I risk writing you this letter in order to pass along some censored history. Today’s America of 2050, officially atheist by law, is a very different place from the “nation under God” of my boyhood in 2010. When you take your first communion in Denver’s underground church on a spring morning once known as Easter, you need to know how this and other holy days disappeared from the American calendar. Our country at mid-century remains the envy of the world, still fairly prosperous and optimistic, still claiming to be the land of the free and the home of...

I know one city administrator who should be fired. Not just for changing the name of "Good Friday" to "Spring Holiday" but because he clearly has no actual responsibilities to fill his day so he's making up things to do. ABC reports: One week before the most solemn day in the Christian year, the city of Davenport, Iowa removed Good Friday from its municipal calendar, setting off a storm of complaints from Christians and union members whose contracts give them that day off. Taking a recommendation by the Davenport Civil Rights Commission to change the holiday's name to something more...

The Anglican Church in Canada – once as powerful in the nation's secular life as it was in its soul – may be only a generation away from extinction, says a just-published assessment of the church's future. The report, prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, calls Canada a post-Christian society in which Anglicanism is declining faster than any other denomination. It says the church has been “moved to the far margins of public life.” According to the report, the diocese – “like most across Canada” – is in crisis. The report repeats, without qualification or question, the results...

Even with its centuries-old roots throughout the continent, is Christianity history in the West? In a speech at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., the visiting archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, warned that “trends questioning the Christian foundation of Europe, and aggressively opposing it, are becoming stronger in several countries and in the European political arena in general.” He explained that “Christianity is for many a foreign element in a world determined by reason, Enlightenment and democratic principles.” He contends that “this Europe, and the Western world as a whole, will not survive without the foreignness Christianity...