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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."

The Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-FL) today called on the School Board of Hillsborough County to reinstate Christian and Jewish holidays recently removed from the 2006/2007 school calendar. School board members last week voted to eliminate the holidays following a request by the local Muslim community to schedule a day off on the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr.

TAMPA -- More than 100 pleading, threatening and indignant e-mails have streamed into Hillsborough County School Board offices, some calling board members "gutless," "morons," and "a bunch of wimps." At issue is the board's vote to drop religious holidays from its school calendar, a decision that has drawn fire from national media, local officials and citizens. Hillsborough School Board members voted Oct. 25 to drop Yom Kippur and Good Friday from the 2006-07 school calendar, designating no religious holidays off except Christmas. Students may be absent on their religious holidays without penalty or restriction on the number of days.

A new grammar rule devised by the European Union in Brussels stipulates the word "Christ" shall be spelled with a lowercase "c." The rule was part of an orthography reform published in October, reported Canada Free Press. The paper cites a German newssite, Kath.net, in reporting that the new guidelines also indicate the Dutch word for "Jews" (Joden) is to be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion. The EU changes become mandatory next August. There are no penalties set out for those who insist on continuing to...

TAMPA - -- After weeks of delay and debate, the Hillsborough County School Board approved a 2006-07 calendar minus holidays for Yom Kippur, Good Friday or the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Fitr. The 6-1 vote represents a major shift from scheduling days off on religious holidays, a practice School Board Attorney Tom Gonzalez on Tuesday said was wrong. "A school board cannot recognize a religious holiday for the sole purpose of recognizing a religious holiday," Gonzalez said at a meeting packed with dozens of members of the Muslim community, some pleading to have no school on holidays for all religions. So...

TAMPA - Her voice small and hesitant, 11-year-old Rahma Elmohd told Hillsborough School Board members Tuesday night that she "would like it a lot" if students could get one day off for a Muslim holiday. It was not to be. Nearly a year after local Muslims first asked that an Islamic holiday be recognized by the school district - just like Yom Kippur for Jews and Good Friday for Christians - board members voted to end vacation days for all religious holidays. The board approved a 2006-07 calendar that substitutes three secular vacation days for three Christian and Jewish holidays....

EDINBURGH University is set to ban Bibles from its student halls of residence amid concern that the Holy Book is “discriminatory” and makes students of other faiths feel unwelcome. The move is the result of protests from the students’ association and is being considered in an effort to pursue a policy of “evenly supporting all faiths”, a university spokesman said yesterday. A Gideon Bible is traditionally placed in every new student’s room at the start of the academic year and there are currently around 2,000 Bibles in the Pollock Halls campus on the edge of Holyrood Park. Their distribution is...

FL: Schools May Drop Religious Holidays Melanie Ave, St Petersburg Times, 10/7/05 TAMPA - There may be no day off next school year for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Also on the chopping block are vacation days for the Christian faith's Good Friday and the Monday after Easter. After considering a request to recognize a Muslim school holiday, the Hillsborough County School Board next week will discuss ending student days off on all religious holidays, whether they be Christian, Jewish or Muslim. The only religious holiday not affected will be Christmas, which occurs during the school district's winter break....

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today. According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems. The study counters the view of believers that religion is necessary to provide the moral and ethical foundations of a healthy society.