Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

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   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

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   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

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   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

THAT’S the view of Shane Schaetzel, above, a Catholic commentator who took to Twitter this week to predict that the number of Christian nationalists in America “will only get higher the more the Alphabet People keep pushing their agenda. So by all means, keep pushing that ‘Pride.’”

Schaetzel was reacting to a Gallup poll that found that social conservatism in the U.S. is at its highest in about a decade:

More Americans this year (38%) say they are very conservative or conservative on social issues than said so in 2022 (33%) and 2021 (30%). At the same time, the percentage saying their social views are very liberal or liberal has dipped to 29% from 34% in each of the past two years, while the portion identifying as moderate (31%) remains near a third.

Gallup suggested that greater social conservatism may be fostering an environment more favourable to passing conservative-leaning social legislation, especially in Republican-dominated states.

Indeed, in the past year, many Republican states have passed stricter constraints on abortions, limited choices for transgender youth in sports participation and healthcare, and placed prohibitions on what topics can be discussed in classroom settings.

Conversely, the US is becoming more secular

Image via YouTube

Phil Zuckerman, a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, told Religion News Service this week:

Trump had the most religious Cabinet of any in the United States. But simultaneously, the citizens of the United States are less religious than they’ve ever been … As the U.S. becomes more racially and ethnically diverse and more secular you’re going to see the white Christian nationalists assert their dominance.

Zuckerman was being interviewed by RNS about a book he co-authored with Isabella Kasselstrand and Ryan T. Cragun.

Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society, lays out a theory that RNS says can be summed up in a simple phrase: “modernization creates problems for religion.”

The authors explain that countries that have gone through a process of “differentiation,” or the separation of religion from government, and “rationalization,” or the emphasis on modern, scientific ideals, have seen dramatic drops in the levels of religiosity.

Asked about the a clear reversal of secularism is Israel, Zuckerman replied:

Israel was way secular and that’s completely changing, and it’s mostly a matter of babies. Haredi Jews have 12 kids per couple and secular Jews have three. Demographically in the next 40 years the Orthodox will outnumber secularists.

At the beginning of June, PBS reported that the conservative make-up of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government sparked new fears in the LGBTQ+ community, which had seen gains under the previous, short-lived administration led by Netanyahu’s rivals.

Those fears were exacerbated when the government pushed ahead on its plan to overhaul the judiciary, a plan that was put on hold in March after a burst of spontaneous mass protests.

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