Free Republic

America was not founded on the concept of a "wall of separation between church and state," it was founded upon pluralism. The "wall of separation" phrase does not appear in any of our founding documents; it is taken from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. To base our laws on the correspondence of Jefferson, rather than the Constitution ratified by representatives of each of the original " united states ," is in direct opposition to our system of representative government. Jefferson was a brilliant man, but he also favored slavery and was fanatical about macaroni and cheese. However, slavery was...

Religious Stew Gregory Koukl When choosing ice cream, you choose what you like. When choosing medicine, you have to choose what heals. Religious pluralism is the idea that when it comes to religious issues, all roads lead to Rome. In other words, it doesn't really matter what philosophy or religion you follow, as long as you've got God in there somewhere and you're following your religion sincerely. This is an approach to religion that is quite popular now, but it admits of a serious flaw. Forgive me for stating something so obvious, but there is a difference between choosing...

THIRTY FIRST THOMAS VERNER MOORE LECTURE The Thirtieth FIRST Annual Thomas Verner Moore Lecture will be given by Rev. Jacques DupuisSeptember 25, 2004, at 8:00 PM Co-Sponsored by St. Anselm's Abbey, the School of Theology and Religious Studies at CUA, and the Law, Philosophy, & Culture Initiative of the Columbus School of Law of CUA. Topic: "Jesus Christ Universal Saviour and the Ways of Salvation" Jacques Dupuis, S.J., is widely recognized as one of the most important theologians of our time, especially as regards issues of religious pluralism. Born in Belgium in 1923, he entered the Society of Jesus...

Competing Ethical Systems James Hitchcock Through much of its history America has been assumed to be a religious nation, and indeed a good deal of the time a Christian nation. God has been invoked with great regularity by public officials, by politicians seeking to become public officials, on money, and in many other contexts. If much of this religiosity has been superficial and even sometimes hypocritical, it has nonetheless expressed the aspirations of probably the vast majority of Americans over the past two centuries. This religiosity reached its peak just prior to 1960. Quasi-official public ideology in the 1950s...

The Virtue of Tolerance by Rev. Robert A. Sirico, Acton President The holiday season is a time for love of children, compassion for the poor, and good will toward all—and a good deal of religious acrimony. Every year we hear stories of lawsuits and bitter fights over which religious symbols can be displayed in public. This year the big issue concerns cases in New York City, and Palm Beach, Florida, where symbols of the Islamic and Jewish faiths are freely displayed but Christian ones are not permitted. The Thomas More Law Center is assisting plaintiffs who claim that this...

The Myth of a Value-Free EducationDr. Ronald H. Nash Americans love myths. By "myth," I do not mean the old-fashioned myths that my generation read in grade school. Many Americans would find reading at that fifth-grade level too difficult these days. What I mean by "myth" is what older generations used to call a fiction. One of the more influential myths presently affecting the American family is the myth of a value-free education. A value-free education is described as one in which students are supposed to be free from any coerced exposure to the values of anyone. One way the...

Navy blues RELIGION: Are evangelical chaplains who refuse "to preach pluralism among religions" too "narrow" for the Navy?By Lynn VincentSHEATHED IN LILAC CHIFFON, the barefoot bride padded across the grass carpet of a small tropical garden. Her groom, dressed in U.S. Navy crackerjacks, waited near a towering coconut palm, the masts of a dozen yachts reaching for the sky in the harbor behind him. Wedding guests in attendance at the private ceremony behind the Island Palms Hotel in San Diego then listened as Navy Chaplain Patrick Sturm joined the couple in marriage. "Have Christ as the center of your love,"...

Pluralists of the World Unite!Albert Mohler In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels called for the laboring classes of the world to join the communist revolution and promised assured liberation:  "Workers of the world unite!  You have nothing to lose but your chains."  In similar fashion, the prophets of religious pluralism promise world peace and true spiritual happiness if Christians will just abandon Christianity and join the pluralist revolution.  Ready to join? Of all the doctrines revealed in the Bible, the exclusivity of the incarnation of Jesus Christ stands as the great embarrassment to liberal theologians.  The...

<p>DENVER - A Republican proposal to boost pluralism in academia in Colorado has enraged the left, prompting cries of McCarthyism and calls for an investigation.</p> <p>The flap erupted last week after word surfaced that Colorado Republican leaders are throwing their support behind the "Academic Bill of Rights," a document drawn up over the summer by Los Angeles-based conservative activist David Horowitz.</p>

REUNION ALL ROUND Ronald Knox, Essays in Satire OR JAEL'S HAMMER LAID ASIDE, AND THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS BEATEN UP INTO BUTTER AND SERVED IN A LORDLY DISH Being a Plea for the Inclusion within the Church of England of all Mahometans, Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, Papists and Atheists, submitted to the consideration of the British Public It is now generally conceded, that those differences, which were once held to divide the Christian sects from one another, (as whether or not Confirmation were a necessary ordinance of the Church), can no longer be thought to place any obstacle against unity...

If the relationship between Christianity and politics was the burning issue in Catholic theology in the 1970s and 1980s, with liberation theology forming the front line, the new mega-issue in the 1990s became the relationship between Christianity and the world religions. Its battle zone is the so-called “theology of pluralism.” “Pluralism” is a complex impulse that takes many different forms, but at its core is the idea that more than one religion can communicate saving knowledge about ultimate reality, and no religion has a superior saving knowledge. In other words, Christianity can be a true religion, but not the true...

The 1st homosexual school -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 29, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com New York City has done what many of us would have considered unthinkable just a few months ago – announced plans for the first taxpayer-funded, all-homosexual high school. I don't believe this would be happening now without the U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating the anti-sodomy law in Texas. Now the homosexual activists are working at a fever pitch to transform Western civilization. Indoctrinating the next generation is an important step in that process. Welcome to the brave new world of the Harvey Milk High School,...

On Tuesday, February 18th, President Fainstein has cancelled all classes beginning at 11:30 a.m. and including evening classes so that the campus community can discuss the recent bias incidents and ways to build a more cohesive community. Every residence hall will hold a mandatory house meeting at 1:30 p.m. with faculty, staff and student facilitators. At 3 p.m. all students will convene in Palmer Auditorium for an Open Forum including remarks by the president. Faculty and staff (with supervisors' permission) are also invited to this event, which is scheduled to end at 4:30. Following the forum in Palmer, the president...

The decline of Catholic higher education in our country should concern all Americans, regardless of their religious affiliation. (I am not myself a Catholic.) The Catholic tradition, preserved and revitalized by its own institutions, has made and will continue to make truly indispensable contributions to the intellectual and moral vitality of American life. At the most basic level, Catholic higher education is vital to the meaning of American pluralism, which does not entail homogeneity, but a variety of lived differences. From well before the time of its founding as a nation, America has allowed distinctive voluntary communities to flourish in...

Audience of many faiths joins Schuller in mosque for an 'evening of hope' Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2, 2001http://www.chicagotribune.com/ [Story no longer online? Read this] More News Ten years ago, Rev. Robert Schuller, veteran host of "Hour of Power," the weekly televised church service, had never even met with a Muslim. Now the white-haired minister was basking in praises from two leading African-American Muslims in a Villa Park mosque. "I've been watching Rev. Schuller for approximately 30 years and have long been inspired by the 'Hour of Power,'" Rev. Louis Farrakhan told the crowd of Muslims, Christians, Jews and Sikhs at...