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... Findings from PRRI's American Values Atlas, which draws on 40,000 interviews among a random sample of Americans, provides the most in-depth portrait to date of attitudes on same-sex marriage by religious affiliation. ... All Americans [percentages]... Strongly Favor 25 Favor 29 Oppose 18 Strongly Oppose 20 White Evangelical Protestant [Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Church of Christ]... Strongly Favor 10 Favor 18 Oppose 27 Strongly Oppose 39 White Mainline Protestant [Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Church of Christ]... Strongly Favor 28 Favor 34 Oppose 16 Strongly Oppose 14 ...

Updated Wednesday with attorney's comments. ST. LOUIS • A group of Satan worshippers are suing Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster, taking issue with state abortion restrictions they say violate their religious beliefs. The suit also says the law violates the establishment clause, intended to prohibit governmental endorsement of religion. The suit was filed Tuesday in federal court in St. Louis on behalf of The Satanic Temple and a woman identified as Mary Doe, who lives in Missouri. It says that she is a member of The Satanic Temple, which is “an association of politically aware Satanists,...

For those who don't have much familiarity with the dispute between Protestants and Catholics over the doctrine of the papacy, I want to post two introductory articles on the subject today and tomorrow. The first article, this one, will be about the Biblical evidence, and tomorrow's article will be about the early post-Biblical evidence. Roman Catholicism claims the papacy as its foundation. According to the Catholic Church, the doctrine of the papacy was understood and universally accepted as early as the time of Peter: "At open variance with this clear doctrine of Holy Scripture as it has been ever understood...

Was The Papacy Established By Christ? (Part 2) Because neither the apostolic nor the earliest post-apostolic Christians refer to a jurisdictional primacy of the bishop of Rome, Catholics often cite references to any type of primacy of the Roman church. But a non-jurisdictional primacy of the Roman church doesn't prove a jurisdictional primacy of the Roman bishop. Even Peter himself isn't referred to as having papal authority among the early post-apostolic sources. Terence Smith explains: "there is an astonishing lack of reference to Peter among ecclesiastical authors of the first half of the second century. He is barely mentioned...

Jimmy Carter severed his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, but apparently is still a Baptist (Maranatha Baptist Church). Josh Duggar and the Duggar family are Independent Baptist. Some will say that neither of them go to the right Baptist church or the correct one and thus neither of them are truly Baptist, just as some Methodists will say that other Methodists don't go to the right Methodist church and thus truly aren't Methodist. Some Jewish people may say that other Jews, (although quite orthodox in their beliefs) aren't quite Orthodox enough and thus aren't truly Jewish when it comes...

Just 3 percent of Americans consider themselves atheists, but there’s one city in which a much larger portion of the population — a stunning one in 10 residents — identify as nonbelievers: Seattle.In fact, according to the Seattle Sun Times, the city has the highest rate of atheists among the nation’s largest metro areas.Overall, the percentage of unaffiliated residents in Seattle — those individuals who either don’t believe in a higher power or are unaffiliated with a faith — is 37 percent, compared to about 23 percent nationally, according to recently released Pew Research Center data.And the total percentage...

I am not equation homosexuality or heterosexuality with pedophilia, nor am I saying that Josh Duggar ever committed homosexual acts at any point in time in any way, shape. form or fashion. The point of this thread is like all of the others threads that I have written, and it is not meant to bash Josh Duggar. The point is to look at this situation and use it as a catalyst to continue on with other threads that I have started that deal with the following: "What constitutes salvation?" "Who is truly saved?" "Do we go by Arminianism or Calvinism?"...

Seminary president Danny Akin joins celebrity atheists Bill Maher and Penn & Teller in speaking out for people who don’t believe in God.A Southern Baptist seminary president has added his blessing to a campaign advocating for atheists. Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., affirmed Openly Secular, a campaign fighting discrimination against people based upon their non-belief, in a two-minute video message posted online. “You are probably wondering immediately: why would I be doing a video at the site of Openly Secular?” Akin said in the video. “The reason is that though we do disagree...

In the fourth part of our series on the Soul, Its Burdens, and the Path to Restoration, after we finish our discussion on how God transforms and influences the mind, we discuss how God can (and does) touch and influence the will and the emotions, and restore them to where they can act and/or react from a newly reapportioned disposition. (The program can be accessed by clicking on the "Source" link, or by clicking HERE.

Will the last true Christian in America please turn out the lights on the way out? A recent study on religion and America that has received much attention has been interpreted by some to indicate that Christianity is on its virtual deathbed. But as the saying goes, “The good news is the bad news is wrong.” The study comes from the respected Pew Research Center: “America’s Changing Religious Landscape” (5/12/15). The subtitle is: “Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow.” They note that as recently as 2007, nearly eight in 10 Americans identify...

Cuban President Raul Castro has said he was so impressed by a Vatican audience with Pope Francis that he might return to the faith he was born into. Mr Castro praised the pontiff's wisdom, adding: "I will resume praying and turn to the Church again if the Pope continues in this vein." He thanked the Pope for brokering a rapprochement between Cuba and the US. The communist leader had stopped at the Vatican after attending Russia's World War Two Victory Day in Moscow. The Catholic Church has maintained ties with Havana since the 1959 revolution. The Pope will visit Cuba...

Vatican City, May 6, 2015 / 04:24 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- During a private audience on Tuesday, Pope Francis advanced the causes of canonization of 12 potential saints, two of whom were martyred by communist revolutionaries in Laos in 1960. The May 5 audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato also formally approved the canonization of Bl. Junipero Serra – which had already been scheduled for Sept. 23. The two martyrs recognized were the Servants of God Mario Borzaga and Paul Thoj Xyooj, who were killed in hatred of the faith in April 1960. Born in Italy in 1932, Fr. Borzaga joined the...

Brothers and Sisters: Peace be with you. Frequently, Internet atheistic aces challenge me to provide evidence and/or proof for the existence of God. Almost all the time the proof they demand is, on its face, absurd because it is empirical in way or the other and God, if they only knew what the word "God" is, lies beyond any empirical proof. No matter, they keep insisting and the silence of the impossible experiment is proof enough for them. This post is not address to those narrow, sterile minds because they've closed themselves within and become impermeable to any argument....

Way too many of us believe in a magic book negated by science and peppered with all manner of misanthropic myths. A lawyer and an associate dean at Liberty University, a columnist for Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, and the founder of WND’s Christian fundamentalist site Barbwire.com, Matt Barber might seem like an evangelical fringe character, but, clearly, he means to have his voice heard and his pronouncements taken seriously: his work appears under the portentous slogan RELATIVISTS BEWARE: TRUTH TOLD HERE. Yet he is affiliated with Glenn Beck, so, in pursuit of Truth-Telling, he sees fit to publish such essays...

Never believe rumors of Jesus’ death. He is alive and well — and coming soon to a theater near you. Sean Bean is one a-list actor listed for a movie about Jesus’ boyhood that will hit theaters in 2016. Hugh Jackman will star as St. Paul in another reported movie due out next year. Pope Francis recently blessed the actor playing Jesus in a new version of Ben Hur. Thus, in 2016, Hollywood will feature at least three movies that more or less affirm the basic Christian understanding of Jesus Christ. Ironically, these three movies will come 10 years...

Imagine a president of the United States proclaiming in his or her inaugural address, “I do not believe in God. I do not believe in a hereafter…There is no hope, save in ourselves.” If something like that ever happens, writer Jeffrey Tayler’s dream will have come true. Tayler, who routinely trashes religion for the liberal online magazine Salon, complained in a Sunday article that several recent announcements of presidential candidacies have brought about “a media carnival featuring, on both sides, an array of supposedly God-fearing clowns and faith-mongering nitwits groveling before Evangelicals and nattering on about their belief in the...

We often hear from atheists how religion is dying out as mankind comes to see the clear light of reason. Atheist “intellectuals” speak disparagingly about religion and predict that mankind is on the cusp of a new age in which religion will simply disappear as science, technology and reason are in the ascendant. The facts indicate exactly the opposite. It is religion which continues to grow around the world while the statistics indicate that agnosticism and atheism are dying out. [See also:11 Maps to Help You Make Sense of World Religion] [See also:24 Crazy Facts About Global Christianity in...

Yesterday, humorist Andy Borowitz published a piece at the New Yorker with the headline “Cruz’s Constant References to Jesus Drive Millions to Atheism“: The Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s constant references to Jesus Christ in his speeches and campaign ads are sparking a strong interest in atheism among millions of Americans, atheist leaders report. … “It’s been amazing,” [executive director of the American Society of Atheists Carol] Foyler said. “We’re getting calls from people who are curious about atheism for the first time in their lives. And when we ask them what got them thinking about it, they all say...

Those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but do profess an overwhelming belief in the constitutional separation of church and state, may soon have to round up their lawyers and head to Arkansas under the banner of the organization known as American Atheists, Inc. Arkansas state politicians have approved legislation to build a Ten Commandments monument, which would be paid for with private donations, on the grounds of their state Capitol in Little Rock. American Atheists, Inc. does not have a problem with the Ten Commandments or building monuments, per se, to immortalize the basic...

Biblical Conspiracies 3 of 4 Secrets of the Crucifixion