Americans are losing their religions

A new study is confirming what we have been expecting. Americans of this generation are far less religious than those of past generations. Of most interest to me was the fact that the change does not appear to be specific to region or ethnic group, and even unassimilated immigrants are tracking with the trend. Does this mean that we are headed toward purely secular societies like Europe, or is it a sign that the poll is too tied to older religion designations and is ignoring new movements like the "Emerging Church"?

Mitt Romney: Freedom and Religion are Inextricably Linked

Recently, Mitt Romney gave another speech on faith and government at the Metropolitan Club in NYC, where he was accepting the Becket Fund's Canterbury Medal for defending religious freedom. He took this chance to answer some critics of his earlier speech who condemned him for ignoring the contributions of the a-religious - specifically atheists.

...Would America and the freedom she inaugurated here and across the world survive--over centuries--if we were to abandon our faith in God?

I don’t believe so...

Nor can we overlook that people of faith have a unique appreciation for freedom. Because the practice of religion requires freedom, liberty is especially precious to people of faith. They are willing to sacrifice much to protect it.

“We and God have business with each other,” even the father of pragmatism William James once observed. “In opening ourselves to his influence, our deepest destiny is fulfilled.” When a people’s “deepest destiny” can only be realized in a land of liberty, you can expect that that land and its liberty will be preserved at any cost. As indeed it has!

It is an interesting argument and one that I suspect the Founders would have had no problem with - even those who were deists who believed in only a clockmaker God who wound up the universe and never much interacted with it again. But it still leaves open the question whether reason - unrestrained by a particular religious creed or belief in God - can sustain a government dedicated to Freedom. No such government has been founded and endured, although some would argue the secular European states are evidence that it could work. But, of course, the primary anti-religious governmental structure of the last 100 years - Communism - was certainly also anti-freedom in its practice by each and every example of its government.

What do Mod-Bloggers think? How linked are religious practice - belief in God, anyway - and freedom and liberty as in the American sense?

Mitt Romney's Speech on Religious Freedom

For your convenience I am posting Mitt Romney's speech from Thursday here on Mod-Blog. I thought it was an excellent speech.

Hong Kong to classify the Bible as "Indecent"?

In what may the most ridiculous move in recent times, Hong Kong authorities are being asked to classify the Bible as "indecent" because of sections with violent and sexual content. Apparently, the move is part of a public protest over the banning of a recent student magazine which ran a feature about incest. If the Bible were to be thusly classified, only adults would be allowed to buy the book and it would be sold wrapped in a solid cover with a large government warning on the cover.

Let's be clear. The Bible does include sections which discuss incest, murder, adultery, rape, and many other horrific acts. But it discusses them as history and condemns them. This may be simply be a political maneuver of protesters, but let's not allow things to get out of hand and deny the religious freedom of millions.