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Billy Graham Devotional 28 August 2019 – Grace and Peace
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Open Heaven 28 August 2019 – Youths, Beware
The post Open Heaven 28 August 2019 – Youths, Beware appeared first on Flatimes.
Atheists Can Be Banned from Delivering Invocation Prayers, Appeals Court Rules
A federal appeals court pointed to precedent and the Founding Fathers in ruling Friday that atheists can be barred from delivering official invocations.
The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, upheld the policy of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, which requires that the person who prays must be “a member of a regularly established church or religious organization.” The policy further says the prayer’s purpose is “to seek divine intervention” in the work and lives of House members.
It was the second such decision this year by an appeals court. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April ruled the chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives could bar atheists from praying.
The Pennsylvania lawsuit was brought on behalf of a group of secular humanists, Unitarian Universalists and freethinkers who don’t believe in a higher power and wanted the opportunity to pray before the Pennsylvania House. Most, if not all, could be labeled as “atheists.”
The plaintiffs argued the policy of excluding atheists and nontheists violates the Establishment, Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Equal Protection Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The Third Circuit overturned a lower court decision that had sided with the atheists.
Judge Thomas L. Ambro wrote Friday’s majority opinion, ruling that “only theistic prayer can satisfy all the…
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Disciples of Christ on Track to Lose Half of Membership
The Disciples of Christ is on track to lose about half their membershipwithin a decade, according to a report from the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
The report says the Disciples of Christ, also known as the Christian Church, had a membership decline by 7 percent.
The church had 411,000 members in 2017. In 2018, that number dropped to 382,000.
A spokesperson for the Disciples of Christ Church was unavailable to comment on the report.
The report said that worship attendance for the church also fell. In 2017, there were about 139,000 counted attending worship. That number was 124,000 in 2018.
The report also showed that the number of baptisms also fell, going from 4,300 in 2017 to 3,700 in 2018.
“At the current rate, the denomination will shrink by another 50 percent within a decade,” said Jeff Walton, author of the group’s report. “This annual rate of decline exceeds that of the Presbyterian Church (USA) which reported a nearly 5 percent membership drop for the year 2018 and held the distinction of ‘fastest declining’ for much of the decade.”
“The denomination is aging out, shown in a steep decline in baptisms,” he added. “A universalist theology appears to be sapping the evangelistic vigor of clergy.”
More Disciples of Christ members say they want more than just sermons from church leadership, Walton said.
“On a more anecdotal level,…
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Americans less likely to value religion than parents
In a poll conducted in August of 1,000 people, 48 per cent said religion was ‘very important’ to them personally, a 14 per cent decrease from the 62 per cent who said it was very important to them in a 1998 poll.
The number of people who felt it was ‘somewhat important’ remained the same at 27 per cent across 21 years.
67 per cent of those over 55 cited religion or belief in God as very important, but only 30 percent of Americans aged 18 to 38 said that was very important.
The importance of having kids decreased from 59 percent to 43 per cent since the 90s.
Wall Street Journal reporter Chad Day said: “The values that Americans say define the national character are changing, as younger generations rate patriotism, religion and having children as less important to them than did young people two decades ago.”
The survey also asked about how responders felt about the economy, race relations and how they voted in the 2016 Presidential election.
“Generational differences on personal values were most pronounced among Democrats. In fact, the views of Democrats over age 50 were more in line with those of younger Republicans than with younger members of their own party,” Day said.
There were similarities though, with hard work remaining the most important value among both generations, with over…
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