In Godless We Trust

Vatican ‘probes Legion of Christ priests over child abuse’

The Vatican is reported to be investigating seven priests of the Legion of Christ order in connection with allegations of child abuse.

In a statement to the AP news agency, the Mexican order said seven cases had been referred to the Vatican’s department that deals with sex crimes.

The Legion of Christ’s founder, Marcial Maciel, sexually abused many boys and young men over a period of 30 years.

He was disciplined by the Vatican in 2006 over the abuse.

One of the cases being investigated in relation to the seven priests is recent, while others date back several decades, the order said in the statement given to AP.

The investigation will be handled by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that investigates allegations of sexual abuse.

While it is under way, the suspects will be kept away from children.

‘Immoral acts’

“Over the past few years, in several countries, the major superiors of the Legion of Christ have received some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offences… committed by some legionaries,” AP quoted the statement as saying.

The order has previously insisted that Fr Maciel was an isolated case.

The BBC’s Alan Johnston in Rome says that if these new allegations are proven it will show that the rot in the order had spread beyond its disgraced leader.

In 2009, the Church launched an investigation into the order after Fr Maciel, who died in 2008, was also revealed to have fathered a daughter by a mistress.

A year later, Pope Benedict XVI appointed an envoy to implement a complete overhaul of the Legion of Christ, saying it had to be “purified”.

The previous pope, John Paul II, long held up Fr Maciel as a model to the faithful, despite persistent allegations of sexual abuse, which were later proven.

In recent years, the Church has been rocked by cases of paedophilia by priests, and accusations that it did not do enough to investigate the allegations.

BBC News

Catholic H.S.: Gay Student Can’t Accept Matthew Shepard Scholarship Onstage A gay high school senior was told that he cannot formally accept the Matthew Shepard Scholarship at his Catholic school’s annual awards ceremony, despite being encouraged to apply for the award by school administrators.

A gay Iowa teenager has been told that he cannot receive the Matthew Shepard Scholarship at his Catholic school’s annual awards ceremony.

Prince of Peace Catholic school senior Keaton Fuller was initially told that he could accept the scholarship at his school’s awards ceremony on May 20. According to the Eychaner Foundation of Des Moines, which granted the scholarship, Fuller even learned of the scholarship from his school, and the principal issued a statement to notify the scholarship committee that he could accept the award at the ceremony.

But weeks later, the opportunity to formally accept the scholarship at his high school has been revoked after pressure from the local Catholic diocese. “It is difficult to understand how after I have spent 13 years at this school and worked hard during all of them, I would be made to feel that my accomplishments are less than everybody else’s,” Fuller wrote in a letter to the student body and staff. “This whole ordeal has been incredibly hurtful, and I am even sadder that this will be one of my last experiences to remember my high school years by.”

The Matthew Shepard Scholarship grants $40,000 to an openly LGBT student attending the University of Iowa the following fall. Fuller won the scholarship based on his academic work as well as his efforts to reduce homophobia at school and in his community.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 4,000 people have signed a Change.org petition supporting Fuller and asking the school’s principal, superintendent Leland Morrision, and Bishop Martin J. Amos change their minds.

Advocate.com

Catholic Bishops Engage In Witch-Hunt Against Girl Scouts

The Girl Scouts of USA have withstood an arrant assualt from conservative legislators this year, having been both characterized as a “radicalized organization” that supports abortions and the homosexual agenda, and accused of partnering with the recently oft-beleaguered Planned Parenthood by GOP lawmakers. Now, the Scouts are being attacked by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their “offensive” program materials and alleged association with groups that conflict with Catholic teaching.

Coinciding with the Scouts’ 100th anniversary celebrations, U.S. Catholic bishops have launched an official inquiry:

The new inquiry will be conducted by the bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. It will look into the Scouts’ “possible problematic relationships with other organizations’’ and various “problematic’’ program materials, according to a letter sent by the committee chairman, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne, Ind., to his fellow bishops. […]

Girl Scout leaders hope the bishops’ apprehensions will be eased once they gather information. But there’s frustration within the iconic youth organization — known for its inclusiveness and cookie sales — that it has become such an ideological target, with the girls sometimes caught in the political crossfire.

And the Catholic leaders are also attacking the organization for its supposed connection to Planned Parenthood. The Scouts have consistently and unequivocally denied this accusation, which still has yet to be proven true. The supposed connection between the groups stems from a Girl Scout workshop at a 2010 United Nations event in which an International Planned Parenthood brochure was made available to girls in attendance. The brochure was aimed at young people with HIV and contained pertinent information on how to safely lead active sex lives. Spokespersons for the Scouts maintain that the organization possessed no advance knowledge of the brochure, and thus played no role in distributing it.

The smears against the Girl Scouts, like the Planned Parenthood claim, are a manufactured controversy from right-wing publications. “It’s been hard to get the message out there as to what is true when distortions get repeated over and over,’’ said Gladys Padro-Soler, the Girl Scouts’ director of inclusive membership strategies. The Scouts have addressed most if not all of their critics’ concerns on their official website.

The Scouts also maintain that they do not take a position or develop materials on issues in relation to human sexuality, birth control, abortion, and that “parents or guardians make all decisions regarding program participation that may be of a sensitive nature.”

At least one quarter of the organization’s 2.3. million members are reported to be Catholic, so officials worry that an attack from the Catholic church could further drive down participation in the organization. “For us, there’s an overarching sadness to it,’’ said Girl Scouts’ spokeswoman, Michelle Tompkins. “We’re just trying to further girls’ leadership.’’

Think Progress

Catholic church abuse: at least one youth castrated for ‘homosexuality’

At least one boy under the age of 16 was castrated to ‘help’ his homosexual feelings while in Catholic church care in the 1950s, the NRC reported on Saturday.

But there are indications at least 10 other boys were also castrated, the paper said. The claims were not included in the Deetman report on sexual abuse within the Catholic church published at the end of last year.

The paper says the one confirmed case concerned a boy - Henk Heithuis - who reported being sexually abused by priests to the police in 1956. After giving evidence, he was placed in a Catholic-run psychiatric institution where he was then castrated because of his ‘homosexual behaviour’.

Evidence

The paper says the Deetman committee was informed about the castrations in writing but did not include mention of them in its report because ‘there were few leads for further research’.

The Deetman committee was set up by the church itself in 2010 after the sexual abuse scandal broke. It reported in December having identified some 800 priests and monks who abused children in their care between 1945 and 1985.

In addition, church officials, bishops and lay people were aware of what was going on but failed to take action to protect children, the report  said.

Politician

The NRC also said on Saturday the final Deetman report did not mention that a leading politician with the Catholic people’s party KVP had tried to have prison sentences dropped against several priests accused of abusing children in 1958.

Vic Marijnen, who went on to become prime minister in 1963, was chairman of the children’s home where Henk Heithuis and dozens of other children were abused until 1959.

MPs are now calling for a full parliamentary investigation into the abuse scandal because of concerns about the neutrality of the Deetman inquiry. MPs are due to question Deetman at a hearing next week.

Dutch News

I sincerely hope by ‘castration’ they mean ‘chemical castration’ because good fucking god, let’s punish a child for being raped by men!

Also, some of the comments on this article disgust me, at least one of them equates homosexuality to pedophilia. Because that’s true. Obviously.

Jesus fucking christ.

~Mooglets

Bill Donohue Gets Tough on Rape Victims, Wants to Fight Them ‘One by One’

Catholic League president Bill Donohue issick and tired of coddling rape victims. That’s why he supports efforts by lawyers for two Missouri priests accused of sexual abuse to cripple an organization that advocates on behalf of the victims of pedophile priests – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). 

SNAP is not involved in the Missouri litigation, but the priests’ lawyersare seeking“more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists.”

Donohue thinks this effort, which seeks to bankrupt and embarrass the organization, is justified because “SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.”

Donohue went further, telling theNew York Times’Laurie Goodsteinthat the Catholic Church “has been too quick to write a check” and could save money “in the long run if we fought them one by one” – them being rape victims.

He also claimed that the bishops are reaching the conclusion that “they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough.” “We don’t need altar boys,” he continued, as only Bill Donohue could.

Donohue may just be projecting though, or at least speaking out of turn. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Goodstein thatDonohue was wrong: “‘There is no national strategy,’ she said, and there was no meeting where legal counsel for the bishops decided to get more aggressive.”

Meanwhile SNAP is resisting subpoenas in the Missouri cases, but national director David Clohessy hasalready been deposed.

He told Goodstein that the deposition was “not a fishing expedition,” instead it was “a fishing, crabbing, shrimping, trash-collecting, draining the pond expedition.” He said the real motive is to “harass and discredit and bankrupt SNAP, while discouraging victims, witnesses, whistle-blowers, police, prosecutors and journalists from seeking our help.”

As for Donohue, he really can’t seem to help himself. He may have been an asset for right-wing bishops at some point in the past, but now he’s a liability. He attacked rape victims without denouncing pedophile priests, and then dropped in an altar boy quip. It’s almost as if he’s in the fight to amuse himself, not to win any arguments or friends.

But we probably shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Donohue has a history of this sort of thing.

Catholics will be called to oppose gay marriage

The Roman Catholic Church is planning to enlist the support of more than a million regular worshippers in opposition to Government plans for same-sex marriage.

Senior bishops are preparing to draw up a letter to be read at Masses across England and Wales when the Government consultation on plans to redefine marriage gets under way later this month, it is understood.

It would be only the second time in recent history that a joint pastoral letter on behalf of all Catholic bishops in England and Wales has been issued on an issue of political importance.

The move is being proposed as the debate over extending marriage to homosexual couples gathers momentum. At the weekend Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the most senior Catholic cleric in Britain, accused the Coalition of trying to “redefine reality” and branded the proposals a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”.

Although the proposals would not extend to Scotland, he argued that they would nevertheless “shame the UK in the eyes of the world”.

Cardinal O’Brien is one of only two British members of the College of Cardinals, the body which elects popes. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster, remains a voting cardinal until he turns 80 in August.

The remarks drew robust responses from politicians including Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, who accused the Cardinal of “scaremongering”. “I don’t want anybody to feel that this is a licence forwhipping up prejudice,” she said. Peter Tatchell, the gay rights campaigner, said: “If he supports marriage, the Cardinal should welcome the fact that many lesbian and gay couples want to get married.”

Meanwhile, Alan Duncan, the Conservative international development minister, who is in a civil partnership, said that the plans would not apply to religious marriage.

“I don’t think they need cause any upset for Cardinal O’Brien because they’re not really going to affect him,” Mr Duncan said.

But one of Mr Duncan’s Conservative colleagues, Peter Bone MP, argued that the parents and teachers who objected to promoting same-sex marriage in schools could be ostracised.

“If marriage is redefined, schools will have no choice but to give children equivalent teaching on same-sex marriage, even those children of a very young age, including those at primary school,” he wrote.

“So what will happen to parents who because of religious, or philosophical beliefs take their children out of lessons?

“Parents who object will be treated as bigots and outcasts, possibly excluded from being on the PTA [Parent Teacher Association], or from being a governor.

“Discriminated against and persecuted because they hold views that have been enshrined in our laws and have been the cornerstone of our society for 2,000 years.

“And what of the teachers who object to teaching about same-sex marriage. Will they face disciplinary action? How will it affect their careers?”

Five years ago, a pastoral letter issued by the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, helped secure the future of faith schools whose funding and status was in doubt at the time.

There is no intellectual debate against gay marriage, says Brian Paddick

Former Metropolitan Police officer Brian Paddick has hit back at Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s comments on homosexuality.

The London Mayoral candidate has asserted that there is “no intellectual argument” against same-sex marriages.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien,  leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, accused the Government of arrogance ahead of a consultation on the issue this month. 

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he claimed that plans for gay marriage were a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right.”

He added: “The Government has suggested that same-sex marriage wouldn’t be compulsory and churches could choose to opt out. This is staggeringly arrogant.

“No Government has the moral authority to dismantle the universally understood meaning of marriage.”

But Paddick – who is gay – has hit back.

“Same-sex marriage should simply be a universally accepted human right for everyone,” he said.  

“If we really believe in equality, there is no sound intellectual argument against gay marriage. There may be religious objections, as there are religious objections to equality for women, but that does not mean we should be ruled by them.”

Meanwhile, the UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust has also slammed O’Brian’s condemnation.

George Broadhead, the PTT’s secretary and veteran gay activist, said: “Given the Roman Catholic Church’s well-known views and policy on gay sexual relationships and rights, including Civil Partnership, not to mention Cardinal O’Brian’s previous homophobic outbursts, his latest are totally predictable. His contention that gay marriage would shame the UK in the eyes of the world is also bizarre. 

“Has the cardinal not heard that gay marriage has already been legalised in no fewer than ten countries: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and The Netherlands? I am not aware that any of these countries have suffered shame or any sort of pariah status as a result. This just shows how out of touch with reality the Roman Catholic Church has become.”

Pink Paper

Leading Scottish Cardinal likens gay marriage to slavery

The head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, took to the media this weekend to launch an attack on the government’s plans to hold a consultation on legalising gay marriage. In an opinion piece for the Sunday Telegraph, O’Brien threw his weight behind the campaign by the Coalition for Marriage (C4M),launched by religious groups last month and spearheaded by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, and echoed C4M’s emphasis on the “redefinition” of marriage:

“Redefining marriage will have huge implications for what is taught in our schools, and for wider society. It will redefine society since the institution of marriage is one of the fundamental building blocks of society. The repercussions of enacting same-sex marriage into law will be immense.

But can we simply redefine terms at a whim? Can a word whose meaning has been clearly understood in every society throughout history suddenly be changed to mean something else?”

Having branded proposals for legalising gay marriage as “madness” and “a grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”, and argued that gay marriage would “create a society which deliberately chooses to deprive a child of either a mother or a father”, O’Brien went on to deploy a bizarre and, you could argue, rather offensive analogy:

“Disingenuously, the Government has suggested that same-sex marriage wouldn’t be compulsory and churches could choose to opt out. This is staggeringly arrogant.

No Government has the moral authority to dismantle the universally understood meaning of marriage.

Imagine for a moment that the Government had decided to legalise slavery but assured us that “no one will be forced to keep a slave”.

Would such worthless assurances calm our fury? Would they justify dismantling a fundamental human right? Or would they simply amount to weasel words masking a great wrong?”

O’Brien continued his attack on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, restating his view that legalising gay marriage will “shame” the United Kingdom. Asked whether his slavery analogy was “inflammatory”, O’Brien defended the words he used in the Sunday Telegraph:

“I think it’s a very, very good example as to what might happen in our own country at this present time, and I feel I’ve a duty, I’ve a responsibility, to preach and to teach, and this is one of the ways in which I do it. … It is a perfectly good example as to what could happen in our own country if we go this way, and as I say I am simply handing on the teaching of the Christian church down through the years.”

Asked whether states that have already legalised gay marriage are violating human rights, the Cardinal continued:

“Countries where this is legal are indeed violating human rights. We know that, we know what the United Nations declaration states, and we know what follows on from something like this. It seems to me to be the thin end of the wedge, and it’s changing the whole notion of what marriage and what a family is.”

Today presenter John Humphries concluded by asking O’Brien whether he is afraid that his views risk creating the impression that the Catholic Church is “way behind society”. The Cardinal responded by suggesting that society may have “progressed” too far:

“I think it’s time now to call a halt to what you might call ‘progress’ in society, I don’t call ‘progress’ the things that are happening nowadays, and when we talk about the thin end of the wedge, we remember that Abortion Act in 1967, when we were told there would be clearly-defined ways when abortion might take place, and now we know there is around seven million abortions since that happened, and further aberrations are hinted at at this present time. The same would happen if same-sex unions were defined as marriages. Further aberrations would be taking place, and society would be degenerating even further than it has already degenerated into immorality.”

Same-sex marriage looks set to become a key battleground in coming months. Today’s Daily Telegraph reports that the Catholic Church is planning to mobilise its congregations in opposition to the plans, while secular and liberal Christian campaigners have rallied to condemn the recent attacks on gay marriage. Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has condemned O’Brien’s remarks, suggesting that the Cardinal should welcome the fact that gay couples wish to get married:

“Cardinal O’Brien is out of touch and intolerant. Opinion polls show that most Christians support gay equality and that 61 of the public support the right of gay couples to have a civil marriage in a register office. Only 33% disagree … If he supports marriage, the Cardinal should welcome the fact that many lesbian and gay couples want to get married. Same-sex marriage does not detract in any way from heterosexual marriage. It does not diminish or devalue marriages between opposite-sex couples. 

Cardinal O’Brien has attacked government plans as an attempt to redefine marriage. But the churches have redefined marriage in the past. They no longer oppose divorce and the remarriage of divorced couples. There is no reason why marriage should not be redefined to include lesbian and gay couples.”

Meanwhile, a Coalition for Equal Marriage (C4EM) launches this week, supported by Stonewall, the British Humanist Association, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, the LGBT+ Lib Dems, the Pink Triangle Trust and the Metropolitan Community Church of North London. Over 11,000 people have signed a petition supporting gay marriage so far, and you can add your name by visiting the C4EM’s website.

New Humanist

Cardinal accused of scaremongering

A Catholic cleric who hit out at the “madness” of the Government’s gay marriage plans has been condemned for “scaremongering”.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, accused the coalition of trying to “redefine reality” and claimed the proposals were a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right.”

But his comments were roundly criticised amid fears the outburst would fuel prejudice.

In an article for The Sunday Telegraph, Cardinal O’Brien wrote: “Since all the legal rights of marriage are already available to homosexual couples, it is clear that this proposal is not about rights, but rather is an attempt to redefine marriage for the whole of society at the behest of a small minority of activists.

“Same-sex marriage would eliminate entirely in law the basic idea of a mother and a father for every child. It would create a society which deliberately chooses to deprive a child of either a mother or a father. Other dangers exist. If marriage can be redefined so that it no longer means a man and a woman but two men or two women, why stop there? Why not allow three men or a woman and two men to constitute a marriage, if they pledge their fidelity to one another?”

Plans to introduce civil gay marriages have divided the Conservative party and put David Cameron on a collision course with a number of religious leaders. Cardinal O’Brien’s attack was the most outspoken attack to date.

But the Prime Minister is a “passionate” advocate of the change, telling his party two years ago he supported gay marriage “because I am a Conservative”.

Margot James, the first openly lesbian Conservative MP, criticised the “apocalyptic language” used by the Cardinal and accused him of “scaremongering”

“I think it is a completely unacceptable way for a prelate to talk,” she told BBC 1’s Andrew Marr Show. “I think that the Government is not trying to force Catholic churches to perform gay marriages at all. It is a purely civil matter.”

Labour’s Deputy Leader Harriet Harman said she hopes the comments would not end up “fuelling or legitimising prejudice”. “We have had prejudice, discrimination and homophobia for hundreds of years, that doesn’t make it right,” she told the show. “I don’t want anybody to feel that this is a licence for whipping up prejudice.”

Limbaugh Doubles Down On Sexist Attack Against Sandra Fluke, Demands She Post Sex Tapes Online

LIMBAUGH: “So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch.”

Yesterday, as ThinkProgress noted, conservative shock jock and strident women-basher Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown student who House Republicans wouldn’t let testify at a contraception hearing last week, a “slut” and a prostitute. “She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception,” Limbaugh said.

The remarks drew widespread condemnation, with House Democratic Leader Nancy Polosi (D-CA), demanding that “Republican leaders in the House tocondemn these vicious attacks on Ms. Fluke.”

But on his radio show today, Limbaugh showed no remorse and instead reveled in the attention. Referring to Fluke, Limbaugh demanded that women post sex tapes online if they use insurance-covered birth control:

LIMBAUGH: So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch.

Listen here:  Youtube Video

Limbaugh also said he found the outrage over his remarks “absolutely hilarious.” He again completely misrepresented Fluke’s testimony, saying, she “went before a Congressional committee and said she’s having so much sex she’s going broke buying contraceptives and wants us to buy them.” In fact, Fluke testimony was about a friend — who is gay — and needed contraception for medical reasons, but was denied coverage by Georgetown, a Catholic university.

He went on to say, “I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much Aspirin to put between their knees as they want” — a reference to Rick Santorum-backer Foster Friess’ home-spun idea of birth control.

Think Progress

To be perfectly honest guys? I thought that quote I put at the top of this article was from The Onion, or some other satirical website. Turns out? It’s real, he really said that, this is actually something that happened.

I am sickened. 

~Mooglets

UK Christians are not “persecuted”, says England’s top Catholic

The leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Rt Rev Vincent Nichols, has responded to the recent debates over “militant secularism” by saying that he does not believe Christians in Britain are the victim of persecution. “I personally don’t feel in the least bit persecuted,” he told the Guardian. “I don’t think Christians should use that word.”

At a time when “persecution” is frequently invoked by Christians who are unhappy with legal rulings concerning their faith, for instance in cases concerning the religious exemptions in the workplace, or the recent (and since overridden) judgement against council prayers in Bideford, it is refreshing to hear a leading religious figure reject the use of the word. As secularists have often pointed out, suggesting Christians are “persecuted” in Britain to some extent diminishes the plight of Christians, and other religious and non-religious groups, who suffer genuine, violent and life-threatening persecution elsewhere in the world.

However, in his interview with the Guardian Nichols does not entirely reject that the anti-secularist rhetoric that has emanated from the country’s religious and political establishment in recent weeks, saying that secularism “has produced a seeming determination to tear the legal and therefore cultural life of the country away from its Christian roots”.

In suggesting that secularists are tearing Britain away from “its Christian roots”, Nichols has added his voice to those who have recently presented secularism as a hostile threat to British society. It’s a strange inversion of reality – at a time when the country has a government that is perhaps the most accommodating to religion in recent memory, with a Prime Minister who has declared Britain to be a “Christian country”, and cabinet ministers such as Baroness Warsi and Eric Pickles speaking out for Christian Britain at every opportunity, secularists are somehow presented as being in control, putting the finishing touches to their sinister plan to eject religion from the land.

Yet the truth of the situation is that secularists are simply arguing that we should have a government that doesn’t favour religion, that doesn’t alienate large sections of society by proclaiming that we live in a “Christian country”, that doesn’t divide children by encouraging the spread of religious schools, and that doesn’t argue that community cohesion is best attained in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society by emphasising the role of Christianity, at a time when those in power are doing the exact opposite.

The advocates of “Christian Britain” seem to have realised that they can discredit their opposition by turning “secularism” into a dirty word. It’s a clever move, but it is one based on a fallacy. Secularism is not the same as atheism, and it is not the enemy of faith – it is the enemy of religious privilege, and the guarantor of religious freedom. In the face of calls for a return to a monocultural Christian Britain that no longer exists (and indeed never really existed), those who support diversity and a neutral state, whether they are religious or not, should surely join together in defence of secularism.

New Humanist

Nice to see someone admit it, even if it does then come with a backhander.

Dear British Christian Leaders - the rise of secularism is not ‘tearing the country from it’s Christian roots’, nor is it a ‘threat to society’.

Get your facts straight.

~Mooglets