1. Survey: 54% of U.S. adults believe in ‘God of the Bible’, By Sean Salai, The Washington Times, March 23, 2022, Pg. A6
A religious landscape survey released Tuesday finds that 54% of U.S. adults believe in “God as described in the Bible,” even though most Americans no longer attend religious services regularly.
The annual survey on American religious habits, conducted by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion for Deseret News, found that 40% of adults attend a religious service at least once or twice a month. That’s a 12% drop from April 2011, when Marist found 52% of respondents doing so.
Americans aged 60 or older proved most likely to attend services at least weekly, with 43% saying they do so. That share decreased to 27% for 45- to 59-yearsolds, 25% for 30- to 44-year-olds, and 21% for 18- to 29-year-olds.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/mar/22/survey-54-us-adults-believe-god-bible/
___________________________________________________________
2. The Real Civil Rights Issue Of Our Time, By Josh Holdenried, First Things, March 23, 2022, Opinion
In his new memoir, former attorney general William P. Barr defends religious liberty as the most pressing civil rights issue of our time. One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General deserves both attention and commendation, especially now, when government overreach is once again threatening the rights of religious liberty and free exercise.
…
Barr’s defense of religious liberty is not merely one of accommodation and exemption; he does not base his argument on the assumption that every kind of liberty is good as an end in itself. Rather, Barr defends religious liberty on the grounds that the moral and civic virtues inculcated by religion are what make a free society capable of self-government. The American founders understood this well. “A healthy religious sphere,” Barr writes, “is a necessary precondition for a system in which the power of government can be effectively limited and bound to respect the widest personal freedoms of its citizens.”
Barr cites not only the founders, but also seminal thinkers ranging from St. Augustine to Edmund Burke. These men understood that religion is necessary for a truly free society because “its function was to make people virtuous in the world and more capable of controlling their passions and appetites.” “Freedom needs religion,” Barr writes, “not necessarily in each individual, but generally in a society.”
Josh Holdenried is executive director of the Napa Legal Institute.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/03/the-real-civil-rights-issue-of-our-time
___________________________________________________________
3. Michigan pressure on Catholic adoption agencies backfires, costs $800,000 in legal fees, By Kevin J. Jones, Catholic News Agency, March 22, 2022, 5:10 PM
Michigan officials tried to bar funds for Catholic child placement agencies. Instead, they are paying at least $800,000 in legal fees in settling two agencies’ successful First Amendment challenges.
Catholic Charities West Michigan is the second Catholic agency in the state to reach a six-figure settlement with officials who had wrongly barred state funds to foster and adoption agencies that did not place children with same-sex couples.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250761/michigan-pressure-on-catholic-adoption-agencies-backfires-costs-800-dollars-000-cents-in-legal-fees
___________________________________________________________
4. USCCB president, committee chairmen recommit church to pro-life initiatives, By Julie Asher, Catholic News Service, March 22, 2022
As the nation awaits the U.S. Supreme Court’s most significant abortion ruling in decades, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairmen of eight USCCB committees joined together “in prayer and expectant hope that states will again be able to protect women and children from the injustice of abortion.”
“As we affirm the value of every human life, we welcome the possibility of saving countless unborn children as well as sparing women and families the pain of abortion,” they said in a statement released late March 21.
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2022/03/usccb-president-committee-chairmen-recommit-church-to-pro-life-initiatives
___________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
