Secularists snap down cross from war memorial

[ScreamingEagle]

Snapping the crosses off the graves of our fallen soldiers in Arlington National Cemetary can't be far behind...it makes me sick what these godless people are doing to our country.

http://www.christiannewstoday.com/CWN_219.html

 

[rtwngAvngr]

That's disgusting. Christians are the only group who can be openly disparaged in any context with impunity. It's sick. And according to the cosmic calculations, it will only get worse.

 

[musicman]

This is insanity. With the aid of the galloping tyranny of the federal courts, a single, vocal malcontent - a Michael Newdow or a Phillip Paulson - can dictate imperious atheism to an entire community, whether it likes it or not.

The body of Thomas Jefferson is reported to be spinning in its grave at approximately 3750 RPM.

How far out of whack are we going to allow this to get?

 

[dmp]

I'm getting a bit depressed over the state of godlessness in our society.

 

[manu1959]

didn't the soviet union abolish religion?

 

[no1tovote4]

didn't the soviet union abolish religion?

No, the attempt to do so did the same thing it always has historically. It made it more popular than ever...

 

[Bonnie]

This is insanity. With the aid of the galloping tyranny of the federal courts, a single, vocal malcontent - a Michael Newdow or a Phillip Paulson - can dictate imperious atheism to an entire community, whether it likes it or not.

The body of Thomas Jefferson is reported to be spinning in its grave at approximately 3750 RPM.

How far out of whack are we going to allow this to get?

So disgusting!!

 

[Bonnie]

No, the attempt to do so did the same thing it always has historically. It made it more popular than ever...

Religious backlash!! The pendulum has always swung back and forth.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

didn't the soviet union abolish religion?

Pretty much, but not entirely for reasons of control such as with large groups of Islamics. However, most organized religion did not fare well, particularly with the Catholics.

http://www.answers.com/topic/religion-in-the-soviet-union
Some excerpts:

Soviet policy toward religion has been based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, which has made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union. Marxism-Leninism has consistently advocated the control, suppression, and, ultimately, the elimination of religious beliefs. In the 1920s and 1930s, such organizations as the League of the Militant Godless ridiculed all religions and harassed believers. Propagation of atheism in schools has been another consistent policy. The regime's efforts to eradicate religion in the Soviet Union, however, have varied over the years with respect to particular religions and have been affected by higher state interests.

Two-thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including members of the ruling Communist Party and high-level government officials, professed atheism. For the majority of Soviet citizens, therefore, religion seemed irrelevant.

The Soviet government's policies toward the Catholic Church were strongly influenced by Soviet Catholics' recognition of an outside authority as head of their church. Also, in the two republics where most of the Catholics lived, the Lithuanian Republic and the Ukrainian Republic, Catholicism and nationalism were closely linked. Although the Roman Catholic Church in the Lithuanian Republic was tolerated, large numbers of the clergy were imprisoned, many seminaries were closed, and police agents infiltrated the remainder. The anti-Catholic campaign in the Lithuanian Republic abated after Stalin's death, but harsh measures against the church were resumed in 1957 and continued through the Brezhnev era.

Soviet religious policy was particularly harsh toward the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Ukrainian Catholics fell under Soviet rule in 1939 when western Ukraine was incorporated into the Soviet Union as part of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Although the Ukrainian Catholic Church was permitted to function, it was almost immediately subjected to intense harassment. Retreating before the German army in 1941, Soviet authorities arrested large numbers of Ukrainian Catholic priests, who were either killed or deported to Siberia. After the Red Army reoccupied western Ukraine in 1944, the Soviet regime liquidated the Ukrainian Catholic Church by arresting its metropolitan, all of its bishops, hundreds of clergy, and the more active faithful, killing some and sending the rest to labor camps, where, with few exceptions, they perished.

The regime's policy toward the Islamic religion was affected, on the one hand, by the large Muslim population, its close ties to national cultures, and its tendency to accept Soviet authority and, on the other hand, by its susceptibility to foreign influence. Since the early 1920s, the Soviet regime, fearful of a pan-Islamic movement, has sought to divide Soviet Muslims into smaller, separate entities. This separation was accomplished by creating six separate Muslim republics and by fostering the development of a separate culture and language in each of them. Although actively encouraging atheism, Soviet authorities have permitted some limited religious activity in all the Muslim republics. Mosques functioned in most large cities of the Central Asian republics and the Azerbaydzhan Republic; however, their number had decreased from 25,000 in 1917 to 500 in the 1970s.