Gentlefolk,
Why the anti-religious remarks? As far as I can tell, religion was not the basis of the dispute. There was no reference to religion in the news article that Lilith posted. Perhaps I have overlooked something, but I don’t see the coercive power of the state enforcing any Divine preferences. I get the feeling that some unwarranted inferences are being made here.
If anyone is interested, here is
the mayor’s statement about this development. There is no reference to religion in it.
As to the remarks about some impending American theocracy, the evidence does not support such a conclusion. Actually, the data supports the opposite conclusion. The U.S. is becoming more secular, not less. Refer to the second chart in this
study published by Georgetown University last year. Mass attendance has been in a steady decline since a high in 1957. That’s the last two generations. Down. Not up.
The same holds for
Canadian and
English Catholics.
Roman Catholicism is the largest Christian denomination, with more than a billion adherents. Still, for those who think that Catholic religious practices are unrepresentative of Christians in general (and there are those who do), consider the overall U.S. church attendance documented in January of this year.
It also shows a negative year-on-year growth trend line, this one with a high in 1944. Here is the
home page.
This decline in weekly church attendance holds true for most industrialized countries.
Further,
even these attendance figures are overstated.
While insensitive behavior such as that displayed by the Black Jack City Council is unfortunate and distasteful, rather than waste too much time in complaining about a problem which when examined is only a mirage, permit me to suggest that a better investment of effort would be in electing those who more closely reflect the views of the citizens they represent. As windy and lakritze suggest, the answer lies in the ballot box, and that is within the reach of almost everyone who cares enough to want to make a difference.