Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
The number of people who say they have no religion is rapidly escalating and significantly outweighs the Christian population in England and Wales, according to new analysis.
The proportion of the population who identify as having no religion – referred to as “nones” – reached 48.5% in 2014, almost double the figure of 25% in the 2011 census. Those who define themselves as Christian – Anglicans, Catholics and other denominations – made up 43.8% of the population.
“The striking thing is the clear sense of the growth of ‘no religion’ as a proportion of the population,” said Stephen Bullivant, senior lecturer in theology and ethics at St Mary’s Catholic University in Twickenham, who analysed data collected through British Social Attitudes surveys over three decades.
“The main driver is people who were brought up with some religion now saying they have no religion. What we’re seeing is an acceleration in the numbers of people not only not practising their faith on a regular basis, but not even ticking the box. The reason for that is the big question in the sociology of religion.”
I don't want much folks, but I want to live long enough to see America become a nation where the majority are non-believers as well.
Today, the Census released the November 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration Supplement, which is based on interviews with hundreds of thousands of residents. The CPS asks Americans whether they participated in the last election. The CPS is imperfect like any survey, but it is considered the gold standard for analyzing turnout. It demonstrates that, in the debate about the GOP’s future in an increasingly diverse America, both sides are right, to a certain extent. On the one hand, Obama’s historic candidacy led to historic black turnout. On the other hand, the Obama coalition is the product of irreversible demographic changes. If Republicans hope to win presidential elections, they will need to broaden their appeal—not just count on lower minority turnout in the post-Obama era.
Unsurprisingly, the CPS found that the 2012 electorate was more diverse than any in history. Whites represented just 73.7 percent of the electorate, down from 76.3 in 2008 and 79.2 percent in 2004. In comparison, the exit polls found that whites represented 72 percent of the electorate in 2012, compared to 74 percent in 2008 and 77 percent in 2004. For the first time, the CPS found that black turnout rates exceed white turnout rates, with 66.2 percent of voting age blacks turning out, compared to 64.1 percent of whites. Many expected that black turnout would decline in 2012, but the CPS actually found that black turnout was even higher in 2012 than it was in 2008, increasing from 64.7 to 66.2 percent.
But the problem for Republicans is that the white share of the voting eligible population is likely to decline even further over the next four years. What’s causing the decline? Today’s 15-18 year olds are only about 58 percent white. As they enter the electorate and older whites depart, the non-white share of the voting eligible population rises. This prediction is not subject to great uncertainty. These 15-18 year olds are alive, they’re counted in the Census, and, unless they die, they’re going to be eligible to vote in 2016. If the non-white share of the voting eligible population declines by another 2 points, as expected, then the 2016 electorate will about as diverse as it was in 2012, even if turnout rates return to 2004 levels. The Obama coalition is not going away, even if elevated minority turnout rates are gone for good.
The biggest mistake that Republicans made in 2012 was assuming that 2008 was a special, one-time product of a historic candidate. That was superficially appealing and maybe even “felt” right, but the CPS said that the 2008 turnout wasn’t as unique as the huge crowds and palpable enthusiasm made it seem. The GOP should not delude itself into believing that taking Obama off of the ballot will return them to the White House, even if black turnout rates should be expected to decline in 2016. Demographic change, not turnout, is the primary force driving the declining white share of the electorate, and the GOP will need to adapt.
Nothing that the GOP is currently doing indicates that they have learned ANYTHING from their recent defeats in the last two presidential elections. So I think that the White House may be out of their reach for the foreseeable future, barring any huge scandal for the Democrats that is.
However on the local level the GOP still has a very strong machine in place, not to mention control over those damn voting machines, which means that unless the Democrats find a way to outlaw voting machines that leave no paper trail, or increase their turnout to such a degree that elections cannot be stolen, they will have to wait until the people finally get completely fed up with the Republican party or until the demographics change to such a degree that even in smaller elections the minority becomes the majority.
Personally I don't think our country can survive waiting for the latter.
The U.S. Census Bureau is launching its 2010 count of the nation's residents in a remote Alaska village.
Census Bureau Director Robert Groves is flying to Noorvik in northwest Alaska on Monday to count the first household in the Inupiat Eskimo community of 650. Groves and other arriving officials are scheduled to be taken to the village school by sled dog teams driven by schoolchildren.
The first to be counted will be Clifton Jackson, a World War II veteran and the oldest resident, according to residents.
Villagers have prepared a day of festivities at the school to welcome Groves and other visiting federal, state and tribal officials. The residents plan to hold traditional dances, an Inupiat fashion show and a feast of subsistence foods including moose and caribou.
The school also will serve as lodging for Groves and most of the 50 visitors, who will bunk down in empty classrooms.
Census workers and trained locals are expected to take a week to interview the rest of Noorvik's residents, using the same 10-question forms to be mailed to most households on March 15. Census workers also will visit 217 other rural Alaska communities in the coming weeks. (Click title to read entire Washington Post article.)
Oh the poor simply people of Noorvik Alaska! Apparently they are completely unaware of the danger they have just put themselves in by allowing these so-called "census takers" to come to their village.
For one thing WHY does our government need to know we exist? I mean who needs to track population growth, get more money allocated for local schools, and determine if more money is needed to house those living in poverty? No wait that sounds kind of reasonable.
Well what if Alaska attacks America? Then these villagers could find themselves placed in internment camps just like the Japanese during World War 2. Wait, what?
Here maybe Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann can explain it better.
Wow! Did he just say that ACORN is coming to Alaska?
Internment camps and ACORN? Are those really things that people should fear by filling out a census form? That is a whole new level of crazy.
Minnesota's state demographer estimated the North Star state could be within 1,000 people of losing one of its eight congressional seats, WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, reported Monday.
The district that's most vulnerable to being lost? Bachmann's 6th District, experts said.
It is at times like this that I start to think, you know maybe there is a God!
A push to spread the gospel about the 2010 Census this Christmas is stoking controversy with a campaign that links the government count to events surrounding the birth of Jesus.
The National Association of Latino Elected Officials is leading the distribution to churches and clergy of thousands of posters that depict the arrival of Joseph and a pregnant Mary in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago. As chronicled in the Gospel of Luke, Joseph returned to be counted in a Roman census, but he and Mary found no room at an inn, and Jesus was born in a manger.
"This is how Jesus was born," the poster states. "Joseph and Mary participated in the Census."
You can almost hear little pointy Fundamentalist heads exploding all over the country can't you?
"Jesus? And the Census? In the same poster? Ow, ow, my empty head has got those stupid facts that my pastor and Sarah Palin warned me about. I have to go donate money to TeamSarah to make the owies go away!" The problem with most of the Fundies is that they have very little biblical knowledge and rely almost exclusively on their pastor's explanation for an understanding of what the "Good Book" says. After months of hearing the census takers vilified from the pulpit they will immediately deny the accuracy of the posters statement.
Sadly for them that ignorance will be aggressively reinforced by the people who want them to embrace their agenda. Like the Fox News team, Rush Limbaugh, Right Wing Christian leaders, and of course sister Sarah herself.
And if Palin is too busy working on her tan I have little doubt that Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity will take up the slack. After all the teabaggers must be getting pretty steamed up right about now.
Hah! Steamed up. Teabaggers. I made a funny!
Update: This might help to explain the origin and the reason behind the poster.
A Kentucky census worker found naked, bound with duct tape and hanging from a tree with “fed” scrawled on his chest killed himself but staged his death to make it look like a homicide, authorities said Tuesday.
Bill Sparkman, 51, was found Sept. 12 with a rope around his neck near a cemetery in a heavily wooded area of the Daniel Boone National Forest in southeastern Kentucky. Authorities said his wrists were loosely bound, his glasses were taped to his head and he was gagged.
Kentucky State Police Capt. Lisa Rudzinski said an analysis found that “fed” was written “from the bottom up.” He was touching the ground, and to survive “all Mr. Sparkman had to do at any time was stand up,” she said.
I have to offer a mea culpa here.
When the census worker was found dead in Kentucky with the word "FED" scrawled on his chest I was quite convinced it COULD NOT be a suicide and even suggested that his murder might be the result of the crazy talk from Michelle Bachman and Glenn Beck.
Part of my certainty was due to an interview from a guy who had visited the scene of the crime.
But I was wrong. I jumped to a conclusion based on insufficient evidence, and I was incorrect.
And even though I was joined in my incorrect assumption by the, VERY cautious and careful, Rachel Maddow I still must take responsibility for my mistake.
I am sorry. I will endeavor to always get my facts straight before making an assumption in the future.
(And NO this does NOT relate to my "Splitsville" story or my "babygate" investigation. I am quite confident in those investigations and have first hand and verifiable information to put my mind at ease. Nice try though.)
The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word 'fed" was scrawled on the dead man's chest.
The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide, and if a killing, whether the motive was related to his government job or to anti-government sentiment.
What in the hell would make somebody kill and deface the body of a census worker? When did people become angry at this group of government workers?
Oh yeah.
To be fair we do not know exactly what happened in this particular case, but don't you think when people start making these kind of unfounded allegations about government workers, community organizers, and sitting Presidents, that somebody is bound to get hurt?
And when it finally happens who holds those who created the fear and hate accountable?
