Christopher Hitchens will be remembered as many things: an acerbic essayist, connoisseur of Scotch and cigarettes and roguish writer whose forceful pen was fueled by an imposing intellect.

Yet his impact on American life, which will be felt long after his death at age 62 on Thursday (Dec. 15), is likely to be the unabashed atheism he championed throughout his life, and the public voice he gave to growing numbers of unbelievers.

Even his foes — whose prayers he simultaneously welcomed and rejected as he battled esophageal cancer — say his acid-tongued arguments against God sharpened their own.

“As an atheist who challenged America’s deeply held religious convictions, he will continue to serve as a thorn in the side of those who believe that religion requires no rational defense,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a friend and frequent sparring partner, wrote in a tribute for The Forward, a national Jewish newspaper.

Hitchens had long been a foe of organized religion and its leading lights; when the late Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa in 2003, Hitchens dismissed her as a “fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud.” He called the late Jerry Falwell an “ugly little charlatan,” saying “it’s a pity there isn’t a hell for him to go to.”

Throughout his career, Hitchens rejected religious faith as “evil nonsense,” and a “real danger” to civilized society. “I regard it as an enemy,” he said in 2008, “and a real deadly one.”

The self-described anti-theist channeled his unbelief into a direct and eloquent challenge of religion, especially the large and small actions carried out in God’s name.

“Christopher Hitchens changed the discussion about religion and nonbelief by championing public criticism of theology,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association.

The murderous religious extremism behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks crystalized Hitchens’ fears about religion. In the years after 9/11, he and other public atheists shot to the top of best-sellers lists with titles like his 2007 manifesto, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

Together with Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, Hitchens was hailed as one of the “Four Horsemen.” In a tweet after Hitchens’ death, Dawkins heralded his friend as a “valiant fighter against all tyrants, including God.”

Still, Hitchens’ take-no-prisoners style was not universally embraced within atheist circles. Hitchens could be as militant and fundamentalist as those he criticized, his atheist allies said, and did little to help the movement’s public perception.

“Now, they’re very good atheists and very dedicated people who do not believe in God,” Paul Kurtz, founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, told NPR in 2009. “But you have this aggressive and militant phase of atheism, and that does more damage than good.”

When Hitchens announced his terminal cancer last year, some foes hoped it would prompt a deathbed conversion of sorts. Hitchens said he was grateful that people would care enough to pray for him, but swiftly rejected the idea that death could or should make him a believer.

“I have resented the idea that it should be assumed, now that you may be terrified, or depressed, that now would be the time to throw out values you have had for a lifetime,” he said. “Repulsive. Wholly contemptible.”

In life, Hitchens swam against the tides of religious belief that shape so much of modern life. In death — an irony that would delight and disturb his contrarian soul — believers are using the loss of the most articulate voice of unbelief in a generation to argue, once again, for belief.

“The point about Christopher Hitchens is not that he died of unbelief,” tweeted R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, “but that his unbelief is all that matters now. Unspeakably sad.”

WASHINGTON — A star-studded array of political and religious leaders — from President Obama to rock legend Bono to AIDS activist Kay Warren — came together Thursday (Dec. 1) for World AIDS Day to call for an entirely AIDS-free generation by 2015.

The speakers at the event, called “The Beginning of the End of AIDS,” said that the science and medicine needed to eliminate AIDS already exists; all that is needed is for governments and individuals to fully commit themselves to that goal.

“Make no mistake, we are going to win this fight,” Obama said to the crowd at The George Washington University.

The event was sponsored by ONE and (RED), two anti-AIDS organizations co- founded by U2 frontman Bono.

The activist rock star said he started the organizations after seeing how people in Africa, simply because of where they lived, could not get the AIDS treatment they needed.

“To me, I felt it was a justice issue, and it challenged the very idea of equality and civilization,” Bono said.

Warren, wife of California megachurch pastor Rick Warren, called on religious congregations to do more in the fight against AIDS.

“Every church can care and support. Every church can help with HIV testing. … Every church can unleash volunteers to serve,” she said.

Warren founded the HIV/AIDS Initiative at Saddleback Church, one of the first programs of its kind at an evangelical church. In the last seven years, she said, it has become a model for other churches to follow.

“It’s not even like this is an add-on, or it’s nice, or it’s something that people can just do if they have time — this is the mission of the church. That’s why we don’t turn it over to anybody else,” Warren said.

Also present was Dan Haseltine, lead singer of the Christian rock band Jars of Clay, who founded Blood:Water Mission, a campaign to fight the AIDS and clean water crises in Africa.

Haseltine acknowledged that churches have not always been at the forefront of AIDS activism, noting a 2002 poll that showed only 3 percent of the evangelical community was willing to donate money to support children orphaned by AIDS.

Nevertheless, he thinks evangelicals are warming up to the idea of helping people with AIDS.

“At an event like this, the fact that the faith community has even been invited shows that they’re becoming a very formidable part of the process of real change,” Haseltine said.

When he dies, Clem Parnell expects his soul to ascend heavenward. He wants his ashes to be loaded into a shotgun shell and blasted at a turkey.

“I will rest in peace knowing that the last thing that turkey will see is me screaming at him at about 900 feet per second,” says Parnell, 59.

Parnell and his business partner, fellow Alabama state game warden Thad Holmes, believe other hunters have similar hankerings. This July, they launched Holy Smoke LLC, which offers to load the cremains of customers into shotgun shells, rifle cartridges and bullets.

For about $850, a customer will receive 250 shotgun shells, 100 rifle cartridges or 250 pistol cartridges packed with the deceased’s ashes. Discounts are available for the military, police and firemen.

After most funeral rites, scattered remains become trodden dirt. Gravesites go unvisited and ash-filled urns sit unnoticed, said Holmes, 56. Loading up a loved one for one final duck hunt would be a more fitting send-off, he says, especially for avid outdoorsmen.

“We want to give people an alternative to celebrate a person’s life,” said Holmes.

Holy Smoke insists that remains are handled reverently by a team of five ATF-trained loaders. There is no commingling of ashes, and unused cremains are returned. Parnell, a Southern Baptist, says all seven Holy Smoke employees are “good Christians, with good moral values.”

“Just because you’re getting shot out of a gun doesn’t make it irreverent,” said Holmes.

But some Christian scholars say Holy Smoke is firing spiritual blanks.

“It’s a terrible idea,” said David W. Jones, a professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC.

“This idea of putting grandpa in a rifle shell or scattering his ashes on a baseball field goes against Christianity. We’re supposed to show respect for ashes, not throw them to the wind,” said Jones, who has written about cremation in theJournal of the Evangelical Theological Society.

For centuries, Christians shunned cremation as a heathen practice. Burying the dead, church fathers taught, continues the tradition of the Jewish patriarchs and honors bodies made in the image of God. More importantly, Christians believe that bodies and souls will one day be raised to eternal life, just as Jesus was.

“The Christian tradition is unambiguous about burial being the norm,” said Andrew Harvey, a professor of English at Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related Grove City College in Pennsylvania who has written on the cremation trend.

“Jesus’ burial is a template for our own. But I don’t think many people make that concrete connection anymore,” he said.

Instead, Harvey said, many Christians have adopted a modern form of Gnosticism, believing the soul shakes free from the body after death as a snake sheds its skin.

Church strictures against cremation have loosened in recent decades, and few consider it a mortal sin. But some caution that there are good theological reasons for burying bodies.

“If the end game is that we live in physical bodies on a physical earth no longer affected by sin and worship God forever, then maybe we need to show respect for our bodies when we die,” said Jones.

Funeral industry experts say Holy Smoke is unique, but not unusual. Cremation accounted for 37 percent of all final dispositions in 2009, according to the National Funeral Directors Association, and is expected to cross the 50 percent threshold this decade.

Meanwhile, more Americans are planning their funerals in advance, often with highly personalized send-offs.

Surfers scatter their ashes over favorite swells. Californians fill fireworks with their remains and shoot them over the San Francisco Bay. Cremains can be inserted in coral reefs, fashioned as diamonds, or launched into space. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards even snorted his father’s ashes.

“There has been an ongoing proliferation of innovative forms of memorializing the dead and taking care of the human remains,” said Gary Laderman, an expert on religion and American death rites at Emory University in Atlanta.

“People want to do it themselves and make sure it fits with their personality and commitments,” he said.

In other words, instead of religious services that prepare a soul for the afterlife, funerals are becoming a final act of self-expression, said Matthew Lee Anderson, author of Earthen Vessels, a book about Christianity and the body.

At the same time, more Americans find transcendence and meaning outside church walls, scholars say. Holmes said watching the sun rise through the trees while sitting in a hunting stand is about as sacred as life gets.

“You see the birds and animals and you say, look at what God has wrought,” he said. “It’s a soul Band-Aid.”

When he dies, Holmes believes his bandaged soul will float away from his body.

“Your spirit is not with your body anymore,” he said. “You’ve either gone up or down.” What’s left, he said, is “nothing more than organic matter and ash.”

But Parnell appears to believe at least part of him will remain with his ashes. After a career in law enforcement, he said, he cherishes the chance to help protect his family after death.

“I would love for this company to take my ashes and make two rounds,” he said. “If someone broke into my home to assault a member of my family, I could rest easier knowing that I helped kill him.”

I am not a big fan of Halloween. Never had been. I don’t like the thought of celebrating evil or dressing up my home as a haunted house. At the same time, I have fond memories of collecting candy door to door with just a simple code phrase. But if I participate in the age old tradition of handing out cavity creators on hallows eve, am I just embracing all that is evil? So, what is a Christian family to do?

Ignore the Day:
People do this all over town. Some say that they don’t want to partake in a heathen holiday so they turn off their lights, keep the volume of the TV down low and pretend that they aren’t home. Yeah. That will show ‘em.

Invite Others to Hell House:
On the opposite end of the spectrum, some create a “hell house” which is similar to a haunted house, only “Christian.” These are very popular in some towns and scare just the same as the “House of Terror” just down the street. Here though, guests witness what happens to people who have abortions, drink and drive, live a gay lifestyle and more. The only monsters here are the demons dragging them down to hell if they don’t repent of their sins. Many who attend end up raising their hands for salvation. I wonder how many of those salvations are real 24 hours later.

Trunk or Treat: 
These started sprouting up a few years back. The idea is that a group of people, (usually a church), dress up the trunks of their cars and park them in one parking lot. Each car has it’s own theme and kids go from one car to the next collecting candy – suspiciously just like traditional Trick or Treating. (I think it’s funny that 364 days of the year, we teach our kids not to take candy from a stranger in a car, and one day where we celebrate it.)

Hold a Harvest Carnival:
I think these are great and can get pretty elaborate. Churches across the country will be holding carnivals or parties that focus on harvest themes rather than monsters. The problem with these is that the neighborhood kids tend to go to the carnivals early and then leave with enough time so they can go trick or treating back home!

Jesus Ween:
That’s not a typo – it’s a real thing. It started in Baltimore as an alternative to Halloween. Instead of handing out candy, Christians are encouraged to dress up in white and hand out bibles and other “Christian” gifts instead. Now, I think these people have their hearts in the right place, but I think the idea may backfire on them. I think of the Peanuts TV special when the trick-or-treaters compare their loot: “I got a candy bar!” “I got a sucker!” “I got gum drops!” “I got a rock.” “I got a Bible.”

Share the Light:
This year, I’m planning on taking the advice of former pastor of mine. Instead of turning off the lights or leave his house entirely, my pastor would make sure that the porch lights were bright and welcoming and he would have one pumpkin lit up with a cross.

It’s no secret that Halloween has it’s pagan roots – carving pumpkins to ward off evil spirits for instance. But I highly doubt that anyone is thinking about that these days when they dress up their pumpkins any more than we do when we dress up our Christmas trees, which also was a pagan ritual once upon a time.

I don’t plan to wear white or hand out Bibles. I agree that the Bible is something to be treasured, but try telling that to six-year-old in a clown suit whose only goal for the night is to get lots and lots of chocolate. Instead, I’m planning on handing out regular sized candy bars. This is our first Halloween in a new neighborhood and we have lots of little children living around us. We are trying to create a relationship with these kids and their parents. Halloween allows us to meet each child and their parents, even for a brief couple of minutes, and make impact. What makes a bigger impact on Halloween than a full-size candy bar? Those kids will remember us, not because we’re the cool old people, but hopefully because they can tell that there is something else.

Originally posted  here.

The Scottish government has begun a 14-week public consultation, running from Sept. 2 to Dec. 9, on the question of legalizing marriage for gay couples, encouraging individuals and groups such as religious organizations to take part.

Catholic church leaders have already begun to criticize the idea. Cardinal Keith O’Brien, in a homily given in early September at St. Patrick’s Church here, said “the view of the church is clear. No government can re-write human nature: the family and marriage existed before the state and are built on the union between a man and a woman.”

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, said the government “[tends] towards the view that religious ceremonies for civil partnerships should no longer be prohibited and that same sex marriage should be introduced so that same sex couples have the option of getting married if that is how they wish to demonstrate their commitment to one another.”

The government has said it would like to hear from religious groups and ordinary people, and has indicated religious organizations will have freedom of choice in deciding whether to officiate at gay weddings.

A recent Scottish Social Attitudes survey showed that more than 60 percent of Scots believe same-sex couples should have the right to marry, compared with 19 percent who disagree. The rest said they don’t know. Some 66 percent of Scotland’s population of 5 million describe themselves as Christians, and about 690,000 are Catholic.

“What we have here is the start of a serious church-state confrontation,” said Harry Reid, a former editor of Scotland’sThe Herald and author of the best-selling book The Reformation: The Dangerous Birth of the Modern World.

“For many Catholics, the idea of gay men and lesbians marrying in churches is just a step too far,” said Reid. “Already, some of the most important leaders of the Catholic Church have said, ‘So far, no further.’ And there are divisions in the Church of Scotland following plans to ordain gay men as ministers. Whole congregations are threatening to break away later this year and form their own groups.”

Other Christian groups, as well as Jewish, Muslim and Hindu leaders, said they are considering the consultation but have not yet responded.

The Church of Scotland refused to comment because of its moratorium on the gay ordination issue.

A spokeswoman for the small Scottish Episcopal Church said, “Our canon relating to marriage states that marriage is a physical, spiritual and mystical union of one man and one woman. The General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church has not debated the question of same-sex marriage.”

Rachel Lampard, Joint Public Issues team leader at the Methodist Church, said, “The Methodist Conference would have to vote in favor of civil partnerships taking place in Methodist churches for the legislation to have any effect.”

“All the legal rights of marriage are already available to homosexual couples through civil-partnership registrations,” said Mike Judge of the Christian Institute in Scotland. “This is not about rights. This is about re-defining marriage for the whole of society at the behest of a small minority of activists.”

Roger Williams arrived in Massachusetts almost four centuries ago, just a decade after the first Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower. He joined that Puritan effort to build a “city on a hill,” to prove to the nations of the world how God’s people should live. How did things go for Roger? Not so good. He never got that Puritan thing figured out.

After beginning his role as pastor of the church at Salem, Massachusetts, it didn’t take long for Williams’ sermons to ignite an inferno of controversy. He was quickly branded as a heretic, persecuted by the government, put in constant fear for his life, forced to evade deportation back to Europe, and eventually exiled into the New England winter, an exile that remained law on the Massachusetts books until 1936.

What caused Roger so much trouble in the New World? He relentlessly preached liberty of conscience and believed that an individual should have the freedom to choose his or her religious expression, even the right to choose no religion at all. Roger Williams believed in the revolutionary idea that there should be a separation between church and state.

This was a novel idea four hundred years ago. In some circles it still is. Yet, Roger Williams believed in it and practiced it. Rhode Island, the tiny colony he eventually formed, became a safe haven for some of the first Jews, Quakers, Baptists, and other religious dissidents coming to the New World.

Williams didn’t share the beliefs of these variegated groups and often debated with them publically. But he believed they had the God-given right to practice faith as they saw fit, without outside interference.

Using a metaphor that should be repeated in our own day, Williams said the church was like “a garden.” Everything that was aligned with self-seeking power – governments, corporations, systems of control – he called these “the wilderness.” He believed that those churches that gave up their unique role as witnesses to Christ to join with power, even power that “worked,” were permitting the wilderness to intrude upon the garden.

As such, these churches would be manipulated, compromising on issues of love, justice, and mercy. Or those same churches would become the manipulators themselves, using civil power to force their beliefs on others. Such force was the worst of spiritual violations, “like compelling an unwilling spouse to enter into a forced bed,” Williams preached.

Either way, when church and state drank from the same cup, it would be the church that would be poisoned. Roger Williams’ counsel to the Christian church in his day is lasting: Learn to live in the world and bear witness to Christ in it, but do not become a part of it. Or he might say, “Plant a garden in a wilderness; but do not bring the wilderness into the garden.”

William Willimon strikes a similar chord. Once in an interview he was criticized for holding opinions that led Christians to shirk their social responsibilities and to withdraw from society. He responded that yes, Christians should live out their faith, but they should take great care not to force their faith. Faith should be practiced, Willimon said, “like porcupines making love…very carefully.”

All these years after Williams’ exile, I am thankful that we have the freedom and privilege to live out and practice our faith in this country. But like Williams, I do not believe that those privileges can become tools of coercion and force to accomplish some “spiritual” or Christian end.

Faith is an issue of the heart, not a public policy. Faith can empower believers to light a society with grace, love, goodness, and hope, but faith should not be used as a manipulative weapon in the dark, power-play systems of the world.

I know I’m not with the Puritan program either, but standing with Williams I believe that rulers have no right to enforce religion, and religions have no right to enforce rule. To take a different path is to plant the wild and wooly seeds of the wilderness in the garden of faith.

An online move to declare September 20 as “Everybody Pray for Hitchens Day” has come and gone, and Christopher Hitchens, deemed the voice of the atheists, had warned well in advance that he wouldn’t be there, and has overall indicated indifference.

A Facebook page was made for people to commit to pray for the atheist leader, who is stricken with esophageal cancer. Catholic priest Fr. Robert Barron of the Archdiocese of Chicago endorsed it in a CNN essay, as did Fixed Point Foundation head Larry Taunton in a video, Christianity Today said.

But Hitchens, who is now going through chemotherapy treatments, said he will not be there, and he does not believe that prayer will have any affect on his health, healing or death, NPR reported.

The author of “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” also said that followers and critics need not expect an epiphany from him, and if there is a deathbed conversion he warned in advance it would likely be delirium, Christianity Today said.

In a recent debate in Alabama, Hitchens also said that the most harmful teaching of Christianity is “The idea of vicarious redemption is a disgusting moral teaching . . . it abandons moral responsibility. Faith is a refuge in cowardice,” Christianity Today reported.

Hitchens’ most recent book, Hitch-22 is his memoir where he says, “I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with ‘you’ in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. That modesty is too arrogant for me,” according to Christianity Today.

Hitchens also speculated that if he did survive his cancer, the “pious faction” may interpret it as answered prayer. “That would somehow be irritating,” NPR reported.

Patrick Archbold, co-founder of Creative Minority Report wrote however in The Washington Post, “I pray that he [Hitchens] will pray. I pray that among all the moments of doubt, he will have a moment of humility, a moment of love. I pray that before the end, he will commit a useless act of love in the eyes of men. For in the eyes of the Father, there is no useless act of love.”

Michael Gove, education secretary of the U.K., said that setting up atheist schools can be considered as part of the reforms he will make in his department. This comes after atheist educator and writer Richard Dawkins expressed interest in the idea, ASSIST News said.

Amid government plans to push for independent education institutions, Dawkins, who authored “The God Delusion” and once said faith schools are a type of child abuse, has said he is agreeable to helping to set up what he prefers to call a “free-thinking ” schools.

Dawkins said the schools would teach skepticism and an appreciation for evidence, as opposed to being indoctrinated in atheism. They would also teach about Norse legends, ancient Greeks and the Bible, but the latter would be treated as literature, according to the Telegraph.

The idea of secular schools came to Dawkins when a group of women set the idea before him, saying it would be a response to the prevalence of faith schools which they believe are discordant and unscientific, the Telegraph said.

Dawkins said, “If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists,” the Telegraph reported.

Ann Widdecombe, the Former Home Secretary said, “If you can set up faith schools, then I think quite obviously you must also be allowed to set up a school that will cater for people whose parents are bringing them up specifically to have no faith.”

“I think it is a great pity if somebody is brought up that way, but our job is to win those people over, not to look to the law to do it for us,” she said.

Out of 21,000 state elementary and high schools in England, thirty-three percent are faith schools, mainly Anglican and Roman Catholic. A small number are Sikh, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim, according to Assist News.

Krista Tippett, 49, is widely identified with her radio program, “Speaking of Faith,” a program that has beat the odds in more ways than one.

First, when she first proposed the idea as a radio program nobody believed in it, and there initially were no takers.

However today, “Speaking of Faith” draws some 600,000 listeners on 240 radio stations nationwide and gets 1.3 million downloads a month, according to The New York Times.

Second, Tippett talks about faith and God with an approach that is the antithesis of the fire and brimstone stereotype in religious broadcasting, The New York Times says.

Third, Tippett manages to talk about normally divisive issues in a manner that is acceptable and non-inflammatory to a wide range of people with different orientations.  For example, Kare11.com has applauded her handling of the topic religion versus science with great care.

Tippett’s radio program melds all sides of herself, as the granddaughter of a preacher who was raised as a fundamentalist Christian, the questioning Brown student and Fulbright scholar studying German literature and history, the product of Yale Divinity School who can parse text in Greek and theology in German, the diplomat who seeks to resolve social divisions, the author of a bestselling book, and the winner of a Peabody Award, according to the New York Times.

According to Tippett’s website, just the other day she had a guest who became paralyzed at the age of 13 in an accident where both his parents died.  The wheelchair bound, paraplegic guest is a yoga teacher, and he spoke about the mind-body connection, and the strength and grace of our bodies amid aging, illness and death.

Another recent show featured an astrophysicist who works with the Hubble Telescope’s findings on phenomena like dark energy and white dwarfs.  The program “…explores edges of discovery where scientific advance meets recurrent mystery.  Questions richer than any of their current answers,” according to her website.

Tippet said, “Religion is a touchy subject.  You’re really getting at the core of people’s identities, an intimate place. This religious sphere in our public life is very charged, and I want to disarm that,” according to The New York Times.

Tippett avoids using religion as a proxy for politics, and on the blogosphere has been criticized for “timidity.”  She said she would not interview a proponent of intelligent design or a strident atheist, believing such guests would only polarize the discussion, though she has done shows about torture and the Sunni-Shiite divide within Islam, The New York Times said.

Others on her show included religious ethicists, textual scholars, and scientists ruminating about the intersection of divinity and humanity (the physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne), The New York Times said.

In a sermon at Yale’s Battell Chapel last year, Tippett described religion as “…a part of life where we give ourselves over to essential, exacting, majestic questions that no other discipline quite presses in quite the same way: What does it mean to be human? What matters in a life? What matters in a death? How to love? How can we be of service to one another and the world?”

Would she call her radio program a ministry?  Tippett said. “I do like the word ‘vocation,’ a calling.  If it is a ministry, it’s a ministry of listening rather than talking,” according to The New York Times.