Thousands quit Church of Denmark after atheist campaign
Thousands of people have cancelled their membership of Denmark's state Church following a campaign by atheists.
Nearly 3,000 baptised cancelled their membership last month after Denmark's Atheist Society, Ateistisk Selskab, launched a nationwide campaign advising people they could save money by opting out.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark is among several Churches in Europe subsidised by a Church tax. Although the tax is voluntary in Denmark, at a rate of around one per cent, Church members are automatically signed up and have to opt out rather than opt in.
Nearly eight in 10 Danish people are members of the Church of Denmark, known as "the People's Church". The Church is both Protestant and episcopally-led. Everyone who is baptised automatically becomes a member. Just 2.4 per cent of members attend every week.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/th.../83609.htm
Thousands of people have cancelled their membership of Denmark's state Church following a campaign by atheists.
Nearly 3,000 baptised cancelled their membership last month after Denmark's Atheist Society, Ateistisk Selskab, launched a nationwide campaign advising people they could save money by opting out.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark is among several Churches in Europe subsidised by a Church tax. Although the tax is voluntary in Denmark, at a rate of around one per cent, Church members are automatically signed up and have to opt out rather than opt in.
Nearly eight in 10 Danish people are members of the Church of Denmark, known as "the People's Church". The Church is both Protestant and episcopally-led. Everyone who is baptised automatically becomes a member. Just 2.4 per cent of members attend every week.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/th.../83609.htm
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
