Columbia Faith and Values

There are enough former Catholics in the United States to make up a large Christian denomination of their own.

According to the Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2008, one in 10 American adults identifies as an ex-Catholic. And of the 25 percent of American adults who are still Catholic, only one in four attend mass regularly.

  The American Humanist Association is demanding that weekly prayer sessions at Fayette High School be stopped on grounds that they are unconstitutional. 

Porsha Williams knows a thing or two about walls – metaphorical ones, that is. She’s been up against a lot of them, whether religious, psychological or cultural.

She describes herself as a “raised Christian, converted to Pagan woman.” And that conversion is the source of many of these walls.

Williams has always been intrigued with Kemeticism, an ancient Egyptian form of Paganism. But it wasn’t until about three and a half years ago that she decided to start practicing it.

This story was produced in partnership with Columbia FAVS. 

The band of LifeBridge Lutheran Church practices in the community room of an apartment complex each Sunday morning before service begins. Furniture is piled in the corner to their left, and gym equipment in the corner to the right. Though they don’t have their own building to worship in, it’s progress for LifeBridge – a year ago, the church didn’t even exist.

This story was produced in partnership with Columbia Faith & Values. Find more stories like this one at ColumbiaFAVS.com. You can get instant updates each day on Facebook and Twitter.

This story was produced in partnership with Columbia Faith & Values (ColumbiaFAVS.com).

Hans Neumann was raised in a small, forested village in East Prussia, just five miles from the Lithuanian border. He was forced to leave his home at the age of 15, near the end of World War II. Germany was losing, and Russian troops were moving west. 

This segment was produced in partnership with Columbia Faith & Values. Find more news like this at ColumbiaFAVS.com. 

Two people with remarkable stories to share came to MU this week, and we hear from both of them in this faith and values update. Romain-Roland Levi shared his experiences in Belgium during World War II, and Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mohatma Gandhi, talked about his grandfather, along with the India-Pakistan conflict.

Holocaust survivor lives to spread love

Cicyfarth and four other members of the White Hawthorne Protogrove talk over food at a restaurant in downtown Columbia, planning their ritual to recognize the spring equinox.

These five have been meeting periodically for sandwiches and fellowship for nearly half a year. They are neo-druids, people who draw on a multitude of pantheons to find positive ethics, natural harmony, and spiritual connection. Since the fall of 2012, Cicyfarth and the others have been fighting to become a church.

This story was produced in partnership with Columbia Faith & Values. 

When the world called, William Claassen said "Yes." 

The Columbia author has hitchhiked across North America, worked on a kibbutz in Israel and 

He recently published his third book, "Journey Man: A World Calling." The book tells of his travels through nine countries on four continenets over a 30-years span.