Bill O'Reilly is an educated man; but when it comes to religion he retreats into the comfy narrow dogmatism of 1950's Catholic education which provided both questions and answers as determined by the Magisterium. Any disagreement with the script was marked with a stern reprimand. That Bill learned his lessons well is shown by his incisive theological exegesis about the divine nature of the tides, Jesus guided evolution, and atheists suck. And as a devout Catholic who has taken over the patriarchal role of looking out for us, he is distressed about a new survey which shows that belief in God, among young people, is plummeting. For Bill, this is troubling and an example of more creeping secularism which, according to Bill, is actually the fault of the American public school system which Bill reprimanded in last week's "Factor's" discussion on how kids might be, in the words of R.E.M., loosing their religion.

At the beginning of his "Impact Segment," Bill reported on Pew Research data which found that 31% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 have expressed doubts about the existence of God. Bill thinks that this means that "secularism has taken hold among younger Americans." (And this is a problem, how?) Bill was joined by guests, Michelle Fields from the right wing "Daily Caller" and liberal Leslie Marshall. Bill, in typical narcissistic fashion, noted that he predicted that this would happen because young people are "not getting the same message, that's important, from society that older Americans once got." (One wonders if Bill was referring to stuff like you're going to hell if you think dirty thoughts, masturbate, have sex before marriage, are sexually attracted to members of the same sex - and if you miss Mass on Sundays - and, given the content of the phone tapes involved in his sexual harassment lawsuit, he didn't get the message about "dirty talk.")

Marshall agreed with Bill. She said that Americans "aren't taking as much time out for God, they're not teaching their kids about God." She could have mentioned that young people, who don't accept things on "faith alone," see the hypocrisy of those, like O'Reilly, who don't practice what they preach. She might have mentioned that the rampant pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church could have an impact on religious cynicism. While she spoke, video of empty pews at a Catholic church was shown. Bill cited stats about declining Mass attendance and mentioned that he's a Catholic. He then claimed that "the public schools have a lot to do with this" because they have "wiped out spirituality" out of "all of the curriculums in public schools...they're fainting, they're throwing up, it's crazy." He didn't mention that the Supreme Court, in McCollum v Board of Education Dist. 71, declared religious instruction in public schools unconsitutional.) He proclaimed that when you combine "the media, the selfishness of society and public school abdication" you get secularism.

Fields claimed that there is a "social stigma" about religion because university professors diss Christians as those "who don't believe in science," (Check) and "who treat homosexuals as lesser beings." (Big check there because evangelical Christianity and Catholicism are ground zero for homophobia albeit with Catholicism condemning gay sex but not being gay.)  Aside - she works for the Daily Caller which is run by Tucker Carlson who has mocked gay soldiers, doesn't want school curriculums to include gay history, and who doesn't support anti-bullying programs which talk about gay bashing. Bill wanted to know if this alleged Christian mocking is "indoctrination" or "a secular argument overwhelming the traditional religious argument." She responded that it's "indoctrination" because "it's not true" and that religious characters in movies are "always the idiot."  Marshall did disagree with Fields and noted that it's more acceptable to question the existence of God. O'Reilly said it's a matter of faith. Bill said that this secularism is what happened in Europe and (be so scared ) could happen here. Marshall got Bill creds for her belief in God.

What you won't learn from Bill O'Reilly is that those countries that are the most secular have low crime rates, high health outcomes, low teenage pregnancy, and high levels of education. Bill will never admit that the secular Scandinavian countries which are the least religious countries are the happiest. But ya gotta love how Bill, not exactly a role model for Catholicism (but then again!) says secularism is due to godlessness in the public schools. Who knew!