Zion is a city in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 24,655.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of many federal and state programs that are faith-based. It supports groups such as nonreligious students and clergy who want to leave their faith.
"In God We Trust" is the official motto of the United States as well as the motto of the U.S. state of Florida, along with the nation of Nicaragua. It was adopted by the U.S. Congress in 1956, replacing E pluribus unum, which had been the de facto motto since the initial design of the Great Seal of the United States.
The Eye of Providence or All-Seeing Eye is a symbol depicting an eye, often enclosed in a triangle and surrounded by rays of light or a halo, intended to represent Providence, as the eye watches over the workers of mankind. A well-known example of the Eye of Providence appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, which is depicted on the United States one-dollar bill.
Michael Arthur Newdow is an American attorney and emergency medicine physician. He is best known for his efforts to have recitations of the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in the United States declared unconstitutional because of its inclusion of the phrase "under God". He also filed and lost a lawsuit to stop the invocation prayer at President Bush's second inauguration and in 2009 he filed a lawsuit to prevent references to God and religion from being part of President Obama's inauguration.
John Alexander Dowie was a Scottish-Australian minister known as an evangelist and faith healer. He began his career as a minister of religion in South Australia. After becoming an evangelist and faith healer, he emigrated with his family to the United States in 1888, first settling in San Francisco, where he developed his faith healing practise into a mail order business. He moved to Chicago in time to take advantage of the crowds attracted to the 1893 World's Fair. After attracting a huge faith healing business in Chicago, with multiple homes and businesses, including a publishing house, to keep his thousands of followers, he bought an extensive parcel of land north of the city to set up a private community.
Christ Community Church in Zion, Illinois, formerly the Christian Catholic Church or Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, is an evangelical non-denominational church founded in 1896 by John Alexander Dowie. The city of Zion was founded by Dowie as a religious community to establish a society on the principles of the Kingdom of God. Members are sometimes called Zionites.
The state seal of New York features the state arms surrounded by the words "The Great Seal of the State of New York". A banner below shows the New York State motto Excelsior, Latin for "Ever Upward", and the secondary motto E Pluribus Unum, Latin for "Out of Many, One"—adopted in 2020.
With God, all things are possible is the motto of the U.S. state of Ohio. Quoted from the Gospel of Matthew, verse 19:26, it is the only state motto taken directly from the Bible. It is defined in section 5.06 of the Ohio Revised Code and sometimes appears beneath the Seal of Ohio. The motto was adopted in 1959 and survived a federal constitutional challenge in 2001. The state maintains that it is a generic expression of optimism rather than an endorsement of a particular religion.
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States has been criticized on several grounds. Its use in government funded schools has been the most controversial, as critics contend that a government-sanctioned endorsement of religion violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Arguments against the pledge include that the pledge itself is incompatible with democracy and freedom, that it is a form of nationalistic indoctrination, that pledges of allegiance are features of current and former totalitarian states such as Nazi Germany, and that the pledge was written to sell flags.
John Graham Lake was a Canadian-American leader in the Pentecostal movement that began in the early 20th century, and is known as a faith healer, missionary, and with Thomas Hezmalhalch, co-founder of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa. Through his 1908–19 African missionary work, Lake played a decisive role in the spread of Pentecostalism in South Africa, the most successful southern African religious movement of the 20th century. After completing his missionary work in Africa, Lake evangelized for 10 years, primarily along the west coast of the United States setting up "healing rooms" and healing campaigns, and establishing churches. Lake was influenced by the healing ministry of John Alexander Dowie and the ministry of Charles Parham.
Becket, also known as the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, is a non-profit public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C., that describes its mission as "defending the freedom of religion of people of all faiths". Becket promotes accommodationism and is active in the judicial system, the media, and in education.
Fred Francis Bosworth was an American evangelist, an early religious broadcaster, and a 1920s and Depression-era Pentecostal faith healer who was later a bridge to the mid-20th century healing revival. He was born on a farm near Utica, Nebraska and was raised in a Methodist home. His Methodist experiences also included salvation at the age of 16 or 17, and a spontaneous healing from major lung problems a couple of years later. Bosworth's life after that was one that followed Christian principles, though his church affiliation changed several times over the years. Several years after his healing he attended Alexander Dowie's church in Zion City, Illinois, then joined the Pentecostal movement and attended Pentecostal services. Most of his later ministry was associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance church.
Wilbur Glenn Voliva was an American cult leader and Flat Earth theorist who controlled the town of Zion, Illinois, during the early 20th century.
The modern motto of the United States of America, as established in a 1956 law signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, is "In God we trust". The phrase first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864.
The Pine Tree Flag was one of the flags used during the American Revolution. The flag, which featured a pine tree with the motto "An Appeal to Heaven", or less frequently "An Appeal to God", was used by a squadron of six schooners commissioned under George Washington's authority as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army beginning in October 1775.
Robert I. Sherman was an American political activist, perennial candidate, and businessman. He was known for his role as an Illinois Green Party candidate and for his atheist advocacy. He died in a plane crash outside Marengo, Illinois on December 9, 2016, at the age of 63.
The Flag of Lehigh County in Pennsylvania features the county's seal atop a blue field.
Kenneth William Mayle is known for multiple legal challenges. He is also the father of a Guinea Hog named Chief Wiggum. He was the founder of the Satanic Temple Illinois chapter.
