Thoughts of a Freethinker

Could it be devout Christians are the most gullible people in the world? Recently, a gay man published a book about the folly of Christian anti-gay therapies. A woman who makes her living in anti-abortion politics just published an old saw carrying the message: Even though all the money you gave us to stop abortion in the past resulted in more abortions, keep sending us money. There is a small army of gay men who enrolled in Reparation Therapy, pray the gay away, and left when they remained gay and wrote about it. They did not just say it left them gay. They tell of the mental harm they experienced because of it. The "treatment" apparently stresses the individual's will to stop same sex attraction. When the inevitable failure happens, it is not the program that is blamed, it is the gay man. Forced to blame themselves for something they have no control over, self-worth plummets. Suicide among these men is much higher than the national average.  I attended a couple of lectu...

I'm so old, I remember the election of John Kennedy and what the big concern was back then. It was that Kennedy was a Catholic and that he would put those religious views into government. What was the group most worried about this and most insistent about separation of church and state? It was the group that today is insisting on putting church into state, fundamentalists and evangelical Protestants. I remember my circle of people, rural Protestants, noted what JFK said during his campaign. It was that the Presidency was about politics and he would do what was in the interests of the U.S. public and that he would not be taking orders from the Catholic Church. My circle of skeptics said, "Sure, he thinks that. But when he gets in office, he will have to do what the bishops tell him to do." I don't recall anything he did while in office that appeared to be dictated or even influenced by the Catholic Church. That is the opposite of Trump. He invites in press photographer...

Pope Leo said he wanted the Catholic Church to focus more on poverty and peace and less on sexual sins. Can his denomination handle this?  Leo's strategy is, as many know, is the same as his predecessor, Pope Francis. Francis canned high ranking Bishops who railed too much against abortion and gays. Now Leo has sent out the word clergy are not to make big public fusses over gay marriage, birth control and abortion. This will not detour the right-wing branches of the denomination. They will be conferring and scheming about how to again get the denomination to talk about and rebuke their favorite sins.  For entertainment recently I've been reading various accounts of what happened during the confab last year that elected Leo. At the time there was lots of publicity about prayers and singing that guided the choice of Leo. Since then, columnists have interviewed many participants in an effort the piece together how Leo was the winner. One of the most despicable clergy in recent de...

Binge watching religious sites and news in religion as I admit I do, one sees patterns. Just now I'm watching the Mormons, now knowns as the "Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Saints" and denomination known as Jehova's Witnesses. They are experiencing falling numbers and reacting in the same way.  I'll use the initials, LDS, for Mormons because they have abandoned the word "Mormon." The strange behavior taking place just now involves the word, Mormon. I'll try to explain.  The term "Mormon" became so associated with polygamy the word became toxic. For some reason, the half dozen or so old white lawyers who run the church picked the new name, "Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints." The denomination abandoned the term Mormon. About 20 years ago, a Mormon man with a counselling practice developed a hobby of making video blogs. He named the You Tube video series, "Mormon Stories." Being a Mormon, he was concer...

  Between the years of 1,000 and 1,300 armies from Christian countries walked long distances to invade Islamic countries. They went once and were defeated. Doing something stupid once was not enough. They went twice more and were defeated again. Now, Trump and his Christian whackos are being defeated there again. Christian armies are losing armies.  There is a basic question to ask about all religions; Does religion do more good than bad or more bad than good? If we use loss of life and limb as the measurement, religion is more bad than good. There have been plenty of references to Christianity in bombing Iran by those in the Trump Administration.  The crusades were armies sent long distances from the home base. If the armies survived walking for days they were not in a good condition for a sustained battle. Surely that is mostly why Christians lost. Our bombing is easier but bringing Iran to its knees in surrender is proving to be more than was bargained for. Sending tro...

A Texas medical board has issued disciplinary action against three doctors whose patients died in childbirth. In all three cases, the board said the Texas anti-abortion laws allow a doctor to perform an abortion in a medical emergency. However, if one is performed and a board loaded with anti-abortion Christians decides it was not an emergency and the doctor killed a "baby." The doctor could lose his/her license and maybe be charged with murder.  I wonder how many women died in these same circumstances. I'm guessing few are questioned. Anti-abortion politicians have refused to write the rules so a doctor knows for certain whether or not an abortion is legal. I've read it is possible to write meaningful and accurate rules. The more vague the rules are the more likely doctors will let women die instead of doing abortions. That is what the anti-abortion political operatives intended. What constitutes an abortion the "save the life of the mother" is not a rule ...