Thoughts of a Freethinker

When the Secretary of Defense announced a new office of religion in the miliary he did not refer to it as encompassing all religions. It was as if he had never heard of religions other than Christianity. He quoted from the Bible.  The Office of Religion is the Office of Christianity in the military.  The U. S. military is so huge I suppose there are many specialized enterprises within it. There is a chaplaincy corps that considers all or nearly all the faiths represented in the military. Chaplains are prepared to conduct religious services in religions they themselves are not part of. Where does Secretary Hegseth's Office of Religion and the Bible verses he used fit into the Chaplaincy Corps? I would guess most of the career Chaplains do not know where it fits in either. I read over the years about the part of the military that deals in propaganda. We all know playing with the heads of the enemy has always been part of warfare. Where does Hegseth's own religious propaganda fit...

With more Democrats who are clergy running for office and suggesting there is more than one version of Christianity other than the Christian right we are seeing bitter commentary about these liberal politicians. If several of these liberal clergy win election, will there be anyone that disapproves of any version of the faith? Will there be any blasphemy left? Christians are so fragmented it's hard to see a central definition in the future. Not long ago, Christian factions united against liberal who did not want prayer in schools and at public meetings. Now Christians themselves are in different camps. Some are saying the Constitution itself was flawed in wanting a separation of church and state. Apparently, they want a new Constitution requiring the Christian right.  Political groups now seem to be forming religions that conform to politics. This may not be all bad because it is more honest than what we see today. Today religious groups say their politics are a result of their reli...

One of the most humorous things conservative Christians say about their faith is, "The culture changes but the faith never changes." Beliefs in Christianity have morphed in many directions since day one. When studying the faith as a whole, we need to distinguish among the various ways its many parts are organized. Groups like the Southern Baptist Convention join it voluntarily. Churches can be kicked out but there is not a church bureaucracy like the Methodists, Lutherans and Presbyterians. Yet the economic base of the latter is those in the pews who pay the bills. The members navigate the cultural waters to a large degree. People leave one denomination and go to the competition. To gage the struggle in the faith, the Catholic denomination is the place to look. It has been for the last several hundred years very top down. The "truth" is at the top, not in the pews. The current struggle I've been following for several years is the German Catholic  determination t...

A standard fare in sermons and Christian writing tells believers what to do when they experience doubt. This problem, doubt, is so common it is discussed in the Bible. There must have been doubt about the previous hundreds of gods that have been worshipped because they are gone and forgotten. Belief invisible gods exist and doubts about them have existed at the same time since forever. All the writers and clergy telling others how to deal with doubt seem not to know there are people who have complete disbelief. Would they tell one to pray for the ability to set aside complete disbelief and even contempt for the old beliefs? I've had close believing friends and commenters of this blog recognize and acknowledge my disbelief but I don't remember any advice about how to change it. On the You Tube site, Mormon Stories, former believers describe in great detail how they came to leave that denomination. Most have left religion entirely. There seems a pattern that nearly all of them fo...

There are reports from preachers of single men coming to their churches. Women, we know, are leaving. There are questionnaire studies all the time asking things like "Do you believe in God?" and "How often do you go to church?" There is little information about who these young men are and why they find something in church. The information we have is not encouraging.  The link talks of a Christian male identity focused on masculinity. It includes anti women, blacks and tolerance of slavery. Those at the top of this movement are collecting money and building organizations.  For single young adults, men or women, who have leisure time, what to do? Surely the best choice is something that is pleasant. A church service needs that. Next might be finding new and interesting friends, something apart from the drudgery of the job. Taking all this into account, it is interesting, even a bit alarming, that more men are finding something in church than women are finding.  It fun...

After losing in court with an atheist group a few years back, something dawned on me. It was that atheists are not the right group to offset the Christian right. The right group to do this would be a non-Christian religious group. I was so convinced about this I sought out people from different religious traditions in Fargo, ND where I lived at that time and invited them to join in the effort we atheists were engaged in at the time.  People from other religious traditions, however, could not understand why we cared about the Ten Commandments monument on public property which was our issue at the time. They did not see the point of putting themselves, and their children, out in the light of public opinion over this stone object few people noticed. Now, events and the politics have changed. Other religious traditions are being pushed to the front of the battle. The change is most striking in Texas . Texas has just the right mix of in-your-face liberals to shout back at in-your-face T...