Thoughts of a Freethinker

An academic in religion who is also a preacher has posted using a word I had not encountered, apatheism. Even my spell check did not recognize the word. It refers, of course, to people who do not care if there is or is not a god nor care about the narrative the surrounds religion.  Another academic/preacher who write on religious pages has described his experience of taking on, probably as an unpaid volunteer, the pastorship of three churches that were almost closed and trying to keep them open as long as possible. He wrote about the common experience of pastors who notice people stop coming to church but do not show up in other churches. They are not against church life; they just lost interest.  I asked one of my adult granddaughters, who grew up going to Sunday school and then was confirmed, why she no longer goes to church. She said, "I just could not see a place for me." This may fall into the category of apatheism. The link author, who dislikes apatheism, wrote that it ...

A family member passed along a video by a woman who works with people frightened about leaving Christianity or becoming acquainted with other paths like Paganism. She is Brittney Hartley who refers to her approach as nononsense spirituality.  In one of her videos she explains why VP JD Vance and other prominent Catholics talk on and on about the failing birth rate. They point to South Korea which seems to be headed to a population so small the country may have to change or be absorbed.  Hartley points out that secular people treat the low birth rate as the choices of individuals and that human existence on earth most likely happened by a series of somewhat random events. That being the case, humans might, in a million or so years, experience another series of random events that eliminate us from earth. It is not a threat to anyone or any current set of people. Many people in the religious right, however, consider themselves so indispensable it is imperative they do not die. Ch...

Some Buddhist monks are walking from Texas to Washington DC for peace. They had not yet taken all the publicity from Melania's documentary about herself or Trump's roundup of humans, but they have potential to call attention to something more noble than shooting people. The simple act of walking unarmed in unusual places in an old practice with a history of success. We all know about Rev. Martin Luthur King's walks. Gandhi was another who stood unarmed in front of armed police. Filling the streets with shouting and angry people has its place. So does the unarmed noble walker.  The effectiveness and reason for effectiveness is not hard to see after events unfold. We can understand today why King and Gandhi made such a difference. It's another thing to come up with the idea of protesting in this way, convincing others to do it with you and then winning the public relations war that follows. King defeated Sheriff Bull Connor. I think all readers would like to see an end to...

  It's fun to see real progress where some stuck in the past have prevailed. An example is a woman was recently named the Arch Bishop of Canterberry. Unfortunately, there was a loud protest . At her installation ceremony, a right-wing priest shouted out a protest. Instead of the mostly progressive Church of England, this sounds like the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. I remember a well-known Southern Baptist preacher saying, "We in the SBC can bend a little on a few issues. We absolutely cannot allow women preachers." Popes have said there will never be Catholic clergy.  That women cannot be clergy is either a power play or a misreading of the faith's teaching of both. The highest positions in all of society are shared by both men and women. How could it be different in Christianity? The Church of England is, of course, the church of England's government. This makes it even more sensitive to current cultural forces than the Southern Baptist Conv...

The German Catholic Church is the wealthiest of any country. Rome needs its share of that wealth. Germany, however, needs to guard access to its cash flow. This cash flow requires that Bishops alien with popular political values. We have to remember the European way of paying churches. It is for the government to collect a voluntary payment earmarked for the church and turn it over accordingly.  Pope Leo has pledged to hold the "One Church" together. He says this with even more conviction than did Francis. The German Bishops see this as their checkmate. Rome will have to allow gay marriages by priests and women as priests as Germans demand. Rome will have to either approve or find some way to ignore. It needs German money more than German Catholics need Rome. German Catholics see a church of the future as one which has a lot of democracy. How clergy and the public together see things will lead to its version of the truth. This is a good way, also, to keep government in the mi...

When Trump won office there was an uncomfortable amount of inflation. Grocery prices were up because covid had harmed production of some things and people had pent up demand from staying at home for a year or two. When things opened up, and salaries available, it helped pull prices up. As I write this, Trump is 10 minutes away from my place trying to put out the political fires he set. If Trump had paid attention to history, or, had advisors who paid attention, he would have predicted production would rise, demand would level off and inflation would largely disappear. He could have said during his first six months, "I am working night and day to reduce inflation" even though he did nothing. Prices would have leveled off or come down and he could have taken a bow. Easy-peasy.  Instead, he started fiddling with tariffs. The existing tariffs were the result no doubt of hundreds of hours of talk around the world and piles of correspondence. All countries thought they should get a...