Thoughts of a Freethinker

Back in the 1990's there was a lot of news about a boycott by the Southern Baptist Convention of Disney theme parks. The main personality in the boycott was a Baptist preacher named Wiley Drake. Drake died this week and it brings back with amusement his determination to get the SBC to "boycott" Disney which it did for several years.  The reason for the boycott and its failure are fun to remember. Wiley Drake was a preacher at a Baptist church four miles from Disney in California. With thousands of gay people in California, some started encouraging their community of attend the Disney park on certain days of the month. They advertised the gay days at Disney. I recall reading that Disney itself never advertised the events but did not discourage them either. They simply welcomed the gay guests.   The other thing that bugged Rev. Drake was that Disney provided spouse benefits to gay couples just as it did to straight ones. This was medical and pension benefits.  It would...

It seems like most places where Christianity is losing ground, things move along slowly. The numbers fall a little each year. Some Christian taboos, but not all, tipped over. Ireland seems like the exception. A few years ago, there was a nation-wide vote to made abortions available. From what one reads in the press, the defeats of the faith, including ridicule, continue s. To preface current Irish events, we need to revisit a topic discussed almost continually for the past few decades. It is about forcing abortion into government and into the politics that ultimately run governments. I can't recall how many times in conversations among my liberal friends someone pointing out that, "If government can stop abortions, government can require abortions. Anti-abortion would be smart to leave politics and government out of its efforts." Ireland is a good example. For decades, abortions were outlawed in Ireland. The Catholic hierarchy called the shots about abortion. It inserted ...

In his book, "God is Not One " Professor Stephan Prothero presented a simple but profound question. Is the faith about what denomination officials claim it to be, what its seminaries teach it to be or what those in the pews think it is? The last one is most always different than the first two. He thinks the last one is most important and the book is about what religious people in the pews think their respective faiths are about. For Christianity, he says the faith is about one topic, sin. That is, the people in the pews talk about and worry about sin more than any other topic. This seems especially important to me, an economist, because people are buying the church membership and expect to get what they value. Prothero says they value worry about sin. What people talk about and worry about are the religious issues that find their way into local, state and federal legislation. Sin brings passion. Elected people respond to passion. Theological hair splitting is not addressed in...

Outside of arguments on policy such as health care, taxes, debt and budget, each party needs some terrible villain they will defend against. President Trump has rolled out many in his years of the Presidency. There have been the election crooks, immigrants, the Godless. the Chinas, Obama, Biden and readers know of the others.  Democrats have it easy. Trump is the villain. Then, there are the anti-abortionists. Trump and preachers/priests will be there for them for quite a while yet, so Democrats do not have to keep looking for new villains. The Republicans' problem is they need to keep finding new villains. The courts are taking away prosecution of some of Trump's favorite. Others, like workers in Mexican restaurant kitchens, do not seem like villains. Certainly, the innocent citizens killed by ICE in Minneapolis have not appeared to the public as villains.  The unspoken, of course, is that non-white people are villains and that will work to some degree for Republicans. Its sh...

An almost poignant essay by a woman who had an abortion decades ago was published in Christian Post today. The woman heads an organization which wants the entire anti-abortion establishment to stop demonizing all women who have had them. The link author believes abortion is murder and wants to work to abolish it. But, she continually runs into what she calls the "abolitionist" branch of anti-abortion. She thinks this branch, which I am certain represents the majority of people who make a living in anti-abortion, drives away women who have had abortions, but who regret it and want acceptance inside the anti-abortion establishment. By rejecting these women, she writes, the "movement" misses those who would help it. The link author says she should be cut some slack by anti-abortion because she had been forgiven by God for her sin. Further, she claims, she was "misled" by those providing the abortion and by the man involved. In the comments following her essay...

Maybe it's an inaccurate observation, but I don't think there is as much discussion or debate about sin as there was in times past. When I came across an academic who was writing, not in an academic publication but a Catholic one, and was discussing sin I realized it has been a while since I've seen a focus on what was once a favorite topic. Not that it's necessary for readers here, but I'll review why there has to be "sin" in the faith. Remember that Jesus suffered and died on the cross and said he did this to forgive us for our sins." Now, he supposedly said the deal was between himself and those who believed in him. If the old sins are no longer sins, there need to be news ones. Otherwise, the "suffering on the cross" accomplished nothing.  I grew up in a community and church where sin was topic number one. It was a thing. Working a tractor on Sunday was a sin as was playing cards, ballroom dancing and any alcohol. It was taught that when...