Thoughts of a Freethinker

  If you lay an electoral map over the results of a poll asking respondents about the proper role of religion in government over the electoral college, we have a good representation of the next election. We see Vice President Vance talking often promoting Christianity. He knows the map. An interesting poll recently indicated how far apart the country is on the matter of religion in government. The two coasts have little use for it. The South and Midwest poll in favor of political boss Jesus.  The link points out that the pattern shown polling in favor of a Christian nation matches closely the electoral votes for Trump. When Trump and Vance talk of a Christian nation the purpose is to hold on to that particular set of electoral college votes. One can see the campaign ahead in Midwestern states where agricultural prices have been hurt be stupid tariff policies. Voters there will be told, "Sure, tariffs hurt farm income and raised the prices of some goods made in China. But think...

A year ago, Vice President JD Vance gave a speech to European delegates that ridiculed and criticized them while praising everything Trump. Vance seems unable to write or employ writers of his speeches that make him appear a student of history. Secretary Rubio seems a bit smarter and can package himself better. Yet, as this link written by a European explains, Rubio presented the same package in Trump attitudes as Vance. The package is, the white West is superior to the rest of the world. The Christian religion is superior to all others. The fact that Europe was Pagan before it became Christian and that the continents of North, South and Central America were not Christian until conquered by brutal slave owning Europeans seems not to be known by Rubio, Trump or. Then we need to reflect on the "superiority" of these Western values. Slavery and witchcraft were sent here by Europeans and enthusiastically practiced for hundreds of years. Perhaps opening the borders today would imp...

During the past couple of years, Jehovah Witness has had several dramatic changes and challenges. It has also started reinventing itself into a new money making machine. It has been rocked by sexual scandal. A huge case made national headlines. It was black balled by the Norwegian government. Norway, like much of Europe, collects money people voluntarily pay to denominations and passes it to those denominations. There are 20 some in the country if memory serves. The faith has had a rock solid policy that Jehovah requires shunning of any family member that leaves the faith. Thousands of families have been destroyed by this. The Norwegian government decided this was a form of discrimination and denied collection of funds. The faith quickly reverses its stand on shunning while appealing the ruling. It eventually was reinstated but the retained the new attitude toward shunning. Now, those who spent decades in isolation from their families are bitter for their lost family lives.  The Je...

I read a very long post on a Christian sight written by a retiring professor at Notre Dame. The professor is obviously a devout Catholic and vented his frustration that Notre Dame, which bills it Catholic roots prominently, does mostly nothing to keep the Catholic tradition embedded in the institution. To the contrary, he says nearly everyone from its Presidents to its Deans blow off, even make fun, of the faith. This goes on, he says, even though Notre Dame claims it considers its Catholic founding very important. The retiring prof says institutions, especially those of higher education, should not be different than what they say they are. If it says it's Catholic it should be Catholic. He ignores the fact that in its documents one will find all kinds of goals and aspirations listed. The prof says as many practicing Catholics as possible should be hired. While it must not discriminate, the secular people who have been hired should become familiar with the history and tenets on Cat...

  Looking at the travel plans of Pope Leo, we see no trip to the U.S. is planned this year. When the Pope travels it must be really expensive. I can imagine there are endless hours of disagreement at meetings deciding where and when to spend this money. The last Pope visit was Frances in 2015.  If I was an executive in the Vatican, I would want the Pope going to places where there is a chance to beef up numbers and increase revenue. I suppose there would be some appeal to go places where the publicity would stem loses that are occurring, but those places would be less profitable.  The conventional wisdom on Christian sites is that Christianity is growing in Africa and that is where the faith's future lies. Pope Leo is planning to spend a lot of time in Africa in 2026. It is tempting, I'm sure to go where big crowds turn out and there are converts. These are invariably countries with low education and incomes. When incomes rise, people tend to drift off.  Visiting the...

The Catholic Bishops condemned the video used by Trump of the Obamas portrayed as monkeys. Why cannot they find the same juices to condemn sexist portrayal of women? My prediction is every branch of Christianity, denominations, individual churches and groups of churches that consider women not worthy to hold the office of clergy or higher, will slowly fall into the trash bin of history. This is a solvable problem. Every denomination picks and chooses which parts of passages in the Bible it chooses to believe and follow. I've never heard of a denomination that forbids clothing made of clothe with different materials in the threads. We all know of the ancient food taboos.  But, some the men in the faith cling to the mythical views about the "proper roles" of genders. Of course, a current hot button issue is defining gender. All the stuff about gender can be written off as ancient myth and ignored. When there is self interest at stake, we will see men putting women in second...