Thoughts of a Freethinker

At various times opinions by Justices are at odds with well known facts. That is, there are photos, videos and legitimate studies showing something much different than what a Justice claims it the basis for a decision.  One the comes to mind is abortion. Justice Kennedy, while voting to make abortions legal, said it was with reservations because women suffered from mental illnesses because they had abortions. This statement was based on nothing but right wing religious propaganda. We now know through the only known legitimate research, the Turnaway project, there is no basis for this propaganda. The latest is the case of the praying football coach. Gorsuch said in his opinion the coach was sort of praying by himself and players were not paying attention to him. Videos of the impassioned prayer sessions show something entirely different. Gorsuch made up a scenario. The same thing is going on in the judicial system today. It's called the "Heartbeat bill." Justices are agre

People who watch carefully what the Pope says, what he does and who he appoints have noticed a huge change in the how the church refers to homosexuality. Instead of being a "sin," it's becoming "that-which-is-never- mentioned." I took note of a high Catholic official who recently referred to homosexual sex as a sin. He was quickly demoted.  The approach is typical Catholicism. Official dogma is not changed. When it becomes an embarrassment, it is just no longer mentioned. Believers come to think the church's position has modernized and the approved view is the current one. This, even though it has never officially changed. I remember seeing a tiny bit of this a few years ago when comedian Bill Maher produced a long documentary lampooning Christianity. Among the many he interviewed was one (or more) retired clergy who had worked in the Vatican. When Maher asked about some absurd current Catholic belief the man just shrugged and said something like, "That

If ever there was a world-wide picture of abortion politics it is Ireland. The Catholic Church and elected government held the country's "morals" with an iron grip for decades. A majority of the public came to believe this view was the "right" view. Abortion was flat out against the law. They could be obtained in England, however. Many thousands of women got abortions. For decades it seemed logical and reasonable that abortion was against the law but mostly women got them anyway in England. That seemed a rational was to run things until there was an opportunity to vote on legalizing abortion. Abortion rights won by a huge margin. The role of the Catholic Church and its favorite politicians on most any moral issue is now in the dust bin. Previous victories by the church and its flock of yes men had been pyrrhic --victories so costly they exacted a cost greater than ever was the benefit. I was reminded of this reading an article by a conservative Baptist writer, K

The Evangelical Covenant Church, its origin is Swedish, elected its first female President this past weekend. It admitted women to the status of clergy about 20 years ago.  I grew up going to a church in this denomination. It was started in a rural Iowa area about 15 miles from my parent's farm in the mid 1800's. The original version in rural Sweden stressed piety and that carried over with enthusiasm to areas settled by Swedes in the U.S. Near my community was a cobbler who had a gift of oratory and organized the first church in the U.S. Today it claims to be rapidly growing. I gather its strategy is a bit different than other denominations. They elbow for land in rapidly growing suburban areas of cities. The Covenant denomination appears to aim at multicultural central urban areas. When I was a youth, the denomination's piety was all about alcohol, movies, ballroom dancing, card playing and such pleasures. Having been in one of its churches less than 10 times in the last

I'm so old, I remember a lot of the bitterness during the Viet Nam period. One article interviewed a banker with a suit and tie and a young college man with long hair. Both said the same thing, "We have to decide who is going to make decisions in this country." The banker thought it should be those who had earned credibility through their accomplishments in business, the student thought it should be the group that was dying in Viet Nam.  Judge John Roberts provided a window into the Roe decision revealing the chest beating of gorillas. He had reservations about the decision because a decision could have been made on the issue brought forward without overruling Roe. The tradition is recent decades is to make narrow decisions, not broad sweeping ones. That was his preference. But the other conservative religious judges wanted to make a broad sweeping decision for one reason: they could. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude it was about power as much or more than it was about

Have you heard of either the Anti Saloon League and the Prohibition Party? They were big players along with the Women's Christian Temperance League in passing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the production and sale of alcoholic drinks. It took all three organizations about 30 years to succeed to passing the amendment. It was passed in 1920. The amendment was voted out in 1933. One of the tricks in employed in passing prohibition is the one being used now by anti-abortion operatives. Today, they are attempting to keep women from being prosecuted. This, they think sidesteps a huge political problem, too many arrested voters. Prohibition operatives did the same thing. They did not include drinking alcohol as illegal. The only illegal thing was manufactures and selling. Prohibition and anti abortion had and have identical political strategies. In the case of prohibition the trick did not work. Alcohol was widely available and few who were selling it were caught. Al Ca

Legislators have never quite been on the same page with abortion. When it comes to who is guilty, all kinds of answers are mumbled. It is "the abortion industry" or "the culture is guilty." One most often uttered is "the woman is not guilty; she is the victim." The most accurate view was expressed this way, "The woman is guilty of premeditated 1st Degree Murder." This is the only view that is consistent with our current laws on murder. Honest people in "right to life" know women who plan and carry out an abortion must spend decades in prison if it is murder. The dishonest still claim it is always someone else who decided and the woman knew nothing about it. If the entire matter of who makes decisions about abortion were not so obvious and avoiding the obvious so bizarre it would all be laughable. But the dishonesty and lack of ability to face reality has always infected the anti abortion community to a degree unfathomable.   Donald Trum

It would be impossible for a Supreme Court to be more political than this one. Why not delay overturning Roe to win an election? While there are surprises everywhere in politics, Democratic Party operatives think they have a chance of winning a lot of seats in the midterms if the Supremes dump Roe. Republicans are worried Democrats might be right. Republicans on the Court are thinking they may cause a loss.  The thinking of operatives among both Democrats and Republicans is that dumping Roe has the potential to fire up women voters like never before. When dumping Roe was in the news was only a potential event, a cross section of women, Republicans and Democrats, were not that alarmed or interested. They did not turn out to vote in the numbers needed to stem Republican gains. When Trump lost suburbs it was something new and was attributed to larger turnouts of women and their disaffection from Republican politics. What would happen if Roe was dumped and Democrats had the money to bombar

 A conservative Christian college, Calvin College, in Michigan fired a faculty member who performed a gay wedding for two former students. It was noted in the press the DeVos family are BIG donors. Gay students and donors supporting gay students are wondering about what they will do in the future. Several other small conservative Christian colleges are facing the same dilemma. They need gay students who pay tuition and their supporters who donate to the school. They need, also, right wing wealthy donors. We all know denominations simply split with each group going its own way. If this split happens to small colleges they are done. These colleges have dropped their price of tuition which, in turn, meant dropping staff and eliminating some programs. They are already on the horns of a dilemma.  One of the gay students summarized the approach of Calvin College and I assume all the others. When recruiting students, they reveal they are gay. The recruiter says this is wonderful because there

I read recently an article by a liberal who complimented anti abortion operatives for the discipline in "the long game." Anti abortion has worked for decades to turn the Supreme Court against Roe v Wade. Conventional wisdom is they will succeed.  A recent blog by a well-known Christian challenges his brand of Christianity to do the same with same sex marriage. He acknowledges the conservative faith has been made smaller, at least in part, because of its opposition to gay rights. He says Christians need to stop being jerks about gays rights. Call gay marriage a sin, he writes, but do it in a nice way. If that doesn't turn the tide for the faith's numbers nothing can be done about it.  Something can be done about it, of course. Conservatives can admit the liberal wing of the faith is right and LGBT people are equal in all respects. Conservatives, whose average age is rising and will be zeroed out in a few decades, do not want to change. In this case, playing the "

To say there was a plan to overthrow our government on Jan. 6th is not a conspiracy theory nor hyperbolical drama. It is grounded in publicly stated views from a branch of Christianity, a subset of Pentecostalism. The evening before Jan. 6th, Jan. 5th, a religious rally was held near the Capitol. Present were members of this sect and the symbol of physical warfare, the shofar. The shofar, a ramshorn, is thought of as a musical instrument of the Jewish faith. Biblical mythology tells of it being carried in the Battle of Jericho.  Why is the shofar, then, part of a Protestant cult's public message? Because it is seen as a call to physical battle against the sins of liberals. Donald Trump is the commander of the battle against the liberal forces of evil. The shofar horn was sounded the night before the invasion and the next day inside the Capitol as well.   These Pentecostals were drawn to Trump when he first showed up in politics. They are outsiders trying to destroy the harmful stat

Several more officials have announced publicly they will not enforce anti-abortion laws. This could mean these anti-abortion states are already drifting toward the models of anti-abortion countries. In those countries, including ones which now have liberal abortion laws, the actual enforcement of anti-abortion was focused on low hanging fruit. Officials did not want to use up their budgets trying to impose anti-abortion on families with the money to fight back. Thus, officials aways went after poor rural young women. Abortion was available to all with some money in urban areas. Abortion providers said they felt safe even in countries with strong anti-abortion laws and political rhetoric.  It seems to me enforcement of anti-abortion laws would be time consuming, meaning expensive. If agencies are not provided more money they will have to reduce enforcement of something else in order to arrest women or those who aid or provide abortions. The same with those who receive the evidence of ab

Discussions taking place in the U.S. today are preoccupied with religion and the rights fetuses but not the lives of children and adults. The plain, simple and obvious fact is the earth has a finite capacity to produce food and housing. How many people the earth can keep alive is imprecise. Nevertheless, we started to see the limits in the 1930's.   Let's digress for a moment and talk about a favorite Christian topic, "natural law." A good source of entertainment is to watch how "natural law" is used for self-interest not the public's interests. Natural law has shown since the beginning of the earth that nutrients, water and light are needed to produce food. Take these away and no food for animals or humans. That, "the Lord will provide" or "prayer works" do not overrule this law of nature, i.e. "natural law." While native Americans altered the environment some they did nothing like white people settling the plains. A growin

After reading all week about the convention of Southern Baptists it was refreshing to read the SBC is but one branch of Christianity. While SBC it the biggest denomination of Protestants and Catholicism is also huge neither, it seems to me, is on the modern edge of Christianity. Each is treading water in place and/or slipping under to ultimately drown.  The cutting edge of Christianity, the part that will ultimately survive I believe, is typified by the Princeton Theological Seminary. In its mission and goals statement it pledges students and faculty will approach the Bible critically. "Critically" might be paraphrased as "not literal." My version of the phrase is "suspiciously." The goals statement includes a commitment to Jesus but does not mention God. It's as if graduates who become clergy are not there to speak "the truth" but to keep looking for it. I enjoy reading personal stories of people who were when young scripture quoting Bible t

As I understand ancient Paganism, it was about local gods and spirits we today would call imaginary. But, even in prehistory, we can assume these thoughts brought comfort in times of uncertainty. Gods do this today. If people had insecure food sources in dry areas they might have had gods they could appeal to for rain. People living with too much rain would have had other gods. Different gods served different purposes.  Along came agricultural societies which needed trade and specialization. Some people grew crops, others made tools. These societies needed to be organized with authorities deciding rules. It became clear to authorities that if everyone worshipped to same god the rules that came from this god (or the human rulers) would be better accepted. That was the source of the God we have in the West. Now that God is slipping in popularity and it is increasingly common for people to say they have their own individual source of the divine. Even some religious scholars are acknowledg

A Professor of Law at Harvard published the clear warning about overturning Roe. It is an argument that has been making the rounds for decades but needs to be restated at this moment. When government takes away from women rights about what they do with their bodies and gives it to itself, it also gives itself the right to require abortions. There was a frightening case where a government did this. Anti abortion fans are victims of an illusion. This illusion gives them impression that abortion is something that can be eliminated by passing laws against it. The illusion is reinforced by countless organizations that live off of donations. They need to keep the illusion alive or they will die and employee will have to get real jobs.  Decades ago, there were millions of postcards printed with the corpse of a baby. People who knew about such things said the dead baby was about six months old. There was never documentation as to where the picture was taken or who took it. But the narrative on

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone criticizing this blog has said flat out I have a mental problem--a mental illness. Apparently a sign of mental illness is not believing in imaginary beings floating about and talking to them and worse, hearing them talk back to you. The message I get from these comments is: If you don't believe in an imaginary God there is something wrong with you. For Christians, hearing voices of an imaginary friends and talking to him is not a form of mental illness. Why would a Christian who writes everyday about his/her imaginary friend be mentally healthy while an atheist who doesn't believe such a being exists and writes about it be not healthy? Rational reasoning would suggest it is health of the former we might wonder about, not the latter. Which bring us to the understated concern of AG Willian Barr when he was referring to former President Trump's insistence Trump had won the 2020 election. Barr "was concerned" Trump was beco

The talk show host, preacher and frequent contributor to Christian Post, Michael Brown, wrote the  truth  recently. He said every generation has to have a personal experience with the faith for it to survive. He notes correctly that interest in the faith ebbs and flows. I have a book on my shelf that talks of the second half of the 1800's and first decades of the 1900's. There is evidence the U.S. was more secular then then it has been since. There were secular organizations and gatherings of all kinds. Writer Brown says he found Jesus while a drug user during the hippy era. He mentions being a part of the "Jesus People" which I recall. I could not understand them then nor do I now. Anyway, this is his example. The Jesus People were young and drug users. Somehow Brown found some avenue to a "personal Savior" and has made a living from it ever since. His point is that every generation, like his, needs this personal encounter with the la la land to see a reeme

A news story is alive in Poland of a woman carrying a deformed and not viable fetus which was infecting the woman. Doctors would not remove the fetus because there was a "heartbeat." When the "heartbeat" finally stopped, it was too late for the woman and she died. The story illustrates the problem with laws the allow abortion only when "the life of the mother is endangered" or she "is the victim of rape." Doctors can be sued and/or lose their practices if challenges are made over their decisions. The laws are not clear enough for timid doctors to make decisions that save the lives of women. Instead, religious rules are put it place that kill women. In conservative religion, killing women by denying precautionary abortions is not murder. Only abortion is murder. I suppose women who die because of procrastination about an abortion die because it was "God's will." Or, maybe it happens because of the sin of the woman who became pregnant

At least one prominent Catholic has announced he is leaving the Catholic Church because a San Francisco Bishop has refused to give President Biden communion. The writer said he had hoped Bishops would have enough humility to focus of their own shortcomings instead of the shortcomings of Catholic political leaders. The Pope has spoken out against shunning Catholic politicians. Now he has appointed in new Cardinal in San Diego who agrees with him.   The entire Christian church is coming apart over two issues which should not be controversies. Current cultural disagreements have been used by religious operatives to sex up those in the pews. I suppose it helps revenue as well. The Methodist denomination's facture is too complicated for me to understand. It seems to be a moving target with liberal first leaving the denomination and now some conservatives splitting off for their own purposes. I could see some additional splintering and some groups who had split off uniting again. Politic

Articles and hand wringing continue about widespread sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. There is little talk about its root cause, a theology that places men in power and women not in power. Some conservative Christian buffoons probably will say, "The Bible tells us the man is to rule over the woman. And there are no female preachers or priests because Jesus had all male disciples." To which we can ask, how do you know this is true? Was that part of the Bible written by men or women? What if it is true, who cares?  Statistically, we know violence against women is more common in the Bible Belt. That might be due to cultural factor in addition to religion or instead of religion. Religion, however, does not stop it from happening.  There has yet to be, so far as I know, one Southern Baptist official or preacher to put any blame on the theology of the denomination. All the hand wringing is about what are considered to be rogue preachers and officials. A little inwar

The Turnaway Study is the most authoritative study ever done about women who receive abortions and those who do not. It tells us what to expect if abortion is widely prohibited. Thousands of women were tracked and gave researchers information on how they viewed their lives. The two groups were A.) Women who were just days over the line and were turned away from abortion clinics and B.) those who were just under the time line and got abortions. They were similar women going at beginning of the research.  From following all these women six generalizations about turning women down for abortions can be seen: 1.) Women with at least a little money will get abortions. Those who do not will be poor. Those who are poor and give birth usually will not climb out of poverty. 2.) There will be more health problems among women. The sad part is poor women more often do not see doctors and go into their reproductive years in poorer health than those who are better off. Then, pregnancy takes a larger

Invitro fertilization takes place outside the womb. Sperm cells are introduced to the human egg and later the fertilized egg is placed inside the woman. Several of eggs and sperm cells need to be attempted in order to find one that is likely to succeed in the woman. Those eggs that are fertilized but do not appear healthy are tossed. Laws against all abortion must prohibit tossing these cells. If they cannot be destroyed no doctor will be willing to help a woman wanting to be pregnant by producing them. Fertility practices must be shut down. One state, can't remember which, said, "Oh wait. Fertilized cells from fertility treatment are exempt." What? Those are "babies" identical to the ones in the womb. How can the law allow such "murder." The fertilized cell in a petre dish is necessary to produce births of babies when there are fertility problems. Allowing some to be tossed is part of the process to allow other ones to be born. The "Turn Away&quo

A new Gallop Poll made headlines in the Christian press today. Fifty-two percent of the over 1,000 people polled said abortion is "morally acceptable." Of course, we can never be sure what people mean be "morally acceptable." T don't think they give it a lot of thought. They just don't see the fetus as a human being but know for certain the women is one.  Pondering over religion and moral minutiae is not something most people do. The fall in Christian numbers reflects this. People tend to focus on the believable and the practical. Treating a few cells as if it were a human being is neither believable nor practical. I am certain public opinion is turning and will accelerate, not so much in favor of abortion, but against the anti abortion cult. The true intension of this cult to control and prosecute women are only circulating on the periphery of politics and will eventually move center stage.  Right now, pregnant women or women who have lost fetuses or experi

We all speculate about the future, I do it myself. A creditable set of reporters who work with abortion numbers and talk to people in the field have made a prediction about the effect of an overturn of Roe on abortion numbers. We need to be reminded that several states will quickly put into effect almost complete bans on abortion. The decrease in abortions will only be about 13%. This is because a large number are now being done medically and, in states with ridiculous time requirements, a small industry of illegal abortions is already in place. The decrease will not be large because states that implement bans already have severe restrictions. Women have already learned how to work around the laws. The universal prediction is the only group who will give more births are poor.  I've seen comments on other sites where abortion is discussed which claim overturning Roe is worth the effort if "one baby is saved." Would this person say a 45mph speed limit law would be worth it

Women in Florida are blocked on three sides by water. How will they escape to get abortions? The state has among the highest rates of abortion per 1,000 women but its state politics are crazy for anti-abortion. This could be about the way abortion data is collected or the age distribution of the population of Florida. Whatever the reason it highlights how complicated it is and will be to limit abortions. The New York Times carried and article about pre Roe abortion. It was about the laws in some states back then which had experienced high rates of suicide in pregnant women who had sought abortions but been denied. Since anti abortion did not "save a life" in these circumstances legislators in some state passed laws allowing abortion when a licensed psychiatrist declared a woman to be suicidal. Psychiatrists had a variety of reactions to this. A lot of them simply decided this was an opportunity to strike a blow against conservative religion and sign off on every request to

Conservative Catholics and the Southern Baptist Convention are united about the role of women. Eve sinned. There is no place for women in the hierarchy of either denomination. Women being sinners made women ripe for sexual abuse. Both denominations knew this had to be kept under wraps--no publicity meant the holy missions went forward.  Degrading women was not part of either the original Catholics or Baptists. It happened only after men hatched schemes to pull it off. The Southern Baptist scheme began over coffee in the French Quarter in 1967. Paige Patterson and Paul Press mapped out a long process to take the SBC backwards in time to their version of Biblical literacy and the purging of women from leadership. The gambit waw improbable at the time. They succeeded and in 1985 they marched into high positions and out marched women and moderate men. An actual purge took place. Tenured women were removed the University positions. New Presidents of the SBC seminaries were appointed and the

To all the self righteous, prayer shouting, hissing and out loud-public-Bible-reading anti abortion protestors I suggest reading a little of your own history . It is void of moral content. I've read about this history for years and it is nice to see it reappear now. The anti abortion propaganda that Christianity has always been against abortion and that the "anti" gained traction through the faith is all B.S. Early abortion, known as "restoring the menses," was a normal practice in colonial America well into the 19th century. It was of little interest to men and information about it was circulated mostly among women. Restoring "the menstruate" was a goal for good health. When women were unable to menstruate the problem was thought to be a blockage that needed to be removed. Until at least the 1830's there was no moral issue surrounding abortion up to the time of "the quickening." The quickening meant the pregnancy was four to six months a

Russell Moore, a former Southern Baptist Convention official and now an executive at Christianity Today,  wrote a biting but inciteful piece about the SBC. He explained why its internal power structure is much like that of the mafia . Moore told of a practice within the leadership of Southern Baptist where when someone with a high office is thinks you have not conformed to the acceptable SBC narrative, he sends you flowers with only his name, no explanation. The meaning of the gesture is "You have ceased to exist for me. You are shunned." In the gangster world, this would mean you are marked for death. In the SBC it means death of a career and social life.   This power play was an important variable in sexual abuse. Publicity about sexual abuse by SBC officials was thought to be so damaging to the denomination any hints about its existence were met by threats of terminated careers. Black balled preachers are unemployable. The rule was, information harmful to SBC could not be