Thoughts of a Freethinker

The answer is no denomination. Unaffiliated churches have been growing so rapidly they have more members than all denomination except Catholics and the Southern Baptist Convention. It makes sense when on realizes a few decades back there were three channels on you TV. Now there are hundreds. The same thing is true of Christian churches. The number of people belonging to churches which do not affiliate with any denomination is the largest group in the U. S. I've never seen a survey asking leaders of startup churches why the do or do not affiliate with a denomination. It may be unclear what is a "denomination." If a preacher starts a church him/her self and is successful and then starts a couple of others, is this a denomination? Certainly it is clear churches who belong to traditional denominations do not advertise their affiliation like they used to. If one wants to find an affiliation of a church its not on the marquee facing the street. It's never on the home page o

While plenty of Christians speak out against prejudices plenty of others use the Bible to justify them. A logical approach to religion would be to adopt one that does not include things that are harmful to society. Christianity and its Bible unfortunately are  used to harm. There is a big current flap of Trump having a dinner with the rap celebrity Kayne West, who has expressed anti-Jewish statements, and Kayne's friend who makes a living doing antisemitic entertainment. If Trump wanted to distance himself from antisemitism he would not associate with Kayne West, let along the other guy. But Trump represents the culture he grew up in and never left. His father expressed anti-black comments and probably anti Jew was well. We live in a place where these things live. The Bible preaches believers should shun various others. It mentions the Moabites 38 times. God gave orders in II Corinthians to not marry a Moabite. Prejudice preached against the Moabites opened the door to prejudice ag

If ever there was an example of cultural myths bulldozing known facts, it is "the value of life." Ask any forced birth advocate why he is so against abortion and you will hear, "I'm in favor of life." The factnis that person is not concerned about life in general, only about fetus life.  For decades annual reports have been published on deaths in automobile crashes. A few years back deaths were declining and fell below 40,000 per year. Now they have started rising again and are again over 40,000. People who study this and write about find the same thing I have found in writing about it here on my blog: We were all born into a culture which holds a specific view of these deaths and most people absorb the culture's view. The culture tells us roads and automobiles are what is important, deaths caused by them are not important. Deaths are just happen and their importance must be set aside to make way for travel wherever and whenever we want in automobiles. Furth

They call themselves "abortion pirates." They were doctors, healthcare workers and political activists. They were from countries with liberal abortion laws and from others where abortion is against the law period. They gave papers and exchanged strategies. From this report , it sounds like the international production and distribution of pills used for abortions plus transportation of women internationally to access surgical abortion is alive and well. Some of the participants in the Latvia conference have or will go to jail. It is not discouraging the others. No doubt many expect to be jailed. Jail did not discourage the "Jane" amateur abortion surgeons in Chicago before Roe.  There was a time when forced birth zealots, too, we ready to go to jail for their convictions. A few killed doctors and/or clinics burned. This kind of conviction seems scarce now. It may be the reality they are defending very tiny bits of a woman's flesh is starting to sink in and really

I find it hard to read realistic analyses of climate change. Every few months environmental conditions and world-wide practices are reviewed. Every report is worse than the one before. Back a few years there was a range of possible outcomes, minimal change to disastrous. According to the numbers coming, it will be disastrous.  A well-known writer in the New York Times, Elizabeth Kolbert,   reviewed current and projected circumstances. She first goes through public statements from various officials such as Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The theme of these statements is, "Let's be optimistic. We can do this." We voters like to hear this. We even like to say it ourselves to each other. Each year more carbon is dumped into the atmosphere. To get the carbon numbers down to a less harmful level is theoretically possible, but in practice it is probably impossible. The coming climate change will force massive relocation of humans and other changes that are unthinkable. We have all h

Sometimes I see hope for worldwide Christianity. When a large portion of the religious people in a country are tuned in to its culture one can see positive change. Norway's Lutheran church is a good example. Polls show clergy would welcome unmarried gay colleagues and gay marriages. One Bishop in the denomination has been doing gay marriages for some years. We have talked here about Germany's Archbishop who favors clergy performing gay marriages. We need to review the economics of churches in Europe to help understand what is going on there. The government collects a levy for churches and rebates it to the church. For the government to provide as service like this and denominations to work with the government to receive its money, both need political support. Taking positions not acceptable to a broad swath of voters make the revenue stream vulnerable.  Even though churches in the U.S. do not have this sweetheart money deal, I would think in the long term the same forces are at

Recently a Christian author stated Christianity's circumstances accurately, Christianity is aging out. He suggested that if those now active in local churches really grasped this, they might set different goals or change directions. A church that recognizes it will be history might want to be thinking of its coming legacy. Churches should consider modernizing their thinking about diversity. Every other kind of institution is emphasizing diversity, why can't all of Christianity catch up? A healthy change would be to recognize any demographic's "truth" is about the demographic itself. Different generations believe different "truths."  Whatever the church might be doing now, recognition of demographics would be helpful. To me, spending lots of money on "youth pastors" seems pointless. There will be a handful of youth that follow their parents into the faith but demographics and decades of experience tell us the numbers will be too small the revers

There is not universal consensus as to whether reversal of Roe was evidence of religious ascendency in U.S. politics or a last grasp at the golden ring which is moving away from the religious branch of conservative politics. If one looks at the polls and records of church membership and church attendance, the only conclusion available is the last grasp. Of course, if one listens to some leaders in the Southern Baptists and some Catholic Bishops it is they, not the low tax, less government secular and libertarian conservatives, who are driving the bus.   The link discusses Albert Mohler's remarks at a Republican meeting. He explained the linear path of Christianity and anti-gay and anti-abortion politics. The U.S. was founded by evangelical Christians, he said. This means there was no doubt whatsoever they intended it to be a single religion (Christian) country. Than being the case, it follows, Mohler declared, the founders expected prayer in public schools, no gay marriage and no a

Politics is an art, not a science. It has cult elements and sometimes hints of mental illness. A recent New York Times article is one of the best I've seen about what to expect from Trump in the coming two years. Since most people are not paying subscribers to the NYT I'll try to summarize it here.  In August of 2020, only two months and change from election day, Trump's campaign was $200 million in debt. There remained but a skeleton staff. This had happened because Trump does not think in the way most of us do, there is only limited money, let's spend it wisely. Trump ordered so much spending on his personal preferences it broke the campaign. In the last three weeks of the campaign he was outspent three to one. He may have handed victory to Biden. He announced his campaign a few days ago. There is no campaign organization. He has only a handful of people who stuck around after other quit or were fired. The link author, who has access to Trump's circle and often Tr

Popular anti-abortion columnist David French claims he and others rejected Trump's pugilistic approach to politics. French notes correctly that supporting Trump and his bold appointment of forced-birth Supreme Court Judges has come at a large political cost. Abortion rights have been codified in a couple states and the numbers of abortions affected little. French rejects the "pugilistic" nature of Trump and his hard-core circle of support.   French claims his position is better. He supports abortion for the usual blather of "life of the mother," "rape" and blah blah blah. Further sensitivity in his position, he says, is that women who do not want a pregnancy need sympathy and support. He supports religious "pregnancy centers." Like many who have commented here on this blog, he views himself as "compassionate" and the opposite of being "pugilistic." He is wrong.  Like with so many things in politics and religion, the truth

It is the height of irony that anyone who takes the Bible literally  calls someone who reads the Bible critically a "predator." It is getting the truth entirely backwards. Promoting the Bible as verified fact it is preying on the vulnerability of others. It could be called "predatory." If I were a believer I think I, also, would be fearful of scholars who use critical thinking. When one starts asking questions about the Bible, who wrote it, why did they write what appears there, who was made economically better off from it, etc., the house of cards is hard to maintain. The link author does not want "predators," those who apply critical to be exposed to believers. This is peculiar. Believers are so certain they know the "truth" I'm surprised they worry about opposing arguments. One would think they would welcome the challenge, having confidence they would always be victorious.  Data in the past few decades verifies why believers do not want th

If we go back to before the 2016 election of President Trump, there was an overarching narrative everywhere in the religious right. It was, "Yes, the man seems morally corrupt. It would be better to have a President with genuine Christian values. But, he has promised to appoint Supreme Court judges who will throw out Roe v Wade. That's the reason we have to vote for him." This was a "malignant approach to politics" because now the Roe has been tossed, there are almost as many abortions as when it was law. By focusing only on this issue, conservative Christians brought to the Presidency a man bent on not retaining democracy. It opened, or could have opened, the door to an administration some years off that required abortion. That the religious right was so self-centered and intellectually lazy as to not see this was a "malignancy." The term "malignancy" was used by W. Bush's speech writer , a Christian who died recently. To prohibit aborti

Over the past decade of daily monitoring Christian pundits and sites there has been a slow but steady change. For some years, those who claim to be big thinkers in the faith ignored the falling numbers. Then a few said it is experiencing a norm up and down cycle and will recover soon. As time went it became apparent it was not a cycle but a permanent downward trajectory. As that became apparent, some began to speculate on why it is happening. While the target, the reason for the fail, is big and bold right in front of them, Christian pundits still are unable to find it.  Pundits would do well to go back   in time for the answer. Until he died in 1986, his nineties, philosopher Will Durant spent most of his life writing huge works on history and philosophy. They skirted around most traditional philosophies which wrote of leaders in religion and politics as those who formed the direction of societies. To Durant, the direction of change was more a product of forces acting on the daily liv

Apparently, if a child sees a man dressed as a woman in Tennesse the child will be confused about his/her own gender and become a trans. Some in Tennessee believe if the child ever sees a man in drag, he/she will never become a trans. Do they have academic evidence this happens? I've never seen it.  A bill has been introduced preventing children from viewing drag shows. Men dressed as women is one of the oldest forms of entertainment in the world. It was recorded in the Bible. If it's 2,000 years old we have had plenty of time to study its evil effects on little boys. None yet. Women wear men's styles. Have we seen evidence this is turning little girls into little boys? None yet. This evil practice is not prohibited.  I'm wondering if Public Television in Tennessee has banned the popular British films with drag actors. Certainly if any parent is watch old TV programs with children and Jonathan Winters comes on as Maud Frickert parents much throw towels over children'

Every week somewhere in the world, the person presenting the message to those gathered in many different religions has instructed listeners about the appropriate roles of men and women in family and society. I suppose in every case this information was provided them by some god. When women in the past did not conform to the proper role assigned them they risked being declared witches.  The more we learn about ancient societies the more we learn about changes that have taken place in beliefs about gender roles. In ancient Greece, witchcraft was a common issue and the witches were almost always women. The basis for this was the mysterious power women had to produce children.  The link, written by a scholar of ancient literature, explains that most everything about witches through time has been about power. While there occasionally have been male witches, the purpose behind the phenomenon since the beginning has been persecution of women. In ancient Greece, male gods like Cronus and Zues

 At the perfect moment an article appeared today, written by a prominent Christian, about the "Dominion Mandate." This, of course, refers to the scriptural passages Genesis 1:28 and Matthew 28:19. In these passages we learn God blessed mankind and instructed them to be fruitful, multiple on the earth and subdue it. Man is to have dominion over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and all other living things on earth. A critical analysis of these passages would start with whether this God, or any god, ever said or wrote this. Since there is no evidence outside of religion, the only reasonable conclusion is the mandate was  written by male humans and the idea passed down from before writing was mastered. It was an idea that came from human self-interest. Human benefited from eating animals and using them as beasts of burden. Looking at the issue from self-interest, it would have seemed like this is the way it was always supposed to be. If any of us would have been alive i

I've just read a review of a new book about the conflicts between white Europeans and Native Americans during the white European invasion of this country. The author argues that while the narrative of the Battle of Wounded Knee with its ultimate crushing of and cruelty to native people did happen, it does not accurately reflect the entire history of native defense of their lands.  While we all know native people ultimately were pushed off of land they had lived on for generations and roped off in reservations, this did not happen for generations. What did happen was a lengthy successful defense of lands by native people and defeat and discouragement of white settlers. Several times white settlements were established only to be defeated and abandoned. The famous Jamestown was but one example. The book explains that for a long period of time, white colonies tried to invade and conquer native areas but were unsuccessful. Native people had cultural advantages. They moved entire communi

If one reads the many pundits commenting on the recent midterms, all kinds of cause-and-effect explanations show up. "It was a repudiation of Trump" and "People did not buy the lies", etc. Underneath all these explanations were events well known to everyone. All one needs to know is what happened in very recent times in Kansas, Chili and Ireland. In those political events, young women in droves voted for abortion rights. How could anyone think something different happened in the U.S.? Exit polls asked voters their age and how they voted. These polls showed that what happened in the Mid-Term was what happened elsewhere. Young women pushed the numbers over to Democrats in order to save their right to abortions. Men and older women did not help Democrats that much; it was about young women. Exit polls show that of women 18-29 years old, 72% voted for democrats. As one said, "Voting Democrat is the only way forward." I don't think is hyperbole to say the R

The title of this blog is a statement made by Senator Ted Cruz some years ago. It may not have originated with him but he said it often. I'd like to ask him about it today. It is a helpful way to look at recent events in abortion politics. Abortion has been the subject, not only of elections, but of legal decisions that smack of politics. The latter is the overturn of Roe and the subsequent expansion of abortion services in other states and in medical abortions. A right to life author explained recently why the Roe victory was not the same issue as stopping abortions. Stopping abortions, he argues, requires first winning the argument as to the moral questions surrounding it. Winning in court and reversing Roe is merely a tactic or strategy. Until the argument is won for "pro-life" nothing approaching a victory is possible. This reasoning does track with what has been happening. If abortion, surgically or medically, was viewed universally as a violation of sound moral prin

The head of the University of Notre Dame has written a book in which he wrestles with the changes taking place in the Catholic denomination.  He discusses in the early 1900's the denomination was 2/3rds Europe and the U. S. Numbers in those countries have dropped dramatically. Now, the non-white populations on other continents, especially Africa, are the majority. He is baffled as to the cause of the drop in Europe and the U.S. but knows the huge denomination must find a new and refreshing way to tell its story if it is to continue to succeed in Africa and Asia.  He points out one problem facing Catholicism is that the church hierarchy became more male-dominated just at the time women were becoming more independent from domination by men. It has never made an adjustment, but Pope Francis is trying to find a path forward from this dilemma. Francis has a passion for issues surrounding poverty which is new to some members of the clergy.   Many Catholic women are asking where they fit

For decades, those who want to force pregnant women to give birth have espoused their big picture strategy. It was to go state by state and pass laws outlawing abortions. This was expressed most often by those making a living opposing abortion. It was employment security.  After Tuesday, and before Tuesday in Kansas, the tall y for abortion rights is six for six. Forced birth did not win anywhere. I am waiting to read how the Big Strategy will be altered to ensure employment and cash flow for forced birth operatives. It is clear going state by state will be state by state defeats. What to do? When faced with impossible odds, Christians will often say the solution is to pray. Forced-birth groups could do that. What is nuts about the last few years is forced-birth groups had making up bogus reasons to raise the cost of abortions and harass the women having abortions. They added ultrasound pictures, waiting periods and other costs. While this made no dent in abortion numbers, it did not m

Two things did not happen in Tuesday's election. One was a wave of women voting for abortion rights that was so large it overwhelmed everything else and caused Democrats to win the House and Senate in a big way. The other thing that did not happen was a "Red wave" of wins by Republicans that swamped Democrats and gave big majorities in both the House and Senate. These two things that did not happen explain what did happen.  Mark Silk, a prominent Christian columnist, wrote today that about 27% of voters, according to exit polls, said abortion was the biggest issue and reason for voting. The only other issue this popular was inflation, about 31%. The other issues like crime, etc, Republicans crowed about were unimportant. Of the 27% who said abortion was the most important issue, a large majority voted for democrats. A large majority of those who said inflation was important voted Republican. Mark Silk concluded the reversal of Roe and the draconian state laws against abor

Whether Christian nationalism is just a fringe thing or part of an important political movement that could take over the entire U.S. is debated somewhere every day. No one can predict the future. But as one of my professors said decades ago, "Never underestimate the ability of the public to latch on to a bad idea." Doing away with elections or ignoring the results is now popular with a big percentage of the public. It's not the majority, but who can say where this is going? To me, the alarming thing is a change from the losing side saying, "Those other jerks had too much money" or "The public is going to be sorry they voted in the other jerk" or "The other jerk lied and that's why he/she won" to "We should not allow these elections to be decided by vote counts." Logic would tell one that if he claims fraud and the results should be ignored it gives the other side a license to do the same. History is filled a country's milita

Two women, one a Baptist, say their religion finds a human being begins at birth. Indiana law says, no, the fetus is a human being. This latter view requires that hospitals and clinic hold a funeral and appropriate ceremonies when a miscarriage happens. The hospital is prevented by law from tossing this medical waste into its incinerator. A woman has the option of taking the bloody mess home and flushing it. This is going to court .  If this Supreme Court is like others, the ruling will be that the woman who holds the religious view life begins at birth, which is stated clearly in the Bible, will prevail. This will prevail over Indiana's law with holds that a fetus has "personhood." Of course, it will not prevail in all cases, the court will try to thread the needle between the fetus as personhood and the Bible passage used by the woman which says a human life begins at birth. Both views will be upheld even though they are opposites. I'm not a follower of the legal wo

Saving "the lives of babies" is the message forced birth politics tapes over the draconian risks pregnant women now face. Only when these accounts are listed can we understand the gravity of individual cases. Let's list some of the reported accounts: In Ohio, health care workers said three women threatened suicide when told they could not get abortions. In Texas, a young woman with an unviable pregnancy was denied an abortion until she was in an emergency room with sepsis. Another Texas woman in poor health was denied an abortion unless she had a stroke or liver failure. A doctor treating a patient in risk in Texas wanted to do an abortion. He was told he could not do an abortion in an ectopic pregnancy unless it ruptured. A woman in Wisconsin was left bleeding for 10 days after an incomplete miscarriage.  A mother of three in Louisianna was denied an abortion even though part of the fetus' head was missing. A woman in Arkansas had to travel 300 miles to get an aborti

Christianity of many kinds, Catholics and Protestants, are trending in the same direction. I've mentioned I follow the debates in the denomination of my childhood, the Evangelical Covenant Church. There is lots of discussion about moving from the piety of my time way back when, alcohol, farm work on Sunday, ballroom dancing, card playing, etc. was condemned to the new piety of not mentioning such "sins" condemning those who frown on Black Lives Matter. The pious Christian accepts all.  There are other versions of this in Protestantism that say Jesus accepts everyone "as they are." That is the alcoholic, homosexual and skeptic. The paper proposed by Catholic staff, given direction by the Pope I assume because he called for the synod, sounds like it came right out of the liberal Protestant denominations. I don't actually think it was copied from those sources. Rather, it is seen by all with intellectual chops as the only path forward for all of Christianity. 

A more logical question might be, why did anyone ever believe such stuff? Various pundits put forward different theories as to why a majority of the young do not believe in absolutes and instead believe there may be more than one correct view as to the various claims made by the faithful. A common one is that parents did not indoctrinate their children forcefully enough. Another is that preachers did not hammer home the indoctrination to the parents. Neither of these would have helped the faith.   The dogmatic views about sin, life after death, Jesus' sacrifice, etc. are not bought hook, line and sinker because they are not grounded in sources young people trust. We can start with the preacher/priest sexual scandals. They provide a hint that the industry is not packed full of people who can be trusted. We can look next at the amount of advertising people are subjected to today. The more advertising, political and commercial, the more sophisticated the consumer becomes about sorting

News outlets are trying to figure out if abortion numbers have dropped and, if so, by how much. Ant- abortion groups are claiming there has been a significant drop. More objective sources say they may have dropped 2% overall, but may not have dropped at all.  It's easy to figure out what goes on at clinics. Several have closed in restricted states. In neighboring states others have increased and new ones are opening. There are also some statistics on abortion pills. But, there are no statistics on pills entering by mail from countries like India or being walked across the border from Mexico. Nor is it known how many U.S. women go to Mexico for abortions or receive them illegally in the U.S. On top of that, birth control has been reducing the number of abortions for several years so that may reduce the number of abortions. There are four things we do know. One is that abortions of any kind are more difficult to obtain in some parts of the U.S. than they were previously. Second, the

Christians themselves could make a better list of their silliness than I can because I can't keep track of all their foolishness. For years they had a cow over the two words, "Happy Holiday." The silliness against gay marriage lives on. So does the hand wringing over children finding they are not the same gender they were identified with at birth. In the last few days we've heard the evils of dressing up in funny costumes and the deep evil of Halloween. Today I scanned a popular columnist who ranted on and on about drag queens. Did you know men who dress as women are the source of all manner of sexual identity issues among children and adults? And, that to turn back all the dark forces of evil we must ban all drag queens? Good grief. There have been drag queens since the written word has existed. Probably there were around before the written word. The Bible talks of men we today would call drag queens. I remember an Ed Sullivan Show many decades ago when a group of jo