Thoughts of a Freethinker

For many decades, our family were members of a Presbyterian Church. For several years, we received newsletters from a national group which complained that the denomination must "return to the Bible." As I recall, a wealthy local member provided the national groups with the addresses of all local members and paid for the newsletters to all.  As time went on, this national group put its nose in the air and walked out of the national denomination. I think years later there another group separated. The original group that left is now in the news. While the group split over the "sin" of being gay, one of its original churches eventually hired a gay man as pastor. He claims his is celibate. Things about this church are now so complicated they are in court. It more fun than a barrel of monkeys.  Christians who comment here on this blog have said that while different denominations have broken off from their original, all branches agree on a few fundamentals. This assumes th

All of us who follow such stuff know church membership in Europe has been falling for decades. It was interesting to read there are still people trying to start new churches there. The link is about a father/son team trying to start a church in the tiny country of Lichenstein. They are certain God wanted them to do this but it sounds like they will abandon the idea at the end of this year. The team says less than one in ten people in their small city attend a church each Sunday. About 3/4 identify as Catholic. There are several small Protestant churches but most of the people the pastors call on have little to no interest in the topics of religion. On the one hand, the pastors restate to old mantra one hears constantly, "There is a longing that only the faith can fulfill." On the other hand they admit people there just do not turn to religion during difficult times.  While chest beating Christians often point to falling numbers in liberal churches, I've always thought to

Perhaps the first expression of disgust about the Catholic church in Ireland began long ago with an arrogant and authoritative priest or bishop. For a century at least, the Catholic Church has had its hammer down on Ireland's politics. Abortion, for example, was illegal until a few years ago. The denomination's most recent problem came from a movie shown round the world about Catholic homes for unwed mothers. These Catholic homes received payments for children adopted by people in other countries. Some birth mothers were known to have protested but were overruled, their children gone. An exhaustive study has been completed by the government assembling testimonies and available information. According to the link , the study cast a wide view of the practice of housing unwed mothers. It reported other denominations had these homes as well as the government itself. The Catholic homes were reported to be better than those run by the government. The context of these homes included se

The Catholic Synod on Synodality has a large group from all over the world. It is closed to the press and public but those attending do talk to the press. At the opening session, statements were allowed from advocates of female clergy, GLBT+ and from Africa, polygamy. While these are claimed by the Vatican as not on the horizon, study groups and committees continue meeting and preparing position papers. The Vatican is not saying these meetings or groups must stop. It is not promising either that anything will change. The Vatican is good at hinting things might change but not going very far with changes. Abortion was like that for decades. There was a hint abortion might someday be outlawed. In the meantime, cash flow was maintained by putting restrictions like waiting periods and forcing women to look at ultrasound images. Nearly all the Forced Birth industry liked this system of good revenue but low expectations. The same strategy will go on forever with women in the clergy, gay marri

I cannot help but recall the first time on this blog I pointed out that the inevitable result of defining one cell as a "human being" would result in women becoming criminals. The reply was "Anti abortion has always considered women the victims when abortions are prosecuted. This will not change." This was ridiculous then and not true now. This past year many women were charged with crimes over miscarriages and abortions. Forced Birth judges may well continue prosecuting women even if voters make abortion legal in more states. Women have become the criminals, not the victims. There is an effort, almost a desperate effort, to allow women to escape prosecution for miscarriages and abortions. This is to give women in Forced Birth states the money and information to escape the state they live in to get abortions. Money if being collected to pay for gas, airplane tickets and whatever is needed so they can escape.  This effort of paying women to escape is working well exc

The Ice Age affected many parts of the Mid West. It was living in Fargo for four decades that its reality sunk into my head. People who live there learn the flat characteristics of the land in that region were caused by a giant glacier and a lake that formed when the glacier melted. The land around Fargo and up to Winnipeg has another odd characteristic that it slopes to the north while the rest of the land slops to the south. This slope to the north was caused by the tremendous weight of the high pile of ice. The ice was so deep and contained so much of the earth's water the oceans elsewhere in the world were as much as 300 feet lower. Humans apparently lived in the area before the glacier and moved east. The glacier is dated about 20,000 years ago and maybe melted away about 10,000 years ago. I always wondered how it happened the glacier formed back then  and is it possible it could return? This hurricane season we are learning the climate is changing and, while no one knows the

 Annually for about the last six years the Nuns on the Bus Tour has gone across the U.S. speaking and gathering people to talk about points of view conservatives hate. They talk of opportunities for women and the issue of unequal wealth in our country. They do not advise specifically who to vote for, but it seems clear it is not Trump.  This year's theme is making things better for everyone. The nuns are talking up better health care for women and a more equal distribution of income. Interpreting this could only mean abortion rights and higher taxes on the rich. While there are male clergy, especially Jesuits, advocating the same ideas, the Nuns on the Bus  seem to fearlessly advocate in a unique way. It makes one wonder if the Catholic denomination would be different if women had held clergy positions for the past 50 years. I don't see how female clergy could ignore the well-being of women in the abortion battle the way men have ignored them.  There are women meeting with the

Rev. Benny Hinn recently needed money for his divorce. Rev. Robert Tilton said if you send him your last $5 God will bless you with success. He had people who testified this happened to them. I remember seeing Pat Robertson hint at this. Now, several preachers are criticizing one of their own for preaching the message that giving to a prosperity preacher will help the giver and giving to the poor is money down the drain. One would guess this trick has been played on the faithful since the beginning of humans. It will continue as long as there are humans.  While the practice of claiming a donation to the preacher will bring blessings and prosperity is cruel and exploitive, I've always wondered about using the word exploitive for giving money the any Christian or Christian organization when there is some promise, stated or implied, the giver will receive "forgiveness" or never have to die. If making promises about money are exploitive it seems like promises about death are

Forced Birth schemers have been somewhat successful in painting advocacy of abortion rights as a white women thing trying to prevent black women from having children. This simply is not true. Black women have been leaders in the demand for abortion rights. The accusation against abortion provider comes from an activist decades ago, Marget Sanger, who advocated abortion rights so poor black women would not be set back by unplanned babies.  Forced Birth operatives jumped on this interpreting it to be for limiting the number of black people. I don't know about the views of the woman who promoted abortion rights but black women know they need options to unplanned pregnancies the same as white women. As the link points out, several black women have taken strong leadership positions in favor of abortion rights for both black and white women. Forced Birth gas bags are the last people we should trust in the effort for abortion rights. I had a lively exchange about abortion this past weeken

Most writing by the Incas and Mayans of Central and South American was stolen and burned by the invaders from Spain. The invaders were not smart enough, however, to destroy art work that told of history and gods of the time. Inscriptions and art have survived and the story of those societies lives on. The more excavation of ancient artifacts the more knowledge about these societies. The Christians brought three gods, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Mayans already had three gods and thought they were just fine. The gun and diseases eventually put the three favorites of the Mayans on the shelf waiting to come back. In the meantime, the three interlopers of the Catholics and Protestants filled in as substitutes. These countries formerly were majority Catholic. Now some are majority Protestant. One has to assume societies will continue to change as will the religious beliefs that fit the changed societies. Today we have hurricanes. The ancient Mayas had a god name Huracan. Huracan was

Where is God now when My Pillow founder Mike Lindell needs him the most. Mike launched to media program called "Prove Mike Wrong." He offered $5 million to anyone who could prove the 2020 election of Biden was honest. Mike, of course, had been going around like Trump claiming the election was fraudulent. Four men took up Mike's offer and proved it was not fraudulent. Mike now needs God's help coming us with both the $5 million but also money for his attorneys and the money for the other side's attorneys. Now another group needs God's help. A Texas mega church which has taken in $150 million in donations said it would give 10% to "missions." Further, it promised that if donors were unhappy with the mission work accomplished it would refund the money to donors. Like the guys who brought down Mike Lindell, some members said they wanted audit of the mega church finances to establish the money actually was spent on missions. The church would neither provi

It is astounding, boarding on the unbelievable, how much and how fast atheism has grown and how much believe in religion has fallen. In England, atheism now exceeds Christianity. More people do not believe there is a god than believe there is one. No one can explain completely why this has happened. There is little doubt it has happened.  There is always speculation on whether this trend in England/Europe will arrive in the U.S. Certainly, it is possible, likely in my view, the U.S. could arrive at the same place. At the rate things are changing it will be sooner than many expect. What is interesting to speculate is how minds in the U.S. will change or where the majority will go? Without the "god" what will fill the minds? The longest running accommodation to religion seems to have been one with many "gods" and the gods coming and going. This would be fine, everyone who wanted a god would have one and those who do not need one would not be required to listen to pray

The Christian polling organization, Pew Research, found that women priests are favored in Latin America. If that news isn't bad enough for the Pope and the Vatican, Latin American Catholics also favor abortion rights. The Vatican can always refer to Peter hearing from Jesus that men are supposed to run the church but these days it just causes an eye roll. Does anyone care anymore what the old-time Catholic guy organization thinks? And the same eye rolls happen in Protestant denominations that prevent women from taking the pulpit. I'd suggest the old white men check the calendar.   The is lots of internet ink discussing the decline in Christian numbers, churches closing and a smaller Christian footprint. Christian pundits dance around the real issues, particularly the role of and respect for women. It's as if, "We can handle this temporary downturn in our numbers. All we have to do is shout 'God will punish you' louder and people will knuckle under and come back

Leaders, and ordinary church members too, could learn from those, especially sociologists, who study the history of the Christian faith. The pattern is constant and unavoidable. People in denominations eventually disagree and split off. It's as predictable as the sun coming up each morning. Currently, the reason given is homosexuality. Actually, it's just change , any change. If it was not homosexuality, it would be something else. There are the don't change nothin' and the ok this new thing is all right groups. Some commenters on this blog have said gay people have ruined denominations by demanding gay marriages and that gay pastors can serve. The gay issue has been blamed for several splits. The link suggests disagreements over theology, like "gay is sin", may well not be the problem. The problem instead is simply that factions form within groups. In most churches there may be some Republicans and some Democrats. Wouldn't it be logical for them to fall i

As has been said here many times, the Bible has something for everyone. A late American Baptist preacher friend of mine said the Bible is more of an argument going back and forth. As we know, it is most often portrayed as a set of rules against sin. Surely, even the loudest Bible thumper must admit the Bible has a lot about welcoming the stranger. A liberal Christian group, or maybe several, is making noise that the Christian at this moment should be welcoming all who enter the U.S., legal or not.  This is the opposite of what Trump preaches, "They are not sending us their best, only their criminals and rapists." (I don't know if that is exact or not, but it summarizes what he has said various times.)  Probably some conservative can find in the Bible something that could be construed as, "Be kind to the stranger if he is of your race and has no police record."  We're approaching ten years of big numbers coming across the border. Certainly, there are example

Pope Francis keeps being asked if the Catholic door is open even a tiny bit on women in the clergy or abortion rights. He keeps answering that the door is not open, even a tiny bit. That the questions keep being asked is, to me, a signal the door is not shut forever. The old line he used that women are "so important" in the denomination will not hold up forever. It has the same impact as "We're praying for women." The impact is none. The German Catholic Church is a model for denominational change. There are several stories of priest performing gay marriages. Demands are made that Rome "punish" the German Catholic Church, The German Catholic Church has lots of money, Rome needs them more than it needs Rome. There is teeth grinding and scolding but Germany does not budge. What if Germany, or some other country with plenty of money, starts ordaining women priests. Would not the same thing happen, Rome saying this is not acceptable but unable to do anythin