Thoughts of a Freethinker

Much discussion in the press is about the number of Trump appointees who are from Florida. Is there a pattern of political views we can attribute to Florida? It's hard to do this, according to a political pundit. Florida is the complex mishmash of political views.  If you thought, as I did, that California, with its San Francisco, is the gay capitol of the U. S. you would be wrong. Florida has the most residences filed with same sex couples. It also has some law against gay teachers.  Florida has a whacko Governor but almost reached the 60% approval for a liberal abortion bill. The margin of approval was 58%. Florida is a state with abortions rights politics. It is inevitable this strong majority will prevail in some way at some time in the future but that is not the case today. As readers know, Florida has the large number of descendants of Cubans who escaped Castro. The past generation of these descendants has been Republican. Future generations of this group are yet to be d...

It is hard to imagine something more ridiculous than a group of men who made up history or doctored it to suit themselves would now be prowling the streets and churches to find and prosecute others doing the same thing. That is the news from the Vatican, a group has been named to stop "spiritual abuse."  The entire Christian faith is filled with false history, ridiculous predictions and invisible beings watching and condemning people. The church preaches invisible beings are real and their rules are above question. Why would such a group then believe it had credentials to condemn others making up their own histories, futures and invisible beings? There are countries in the world which are not considered religious. There have been periods in the U.S., the last half of the 1800's and early 1900's when records show there was a lot of skepticism of Christianity and interest in secularism. The secular countries today are doing just fine and the U.S. in its secular period w...

There is discussion about what Trump will do with the thousands of trans in the military. Will he fire them all? Someone speaking for the Trump Administration says no decision has been made to do this. It may well be the Trump people know trans will remain on the Sin Leader Board for a while and then will disappear. Why spend time, they may be thinking, on some issue that will evaporate? A new sin will replace trans. A well-known Republican who is active in politics the former outstanding athlete, Cris Jenner, is now a female, Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn had her own reality TV show and quite wealthy. She ran for the nomination of Republican for Governor a few years ago and now appears to be preparing to do so again. Christian news sites do not carry articles about how sinful this trans Republican is. As a Republican, she does not fall under the Sin Leader Board. One parody site said her birth certificate which declares "male" was incorrect and part of the fraud Democrats are alwa...

According to reviews , Tammy Faye has all the marks of a successful musical. It has driving music, dancing and a story to tell. Tammy herself is portrayed as a soul with a big heart embracing LGBT people within fundamentalist Christianity. The men surrounding her journey, husband Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Par Robertson are empty suits going through the motions. Remembering some of what went on back then, it seems surreal. Jim and Tammy had a daily morning RV show staged at their Christian resort. The audience were tourists there to behold the huge construction projects, hotels and restaurants. Success had already arrived for Jim and Tammy, natives of Northern Minnesota, but the bustling and talk were of even bigger things. Spending beyond the revenue and various other problems began to bring down the enterprise. Then Jim had a sexual encounter with another woman. As things spiraled downward Jerry Falwell took over the TV satellite broadcast.  Jim went to prison for fraud and Ta...

A trans woman, Sarah McBride, is an elected member of the House of Representatives. House Republicans have now set aside major issues of the world, wars in Israel and Ukraine, to debate which rest room Sarah will be allowed to use. This issue is of major importance because, Republicans believe, the Bible only recognized males and females. Let's envision Sarah McBride dressed as she is everyday entered the men's rest room. Would several men simply keel over, dead? Or, what if she entered the women's rest room dressed the same way. Would several women die on site as well? To be honest, I don't think anyone would die. Eye roll maybe but death no.  I think it was in the 1970's I was in a restaurant in a bohemian area near the University of Minnesota and saw for the first time a rest room labeled for either gender. Now, we all know, unisex rest rooms is a way for businesses to save some money and it often eliminates lines.  Long before that when my wife and I were gradua...

  Methodists in Africa number about one million. Their official position is no gays. The main branch of Methodists in the U.S. is ready to accept gay members and gay pastors. The Africans say they are leaving the denomination. U.S. Methodists say their subsidies to the Africans will end. Now some in the U.S. are saying , "That's mean." Let's go back to the times of slavery and later segregation. Would it make sense for the Quakers, who were on the forefront of equality of the races, to send money to the Southern Baptists who were using the Bible to justify their cruelty? That's what critics of the United Methodists in U.S. are saying when they insist United Methodists should support demonization of gays present in the Methodists in Africa. I wonder how much money going to Methodists in Africa is going to pay preachers instead of providing food or housing for ordinary people? There are Christian preachers in Africa who have become very wealthy. I don't know if ...

As I understand it, the Catholic Church does not approve of invitro fertilization. A professor at a conservative college in Michigan recently explained why a baby conceived in a petri dish can be considered "not a human being." It's one of many places where Forced Birth, with its simple imaginative narrative about things alleged to happen "in the womb," gets all tangled up with reality. The Bible has been altered many times. There are no original copies of the books in the Bible. Thus, the Bible can be altered at will. Perhaps it could be modernized to refer to both the womb and the petri dish. Then the fellow who wrote the link wondering if conception in a petri dish results in a "human being" or something else. There are thousands of people who make a living splitting theological hairs. None of these hairs, like whether the circumstances of the union of a cell of the female and the cell of the male result in a genuine human being or not, are importan...

I haven't kept track, but I've wondered how often wars end with one side announcing, "We lost. The war is over." I would guess it's common for one side the lose more soldiers. Often a side loses governance over some territory. Yet, most often it seems neither side concedes. Biden wisely withdrew from Afghanistan during his term. I recall in my long life many Presidents saying our side would "eliminate" the enemy. Once we were going to drive the North Korean army off the face of the earth. They China came in and it was a draw at the 38th Parallel. Shock and awe was the order of the day in Iraq.  From public comments, the government of Israel intends to "defeat" Hamas though it seems at this distance Hamas does not have the ability to do much but kill some more people while Israel does not have the ability to eliminate supporters of Hamas. Russia has learned it will not defeat Ukraine. Will Ukraine be able to drive Russia out of the disputed terr...

Everywhere in conservative Christianity we find a marketing technique that uses simple answers to complex issues and names villains. Some, like Joel Osteen, are not vindictive but are simple. The liberal wings of Christianity see and avoid this weakness but do not have a substitute marketing trick to replace it.  What if all of Christianity started with this assumption: Human beings are so diverse we can never understand everything about them . Believers could still believe there is a God and insist on going to a church. Adopting this assumption about the vast diversity and working it into their theology will help their church and others who are part of it. To work this into conservative Christianity would not be easy. Actually, it seems impossible. One has to narrow the definition of the favorite word in Christianity, SIN.  Sin has become, or always has been, a feral concept, "If I don't like something, it is a sin." Or, "If I don't like a group, they are sinful...

  Every once in a while I read a Christian critique of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and those atheist writers of 15 years ago. The standard conclusion of these Christians is that the best sellers were read by millions but the entire "atheist movement" they started has died. This is, of course, non-sense.  It's true there have not been shocking best sellers about atheism recently. It's also true that there are not atheist meetings attended by the numbers who attend church weekly. Christian pundits have to agree, however, Christian numbers are falling.  They also have to agree the numbers who claim no religious affiliation, "nones", has risen dramatically. Nones are now the largest religious group in the U.S. The Christian pundit in the link points out that when Dawkins published his famous book, the generation that bought and read it had grown up in Sunday School and knew the basics of Christianity. The atheist authors aimed their writing at those who knew Chr...

Ever since some Christians, including politicians, began complaining about the greeting "Happy Holidays" we non-believers have been having fun. The notion someone "feels violated" because another decided not to greet others with "Merry Christmas" is the ultimate in self-centeredness. Christians published articles complaining that Starbucks' annual Christmas coffee cup design did not include any symbols about religion.  I suppose there was some greeting during the thousands of years before Christianity that was something like "Happy Solstice." We could all use that today because it would celebrate the coming longer hours of sunshine and would not violate anyone's religion. Well, I should admit there would still be complaints. Everyone finds something to complain about, it's part of being a human being. A Christian site published an article proclaiming victory when a retail chain decided to pull its shirt with a rainbow over a cradle an...

During the reign of Pope Benedict, the Bishops appointed were rock-hard conservatives. The evil pair, abortion and gay marriage, were front and center. There were so many conservatives they began to be the face of the organization called US Bishops. I don't know how often they meet as a group, but the publicity issued has been for years has been backward-looking instead of forward looking. The impression given to an outsider was Bishops thought Pope Francis wrong, we will ignore him. The real pope was Benedict. That is the Benedict who assailed gay marriage during a Christmas Eve Public message.  In a recent gathering, however, Pope Francis' reach was felt. Part of the Bishops' published message was young people who grew up in the faith are leaving. Further, young people are more liberal about many issues, especially the environment which Francis also has talked about for years, and we Bishops need to get on board with Francis. A position promoted in the recent gathering wa...

The recent resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbary over a clergy who savagely beat children is a growing scandal. He has now taken responsibility for not taking action. From comments in the link is the impression many others in the denomination's bureaucracy knew more about the abuse but either endorsed it or ignored it.  If one part of the brain is filled with beliefs in life after death or hate of gays and trans does that make the other part, which should have empathy with children being beaten, cease to function? There should be a better explanation but no one has come up with any. One of the children. now an adult, said the abuser would beat him so hard with a paddle the abuser would be gasping for breath. After a short rest he would restart the beating. I suppose, like the sexual abusers, children heard this was all to make them better please God. We all know there is child abuse in many kinds of organizations. What sets religion apart is justification by God. Playing with...

A Christian anthropologist cleverly measured the amount of change in the U.S. against the resistance to change. He found his best and only army against change is the South. We're seeing it in laws requiring Forced Birth. There are states in the South so pro reliable Trump he did not bother them with a visit. We know change forces itself on the most stubborn of places. Sometimes the delay is so long, however, some people are harmed. Certainly, integration did not happen, especially in the South, until people were killed and opportunities thwarted. Yet the State of Georgia is in play and was won by Biden. When "no change in anything" is preached by Southern politicians and operatives they are mostly talking about rural areas. Although Trump did well in urban Georgia, surely everyone has to agree voters in urban areas vote for democrats and liberal social policy than does rural Georgia. The pattern repeats itself across the South. Whether one is looking for a good collection...

Elections come and go. What matters more is the cultural change that lies under the surface. This causes both political parties to drift toward accommodation.  There are all kinds of headlines this week about Trump appointments and commentary that there will be dramatic changes in social standards and social policy. Of course, none of these changes have happened yet. An interesting one is abortion and medical services for women. The Republican Party for decades had a plank in its Platform stating that a human life is present at conception and thus anti-abortion was central to Party's mission. That has been gone since Trump arrived.  There was a peek at the Party's new focus when Republican Vance debated Democrat Walz. When to topic of government aid for children and parents Vance surprised Walz with a discourse on how important this mission is for government. "We need to spend more money here" Vance said. Taken by surprise, Walz said he and Vance were quite close on t...

A common concern (question) about retirement is "What will you do with all that time when you are retired?" One of the things I have done is study which sins conservative Christians are obsessed with and which they have forgotten about and may do not even realize are considered sins in the Bible.  I read often that currently the "worst sins" are gay marriage, abortion and trans. I call the most condemned sins at any given time to be on a "Sin Leader Board." This is taken from the sport of golf where there is a "Leader Board" during tournaments.  The link author carefully documents that high, maybe the highest, sin on the Bible's Sin Leader Board is idiolatry. Neither gay marriage, gay sex nor abortion are fingered explicitly. But idiolatry, it's there in lights. It's explicitly named a sin.  Why then are gay sex and abortion high on the current Christian Conservative Sin Leader Board when the "real sin" of idiolatry is missi...

A lot of money has already been paid and an additional settlement was made between the Archdiocese of Los Angels and those abuses by its clergy. The sum and number of abused people is staggering. It is hard to be anything but sarcastic about the Catholic Church as a source of moral leadership. It is laughable for Christians to say, "Atheists have no source of morals." The link does not say how much the diocese spent in legal fees. Across the world there were attempts to hide wealth from victims, deny access to personnel records and make the excuse, "It's something that happens everywhere." Another one is, "All of these so-called victims are just after our money." Also under the religion called Christianity is the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. He just resigned after admitting, he had denied for years, that he transferred a clergy he knew had beaten children and did not report the criminal to police. I suppose he thought, "The abuse of children is less...

We are all free to guess what will happen in the next Trump presidency. While some may be exaggerating what Trump and company will do I think speculation about further insults to women is something baked into Trump and his circle.  With the election over, pundits, including those in religion, are issuing statements. These include the effect of the election on abortion rights. While it's be going on since forever, it is amusing the see that almost exclusively Christian election analysis is done by men. They are heads of denomination so, of course, they speak for it. All of this adds up the conclusion Christianity is mostly the world of males. The exception is the ever present Rev. Paula White, a Prosperity Gospel preacher. The Prosperity Gospel is the branch of Christianity the Trump family has as its tradition. It teaches God smiles on prosperity and wants you to share in it. While Paula White has been a visible advocate of this branch, I don't see women flocking to it. Women h...

  The map of abortion rights states illustrates the both the tragedy of Forced Birth but also its uphill battle going forward.  One can see how difficult it will be for women in central Texas. Women to the north can drive a few hours and find services. Women in south Texas can drive to Mexico.  Ohio will require some long drives as well. Indiana has Illinois next door. The Dakota's, Nebraska and Oklahoma have services to the east or west.  I've mentioned before that when abortions continue though prohibited it affects politics. Forced Birth voters eventually come to realize they are hurting women and cannot deny it.  Both sides in this election thought their side would. Ronald Reagan said, "Politics is a thing where the unexpected often happens." Regardless of it turned out Reagan's observation would have applied. If history repeats itself, we will see future elections blindside Republicans as voters think they should get a better deal. 

Forced Birth operatives are making a long reach in their spin of the Trump victory. They are saying it was a rejection of abortion rights even though abortion rights won seven of ten state contests.. They seem to feel the overwhelming Forced Birth losses by voters can be papered over with Trump's win. All of us can spin the election, including me. Some pundits have noticed Trump's victory had to include many who voted for Trump but also voted for abortion rights. The reality is that with Trump's own abandonment of a national ban on abortions, means Forced Birth has now lost control of both political parties. If the Forced Birth cause is hopeless, its organizations, like the Susan B. Anthony groups quoted in the link, will be in financial trouble. Thus, they issue press releases trying to convince donors they are still relevant and about to win a national ban on abortions. This money-making con game has been going on for several decades. The narrative is, "We are just a...

I don't claim to know much about the social, religious and political life in Germany. The longstanding political success of Angela Merkel across Germany when she grew up in Eastern Germany always interested me. It seems like the society of East Germany would have been so different from West Germany she would have been like a "foreigner."  That's why it was fascinating to come across an article written by an atheist and native of eastern Germany. The author grew up after the unification of East and West Germany so has no recollection of the government's role in society.  On Christian sites everywhere and in churches from coast to coast and around the world every week is recited the universal schtick of Christianity, "People have a basic permanent inner need and desire for God." The author tells of attending a Catholic wedding and not kneeling or participating in the rituals. Afterwards at the reception the presiding priest headed for her table and gave he...

Trump's election has been heralded by right-wing Christians. Christians outside that circle are wondering what it means for them. Many Christian groups are focused intensely on helping to settle refugees from other countries. Lutheran Social Services comes to mind. Leaders wonder if all the success they had in the past will be devoured by forced deportation. It doesn't seem like Trump has the legal power to deport law abiding people, citizens of not.  Any change in border policy needs the cooperation with Mexico. That will be something to watch. Christian groups helping at the border must be wondering what will happen there. I think it is only a matter of time before some religious group is successful at the Supreme Court level in claiming abortion is a religious right. No Forced Birth can claim anti abortion has always been opposed by their branch of Christianity, even Catholic. Certainly, most Protestant branches, including Southern Baptist, were for abortion rights in the 19...

Some brief thoughts about Trump's victory yesterday.  Abortion rights moved forward. Forced Birth won three states but several states insured that abortion rights will continue. I have a personal interest in this because I have seven granddaughters and three great granddaughters. The election results made them safer. The three granddaughters are black and I hope they can remain safe. They live in one of the most liberal states in the U.S., Rhode Island. Of the outrageous elections in my life, this one ranks high but maybe no worse than some others. A baffling one was the reelection of W. Bush. You will recall he sacrificed thousands of Americans on the belief there were "weapons of mass destruction." After it was determined, and he was forced to agree, there were no such things U. S. voters gave him a second term.  Trump's election will give those of us who write about religion lots of material and I look forward to that.

What has always interested me is the daily life of humans both today and in prehistory. That is, what do humans do with the time between sleeping, what do they eat, what do they wear, how to they earn enough to stay alive and what do they think about? Billions of people living their lives set the direction of humans on the planet. What humans do with their time between sleeping inevitably determines in part what they think about. For some years there has been a saying, "We are what we eat." Another powerful saying is "We are what we think about."     As more information is found about indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America the more we may be learning about prehistory humans. Something interesting to me related to religion is the art of storytelling. If one thinks about humans since they came on the scene about 300,000 years ago, we have to realize that for most of human existence there was no light after the sun went down. Thus, several hours a day w...

I wish the U.S. experiment with the temperance and beer-is-sin period of our history and its similarity with the Forced Birth religious movement was discussed more. There are so many parallels. The beer-is-sin period was also known as Prohibition. A recent story in The Forum reviewed the history of a series of six fires in Alexandria, MN. The year was 1901. They were all taverns. The arson was never caught. The fires stopped when community outrage appeared.  While we don't know the motive of the arson we do know what anti saloon public figures said about drinking alcohol in the years leading up the Prohibition. Alcohol was evil. God wanted it eliminated. Just as evil abortion is OK in cases of rape and the life of the woman, some places evil alcohol was OK and not evil. Catholic communion required wine and was exempt from Prohibition. It is said many bottles of wine disappeared from church basements. It seems to me some in the country were feeling the same level of passion against ...

How many times during each Presidential election cycle does someone say the other side is the real demon or contains demonic forces? When someone takes this seriously enough to write down its history it's worth taking a look . Today, I'm sure one can find places on the web discussing the demonic influences on both Trump and Harris. These days it is quite fringe but "demonic influences" have had an ebb and flow and they could come back big. It is believed that in 1849 "spiritualism" was practiced by 11 million people in the U.S. There were large halls filled with practitioners as well as small groups around Ouija Boards. Talking to ghosts and seances were in.  When women's suffrage came along it uprooted traditional gender roles. What better explanation than the presence of demons.  Abolition also upset the social structure, whites on top, blacks on the bottom. As with women's suffrage disturbing the social structure God had orders has to be the work ...

The National Catholic Register is a conservative publication. A blogger there claims that while atheism (also referred to as materialism) is hardly growing, nones continue to grow. Among nones, he complains, are an endless parade of chiasmatic witches and occults. These, not atheism, are the real threat to Christianity and Catholicism the link claims. Witches and occults are fed to the public by online personalities. The Bible is full of demons, spirits, ghosts and invisible gods. After open minded people, especially young people, have become familiar with witch personalities and then hear the Bible stories, why would they not find them similar? If they realize the witch character is one made up to entertain why would they not conclude the Bible exists for the same reason. One of the constant Christian themes these days is that other notions like witches and cults will crowd out Christianity. The problem, they say, is that Christianity is good while witches and occults are harmful....

Fox News and Christian Post are the only two news outlets publishing a picture taken some years back of Kamala Harris and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisters are men who perform in drag and include ridicule of Jesus on the Cross among other parodies on religion. My unexpert opinion is Harris is going to be our next President. Not only will she be breaking new ground by being the first female, she will be the first president who is on record as enjoying hanging out with men in drag. The picture is now being used in anti-Harris ads. Using this picture in the campaign against Harris certainly will please the religious right. I think, however, it will ultimately be good for her. The message I get from it is Harris is someone who enjoys her life. She is a person who accepts all kinds of people, even those different from most others. All of us feel a little different and she would accept each of us. On top of that, many thousands of parents took their children to the local libra...