Thoughts of a Freethinker

I confess to binge watching the You Tube site "Mormon Stories." I warn myself to not open a new video because they are very long and I can't stop myself from becoming absorbed. One was posted a few days ago, six hours long, and I'll try to summarize it here. The story starts with a devout young Momon couple in their early 30's with two children under five. The husband was killed in an automobile accident. The wife struggled to support the two children while working toward an advanced college degree that would give her more income. Less than a year later she and another grad student fell in love and decided to marry. He was also a Momon and was on board to help with raise the children. The future again was bright. There was one problem, Mormonism. Mormons control marriages by the act of being "sealed." A couple can be sealed only by being married in a Temple. Once sealed, the couple will spend their life together but also spend eternity together after the...

A story about Trump's tariffs on Brazil being dropped and the troops sent to cities with Democratic mayors going home are news cycles we've been seeing since Trump became President. Many of the tariffs he loudly announced were never actually levied. The troops went to the Portlands and Chicagos and whiled away their days picking up trash.  I've wished for a long time reporters would handle the Trump stories in a different way. Instead of reporting the outlandish content of his insomnia posts, I wish they would report how many minutes of airtime he gets for each and the repeated patterns of each. It is easy to see it is the airtime he is after, not tariffs or order in cities. Reporters should study and report air-time success or failure. I predict Trump will find something to do or say that, he hopes, will crowd out the airtime the Epstein story is getting. It seems like this will be harder than some others because bits of the files will keep dribbling out. Catholics want th...

I'm guessing there is much hand wringing by right wing Catholics about something hidden in the weeds. They were strongly opposed to Pope Francis' "Synodality." Why did they oppose it? Why are they mad about the new guy keeping it? As an outsider, the Catholic seem to operate in this way. The Pope is an "ultimate" authority, but he cannot outrun the millions of members. Priests are supposedly ordained by Jesus but they live off collection plates like Protestants. As times change, the succession of Popes needs to navigate a changing world which includes changing Catholics. Except, the most recent Pope Benedict. This guy did not come out of parish life but was a professor. He thought he had the freedom to read stuff and declare to everyone what it meant. During a Christmas message he condemned gay marriage. What does that have to do with the birth of Jesus? Francis and now Leo have a theory that if you talk opposition to change to death, a little change can go ...

Pope Leo, like his predecessor Pope Francis who was also a Jesuit, talks with passion about treating the poor with respect and sharing the wealth. Women are more than half of the world's poor. There are millions of cases of pregnancies that impoverish women. Few impoverish mem. Birth control and abortion help escape this poverty.   Religions have a way of separating real life from sin. Sin is bad, but some of it has to be tolerated because humans will be humans. And, lots of humans, including Christians, don't agree on what is a sin. Each of us who has lived a few decades has seen the definition slide. The entire anti-abortion enterprise fails to address the economics of giving birth. Giving birth is a huge financial issue not only to individual women but to entire families and to societies. To ignore it is to not be relevant.  Not directly related, but the economics of the entire anti-abortion industry is now being hurt. That industry includes, of course, denominations l...

I recall hearing preachers say from pulpits, "This (Bible Story) is based on historical facts." That sentence is beaten into seminary students who then repeat it to their flocks. When Christian apologists publish their stuff they repeat it as well. Now, when I've challenged clergy and others about talking snakes, walking on water and gazillions of long dead skeletons marching out of their graves when "Jesus was crucified," some will admit those parts may not be "historical facts" but the parts they like in the Bible are.  Apologists often instruct believers on how to argue with skeptics and atheists. Ones such as the link say, "Remember, Jesus said 'I am the one.'" We're supposed to believe that when someone, Joeseph Smith or Jesus, claim they have private information God made them into holy men? Not in today's world, bro. We have meters watching for con messages that ring alarms at stuff like that. Christians who want to conv...

As many predicted, the dramatic tariff increases Trump said he levied have mostly been tanked. Chinese goods now have lower tariffs. Coffee and bananas which apparently Trump thought would be produced in the U.S. now have much lower tariffs.  Trump said a few years ago higher tariffs would cause more goods to be produced in the U.S. He said the Chinese would pay the tariffs by taking less payment themselves. Then he claimed the tariffs would produce federal revenue and lower our taxes. None of this happened. Trump seems to have lost interest in tariffs and moved on.  I've always wondered if Trump ever believed the benefits of tariffs he claimed were there. Or, did he get involved with tariffs because they brought lots of TV reporters to him and lots of screen time? I believe the screen time was the most important outcome for him. Really, one has to admit, he got the news media attention he wanted and thus he won. Tariffs have been good for him even as they have been terrible f...

Polling organizations seem to like, or make money, polling about religion. The results keep telling the same story, religion is declining in the U.S. But new aspects of the decline continue to show up. The dean companies for polling, Gallop , says the U.S. drop in the importance of religion is among the most dramatic in the world. While Europe is more secular than the U.S. the U.S. is chasing and gaining.  The Gallop article is not about the secularization but about the spike in the decline of Christianity. The link also discusses the growing variety of religion in the U.S. and the growing ethnic diversity of Christianity. I think it's safe to say that when new groups move into Christianity, or any other faith, the focus and direction change. The many Muslims I know in the U.S. say they have little to nothing in common with the violent factions in the Middle East. An increase in the rate of leaving Christianity has been predicted by secular observers for quite a while. As younger...

I've always been curious to know if there is some kind of general conclusion one can make about the court forced settlements Catholics have made to their victims of sexual abuse. Apparently, there are many variations in the settlements and some take different directions than others.  In total, about 4.4 billion dollars have been paid out. Of course lawyers have to be paid and they have taken about 16% of this. Under Chapter 11 bankruptcy law , a business is allowed to remain operating during resolution of payment it must make. In some ways, this makes sense, even to Catholic Dioceses , because income in coming in some of which might go to pay obligations. If the business closed this would not happen. Thirty-nine dioceses have filed for bankruptcy. Over the past could of decades this has been going on some have negotiated settlement and moved on. About 18 remain in bankruptcy.  A big issue in all of them is the question what is available to be taken from a diocese. The shifty B...

I have had two missionaries among the generation that preceded mine. I knew one of them who was passionate about his job.  A generation ago, those in the pews put large amounts of money in the plate to support missionaries. The link talks of a conference in 1900 that attracted a huge number and where the speeches were covered in newspapers across the U.S. It now appears that was the pinacol of the missionary movement.  For some reason, it was not possible to realize that the period of colonization was a period of forcing people to leave their indigenous religion and adopt another by force. Certainly, that was what happens here on our own soil to native people. Around the world the same thing happened. Once in a while someone says, "God has the power to tell people he is here. Why do we need missionaries?"  Fortunately, mainline churches are slowly pulling back from funding missionary work. If the goal is to reach the "unchurched," the opportunity is here in this cou...

After several years of back and forth in the legal system, Kim Davis, the County Clerk in the South who turned down a request by two men for a marriage license, and spent some time in jail, has lost for sure. The Supreme Court will not review a judgement against her. Davis pilled up big legal bills, maybe they will be paid by the faithful. But she also lost a civil suit to the couple of tens of thousands of dollars and it may be hard for Bible thumpers to pony up money to such sinners. Let's review this thing. Davis thought (thinks) gay marriage is a sin. The men got their license anyway several years ago and got married. How did this affect Davis or any resident of the county where she lives? Did it unleash a tsunami of sin . Were there floods and tornados that can be called God's punishment? We can safely assume the marriage caused no problem to anyone. What, then, did Davis' behavior accomplish? No sins were prevented. No souls were saved from hell. Davis, and all who su...

Augustine was an African Catholic Bishop who lived most of his life in North Africa in the 400's. To put him in context, this was just after Dictator Constantine held a confab that decided which of many written works would go into the Bible. Augustine's life span also included the sacking of Rome and ending of the Roman Empire.  I just finished a new book, Augustine the African, by Catherine Conybeare. The purpose of the book was to highlight the role Africa in the life and works of Augustine. This was new and interesting to me. Augustine has come up several times over the long life of this blog. Mostly it has be in comments by Catholic readers. They refer to Augustine with reverence and consider what he wrote as having great importance. This passion led me to buy the book when it was reviewed in The New Yorker. Even though Constantine lived in the 400's, the amount of original written material is apparently quite large. He wrote and preached constantly. He was so important...

  A critic of the U.S. Catholic Bishops criticized the upcoming conference because half of its meetings will be closed to the public. The Catholic author of the link says U.S. Bishops should be engaged with the Catholic membership and with the public at large. He objects to the Bishops spending so much of their time talking about inside issues and not revealing their views publicly. Some years ago I watched a TV of the Bishops conferring. Their inside language made is hard to understand what they were talking about. One got the impression of an insider's club that had little interest in the well being of those who paid for the flight tickets and hotels. With those in the pews paying for the Bishops to gather it seems only logical the Bishops would invite everyone to watch and listen.  Apparently when Jesus told Peter to establish the church "on this rock" he forgot to remind Peter those in the pews pay the bills and have a right to know what is happening. A smart person w...

It is quite obvious the rate of loss in Christian numbers is somewhere between steady and rising. There is an estimate that a record 15,000 churches will close this year. That is, of course, many every day. A church, or a denomination , does not exist because "what we believe is right." It exists because there is enough revenue to pay its expenses.  Putting the business aspect in perspective, 15,000 closed a year is not exceptional. Many businesses close every day. Former churches are bulldozed to the ground just like former businesses and houses. Readers know churches are different than run-of-the-mill businesses. Religion spills over into our politics and lives. When Christian numbers are rising many other things change. When numbers are falling, same thing.  An overview of the entire tiny industry of church closing appeared in the long-standing publication, Christianity Today . I pay for a subscription so you may find a paywall to the link. According to realtors who se...

Tony Perkins , formerly a politician and now head of the Family Research Council , is one of my go-to posters to learn what the religious right is saying and thinking. The Family Research Council has a dozen or so employees and some property so it is not a one-man show. Tony has to keep a sizable cash flow going. For people to send money they need to think their money is doing some good. Tony posted comments about Tuesday's election . It's not in Tony's interests to conclude the drubbing Republicans and Trump took means his organization is not successful. He says in his post that post-election interviews did not ask the right question. Instead of asking about jobs, inflation and wages they should have asked about the moral values of our society, he says. Tony seems to believe if questions about religion, morals, God and abortion were asked both he and Trump would look popular. He claims people are still on his side. It's just that there was a little temporary set back...

Consistent with lower church numbers and growing "nones", families are choosing not to have church or religious ceremonies for their family members. As readers know, the term " Celebration of Life " is popular. In the link is a Catholic diocese which owns cemeteries, many dioceses do, as well as an undertaker business with all those services. The official who runs this says about 65% of deaths do the whole deal, embalming , mass , etc.  The guy says preplanning is causing "many" to require the mass and casket and entire program. He says if the family is told about the "importance" of the entire body being sent off to eternity they don't go for cremation .  Playing with peoples' minds, suggesting guilt and taking their money is as old as humans. The church does this with gusto. What better time to suggest guilt than when mom dies.  One thing that often happens in funerals is endless assurances the deceased was a believer, is in heaven a...

All readers know there was a big crack in the facade of Christianity over gay preachers. Conservative holier-than-thou groups split off of every major denomination to form new denominations that "followed the Bible." Never mind that the Bible says conflicting things, the split off groups only focused on their own prejudices and found stuff in the Bible to justify them. Now, another split seems in the making. Christianity is back where it was as late as the 1920's. That was when "the Jews killed Jesus" and Jews were bad. Since then, there have been millions of sermons and books pointing to the error of that time. All of that had the effect of only papering over the prejudices built into the Christian faith. At its core it's rotten. Pundits are scrambling to put back the paper that has covered evil parts of Christianity. The link tries to paper over Christian hatred of Jews. To complicate the Christian task of making Jews look OK, some Jews are throwing sand i...

Whether you are someone who likes it or does not like it, we are all about to experience quite a big event, That is the election of Zohran Mamdani to be the Mayor of New York City. Mamdani is a Muslim and is opposed by many Democrats in the city as well as many across the country.  All of the handwringing by both liberals and conservatives about him made me reminisce about the "firsts" I have experienced in my long life. A few that come to mind are Jackie Robinson, 1st black pro baseball player, Jack Kennedy, 1st Catholic President, Obama, 1st black President, Pete Buttigieg, 1st out gay cabinet member, 1st female VP candidate and 1st female Presidential candidate, 1st person to walk on the moon. etc., etc.  The link was written by a MAGA columnist who thinks the U.S. should have limited immigration so the likes of Mamdani would not have gained traction. The "mistake" was made 30 years ago, the author says, when lots of immigration started. Of course, this is a misr...

  We all know Jesus was supposed to have said it is easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven (Matt 18:24). Today, that passage is null and void. It's now OK to be rich. A study of sermons in mega churches, mostly in one but the pattern seems broader, found many that approved of being rich. Even though the congregation of the studied church was not wealthy, preachers wanted to be sure the wealthy would pass through the eye of the needle. I've read that money, especially being rich, is discussed in the Bible for than any other topic. While no doubt there are conflicting messages about wealth, the over-riding lesson is that money plays with the heads of people and the kindest of all people are those that give it away. When it comes to "obeying what's in the Bible" or "basing our denomination or church on the Bible" it is never about money. Readers know about the many denominations that have seen a group ...

In the mid 1700's, Portugal was booming. It was on a major trade route and the economic circumstances of the time put it in the driver's seat. The  Catholic Church glopped onto the economic prosperity and claimed authority in the Europe's theology which implied the world's theology. Good was being rewarded, evil punished. Then, on Oct. 31, 1755 , an earthquake hit Lisbon that remains one of the longest and most damaging in known history. The death toll was 60,000 people. The next day, November 1 , the world was baffled at how God's favorite city could be punished. There is a claim by some historians this event marked the beginning of secularism , including atheism , in the west. It is even claimed the earthquake steered the founding fathers in what became the U.S. away from being a " Christian nation ." The link says the event changed "the Christian narrative " in all of Europe. A universal claim coming from behind pulpits everywhere today, ...