Thoughts of a Freethinker

While every demographic group is filled with disagreements, polling gives us a window into where things in any group might be going. Post election polls and voting pattern showed the Trump did better with Latino voters than many expected. I can't understand what they saw in him or what they did not see in Harris but that's what happened.  Now, according to recent polling, things have changed. Trump, and perhaps some other republicans, are slipping in popularity among Hispanic voters. The explanation, at least one explanation, is deportation of Hispanic people. After a life of talking to people about politics I, like readers, know it is impossible to predict future elections. Ronald Reagan said that in politics the unexpected often happens. One group I find most annoying when I read about or talk to them is people who say, "I don't like either candidate." That implies the person has standards higher than everyone else. The candidates and parties are what we have.  ...

Like Christians, Islam is having trouble keeping their young in the faith. They are experimenting with Islam-lite spaces . The prayers are done nearby but young people can skip them, buy Starbucks and hang out with friends. I don't know anything about what goes on inside institutional Islam but there must be some talk of marketing the faith. Some faiths are big on expansion, Christianity for one, while others, the Jews, do not put a high priority on conversions. Several times a month I drive by building with a vague sign. I looked it up the learn it is a center for Islamic worship. I don't know if it is called a mosque or not. Sometimes there are lots of cars there. I've read Islam has growing numbers even though much of its youth are leaving.  Muslims I have known in the past condemned the Muslims attacking others in the Middle East and those responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Like many Christian refer to other Christians as misguided and not really part of the legitimate f...

In an essay where a religious college student director writes about what he sees as sort of a victory for Christianity. He outlines various forms of paganism. He opens by speculating, as so many Christian apologists do, that those leaving the faith, nones, are not really leaving Christianity. They are going in many directions including mistakenly substitution other gods for God. He then says such people are becoming Pagans, worshipping something other than the real God.  He makes the distinction that Paganism and Christianity have gods in different locations. The Christian God is located far off somewhere in the sky. The Pagan god is located in the actual world. It is, for example, the environment, the veganism, peace, etc. Both Pagans and Christians, he claims share a desire to find a divine.  His line of argument is not new, not particularly interesting and is self-serving. Apologists seem, to believe it is necessary to preach people have a "longing" for some kind of dive t...

Tim Dolan pleased former Pope Benedict by trying to hide the Milwaukee Diocese funds in a cemetery trust fund. The cemetery board said it did not need the money. Dolan thought it would be clever to park the diocese funds there so they would not be available to victims of priest sexual abuse. The courts saw through his ruse and it was stopped. Dolan, however, was promoted from Milwaukee to the huge New York Diocese. He probably saw himself being Pope.  When Pope Francis died, Dolan had the rank to attend the conclave to name the next Pope. He was too old to vote, however. He tried to generate a variance in the rules that would have allowed him to vote. The support was not there. When he recently reached the age of 75, he had to submit his resignation. It was up to Pope Leo to accept or reject. The parade of anti abortion activist Bishops and Cardinals appointed by the Pope Benedict, like Dolan, saw their value fall under Pope Francis and this is continuing with Leo. Pope Leo sent Do...

The demographics of Christianity have been covered here and other places many times. Yet, these demographics are ignored in the Christian press. The new Christian narrative is the rate of those leaving, or never entering, the faith has slowed and young men are returning to the faith. This is a false narrative. The truth is the average age of Christians is rising, the percentage of young people leaving the faith is also rising. These mean the faith is falling and this will continue. This inevitability is not necessarily denied in the Christian press. It is just ignored. I suppose it is not in the economic interests of most people making a living in the Christian enterprise to talk about it. Better to pretend things are OK and keep the donations flowing. We see this strategy in the anti abortion industry. Abortion numbers keep rising but anti abortion groups keep claiming they are succeeding. "Follow the money" is a wise saying that applies to Christianity.  There are, of cours...

Every week the results of another survey is released showing the decline in those who consider themselves to be Christian. It gets a little boring to write about them here. What's interesting, however, is trying to see behind the curtain of those trying to save the faith. In the Pew link above, a questionnaire asked about things like "does your religion fulfill a spiritual need", "Is the social aspect of church important to you" and other general questions.  For those who have left the faith behind there are other repetitive and rather meaningless selections that respondents can choose, "I don't believe in the tenets of the faith, "There is too much scandal" and "I did not like some people in the church." The questionnaire left the opportunity for respondent to write their own comments. But few offer suggestions diagnosing the decline in Christianity. Without a wide number of explanations for leaving the faith people in the faith do ...

I read a review of a book written by a young priest who blames the decline of the Catholic denomination on "the suburbs." He says Catholic life thrives in either country life of central city life. The in between, the suburbs, kill the proper relationship between people and their parish church.  Rural and central city life is good for Catholicism for various reasons, he theorizes. First, ethnic groups and their individual versions of the faith are cemented together there. When the suburbs came along, the Catholic German lived next to the Baptist and the Methodist. This diluted the importance of the ethnic church. Second, people living close together and close to their church made the urban church their headquarters. They lived and solved life's problems together. When the suburbs galloped across the farm land around cities the church lost its way. These are not exclusively Catholic problems; they apply to many branches of the faith.  The priest author blames growth of the ...

Old denominations and newer ones all talk about starting new churches. There is some logic to this, older and long established churches have older members that will die off. They are located in older communities that do not have growth or many children. So, why not start churches where the growth and younger people are located? There are lots of new churches, "church plants", started every year. The Southern Baptist convention has planted 6,000 new churches. These 6,000 new churches have barely increased the total number of churches in the denomination. The total number of Southern Baptists have fallen by 10% a year for several years. The link video says that about 80% of new churches fail by five years. There is little publicity about these failures. They are small groups that just stop meeting and wherever they met the space is closed. Small businesses open every year and they fail at a similar rate. According to the video, denominations have "training" sessions f...

  A display of Jesus on the cross hangs in the Council Chambers of Quebec City, Cananda. The Mayor and some council members want to move it to a museum in City Hall. In the U. S. it's the Ten Commandments that the myth says were given to Moses by God Christians protect. In French Cananda, its the myth there was once a Jesus who was killed by hanging on a cross. In both cases, the argument is made people will be hurt if the mythic symbols are removed. That they offended. The harm others never comes up. Probably it is true total elimination of religion from all public life is impossible. People insert religion is so many ways. What is possible, however, is to eliminate art the is totally religious. That is crosses and Ten Commandments. No one is helped by their presence. No one is harmed by their removal.  One bit of progress is that new Christian art pieces mostly are not allowed. In recent years courts have ruled against new displays. Old displays survive with the argument the...

We all know two things about human history. First, there have been a countless number of gods. Since most of them existed in prehistory with no records we cannot know for certain how many have come and gone. Second, every god that ever existed evaporated. We still have a few today, but the pattern of disappearance has been repeated so many times and seems to be underway again the reasonable assumption it will continue. There is on-going discussion about a paper issued recently by the Vatican. It did not have the Pope's name on it but represents, as I understand it, the official position of the world Catholic denomination. The paper concluded clergy, including Deacons, will remain male. The response among women was that some wish to stay in the denomination and fight on, optimistic they will somehow someday prevail while others are simply walking out. The rate of walking out is increasing.  There are lots of Christian pundits on-line claiming the rate of growth of nones, no religiou...

A Christian site published an article recently bashing a Chick fil-A for publishing congrats to a gay couple on their marriage. A few years back the company pulled back donations to right wing Salvation Army. If there is one pattern we can see most everywhere it is that meanness and cruel behavior is not what most in public want to see. Readers may enjoy trying to remember the times Christian groups have decided some corporation is sinful and declared a boycott. Disney has been targeted often. Ford was targeted. Some decades ago it was decided the logo Proctor and Gamble was using depicted something Satanic. P & G was mystified as was nearly everyone else in the U.S. There have been others. Seldom, if ever, did Christian boycotts bring down a sinful company. Just now, one of the Christian identified restaurant chains, Cracker Barrel, is slipping. All the gifts with scripture in the gift shop have not convinced God to keep its profits high. Boycotts reflect the self centered trait o...

Maybe this is the start of something, an article about the role of (my field) economics in Christianity. I've always thought they are almost one and the same. A business deal, a contract, is successful when both sides see a benefit. Becoming a devoted Christian happens when the faith benefits by the person signing on and the person perceives a benefit from joining. It's understood money changes hands. The Bible, we all know, has plenty about economics, wealth and money in general. There are ideas about proper salaries. Plenty about the income redistribution that happens in virtually every country. There is a story about the profit that comes from a harvest after sewing grain. While some repeat the Bible tells us money is the root of evil, it's OK when some is given in the tithe.  There is a preacher in the Missouri Synod Lutherans who studied economics and alludes to it often. He points out to the stubborn status quo preachers in the denomination that to stop the loss of me...

A wonderful, but long, post today on a site that carries some intellectual content about Christianity nicely summarized why both liberal and conservative churches are seeing falling membership. I'd encourage anyone with an interest in current trends in Christianity to read it.  It can be summarized in this way: The overarching tenets of liberal Protestantism, freedom to believe, tolerance, inclusiveness, individualism, etc., have become incorporated and firmly established in our society. This has hurt conservative Christianity with its personal relationship with God and literal application of the Bible. It has also hurt liberal branches of the faith. The tenets of this faith, those above, are already here and, mostly, unmoving. Why bother with church? With conservatives attacking values such as tolerance and inclusiveness and liberals defending them, is there one side that has an advantage built into the future? We don't know, of course, but I have always thought the liberal s...

For several decades the schism between what some call "good" or "bad" Christianity has been there. I heard several sermons about it. Westboro Baptist and "kill the fags" was not the true or good version. The good version has always been what the writer, preacher or person doing the talking believed. The link expresses the view that if there were more "discernment" used in the press and in social networks the bad versions of Christianity would go away and only the good versions would remain.  It is true there are various versions of the faith, Westboro Baptist being at one end and perhaps Episcopalians at the other. To the Episcopalians the Westboro people sound like whackos. But to the majority of people under 25 years of age, the two sound so much alike neither has any appeal. If whacko Christianity was no longer practiced or preached by anyone I don't think it would change the downward projection. Let's say you are young person today in...

Let's add up the reasons Carbondale, Ill, a city of 20,000 people has 15,000 abortions performed there every year. I doubt there is any other city in the U.S. with that combination of numbers. First, it's a college town with the tolerance and liberal lean we would expect. Second, it is in southern Illinois. This puts it within driving distance to the deep south. Third, Illinois is a state with liberal and enlightened laws favoring abortion rights.  While this link gives a bit of background to Carbondale, a recent New York Times article went into detail. A reporter spent some time in Carbondale visiting with patients, clinic staff and protestors. The Times has a pay wall so I won't bother to link it.  Nearly all the patients in the three clinics in Carbondale are from other states. A couple of patients interviewed had driven from Mississippi and Texas, 700 miles, the night before and would drive back after the abortion. They had jobs and children at home and someone to help ...

The dry country of Iran is experiencing a water shortage almost beyond believable. It has four reservoirs, three of them are dry and the fourth almost gone. The largest city in the country, Tehron, has 10 million people and officials are saying it might have to be evacuated.  Tehron receives about 14 inches of rain per year. It has been below that in recent years. In comparison, the Mohave desert receives and average of 7 inches per year.  According to what I read, there is very little effort in Tehron to conserve water. The pipeline distribution system has lots of leaks. There are not readily available sources to move water to the population center.  Iran has a history of being a self destructive place. Even though it needs badly revenue from oil sold to other countries, it prices gasoline well below the cost of drilling oil and refining. This has been the case for decades. If we think politics is responsible for destructive policies in the U.S. we are not nearly as bad ...

A new statement from deep in the Vatican about women being appointed deacons was just released. According to the link it is another unconvincing argument against women. One reason women cannot be deacons, and of course priests, is because they are not in the image of Jesus. The eight pages also, apparently, go into other reasons, undocumented meetings of important people, untrue statements there have never been women deacons and someone heard from the Holy Spirit. It also said more study is needed as well as the favorite new word, "discernment."  We know the additional study and discernment will be done by men. This is all the more likely because women are leaving Christianity faster than men. The first explanation I ever heard against women clergy was that Jesus' disciples did not include women. We don't have much confirmation of that, only Bible stories written by men and recopied by men. I recall one of our Presbyterian pastors explain Jesus was much better for wom...

I read the book, For I Have Sinned, a couple of years ago and wrote about it. The book was recently reviewed and I enjoyed recalling my experience reading it. The book is sympathetic to the practice. The author experienced confessions. But he also recognizes it is not all that bad the practice has fallen in popularity and is done infrequently today.  It borders on the ridiculous that any law-abiding citizen would think he/she has an obligation to tell private secrets to a member of the clergy. Why considered clergy better than anyone else? The world of religion is a place full of weird ideas. The obvious part of this is priests who listened to and forgave sins of individuals in their folk did not confess to molesting children and having affairs with women while claiming to maintain celibacy. Probably Bishops who sent child busing priests to other parishes rather than to the police thought they were doing the right thing. There was no sin in protecting the reputation of the denomin...

To some Christians the hippy Jesus Movement never left and lives on. To others it is heresy. Then there are those who are not part of it but who think it holds the key to a new interest and success for the faith.  What is the Jesus Movement? I can only provide my understanding from people I have known and things I have read. It is a Jesus character different than the one most commonly referred to. The most common Jesus on Christian sites I read is a Jesus who believes the same things the writers on those sites believe. This Jesus condemns gays, trans and abortion. I've seen that Jesus on highway billboards. He holds a fetus in his hands and is crying. That Jesus referred to men and women, not men and men. Sin is big with that Jesus. The Hippy Jesus Movement Jesus is more laid back. This Jesus doesn't care if you are gay or trans or don't dress up for church. He accepts you as you are, does not judge. The Jesus Movement Jesus doesn't mention taking a bullwhip to the mone...

Among people I know personally and those I read about, a common theme in favor of Christianity and joining a church is, "It's good to be among people who care about you." Sociologists and pollsters follow this up with studies that conclude church members are happier and healthier. An article in the Salt Lake City paper is about an interview with someone who left the Mormon faith, and all faith, twenty years ago.  The Salt Lake City paper often has stories like this. The theme is there are Mormons who are critical of some aspects of the Mormon church. That's OK. What is not OK is to leave the denomination, it is not good for you. The link is a story like that.  The person in the link who left religion today laments not being part of a local church. He recalls running into someone from back in church life who reminded him of several stories from his youth. That he was so important to someone decades back that memories remain is something that probably does not exist in ...

The all-male clergy of the Catholic denomination has had a long-standing support. It's world-wide size is astounding. The same is true for the Southern Baptist Convention. It is the largest Protestant denomination. Smaller ones like Lutheran Missouri Synod was once big. When women became more powerful and less cooperative on taking the Number 2 spot, these denominations needed to do a 180. Because they did not, they are between a rock and a hard place. I don't need to tell readers Genesis told us Eve was the cause of The Original Sin. While it is said Jesus and Christianity are more equality owning than other religions, that does not forgive the Jesus character in the Bible from scolding his mother, telling his disciples to leave their wives and follow him around or having only guys on his team. Paul, like Jesus, was off and on about decent treatment of women.  Sometimes leaders in the faith proclaim they know "what it's all about." That is, they "know" ...