When Churches "Do good things," Does it Bring Converts



The newspaper, Desert News, in Salt Lake City carries a lot of baggage for the Momon denomination. Today it published a piece originating from a Christian group that claims Nones, those who poll they are of no religion, are impressed with Christianity when they are told of Christian groups helping the poor and responding to disasters. The message is Christianity will do better with the public if it shows up doing good deeds.

Lots of the Protestant Christian right has argued on this site that good deeds are of no interest to God. Jesus said on the cross, "Believe in me." He didn't add, "...and do good works." The Catholic branch is big on good works. It's a toss up.

That doing good works and letting the public know about them will bring reverse the decline of the faith seems doubtful. A majority of those 16 to 30 something is disgusted with the right's condemnation of gays and abortion. I can't imagine hordes of them saying, "Yes, they condemn our child but they do good works. Count me in." Not going to happen. 

It is the negative demonization that is important, not the good works. The Christian group that did the link study pointed out to nones the good works the faith performs. From what is reported, it did not point out the demonization of gays, trans and abortion along with the good works. Only by addressing these shortfalls can anything be learned from such an experiment.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ancient God, Bel (Baal), the Main Character in an Ancient Play

Image
In a British museum is a preserved stone tablet from Babylon. It dates to about 2,000 BCE. Someone labored patiently to inscribe an entire passion play featuring the god Bel. I reiterate this is a stone tablet, not a recopied papyrus. The play begins with the god Bel arrested by soldiers and taken off the stage. He reappears at a trial in the Hall of Judgement. Bel is innocent but is sentenced to death. In the next scene Bel is accosted by a mob. He is despised and rejected. The actor playing Bel is then taken by guard to a hilltop in a sacred grove. Two criminals are taken with him. One of these is released. The the audience then leaves the theater and follows the actor Bel and his guards to the top of a hill where the death scene is enacted by hanging from a tree. The audience returns to the theater for the dramatic final scenes. The dead Bel is stripped and prepared for burial. On a theatrical hill to the side of the stage is a tomb where the body is placed. A stone is rolle...
Read more

What Was the "Argument" in the Election

Image
I hate to add my blog to the piles of blogs and pundits analyzing and pondering the meaning of the just passed election. But that's what I feel like doing today. I've always like Senator Ted Cruz's summary of politics. He once said, "First, win the argument. Then, win the election." I think there is a way of applying that to anti abortion Catholics and Protestants. The link talks of Catholics who now feel they have no political home because Republicans let them down with Trump but they remain against abortion rights. Taking Cruz's win-the-argument thesis, I'd call the past election about an argument between two groups. One group's argument was, "Trump's a jerk." The other's argument was, "Abortion is wrong." The group, "Trump's a jerk," won the argument and then the election.  While one can argue the election, or any election, it about more complex issues, I believe in the end elections hinge on very simple ar...
Read more

Will We Ever Know How Accurate Current Bibles Are

Image
When I discuss the many times the Bible was copied and recopied by scribes over a couple of thousand years, the reply is often, "I have a book by this (or that) expert who says the Bible is 99% accurate to its original writers." The 99% claim appears in various places defending the Bible. There is one thing we know absolutely: There is no surviving original copy of the Bible. Even the oldest surviving material is a generation or two after the time some of the Bible was written. This means no one can claim he has, or ever will, compare the current Bible to the original Bible and find the two are 99% the same. We cannot claim either that it is not 99% accurate. For the sake of discussion, however, assume the current Bible is 99% accurate. That would mean the one word out of every 100 was inaccurate. It could still mean an important misreading of the original text. An example is the passage referring to punishment for a man who kills a fetus. In the oldest know materia...
Read more