Thoughts of a Freethinker

This weekend there was yet another article on a large Christian site reporting on the decline in Christian numbers. Like some others the study was conducted and written, not by a group hostile to Christianity, but by an evangelical organization. For some reason it is now in style or popular for Christian organizations to make glum reports about what is happening to Christianity. While it is laudable these Christians truthfully report what the declining numbers they never go very far into the bigger question, why? When we look at the history of where Christianity came from, how it got so large and why it is declining, it no doubt is painful to discuss what happened.   Many observers argue the lucky break for Christianity was the conversion of the Roman pagan dictator Constantine to Christianity. Constantine ruled the Roman Empire from 306 to 337 CE.  If Constantine had remained pagan, or had converted to some other religion, would Christianity ever spread across the globe?...

Ross Douthat, a columnist in the New York Times, wrote a long article a while back about the drifting nature of Catholic ideology. It seemed to me to represent much of Protestantism as well.  A friend of ours who is a practicing Catholic said the adult lives of her several children and their children is much different than was hers. Her life centered on church life. Events at the church and friends at the church were front and center. There were not many other things going on in her life. Some of her children do not affiliate with any church. Those that do slip it into their lives whenever there is room but it is not a high priority. They attend occasionally but not much more than that. The center of their lives are other things and other issues. Her observations were something of a metaphor for Douthat's article. Big sections of all branches of Christianity are drawn to issues outside of theology and the social life of the faith. In the Catholic branch we have those preoccupied wi...

I came across an article from 2015 that challenged Christians as to the source of their version of Christianity. While the issues have changed somewhat in the six years since it was written, the thrust of the article remains valid today.  The U.S. version of Christianity, with a few exceptions, is based on current fetishes of the Republican Party. The fetishes mostly involved moral dislikes of conservative people.  Back in 2015, the moral world was predicted to collapse is gay marriage became approved. During that period of time denominations were splintering over the issue. The Methodists are still dividing up the spoils of what was once a huge denomination. There was too much religious buffoonery back in 2015. That the Methodist Church is splitting up over gay preachers and gay marriage tells us there it still too much buffoonery.  Today, the buffoonery is about people who change their gender. People have done this since the beginning of time. All of a sudden, it's the...

I look forward to reading columns in the New York Times by Ross Douthat. He is a converted Catholic. He writes a lot about the Catholic Church and, to me at least, sees the Catholic Church as an outsider sees it. Today's column speculates on whether the future Catholic Church will be more liberal or less.  Douthat notes the Catholic Church has been going through cycles that mimic France of the 1700's. France went through revolutions followed by counter revolutions. People became uncertain what was coming next. None of those revolutions or counter revolutions, however, predicted the France of today. Today's France came from events of the more recent history. Douthat reviews the past few decades of his church. There was a Pope in the 1960's who was determined to modernize it. Out went many traditions including Latin Mass. In came guitars. Then a couple of recent Popes, one was the previous Benedict, dumped the modern and tried to bring back the old. Now Francis sees these...

Word has it a mega church has inked an agreement with Face Book to advertise its message, collect funds and split them with FB. We will see many more of these church advertisements of FB, I am guessing. And, why not. It's a money win win. It is interesting to observe how fast parts of Christianity adapt to some things but are unable for others. I remember when I was a farm boy listening to my uncle talk in our church. He was visiting back in the Midwest while a missionary in Alaska. He praised our church, also his own, because it did not have syncopation in its music. Decades later I watched Pat Robertson say sinful church music had a "strong base beat." These two were run over not long after by electric guitars, driving rhythm and screens. Now the concert style church with mostly music and short sermons is the deal. The irony is that many churches who encounter God in this rock setting are unable to be contemporary about women's and gay rights. New technology for tal...

I remember the first time I heard the narrative we are all broken souls and in need of being helped. It was a told to me by a Pentecostal elected colleague. He told me he wanted to see our entire city come to the realization we are all broken souls and unit together in accepting the salvation of Jesus. I was dumbfounded and did not know what to say. I had never heard this particular interpretation of reality even in my childhood evangelical church.  Reading a review of a book written by a deep Christian I was taken back to that conversation. The case made by the Christian was that one not should go around asking for evidence of a god or questioning the historicity of the Bible. The evidence and historicity does not exist and there is no point in looking for it. Instead, we are to acknowledge Christians are required to believe and get on with it. The book author argues that people who leave the faith were never believers in the first place. If they had been genuine Christians they ...

To understand why a growing portion of us here in the U.S. and in Europe are sliding away from Christianity it is helpful the review parts of the Bible. The part one could say is most central to the faith is the crucifixion and Resurrection of the main character, Jesus. When one reviews the four versions of the crucifixion it is so obvious they were embellished over time for propaganda value. The propaganda message was Jews are the villains. In the first Gospel written, Mark, Pilate asked Jesus if he is the King of the Jews. Jesus says nothing. Then Pilate goes to a crowd, we don't know why there is a crowd there, and asks the Jews. The Jews say to kill him. it seems unrealistic the person sent to run the country for the Romans asks the crowd such a question. Pilate has no reason to be popular, no elections there. The next Gospel written was Matthew. That version is about the same except a little item is added to raise the tension. Pilate's wife passes a note telling Pilate Jes...