Thoughts of a Freethinker

The title here is satire of Christians. It is different, however, because it was published by a Christian blogger and is satire of herself and other Christians. She is referring to the absolute certainty much of the faith has in its own opinions. As she says, all Christians look at themselves "in a mirror dimly lit." It would be easy to say, "Why don't all these groups unit under one banner of the ultimate truth? Then the faith would be on the move." That is impossible because there are many millions of Christians. Each person has his/her own version of the truth. As I harp about here on and on, religion is created by cultures. Even after a culture creates a god each person modifies the god to approve of that person. The phrase, "My God" is not hypothetical, it is operational.  What's fun about politics is that candidates are often pushed to reveal their religious beliefs. We've learned from several Republicans their "beliefs" are cal...

My wife taught Sociology for decades and sometimes would come home amused at the moral values and attitudes her students revealed. One was from a classroom exercise she did. She would draw three big circles on the black board. She asked students to list in one all the favorable traits a student should have to be likeable, popular and accepted. Another circle was for traits that were less favorable but not deal breakers. A third circle was for taboos, traits the shunned a student to outside accepted circles. Students would enthusiastically make suggestions for the good traits, maybe one or so to the mild less desirable circle. After a while, professor would say, "What about this one? Should it go in circle three?" She would dramatically write the word, "GAY." Most students back then would vote for circle three. Some would say nothing. Of course, today the exercise would go much differently.  One place the circle exercise would still work is in today's Christian r...

I'm sure many of our large denominations now have task forces that are charged with developing a strategy to stop losses in membership. But, I'm skeptical as to how much those in the home office actually want to know.  A religious survey organization, the Barna Group, has contracted with the denomination of the Church of God in Christ for an in depth look at the thoughts and attitudes of members. I'll be trying to follow this and figure out what is found. In the meantime, it's interesting to speculate about what those in the pews are thinking. Certainly, we have seen large denominations split up over the gay marriage issue. The Methodist is the most recent. While early on, there was one new domination that attracted those Methodists who believed gay marriage a sin. More liberal Methodists drifted in different directions, some unaffiliated and some forming new smaller denominations. Now, apparently, some of the conservative churches are not all signing up with the new br...

I've discussed the economics of religion here often. In a pod cast recently a pastor in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod discussed how helpful his classes in economics have been for understanding what is going on today in Christianity. For some years, surveys have shown that those who attend church regularly tend to be college educated and in the upper middle to higher income brackets. Those who can be seen entering church are the same people entering the golf Country Club and Tennis Club. Why is this and how did it come to be? Often when I have discussed money and some of the faithful have angerly told me the faith is not about making money. There are those mega preachers, they say, who take in huge sums for themselves but that is not the neighborhood church where the pastor received a salary just adequate to support him/herself they tell me. I try to point out, unsuccessfully most of the time, the rich TV preacher and small church preacher are the same. Each has to be supported...

One economic aspect of Christianity has worked against it since its early years. That is the church building and paid clergy. Normally, most of the building is used a very few hours a week and a preacher can work only a few hours a week. A large amount of collection plate money goes into a bottomless financial pit.  Religions that give people whatever they need but don't require either a building or a paid preacher will always have a competitive advantage. A competitive product at a lower cost will outsell others. All the major religions of the world try to beat back the lower cost competition by claiming to be monopolies. They preach, "Only our religion is the true one. Only our god(s) is the real one." To be successful, any monopoly needs to have natural or manmade "barriers to entry." Sometimes a monopoly owns the only place something is mined. Diamonds are sort of like that. Other times the public passes laws creating monopolies such as your electric company...

I've been looking at video material related to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). It not a particularly important denomination nor especially interesting. For some reason, however, I've found a lot of YouTube videos reflecting on the question I'm interested in, what is the future of Christianity? To its credit LCMS has several young preachers recognizing the failure and sharp decline in the size of their domination. Also, however, it has old white men bound and determined to do nothing and change nothing.  From what I read elsewhere, the falling memberships and disagreements about what is happening and what the future might hold in the LCMS is quite similar in the majority of both the Protestant and Catholic branches. I was especially impressed by an interview with a retired faculty member from a LCMS seminary. The question being addressed in the video was why LCMS membership has dropped so much and what can be done about it. The professor reviewed our changing soci...

Russell Moore held a big position in the Southern Baptists. He was pushed out for telling the truth. Now he is head of the magazine Christianity Today  and has written a new book. Moore says many devoted Christians are waiting for things to get better. If only we get through this worrisome 2016 election, then 2020 they thought, things would get better.  Church membership and attendance continued to fall.  Every week there are articles written by Christian leaders calling for a "revival." This revival, Moore says, will not happen because the sensuism in Western societies is too great.   There have been so many fallen leaders and fallen causes a most of society will not buy in again. It would be refreshing if other leaders would be as honest as Moore and tell their public this is not going to happen. Then there is the theory of "church plants." This theory quotes data saying that about 40% of new church attendees are people who did not attend church. Of course, is mea...