Thoughts of a Freethinker

Mostly when I read articles by religious writers I find myself silently scoffing. But once in a while there is one so good it jumps out at me. This one is by a university president who is searching for a way to make Christianity relevant today. The first task, of course, is to correctly identify what has gone wrong. The link found a lot of what most of us would call "group think" in the politics of clergy in the U.S. It was present during the period of the War of Independence, clergy preaching uniformly that independence was the message of the faith and being a colony of England was not. Sermons, he found, were all but 100% in agreement about this. The logical question we have today is, looking back, what does the faith have to do with the War of Independence? He discusses several writers and personalities in religion who were able to separate themselves from the political group think of their trade. The one in my lifetime was Billy Graham. Billy honeyed up to politicians and...

A new survey says the number of Christians who believe the Holy Spirit exists is down to one in ten. It makes sense people don't believe it exists because it is something completely manufactured by the large number of people who have been paid to make things up in religion. An author/Baptist preacher friend of mine, now deceased Howard Bess, who continued to study the Bible all his life said he never really understood what was meant by the term "Holy Spirit."  The Holy Spirit is, most have heard, one of the three in "The Trinity." Yet, the Bible never states there is a "Trinity." So, what is the "Holy Spirit" and how did it become such a big deal? Further, how did this thingy which has been so big in the faith now become so small? Here is an outsider's (me) explanation. During the centuries when the stories and myths that eventually became the Bible was circulating, there was a lot of superstition. Still today a black cat crossing in fron...

  I've always been suspicious of those who pray in front of others. Why is it necessary?  One of the most obvious acts of prayer as performance is done at abortion clinics. People shout prayers that tell women going to doctor's appointments in these clinics are "murdering their babies." Now there are teachers in schools going through the motions associated with prayer in front of their students where prayer in school is not allowed. They are defending it as "freedom of speech." We all know people who simply cannot understand why they cannot make everyone else around them know they are Christian. It is an uphill battle for them to master the rules or to see things from a different perspective.  It is concerning, however, to see how blind the public is to injustice and how hard it is for it to become recognized. Slavery remained legal for some 400 years. Segregation and Christian prayers in schools went on for 100 years after that. Today we have to wonder if o...

Trump likes prosperity gospel preachers, especially blond women like Rev. Paula White. Paula announced that those who give her $1,000 before Passover will receive bounty in return. One can anticipate that in the coming days we will hear of someone who sent her $1,000 and the next day a rich aunt died and left $2,000. The script is an old one. It is not the worst script in all of Christianity, however. Following Paula's, and other prosperity preacher's scripts, the rich aunt and her $2,000 was so unusual there has never been anything like it. It had to be the prayed-for miracle. The thing is, the aunt actually died and left her two grand. Even though the two events had no connection they actually happened. The other promise made every day is that so and so died and is in heaven and you too will be there when you die. This one is worse. We don't know that anyone is in heaven. I'm trying to compare the ethics of the prosperity gospel and that of other "success" s...

I suppose there have always been cafeteria Protestants, Jews and Catholics. They are also referred to as Protestants (Catholics, Jews) "in name only." It seems like that makes all of them Pagans. Pagans had a different god in every town. The link is about "cafeteria Jews." When one thinks about it, the Orthodox Jew seems to make bigger sacrifices to follow that branch of the faith than does most any branch of Catholics or Protestants. It's an all or nothing world. The lost Orthodox Jew has died in the eyes of her parents.  The irony is the devout in any faith who hold their noses high and look down on others who are casual followers, the cafeteria group, are making a mistake. The devout should be grateful the cafeteria group stays in their group at all.  At atheist gatherings people share their background in religion. Once the shine is off the faith, there is the choice to stay in and enjoy the friendships made over time as well as relatives and just participate...

Since the beginning of recorded history there have been people killing other people over religion. There are two schools of thought about the ability of humans to navigate life together on this planet. One is they are getting better at it, the other there is no progress. When one reads about killing over religion still going on around the world the latter , no progress, seems most accurate. Certainly marriage across branches of Christianity and other faiths has increased as has inter racial marriage. We can put that in the "plus" column. When I was growing up in rural Iowa neither of these was considered acceptable. Yet, taboos continue in other places.  I recall going to a high school graduation night near my home town. The speaker was a prominent faculty member in a Department of Religion at one of the universities in the state. He told of a couple, one Catholic the other Protestant, who wanted to marry and came to visit him. "I had to tell them," he said, "R...

There are several Mormons and former Mormon women writing these days about their treatment by the denomination. They are symbolically patted on the head by church leaders and told how much they are appreciated then set in their proper place. With Catholics, it is often pointed out, there is this "fundamental difference" between the genders. Women have babies, they say. From that, the conclusion is made women cannot be clergy.    I recall decades ago there was a well-known Mormon at the time came from Washington DC to Fargo Moorhead to tell her story of speaking up about injustice in the denomination--I don't recall her name just now. She told of being invited to speak at a congressional hearing near her home in DC. After her testimony, a Moorman Senator cleared his voice and addressed her in a tone of voiced she had heard all of her life. Something like, "Mrs. Jones, we appreciate your life as a Mormon wife and your knowledge of how important wives can be to the live...