Pope Francis may not have changed anything as far as rigid Catholic doctrine goes but he has been outspoken about the problems of inequality and the need to improve the conditions of the poor, and this is an area where he can take action without contravening entrenched dogma.
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One of the worst aspects of most religions is that it lays down major guilt trips on people. It does this by making people believe that that a whole range of things (thoughts as well as actions) that we would consider normal are actually sinful, then it postulates an omniscient being who knows everything including those thoughts, and then promises a lifetime in hell for those who transgress. True, it allows for absolution for those who grovel appropriately but it surely must be keeping people in doubt as to whether they have groveled enough to avoid eternal damnation.
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I was surprised to hear a report on NPR by Blake Farmer about the meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptists compete with the Catholic church for being the Christian sect that most stridently opposes equal rights for the LGBT community. But the report quoted some pastors at the meeting who shocked the audience into silence by saying that it was time to tone down the anti-gay rhetoric when other problems such as divorce were much more important moral issues.
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A recent Pew poll surveyed voters’ attitudes about a range of qualities of people and what would make them more likely to vote for, less likely and indifferent. It turns out that for voters, being an atheist is the least desirable quality in a candidate for elected office, with 53% saying that they were less likely to vote for an atheist, while 41% said it would not matter and just 5% saying it would make them more likely.
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There had been many complaints that the US military and the Air Force in particular showed preference for Christianity and even allowed senior officers to openly proselytize and discriminate against non-Christians. In response, a regulation was promulgated that bars senior officers from “the actual or apparent use of their positions to promote their religious convictions to their subordinates.” That seems reasonable, right?
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It turns out that when people are asked by phone about the regularity of their attendance at religious services, they report higher figures than when they are asked on the internet. It is speculated that the internet with its anonymity creates a greater willingness to tell the truth. According to the survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute:
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Colleen Simon is a Lutheran who has spent decades as a Catholic, drawn to that church by its social work mission. She was the coordinator of social work ministries at St. Francis Xavier Church in Kansas City and spent years encouraging food donations from the congregation and seeing that it was efficiently distributed to the needy. Her devotion to this work was highlighted in a profile in the Kansas City Star and that’s when she got into trouble.
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Satanists have certainly been busy recently, making their presence felt everywhere. The Harvard Extension School Cultural Studies Club, a student group affiliated with Harvard University, announced its intention to stage a Black Mass conducted by members of the New York Satanic Temple, the same group behind the proposed Oklahoma monument.
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One of the main functions of many religions is to control people’s sexuality. They hate the idea that men and women may have sexual lives that are not under the control of the usually male leaders of the religions and many of the rules and taboos that religions promote can be traced back to this desire to make sure that women especially not have that freedom.
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