NowTHINK!AboutIt

Avoiding Hackneyed...Making Sense

Fundmentalism’s Biggest Flaw – Negativity

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Codifying beliefs is the equivalent of religious control.

It’s Only An Insecure Person
That Requires Everyone
To Believe The Same Things

Gallop Poll does a survey at the end of each year (End of Year Survey) to measure optimism about the coming year. They ask respondents if they think things will be better, worse or the same.

Compared to the past ten years expectations are low at the moment. According to Gallop, 29% believe 2025 will be more prosperous, 35% believe it will be economically difficult and 31% say it will be the same as the last 12 months.

That last category, the Same, is revealing because at present, confidence levels are at some of the lowest degrees of all time. Not the GOAT but the WOAT.

Expecting things to be the same is the equivalent of expecting things to be as dismal in the future as they’ve been in the recent past. What that means is a total of 66% of those responding had a bleak outlook. Things aren’t looking too good. Hope is generally not up.

And, of course, the question is why is that so? What’s contributing to the negative perception?

One answer would be the government (aka the President).

Nine years ago Obama was finishing his final term as President and things looked very good. There were naysayers and antagonists for sure, but public perception in general was at an all time high.

That period of positivity was followed by Trump and that’s when public perceptions (along with the economic realities we live with at the moment) began to slide. The slide continued until we are hovering at close to all time lows and according to Trump’s own words it will get even worse before it gets better.

In other words, the thing Biden worked really hard to avoid and did a fair job at curbing, Trump is not just embracing but provoking.

But Presidents aside, religion is to some degree guilty too. If you go to church regularly, you’re getting a consistent diet of philosophical negativity. Since fundamentalism is very much in league with the Trump movement, it is fair for us to look a little deeper. We need to understand the what and why of fundamentalism’s negative effects.

I know about this negativity because I played that roll for many years, decades even. [Read more…] about Fundmentalism’s Biggest Flaw – Negativity

10 Ways Religious Separation Is Not What You Thought

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The ultimate goal of separation is to engage the right thing, not avoid the wrong thing.

The Old Testament Altar
Was Holy
Not Sanitized

Every religion promotes some version of Separation and this isn’t unique to religion. Even social groups impose restrictions on their members. If you want to be a member, you must abide the rules.

With churches, the rules have a moral element. It usually involves a series of Can’t-Dos that aren’t just bad for the group but just bad, as in immoral. Things like you can’t go there or do that or wear that or eat that or say that or think that and so on.

Churches can’t legally tell you who to vote for but they usually find a way to make their opinions known.

As a rule we don’t like being told what we can and can’t do but once we’re convinced that following the rules makes us somehow acceptable, we acquiesce. Fitting in is important.

It’s also true that rules like this on a church level are tolerable because if you don’t like the restrictions in one, you can always move to another.

In recent years, though, religious restrictions have been creeping ever closer to the State level and that’s a problem. Once the State has fully incorporated religious rules, there’s no place you can go.

You don’t have to be religious to know what I’m talking about.

But my focus is not so much on the specific restrictions but the bad spirit they engender in adherents. The people who observe these rules “religiously” become very negative, critical and condemning toward those who don’t. Not just toward the people in the church but everyone. They consider their ideas the gold standard and anyone who falls short is not just different or wrong, but heretical.

History is full of examples. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union loudly protested the consumption of alcohol and played a significant role in establishing the 18th Amendment which prohibited the production, sale and consumption of alcohol for everyone. It went from church level to nationwide. No citizen was allowed to drink.

Christians aren’t the only ones guilty of this.

Some majority Muslim countries (Iran, Iraq, etc.) impose heavy social restrictions on their citizens, maintain distant (at best) relationships with other countries (even Muslim countries) and consider anyone who isn’t them, Satan.

The two groups are very different. They have little in common but one idea they share is their hatred for alcohol and both approached the issue with the same vehemence.

The symbol associated with the WCTU protest was the hatchet. Heart warming they were not.

Those are extreme examples but that same spirit is only just below the surface in many religious groups. When it comes to differences of opinions, religions manage relationships at some level of DefCon. If anyone questions the rules, attack-readiness rises several notches. [Read more…] about 10 Ways Religious Separation Is Not What You Thought

Religion Breeds Good And Bad Spirits In Adherents

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Both your mind and your attitude must be shaped by the teachings of Jesus.

Repentance Reflects Your Mindset
Not Your Knowledge

Before we begin, a clarification.

When I mention the word spirit, I’m not talking about a personal being, like the Holy Spirit or a demonic spirit or even the human spirit. I’m talking about attitude, perspective or outlook.

In a word, mindset.

Your personal spirit is the core of your being. Your attitude reveals which way your spirit is leaning. Attitude is the barometer of how well you’re doing spiritually.

Attitude and spirit are, of course, inalterably connected but they aren’t the same. When people cheer loudly and excitedly at sporting events, they are said to have lots of spirit but that expression of spirit is different to the personal spirit from which it derives in the same way thoughts are different to the brain.

I’m focused on your attitude, not your personal spirit. [Read more…] about Religion Breeds Good And Bad Spirits In Adherents

Catholicism Is More Bad Than Good

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The Lord's Supper can't make you Christian any more than Thanksgiving Dinner can make you American.

“Unworthy” Speaks To The Manner
In Which You Relate To Others
Not Your Nature

Catholicism is big. Put your finger anywhere on any map and you’ll land close to Catholic influence.

Unfortunately, that can be good or bad. Sometimes very bad.

Even as I write this I know some will balk because they know a few Catholics. They work with some. They are neighbors to others. They’ve heard about Mother Theresa and all these people left very good impressions. They’re good people. They do good things. They are pleasant, social, helpful and the like.

If that was all there was to the argument, enough said, let’s move on but it isn’t.

My arguments here are not aimed at the good Catholics you’ve come to love.

The truth I’m focused on is the fact that everyone has been influenced by the Catholic church. That includes you and me both.

I’m not saying you like them or not, that you agree or disagree. I’m saying that what you think, the way you think, has been in same way influenced by Catholic ideologies.

Catholic Influence Is Both Good And Bad

Influence isn’t necessarily wrong but in the case of the Catholic Church, influence is both negative and positive in every sense. They do good things on the one hand and then turn it into something bad on the other.

Doctrinally, they emphasize the name of Jesus often and loudly. That’s a good thing. They quote Scripture in their services and many of those quotes include the very words Christ spoke. Sometimes that’s all they do other than go through repetivite ceremonies with great fanfare and, of course, offer the sacraments.

The ceremonies don’t offer much in the way of explanation but the sacraments – Communion – are usually accompanied by Scripture which does provide a little understanding.

In every case, however, the simplicity of Scripture is skewed in a Catholic direction. [Read more…] about Catholicism Is More Bad Than Good

Six Realistic Facts About Church

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Church Should Never Be Associated With A Droning Avalanche Of Ritualized Ideas.

Once A Week Church
Is More Like Parole Than Worship

I don’t like the word ubiquitous but if ever there was a good time to use it, it is in reference to church.

Churches are everywhere, on every street corner, in every kind of building from cathedral to cardboard lean-to.

But what do we understand about church, really? What is the point of church? Is church something else other than how it’s been fashioned by centuries of human involvement? Has it been reduced to something less than what it could be or expanded to more than it should be? Have we narrowed the meaning and purpose?

To answer those questions, let’s talk facts.

Fact One: It’s Not A Place

This idea isn’t new. It’s been around a long time. In fact, it is so old it has died and resurrected several times. But it never changes.

Church is associated with a place, an address, a building, a cathedral but even those who agree that it isn’t any of those things still treat it like a place.

Almost all churches have contact details and own property. We spend more time and money giving people directions to church than we do giving them directions to God.

Going to church is a popular idea but it misses the point badly.

If anything, the church should be mobile, flexible, agile; ready and able to morph at a moments notice.

Fact Two: It’s Not A Service

Another word we associate with church is service, as in church service. And attending the service, like going to church, is another misleading concept.

Attending is neither an act of service nor a quality included on any list of virtues in the Bible. It isn’t one of the nine fruits of the Spirit.

The Bible does say we shouldn’t forsake the “assembling” of ourselves together but what exactly does that mean? Every Christian I know makes the assumption that the church service we attend weekly is what assembling refers to but maybe not.

Assembling is important, yes, but assembling and attending are not the same. There’s nothing ceremonial about assembling. It may or may not have a schedule.

Assembling is what friends and family do. They may set a time and a place for getting together but it’s not always a regular thing. Maybe this week, maybe not and when it happens, there’s interaction, fellowship, connection, caring, interest and concern.

That’s never been my experience in church.

Assembling is neither a church service nor a formality. People assemble for many things. Teaching is part of it but fellowship is always central. Church is where we practice loving the neighbor we don’t like.

Why do we call church get-togethers services? Because we can’t call them lectures. Someone preaches, teaches or shares in a church service, somewhat like a lecture, but that is not assembling. Assembling always involves fellowship, which is personal, church services have little of that.

In a lecture, there is accountability. In fellowship, it’s not needed. [Read more…] about Six Realistic Facts About Church