Posted inChristianity/Jesus Personal/Stories

I get a mysterious package. Ideas about it welcomed.

Almost everybody likes a good mystery. I sure do. My fiction book reading is almost entirely in the genre of spy/espionage/counterterrorism novels, which involve a lot of intrigue. So I thought I'd outsource to readers of this blog the contents of a mysterious package that arrived in the mail yesterday. If you have an idea about the meaning of what was sent to me, share it in a comment on this post. Here's the envelope I got.  What caught my attention right away was the address and return address both being my address. My razor-sharp mind concluded, Whoever sent this…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Businesses shouldn’t assume their customers are Christian

Before Thanksgiving my wife and I got a mailing from Kaufman Homes, a business here in Salem, Oregon.  We use Kaufman's Home Maintenance, a quarterly service where a Kaufman handyman guy checks a bunch of things in your house and does minor repairs as needed. I like that I no longer have to maneuver through the crawl space under our house to change the filters on our two heat pump air handlers. That was never fun, and it got less fun the older I became. What surprised us was the decidedly Christian message Kaufman Homes sent to their customers. This…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Radha Soami Satsang Beas

No, communion isn’t about the body and blood of Jesus

I speak from experience as a lapsed Catholic when I say that communion involves swallowing a wafer and some wine, not the body and blood of Jesus. OK, that experience was brief, since after I had my first communion, thankfully my mother let me decide whether to continue on to be confirmed as a Catholic -- which I definitely didn't want to do, since the black-clad nuns were scary, the mass was in Latin, the wood we had to kneel on was damn hard, and my Presbyterian boyhood friends got to enjoy their more pleasant Sunday School while I was…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Radha Soami Satsang Beas

Satan and Kal

Here's a guest blog post from Bob Russo, who sent this essay to me a while back. I recently discovered it in the depths of my email inbox, liked it, and asked Russo if it would be OK to share it on Church of the Churchless. He said, "sure." Enjoy some thoughts about Satan and Kal. "Kal" is how the so-called Negative Power is viewed by an Eastern religion, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), a branch of Sant Mat. Growing up within the crystalline and dualistic (heaven and hell; Jesus and Satan) landscape of Catholicism and having the Pope to…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Here’s a compelling story of how someone deconverted from Christianity

I love reading deconversion stories. It's hugely more interesting to learn how someone came to reject a religion, than how they embraced it. Here's a message I got from a person who used to be a devout Christian until they saw the light of rationality. What's fascinating is how they used the Bible to come to a conviction that Christianity didn't make sense. I also liked how they discovered what happened after they deconverted. Nothing bad, though this is what preachers claimed would happen. Actually, this person says they are happier now in a number of ways.  So don't hesitate…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

Two examples of how religion is screwing up George Floyd protests

Here in the United States it's been great to see so many people protesting the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on Floyd's neck for about nine minutes while he was saying, "I can't breathe." Of course, this is just the latest person of color who has been killed by police for no good reason. Black Lives Matter protests have been going on years, but I'm hopeful our country finally is sending a clear message to police that the unjust killings have to stop.  Many people of faith have been taking part…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Jesus’ blood won’t save you from COVID-19. Not on Easter. Not ever.

Since I don't believe in god -- the Christian god or any other god -- today being Easter meant exactly nothing to me. I "celebrated," using that word extremely broadly, by finishing up some field mowing that I started several days ago, and wrote about yesterday on one of my other blogs in The poetry of field mowing in the coronavirus era. My wife had an online Zoom meeting of the atheist group that she leads at noon today. I didn't take part, but I listened to some of the discussion, which included talk about how some churches are continuing…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Morality

Sexy Super Bowl halftime show wasn’t liked by Christian fundamentalist

Over on my HinesSight blog I addressed the all-important question of whether last Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show was too sexualized. Check out my post, "Sexy Super Bowl halftime show by J. Lo and Shakira offends some, but not me." Here's how it starts out: Call me courageous -- Brian, you're so brave! -- but I've got to take an outspoken stand on yesterday's Super Bowl halftime show featuring Jennifer Lopez, a.k.a. J. Lo, and Shakira. I am unabashedly in favor of beautiful women wearing as little as possible during a musical performance, and dancing in a sexually provocative manner.…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus God

Do you believe Jesus was the Son of God?

It's Christmas day here in the United States. Seems like a good time to put up a poll about Jesus' divinity. Finally, a post from an Oregon blogger will settle the question! (In my dreams.)  Feel free to leave a comment on this post if you want to expand on your poll answer, which is anonymous, of course. Do you believe Jesus was the Son of God?    
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

Christianity Today editorial about Trump also applies to religious leaders

During the fifteen years I've been blogging away here at the Church of the Churchless, I've mentioned the evangelical magazine Christianity Today twice in my posts -- here and here.  Not surprisingly, in both cases I disagreed with what Christianity Today had to say.  But yesterday Christianity Today published an opinion piece whose conclusions I heartily agree with. Namely, that President Donald Trump deserves to be impeached and removed from office for his immoral behavior. Way to go! It's great to see an evangelical standing up for what most Christians supposedly believe in: honesty, respect, truthfulness, selfless service, dedication to…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Musings of an ex-Christian atheist

Here's another email I got from a guy I correspond with regularly. I always enjoy his messages. This time it is about the irritating nature of fundamentalist Christians, plus some right-on observations about the Bible. Enjoy. Hey Brian, how are you? I’m… ok. As always, I enjoyed your latest post. This part really stood out to me: “Atheists like me have seen through the trickery. We're no longer willing to play the God Game. We have no patience with those who promise salvation after death. We recognize the con job being promulgated by religious leaders who lust after money and power…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

Trump is guarded by angels. His re-election is assured. Supposedly.

Wow, if true this tweet by Lana Puckett would be depressing news for progressives like me who detest Donald Trump. I emailed the tweet to myself after I saw mention of it in a separate tweet by George Conway, a fierce critic of Trump despite his wife being a senior advisor to Trump. This is what Conway said about Puckett's tweet: "um, remind me who the patron saint of porn-star payoffs is again" It looks like Conway got the last word, because Puckett's tweet has been deleted and her Twitter account suspended. She used the Twitter name of @Mariamedia7777. So…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Gay rights

Salem City Council says “NO” to LGBTQ rights

Last Monday night I learned that it isn't only religious fundamentalists who don't care about the rights of LGBTQ people. (Since this blog is read by people all around the world, some of whom may not be familiar with that term, it's an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning.) I was deeply irritated when the Salem City Council voted 6-1 to approve a lease with the Salem Alliance Church for use of a church-owned building as a temporary public library while renovations are being made to the library at the Civic Center. This has been a fascinating issue…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Gay rights

Great that Christians are accepting homosexuality as normal

We've come a long way toward accepting LGBTQ people here in the United States. But there's a lot that still remains to be done, largely because of archaic Christian religious attitudes based on pre-scientific notions thousands of years old, now hugely outdated. An email I got recently gives me hope, though. Read on... Hey Brian, I saw the post about the Salem library wanting to use the church property as a temporary place while renovations take place.  Hmmm… It’s interesting to look back and see how much my values and opinions have changed. Growing up in the heart of the Bible…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Anti-gay church shows absurdity of religious belief

Over on one of my other blogs, Salem Political Snark, I've been writing about an ill-considered plan by city officials here in Salem, Oregon to pay the Salem Alliance Church to use a building the church owns as a temporary home for the public library while renovations are being made. You can read why the Salem Human Rights Commission unanimously voted to oppose this idea in my post, "Human Rights Commission rejects plan for library to use church building."  Why? Because the Salem Alliance Church holds to the archaic view that same-sex marriage and same-sex sex are sins. So their…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

An ex-Christian talks about the uselessness of prayer

Here's another churchless guest "sermon" from someone who regularly emails me descriptions of his now religious-less life, after belonging to a fairly fundamentalist Christian denomination. Enjoy. He's a good writer with an appealingly honest style. Hey Brian, how are you?  I’m ok.  I’m just getting over a short bout of the flu.  I almost said, thank God it was a short bout. I am thankful for that fact, but it’s funny how the God stuff still hangs around.  We’ve talked about this before, but it’s interesting to me what still slips into my mind from my religious past.  Sometimes it’s…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Politics

Praying shouldn’t be part of government meetings

My wife, Laurel, is an avid atheist -- even more so in some respects than I am. She started a MeetUp group here in Salem, Oregon: Freethinking Atheists of Salem. Here's the description of the group. Are you too logical/rational to believe in religions, conspiracy theories, and beliefs not supported by modern science, yet miss the fellowship church-goers enjoy? Let's meet up monthly for coffee to converse with like-minded people who also share minority status as "nonbelievers" in a predominantly religious believing world. Let's share what we learn about science, the challenges of being atheists, and support each other in…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Jesus without Christianity makes a lot of sense

Wow. Atheist me is sharing a USA Today opinion piece about Jesus. That's because the only problem I have with Jesus is his connection with Christianity. Take that away, and we're left with the teachings of a regular human being. This assumes, of course, that Jesus actually existed, and the New Testament contains at least a somewhat accurate description of what Jesus said and did -- two debatable assumptions. Nonetheless, I like the general thrust of this opinion piece. I've added some comments on it in red.  Jesus doesn't need Christianity. His example is powerful without any religion at all.Tom Krattenmaker, Opinion columnist…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus

Christian weirdness: same-sex sex considered a sin

Following up on my previous post, "Churches shouldn't be able to discriminate against gays," yesterday I wrote another post on my Salem Political Snark blog about how a sermon given by the Salem Alliance Church lead pastor said in no uncertain terms that same-sex sex goes against the grain of God. I transcribed part of a podcast of  a sermon given by Pastor Steve Fowler in 2016 sermon and shared it in the post (Boldfacing is mine, obviously.) This is how Fowler supported his conclusion about the sinfulness of same-sex sex. When Adam and Eve have sex, it is not…
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Posted inChristianity/Jesus Fundamentalism

Christian missionary killed by remote tribe shows idiocy of religion

So, here's a quiz for you. Someone learns about an island inhabited by about 50-100 members of a tribe that has had very little contact with civilization. The nation that the island is a part of has decreed that no outsiders are to set foot on the island. One reason is that the tribe members lack immunity to many diseases common in the outside world, so they could be decimated by contact with outsiders. Should this person:(A) Give up any idea of visiting the island. (B) Sneak onto the island with the intention of changing the tribe over to their way…
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