![\"A](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/05\/800px-Tintern_Abbey_and_Courtyard.jpg\")
<\/a>(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo by Saffron Blaze)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Religious disaffiliation is a problem (from my perspective) that interests and challenges me. \u00a0Perhaps it even represents an opportunity, if approached in the right way. \u00a0Here are a few links that are relevant to it:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Pew Research Center: \u00a0\u201cAround the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions: Surveys in 36 countries find that Christianity and Buddhism<\/a> have the biggest losses from \u2018religious switching\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n
- The Jerusalem Post:<\/em> \u00a0\u201cNearly a quarter of Americans raised Jewish have left the religion, survey says: The study surveyed \u201creligious switching\u201d around the world, and found that significant percentages of people raised in religious homes in the US and internationally are now not religious.\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n
- Christianity Today<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cMost Who Switch Religions End Up with None: Global study finds Christian decline, especially in high-income countries.\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n
- Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201c28% of U.S. adults have switched religions since childhood. Here\u2019s how other countries compare: The majority of the movement highlighted in Pew\u2019s study involved leaving organized religion behind\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n
- Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cPerspective: Gen Z is starved for spirituality. That\u2019s reason for hope: 2 years after the \u2018Asbury Revival\u2019 broke out on my campus, there\u2019s evidence of a resurgence in faith\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n
- Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cThe great awakening: Why younger generations are giving faith a chance\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n
- Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cA resurgence of faith among men is changing the religious gender gap: Women are still more religious, but young American men are leading to drive to catch up\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n
- And, from the invaluable Ryan Burge: \u00a0\u201cWho are filling up the pews? Highly educated parents. \u00a0And state level estimates of religious attendance, too!\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Irish](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/03\/Celtic_cross_Knock_Ireland.jpg\")
<\/a>A sunrise in Ireland (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Some may want to put this on their calendars: \u00a0\u201cBYU Easter Conference\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"fkjsdlkfsdjlapwiefjowijfaoeff\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2023\/02\/1600px-Nuuanu_Pali-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Many visitors to Oahu have looked down from the cliffs of the Koolau Range, as seen from the Nuuanu Pali Lookout.(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Over at the Peterson Obsession Board a couple of months ago, the prolific poster who calls himself Dumb-Dud (or, anyway, something very like that) announced that he had discovered that I\u2019m a relatively decent human being who has friends, and so forth, and that, based on that astonishing insight, he would no longer be devoting so much time and effort to attacking me in the future.<\/p>\n
His resolution lasted for approximately five or six hours, and he\u2019s been back at business as usual ever since. \u00a0Earlier today, he summarized the results of the several years of study that he\u2019s dedicated to me: I refuse to read, I refuse to learn, I merely repeat well-worn and often irrelevant slogans and have become a rather tiresome parody of myself.<\/p>\n
At least one other researcher at the Obsession Board has independently performed the same analysis as Dumb-Dud, and has endorsed his conclusions. \u00a0And it\u2019s simply inconceivable that they\u2019re both wrong. \u00a0So I have a question for the folks who read this blog with any degree of regularity: \u00a0What\u2019s wrong<\/em> with you? \u00a0How have you been able to endure<\/em> my repetitive and deliberately uninformed blathering?<\/p>\n
![\"Looking](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2025\/03\/Hilo.jpg\")
<\/a>A 2006 aerial view of Hilo Bay by KanoaWithington at the English-language Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n We woke up this morning on Hilo Bay, which is sometimes called \u201cthe tsunami capital of the United States.\u201d \u00a0Why? \u00a0It\u2019s because the bay\u2019s topography or shape steers tsunamis into Hilo from distant earthquakes.\u00a0<\/sup> On 1 April 1946, a tsunami generated by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands killed between 165 and 173 people in Hilo Bay.\u00a0<\/sup> On 23 May 1960, another tsunami, this one originating in that year\u2019s Valdivia earthquake in Chile (apparently, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded), killed 61 people in Hilo. \u00a0The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was established largely as a result of those two tsunamis.<\/p>\n
The Big Island was shrouded almost completely in clouds as we ascended out of Hilo International Airport, but two enormous mountains rose up out of the fog. \u00a0I\u2019m assuming that they were Mauna Loa and Kilauea \u2014 two of the five volcanoes that created the island. \u00a0(The others are Kohala, Mauna Kea, and Hual\u0101lai.)<\/p>\n
We landed in Honolulu and, after dropping off our luggage at our hotel, we paid a visit to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, sometimes called \u201cthe Arlington of the Pacific,\u201d in the crater of the Punchbowl. \u00a0It\u2019s a powerful place. \u00a0A solemn place. \u00a0I think that I still remember my first visit to it at the age of five. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t help but think of one modern president\u2019s response to Arlington National Cemetery itself on Memorial Day some years ago. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t get it,\u201d he is supposed to have remarked to the former four-star general who would shortly become his White House chief of staff and whose own son, killed in Afghanistan at the age of twenty-nine, was buried near where they stood. \u00a0\u201cWhat was in it for them?\u201d<\/p>\n
From the Punch Bowl, we drove up to the Nu\u02bbuanu Pali, which offers a spectacular overlook down onto the other side of the island from Honolulu. Nu\u02bbuanu Pali was also the site of the Battle of Nu\u02bbuanu, one of the bloodiest military encounters in Hawaiian history. \u00a0Having already sailed from his home island of Hawai\u2019i to conquer Maui and Moloka\u2019i, \u00a0Kamehameha I (aka \u201cKamehameha the Great\u201d) invaded the island of O\u02bbahu. \u00a0The pivotal battle for the island occurred in May 1795 in Nu\u02bbuanu Valley, where the island\u2019s defenders were driven back up into the valley, trapped above the cliff, and then forced by Kamehameha\u02bbs warriors to fall to their deaths. Approximately 400 warriors died in the battle.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never understood why Kamehameha is called \u201cthe Great,\u201d nor why his name and his statues show up all over Hawai\u2019i. \u00a0Yes, he unified Hawai\u2019i under a single ruler. \u00a0But for what? \u00a0Simply because he wanted to own all of the islands? \u00a0Why? \u00a0Did he have progressive new ideas to help people? \u00a0Didn\u2019t he have enough poi to eat? \u00a0Was his grass-hut palace on the Big Island too small? \u00a0How many people had to die for him to gratify his pointless ambition? \u00a0Why, again, do we call such men \u201cgreat\u201d? \u00a0I\u2019ll bet that there\u2019s a different standard in heaven for greatness. \u00a0And there should be a different one on Earth, as well.<\/p>\n
On a much more positive note: \u00a0We bought our dinner on Saturday evening from Adela\u2019s Country Eatery<\/a> in Kaneohe. \u00a0I recommend it very, very highly. \u00a0However, you should know \u2014 we didn\u2019t \u2014 that it\u2019s a take-out place. \u00a0It\u2019s tiny, it was crowded, parking is difficult, and there is no place in it to sit and eat. No tables and no chairs. \u00a0We placed our order and then returned for it forty minutes later. \u00a0Had we known, we would have called our order in. \u00a0But, again, if you like noodle dishes and you\u2019re ever in the area, try Adela\u2019s Country Eatery. \u00a0(I have received no compensation for this commercial statement.)<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/08\/Welfare_Square_grain_silo.jpg\")
<\/a>The grain silo at Salt Lake City\u2019s Church-owned \u201cWelfare Square\u201d has been around for a long time. But Church humanitarian and philanthropic efforts have increased dramatically in recent decades. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n I don\u2019t think<\/em> that I\u2019ve already shared this horror from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122, so here it is: \u00a0\u201cAn inside view of how Latter-day Saint humanitarian aid spending happens and the impact it has:\u00a0The most important part of the annual \u2018Caring For Those in Need\u2019 report issued Tuesday by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> isn\u2019t the $1.45 billion it provided in 2024\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
Posted from Honolulu, O\u02bbahu, Hawai\u2019i<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Religious disaffiliation is a problem (from my perspective) that interests and challenges me. \u00a0Perhaps it even represents an opportunity, if approached in the right way. \u00a0Here are a few links that are relevant to it: Pew Research Center: \u00a0\u201cAround the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions: Surveys in 36 countries find that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":20482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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- The Jerusalem Post:<\/em> \u00a0\u201cNearly a quarter of Americans raised Jewish have left the religion, survey says: The study surveyed \u201creligious switching\u201d around the world, and found that significant percentages of people raised in religious homes in the US and internationally are now not religious.\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n