If you read the Bible daily, or weekly, or once a year or twice in your lifetime…someone taught you the skills you needed to do that. That someone was most likely a teacher. Someone taught you how to read. In a few cases, it will be a parent or some other person but in almost every case, you were taught to read by a teacher, a professionally trained, intuitive, caring, unselfish, and generous teacher. As I have stated many times,... Read more
There is an insidious cancer seeping quietly into everyday American life. It is the constant and relentless attack on Constitutional freedoms by radical and evil Christo-Fascists who would burn down the country and the world to prove a 2000-year-old failed prophecy. What does the “Justice of God” have to do with the U.S. in 2024? The God of Christianity and Judaism is most often described by two abstract, related concepts or states: mercy and justice. The priests and scribes who... Read more
You love your children. You raised them in church. You model the behavior you expect. You are active in their lives. You have a loving home. Yet, as soon as they can, your children leave the church. WHY? I can tell you from experience that this is true. I watched it happen in my own family. And we attended a liberal church with relatively little dogma. For about ten minutes, I wondered why. Now, I see the answer quite clearly.... Read more
In the U.S., we wave the flag, sing the anthem, threaten anyone who disagrees with us, and sacrifice our children on the altar of the NRA. What have we become? We hear the screaming of the gun worshipers, bolstered up by misguided and misinformed law enforcement officers who want to arm the public and politicians in the employ of Russia and the NRA who are willing and seemingly eager to sacrifice my grandchildren (and yours) at school. “The King James... Read more
Religion is harming public schools in the U.S. In spite of the screaming of “groomers” and “communists” from politicians, aimed at public school teachers, most of us received our education in public elementary, middle and high schools. And most of us learned what we needed to know. To be clear from the very beginning, I support the right of any parent to choose public, private or religious schools for the education of their children. While that statement is true, it... Read more
People read the Bible for many different reasons. Let us explore some of those reasons and see if we can increase our understanding of why the Bible has survived and thrived in so many different forms, translations and interpretations. Why do people read the Bible? If we look at reasons why people might read the Bible, we can identify five categories. Reading for spiritual growth Reading for moral/ethical guidance Reading for historical research Reading for intellectual curiosity Textual analysis Literary... Read more
The Holy Bible presents the reader with a single, definable, consistent deity who speaks with one voice throughout the entire Bible. That much we know. Right? Does the Bible speak of gods other than Adonai? Author’s note: I am using the substitute for the Tetragrammaton and non-binary pronouns when describing the god of Israel and of Christianity. Anyone who has attended church regularly or who went to Sunday school as child has certainly learned that the Bible teaches us... Read more
2 And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord... Read more
Anyone who pays any attention at all has noticed that church attendance in America has dropped off in recent years. Some of the reasons are obvious. Others are more subtle or more complex. In this article, we will examine some of the reasons from what others have seen and from the author’s personal experience and we will explore at least one possible solution. Why do people stop going to church? Articles appear frequently, lamenting the fact that church attendance in... Read more
Of all the noise in American politics and journalism, one of the loudest arguments is this: Was the U.S. founded on Christian beliefs, were the founders Christian men and did they intend for the Bible to guide the country? What can we learn from the founding documents? We will look individually at some of the major players among the corps of founding fathers, but first, let us examine the documents themselves. The United States Constitution The text of the United... Read more
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