Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

I envision it practically going lower than 35% by 2070. Practicing Christianity is increasingly synonymous with being an outright evil person. People don't want to be that. We're learning the costs of binding faith to politics.

 

Can we be proud of our people? Micky Marcus on TikTok

 

With the exception of the guy whose name is on the label, I doubt anyone in the New Testament pictured Christianity becoming a majoritarian religion. But a lot of American Christians can’t picture it being anything but majoritarian. They’ve preached and talked about it a good long time as a sort of fear porn, but they have not seriously engaged with the implications (good and bad.)

 

Also, given "the big sort," a lot of American Christians live where Christians are, and for the foreseeable future will be, not only the majority but the dominant majority.

 

In case I'm not around this evening.

Shanah Tovah.

Happy 5783, my friends.


וַיְהִי־עֶֽרֶב וַיְהִי־בֹֽקֶר, יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי.
וַיְכֻלּֽוּ הַשָּׁמַֽיִם וְהָאָֽרֶץ
 וְכׇל־צְבָאָם.
וַיְכַל אֱלֹהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי
מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה.
וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי
מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה.
וַיְבָֽרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת־יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי
וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ‚
כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּוֹ
אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת.


https://reformjudaism.org/beliefs-p...-evening-blessings-kiddush-blessing-over-wine

 

I doubt they guy whose name is on the label could have imagined it, either, because he was Jewish.

 

Most of the people pushing vouchers and other plans that take public money and put it into private education have this as their endgame. Public money is being put into schools with limited accountability and little interest in living up to even the bare minimum of state standards.

Vouchers might help the students who get them, assuming they don't end up in these awful private schools, and they definitely hurt those left behind by taking money away from their schools. It is a lose-lose situation for most of the children affected. Again, I'm not just talking about the students who get their tickets to private schools. I'm including those left behind in the equation. Given that we know even those going to private schools have a good chance of getting an education that is comparable or worse than the one they were getting in public schools, it just isn't worth it.

 

Meanwhile...