Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

The bible's pretty clear on how to deal with homelessness.

 

I have to give Al.com a lot of credit for this one. Some of their reporters have been on this "pastoral recovery" program for years. Church of the Highlands is huge, rich, and influential, and they've stayed on the story and not let up. This is a very extensive article, lots of facts, solid quotes, and a whole lot of light being shone into dark corners that the church would just as soon stayed dark.

Vollers wrote this story.

 

Not all of them, asshole. And even if they did make bad life choices, does that mean roundups and a prison camp?

 

I posted this on the "RIP Sinead O'Connor" thread, but it's also a good fit here ...

An interesting passage from her Wiki page ...

On 26 March 2010, O'Connor appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° to speak out about the Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland. On 28 March 2010, she had an opinion piece published in the Sunday edition of The Washington Post in which she wrote about the scandal and her time in a Magdalene laundry as a teenager. Writing for the Sunday Independent she labelled the Vatican as "a nest of devils" and called for the establishment of an "alternative church", opining that "Christ is being murdered by liars" in the Vatican. Shortly after the election of Pope Francis, she said:

Well, you know, I guess I wish everyone the best, and I don't know anything about the man, so I'm not going to rush to judge him on one thing or another, but I would say he has a scientifically impossible task, because all religions, but certainly the Catholic Church, is really a house built on sand, and it's drowning in a sea of conditional love, and therefore it can't survive, and actually the office of Pope itself is an anti-Christian office, the idea that Christ needs a representative is laughable and blasphemous at the same time, therefore it is a house built on sand, and we need to rescue God from religion, all religions, they've become a smokescreen that distracts people from the fact that there is a holy spirit, and when you study the Gospels you see the Christ character came to tell us that we only need to talk directly to God, we never needed Religion...

Asked whether from her point of view, it is therefore irrelevant who is elected to be pope, O'Connor replied:

Genuinely I don't mean disrespect to Catholic people because I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the Holy Spirit, all of those, but I also believe in all of them, I don't think it cares if you call it Fred or Daisy, you know? Religion is a smokescreen, it has everybody talking to the wall. There is a Holy Spirit who can't intervene on our behalf unless we ask it. Religion has us talking to the wall. The Christ character tells us himself: you must only talk directly to the Father; you don't need intermediaries. We all thought we did, and that's ok, we're not bad people, but let's wake up... God was there before religion; it's there [today] despite religion; it'll be there when religion is gone.

Tatiana Kavelka wrote about O'Connor's later Christian work, describing it as "theologically charged yet unorthodox, oriented toward interfaith dialogue and those on the margins."

 

Interesting thought exercise inspired by a David Bowie track.

Ziggy Stardust and the Future of The Church

 

The Atlantic article quoted in that piece is interesting, too.

The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church

 

The Atlantic article hits it all on the head.

It is just easier to not go to church, than it is to go -- especially now, after the pandemic, when so many churches established videos/Zoom meetings and less-formal gatherings. People are losing their connected-ness. Everyone just takes care of themselves, not others, anymore.

A lot of people still believe, in their heads and hearts, but they're just not putting it into practice. People are keeping to themselves, and the work and effort of caring is not happening, other than maybe sending in/putting some money towards things.

 

A drag queen topped the Christian music chart.

Christian drag queen Flamy Grant with No. 1 album rebukes religious bigots' 'terrible theology'

 

A drag queen named Flamy Grant topping the CCM charts was not on my bingo card for this or any other year.

 

Went to church today and learned that there is a patron saint of television, St. Clare of Assisi is also the patron saint of television writers. Goy Vey!

 

Doesn’t bode well for the writers’ strike.