Are Religious Freedom Advocates Struggling To Stay Relevant?

LOL! Yes, I think you actually did answer your own question! I think human nature is such that it will always have a change of heart for a champion when a change of opinion for a topic no longer suits a specific or particular agenda, religious or otherwise...

Being the son of a longtime missionary and the descendent of many other ministers, including the eleventh great grandson of Elder William Brewster (look him up), I have lived a life surrounded by religious people and religion, itself. I'll make this very brief because this a major soapbox issue for me: I, too, am spiritually inclined, but not a Sunday service attendee for two decades now. First, religion, the word, the concept, whatever you conceive it to be noun-wise, is defined, IMHO, by one word, adjective-wise - intolerance. Regardless of the basic tenets of most religions, the masses of members in those same religions still believe that "mine" and "mine alone" holds the key to salvation. Don't believe me, try telling a Southern Baptist that the Bible IS NOT literal!!! I love a good, healthy religious debate with a devout Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, Jew, Catholic, you name it. As for Pope Francis, this very down-to-earth man is severely challenging the core beliefs of many Catholics today, mostly North American ones, when he says things like 'you don't need to belong to a specific faith to be a good person' or 'being a good person in life is sufficient to gain salvation.' And those statements are just the tip of the iceberg in the Catholic Church today under Pope Francis. But that's what I believe, as well. Though I was raised in a 24/7 church environment, I experienced a life-altering rebellion in 1998. I completely agree with the Pope on the comments I listed above. I do not need a Sunday morning, Wednesday evening, mortar and concrete, stained-glassed window structure in my life to lead a good life. And on and on...which is where I'd be well advised to leave this discussion.

[login to see]

I would like to pose this - that Pope Francis is doing an exceptional job -- bending "Dogma" to conform to the reality of our world. I find it great because it a step to pointing out how irrelevant religion IMHO should be.

I fear that the Pope's political ideology is swamping his religious ideology and it detracts from his message, at least here in America. Although neither Christian or Catholic, I respect the moral foundations of both and firmly believe that the socialist message of this Pope is contrary to them.

I have never considered him anything more than a man
and see this office as political and that church which is
Catholic does not represent 'my faith'.

And like you, I am spiritual without necessarily going to
church regularly. The opulence of the church and the
scandals which can happen in any organized are more the
faults of human frailty than anything else.

Perhaps Protestantism is an evolution of religious thought
and determination outside a pontiff, as if his views are
directly from God or a committee.

Jesus was as near a true prophet, because as you read the
narrative you get the sense that Jesus saw the errors of
religion and made it less greed and more about the spiritual
lives of his followers. Even his own mother was chastised
for playing (the mom card).

Now, naturally, Jesus used the hell-fire and brimstone
approach minus the certainties and one of those, being
fabulously rich and becoming more of benevolent
dictator than anything else.

Look at the cathedrals and we wonder why there is any
poverty in the world. Do they do this for validation in the
churches or in their almost secular takes on life?

With all this said whether provable or not to those who
do not follow faith, is any malevolent religion really speaking
from what their gods proscribed or is this is the nature of
tribalism? Is my religion better than yours? I do not know
and, therefore I do not bash another's faith unless they
slaughter people in the name of their god.