This past week, a study from the Pew Research Center was released in which it was concluded that the numbers of those who consider themselves Christian has been shrinking for years and if the trend continues, Christians will be the minority between 2050 and 2070.
However, I feel that trend will be a lot sooner. In the 1970s, the study was that about 90 percent claimed some form of Christian denomination. But by 2020, it has slumped to 64 percent. But if you look around at what has happened in the past few weeks, Christians really only have themselves to blame for everything that has happened. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have sent migrants by bus and plane to other states. Not only is this illegal because they are violating the laws by transporting undocumented people across state lines, it’s also very immoral and unethical.
What Abbot and DeSantis have done is nothing more than a political move in an election year to rile up their base. I’m sure many Christian people are probably praising them for what they do. Christians have shown themselves time and time again to be the biggest bigots on the planet. However, they love quoting Leviticus when it talks about homosexuality, but Leviticus 19:33-34 reads: “‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (NIV)
The hypocrisy is on full display and people have been witnessing it for years, especially in how they’ve turned a Middle-Eastern person, Jesus Christ, in a European blonde who looks like Brad Pitt when he made Legends of the Fall. At the same level, they’re upset that Disney, a traditionally conservative company, has cast Halle Bailey, a black actress, as Ariel in the upcoming live-action version of The Little Mermaid. There’s even a Facebook group formed called “Christians Against The Little Mermaid.”
Conservative commenter Matt Walsh has even argued that scientifically, it’s impossible since mermaids live in the ocean and are not around natural light. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have someone with darker skin who lives deep in the ocean,” he said. “I mean, if anything, not only should the little mermaid be pale, she should actually be translucent.If you look at deep sea creatures, they’re like translucent. They have no kind of pigmentation whatsoever, and they’re just like these horrifying—they look like skeletons floating around in the ocean. That’s what the little mermaid should look like. She should be totally pale and skeletal, where you can see her skull through her face. And that would actually be a version of The Little Mermaid that I would watch.”
Walsh is aware that mermaids aren’t real and that in the 1989 Disney classic, Ariel spends a lot of time coming up to the sea level. There was a TV series that came on after the movie that had a black mermaid but nothing was mentioned in opposition. Here’s a photo below:
Switching gears, let’s look at the “corn-fed white boy” that is Brett Favre. Let me preface this by saying that I have never really liked Favre. There was something that just seemed phony about him and while that can be said about a lot of celebrities and professional athletes, Favre was always made up as “one of the good ones,” because he’s obviously white. He just always seemed to be too sure of himself. But even his name doesn’t make sense. As Ben Stiller said in There’s Something About Mary, it should be “Brett Fav-rah.”
But in 2019, he gave a speech at Liberty University that really makes me not like him. Referring to that game in December of 2003 where Favre passed for 399 yards and had four touchdowns and no interceptions the day after his father, Irvin, passed away at 57, he said that game made him realize that God is real. Favre said he prayed before the game with fellow teammate, Doug Pederson.
“We prayed so much, right up until we went out for pregame, we had a prayer right at my locker. I just wanted to honor my father. I wanted to win the football game. I didn’t care about being the greatest player that night. I wanted to honor my father in a way that he would be proud,” Favre said.
Now, I don’t care for Christian athletes because they almost never really pray for the right things. I can understand after losing a parent, he might want to pray for the strength to carry on. But I really doubt God was a Packers fan that day. It could be that sometimes you just reach your career best when you least expect it. Praying to win a game is nonsense because you’re also praying for the other team to lose.
But you know what else is real, Brett? Fraud is very real. And the fact that Favre might seem to be involved with the welfare money scandal down in Mississippi in which money was allocated for a volleyball stadium at his alma matter University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Miss. Reportedly, Favre got assistance through former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and his office to have $6 million for this stadium. The money was supposed to go for welfare of the citizens. Last time, a volleyball stadium at USM isn’t a top priority.
They do on the other hand need better drinking water in areas such as Jackson, Miss., where it’s brown and black. Bryant is no longer in office but this case might put him in the state prison. And there’s always a question as to what Favre knew about the money and where it was coming from, even though a series of texts aren’t looking good in his favor.
What will happen to Favre legally in this situation is still undetermined. But what is determined is his reputation. He’s never going to bounce back from this. There’s also reports he accepted $1 million in speaking engagements he will have to pay back. And the reputation of the volleyball program at USM will be stained by this scandal. Favre’s daughter, Breleigh, played for them.
Switching gears again, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has basically been so anxious to say the quiet part aloud, he let it slip that the Republicans are wanting to issue a national ban on abortion. He proposed such a nationwide ban within the past week. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court shot down Roe v. Wade in a 6-3 vote, even though Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch all swore under oath they wouldn’t vote on it during their confirmation hearings. Apparently perjury only matters when you lie about sexual relations with an intern.
But there’s been some reistance from about a dozen or more Republican senators, who probably know that Graham has pretty much cost them some votes in the Mid-Terms. But I wouldn’t doubt they really consider it if they retake the House and Senate. And this brings me to the rally on Saturday, Sept. 17 in Youngstown, Ohio where former President Donald Trump was supposed to be supporting GOP candidate J.D. Vance, but rallying for himself.
Trump has been facing a huge backlash following the execution of a search warrant by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where agents discovered reported top secret documents and other documents that belonged to the National Archives. I know, I’m beating a dead horse here but Trump has become everything Christians were warned about in the Bible. People have said they’re okay as long as it’s him. They have even hold a golden statue of him at conservative rallies. If this isn’t the worship of a golden calf, I don’t know what is.
The problem is Christians have allowed this to go on for so long, there is no point of return. Even though people claim, “Not my church” are still saying that it’s perfectly okay for other people to endure the abuse and trauma. Just because one member of a congregation doesn’t experience anything negative, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen. As Christians have praised the end of Roe v. Wade, they are still allowing sexual predators to thrive and their victims are the ones who are shunned and scorned.
Supreme Court Justicie Clarence Thomas wants to do away with same-sex marriage. But he doesn’t realize that many people are okay with it. Those who aren’t will always use the phrase, “Love the sinner, hate the sin,” but that doesn’t make sense. You can’t call someone’s love a sin and still want them to join you. It doesn’t work that way. It never did. People were just forced into it because that was the only enviroment they knew.
Times are changing and Christianity isn’t wanting to change. For years, it’s been used to excuse racism, slavery, domestic abuse, domestic terrorism, sexual abuse, child abuse, and many other illegal acts such as theft, fraud and tax evasion. For those who don’t know what the problem is, they are the ones to blame. You shouldn’t expect people to follow a set of rules that aren’t real laws in court. With the Internet and social media, people are learning what they thought was normal isn’t and they’re seeing how it affected other people around the world.
A religion is supposed to be aout each individual’s relationship and enlightenment with a deity. But it’s become more and more about control. And I think part of the reason more people have allowed it to continue is they’re afraid of losing that association. Too many people have peaked in high school or college and they’re finding themselves in their 30s or 40s realizing they don’t have anything else going for them except being part of an organization even if it’s questionable in its acts and practices. As long as Christianity is popular, they want to sit at the cool kids table, even if they are ignored the whole time.
More people are realizing it’s better to sit alone or at a smaller table where you’re more recognized.
Even if it does fall below 50 percent, what does it matter? If it gets down to 15 percent, it shouldn’t matter what everyone else is doing. It should only matter about you and your spirituality. But as conservatives and the Republican Party have aligned themselves with Christianity, it’s not about goals, it’s about control.
And they’re afraid to lose control.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 