Building Another Church in Mississippi

In some parts of the United States, evidence of declining interest in organized religion is easy to spot. Church attendance is not what it used to be, and churches are desperate to fill their pews. Some have even closed or been repurposed to serve secular functions. I haven't seen any of this for myself, mind you, but I have been told repeatedly that it is happening.

Here in Mississippi, located in the heart of the American bible belt, we have more churches per capita than anywhere in the United States. How fitting that our levels of illiteracy, child mortality, poverty, and all sorts of social ills are also among the highest in the nation. At least the solution to the many problems facing us is clear: we need more Christian churches.

Back in 2006, the front page of my local paper ran a story on a $25 million expansion to a nearby church. I found myself thinking of several more productive uses for $25 million. In a town still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Katrina (e.g., some people were still homeless at the time this story appeared), it seemed criminal to squander these funds on something as pointless as expanding a church.

Corporate America's Social Justice Agenda

Many Christians love to celebrate Christmas with all the trappings of commercialism; however, some complain that the commercialism has ruined the religious aspects of the holiday. I think they probably have a point. Excessive commercialism has helped to secularize Christmas, stripping much of its religious meaning. There isn't much room for Jesus in "Giftmas."

Similar complaints have been made by Baby Boomers who were part of the 60's counter-culture. Corporations co-opted and then ruined much of the hippy thing by realizing they could market and sell it. We even witnessed something that initially looked like a resurgence of this culture in the 90s, only to discover that it was merely a commercialized version that was being marketed by corporate America.

And of course, we have seen this sort of thing happen with music over and over again. Fresh new styles of music quickly become stale once they are co-opted and commercialized by the industry. The "soul" of the music is lost, and we are left with poor imitations. Those who were hungry for something authentic move on in search of it.

Revising Old Blog Posts Results in New Traffic

Maybe this will be somewhat inspiring for the few atheist bloggers among you. I've written about how I have been enjoying improving old posts, so I figured I'd share a recent example of why I think this can be helpful and is something you might want to consider. I found a post I had written back in 2006 that had received an unimpressive total of 46 views during its long life. That is to say, according to the built in stats provided by Blogger (which I realize are not nearly as accurate as those available through Google Analytics), this particular post had been viewed only 46 times since 2006. I re-wrote and re-posted it. In roughly 4 hours time, it received another 87 views. I realize that is hardly impressive, but the point is that revising this old post led to it receiving more views in 4 hours than it had in the last 13 years.

When I looked at the original post, it was clear why had not generated more views in its day. It was poorly written. It contained typos and broken links, and it had no picture or description meta tag. Worse still, there was a portion that didn't make sense. It wasn't clear what I was trying to say. Despite all that, I thought there was something worth salvaging. I fixed all the errors, added a couple new paragraphs, made some minor updates to increase the contemporary relevance, and re-wrote the portion that didn't make any sense.

Some Christians Don't Want You to Have Fun

Dancing, rock music, pre-marital sex and masturbation, alcohol and drugs, role-playing games, yoga, comic books, video games, and books that are not sufficiently Christian are just a few of the things many Christians have opposed. Some have gone so far as to characterize these things as evil. Some insist that they may lead you to hell. It often seems like many Christians devote much of their lives to prevent others from having fun. Why? What business is it of theirs, and why would they possibly care?

Do these Christians genuinely believe that pursuits like these will corrupt people, leading them to stay from whatever might be defined as Christian values? Is it pleasure itself which they oppose or just every pleasure that does not involve Jesus? Perhaps they think that people will be more receptive to their preferred god if they are sufficiently bored and miserable. And what is it that they expect people to do instead of all these things? It seems like even the most pious Christian would eventually tire of going to church, prayer, and bible study.

When Immigration Leads to Negative Changes

It has become a popular meme to point out that when someone asks "Is this racist?", the answer will inevitably be "yes." If you have to ask, then it is racist. I have no question that the scenario I am about to describe and the questions I'll pose about it will be viewed as racist and/or xenophobic by some. But in the interest of not avoiding important subjects just because they are controversial or uncomfortable, I continue to believe that this is the sort of thing we need to be able to discuss if we are ever going to arrive at viable solutions to complex problems. And so, I write this post even though I anticipate mostly negative reactions.

For the scenario I am about to describe to make sense, we need to go back in time to the days before the Internet. There is no Amazon.com, and mail-order shopping is done through catalogs. You live in a town with a population of roughly 135,000 people. You have lived there for several years and have been happy there. Although you are only about an hour away from a larger city, one of the many things you like about your town is that there is a good-sized shopping mall there which prevents you from having to drive to the city as often as you would otherwise have to. This mall is also great for your local economy because it draws lots of shoppers from many smaller towns that surround yours.