Pope: ...Churches Look Like They Are Dying

Pope Benedict admits the obvious:

“There’s no longer evidence for a need of God, even less of Christ. The so-called traditional churches look like they are dying.”

It matters who said this. If it came from Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens – the Four Horsemen of the New Apocalypse – few would accept it as an objective assessment. But the author of this quote was Pope Benedict XVI.[1]

The Pope’s candor fits well with other research sponsored by churches. When you count the people in the pews on Sunday rather than having a pollster ask whether or not they attend church, fewer than 18% attend church regularly.[2] From 1980 to 2005 in the Southern Baptist Church, baptisms of people between eighteen and thirty four – in other words, their next generation of leaders – fell 40 percent, from 100,000 in 1980 to 60,000 in 2005.[3]

But the U.S. population grew by 27% during those 25 years, so the Baptists would have had to baptize 127,000 in 2005 just to stay even; they really fell by 52%.[4] In 2006, the Southern Baptists – who claim almost six times more members than any other white evangelical church – made a concerted effort to baptize one million people. Not only did they fall over two-thirds short, they actually baptized even fewer than they had the year before.[5]

You might think that some faith group must have grown during the last thirty years, and you’d be right: atheists and nonbelievers more than doubled in the eleven years between 1990 and 2001, from 14 million to 29 million: from 8% of the country to 14%. There are more than twice as many atheists and nonbelievers as there are evangelical Christians.[6] And since it’s hard to believe that all atheists/nonbelievers would be willing to confess that to pollsters, the number is probably much higher. From 2000 to 2005, church attendance fell in all fifty states.[7]

Nor is this trend a new phenomenon: American churches have not kept up with population growth in over a century.[8]

Then, to add insult to injury, when a sampling of non-Christians were asked to rate eleven groups in terms of respect, they rated evangelicals tenth. Only prostitutes ranked lower.[9]

Are believers more moral? No. When pollster George Barna – himself an evangelical – looked at seventy moral behaviors, he didn’t find any difference between the actions of those who were born-again Christians and those who weren’t. His studies and other indicators show that divorce among born-agains is as common as, or more common than, among other groups. One study showed that wives in traditional, male-dominated marriages were three times more likely to be beaten than wives in egalitarian marriages.[10]

Evangelicals constitute not 25 percent of the U.S. population – as they have claimed – but at most 7 percent, and their numbers are falling, not rising. All these numbers come from the churches themselves. (Wicker, p. 67) While evangelical women make up at least 3.5% of the population (half of 7%), they make up about 20% of the women who get abortions.[11]

“The Spirit,” as the Gospel of John says, “blows where it will.” Where is it blowing now? Adding together the data from pollsters, evangelical researchers and Pope Benedict XVI, it’s not a stretch to say the Spirit – the spirit of life and the truth that can make you more free – has settled in the land of atheists, nonbelievers, and church alumni.

Christianity Causes Cancer

The Vatican has a big radio tower, broadcasting promises of everlasting life in heaven. It seems that the radio tower is actually speeding up people's journey to the (imaginary) afterlife:

Radio masts operated by the Vatican's radio station are causing cancer
in children, a medical expert has told a Rome court – resulting in six officials of the station being investigated for manslaughter.

The claims of Professor Andrea Micheli, from Milan's National Tumor Institute, focus on 19 child deaths from leukaemia or lymphoma between 1980 and 2003 in the Cesano area, north of Rome; Vatican Radio operates masts nearby in Santa Maria di Galeria.

Micheli, a professor of cancer epidemiology, says in his 300-page report: "The study suggests there was an important, coherent and significant link between residential exposure to the Vatican Radio structures and an excess risk of death from leukaemia and lymphoma in the children."

He said the raised cancer risk
occurred in children under 14 who lived less than 7.5 miles from the masts. He also found evidence of a link between the radiation and adult cancers – but only among those who lived much closer to the antennae.

His investigation was ordered by the court five years ago after concerns were raised about an increased incidence of cancer in the area. As a result of Prof Micheli's evidence, six officials of Vatican Radio have been placed under investigation for manslaughter, by investigating magistrate Stefano Pesci.

The Vatican was quick to point out yesterday that the Italian Navy also operated radio masts in the area.

La Repubblica reported, however, that the leaked court report singled out the Vatican Radio masts as the likely cause, quoting it as saying: "It is due to exposure to the antennae of Vatican Radio and not that of the navy."

Father Federico Lombardi, the director general of Vatican Radio, said it had followed all regulations in setting up the masts.

He also expressed concern that the report was leaked ahead of its official publication,

Vatican Radio, which was set up in 1931, broadcasts to 61 countries in 47 languages.

I like how the Vatican points out that the Italian Navy also has a radio tower in the area. Government and religion: two false ideologies that are sure to kill you dead!

Worthy of Worship

I could worship this.


see more Epic Fails

Nate Phelps, Atheist

Nate Phelps, estranged son of WestBoro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps, explains his childrens' reaction to being informed of the existence of God:

The turning point was one Christmas, when Nate decided to teach his children about God. In the end, his son Tyler began crying in the backseat of the car, saying that he didn't want to go to hell.

"He wanted to believe because he didn't want to go to hell," Nate said. "I was just stunned because I didn't know what I had said or how I had left him with that fear. I thought I was doing a good job of presenting it without the fear.

"Thinking about it after the fact, I realized you can't do that. With a young mind it doesn't matter. You can try as much as you want to talk about how good God is, but the bottom line is there’s this intolerably frightening punishment if you don't accept it. And how does a young mind deal with that?"

Raptor Jesus Rave Camp

I actually own the Jesus Camp documentary, and it's good. But this gif makes it even better!

Well, I'm Convinced

The best argument for God and the afterlife I have ever come across.

Christian Pharmacy Phail

What do you get when you mix a pharmacy with Christian "morals"? Answer: Bankruptcy.

The Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy in Chantilly proudly and purposefully limited what it would stock on its shelves. But it turns out that no birth control pills, no condoms, no porn, no tobacco and even no makeup added up to one thing:

No customers.

The self-described "pro-life" pharmacy went out of business last month, less than two years after it opened to great fanfare, with a Catholic priest sprinkling holy water on the strip-mall store tucked between an Asian supermarket and a scuba shop.

No word on whether he returned for last rites.

I think the fatal flaw in their business plan was an inadequate amount of time being allocated to praying for customers and financial success.

Experts View on Heaven

Does this not excite you?!

WBC Donates to LGBT Charities

Well, not really. But donations to LGBT charities were given in the name of, and made possible by, the Westboro Baptist Church. I do hope the Phelps family is aware of this. It's very satisfying to think of a religious hate group being thwarted in a charitable way by moral people.

On a political note, I do like how the WBC desecrates the flag.

Banging in the Nails for Jesus

Pope Benedict Sanctions Child Rape

In the Catholic Church, you can get excommunicated for getting a divorce, but not for molesting children. That's what happens when you have an organization run by unmarried pedophiles.

What I find especially interesting about this article is that Herr Benedict himself protected and hid the boy-raping pedophile known as "H."

Yes, the sanctioning of gay child rape in the Catholic Church comes all the way from the top, from the pope himself.

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI, during his tenure as archbishop of Munich, played a role in a decision to move a priest accused of sexual molestation to his diocese to undergo therapy, the church said today.

The priest was later reassigned by another church official and committed more abuse, the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising said in a statement on its Web site. Benedict, at the time Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, “was involved” in a 1980 decision to move the priest, identified only as “H.,” from a church in Essen, Germany, to a rectory in the Munich region for treatment, the diocese said.

A former vicar-general in the church administration, Gerhard Gruber, subsequently allowed the accused priest to continue pastoral duties, during which he committed abuse and was convicted by a court in 1986. Gruber said in the statement that the decision to re-post “H.” was his alone.

“The repeated employment of ‘H.’ in pastoral duties was a serious mistake,” Gruber said. “I take full responsibility for this and I deeply regret that this decision led to offenses against youths -- I apologize to all those who were harmed by this.”

Soulja Boy Cool With Slavery

Is Soulja Boy a Christian?

The Boombox

According to Soulja Boy Tell Em, there was an upside to slavery. When asked during an interview which historical figure he hates most , the teenage rapper was at a loss for words. In an attempt to get a response from the rapper, the interviewer revealed past answers to the question, which included Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler and slave masters.

Soulja Boy seemed to disagree with some of the past responses. "Oh wait! Hold up! Shout out to the slave masters! Without them we'd still be in Africa. We wouldn't be here to get this ice and tattoos," the rapper ignorantly proclaimed. Way to go Soulja Boy! Good to know someone is willing to trade their freedom for some bling.