New Jersey Archbishop puts pope Francis in his place

Pope Francis may be trying to put a kinder, gentler face on the Catholic church but it is good to remember that he has not actually changed the doctrine in any way, just shifted attention away from church stances that are becoming increasingly unpopular. The Synod of Bishops is currently in session and there is clearly tension between the various factions in the church.
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Film review: Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)

Last night I watched the above documentary written and directed by Alex Gibney and largely based on the book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (2013) by Lawrence Wright that I favorably reviewed here. That review provides a lot of the information that is in the film so I will not repeat it here.
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Bye, bye TC!

The Ten Commandments monument that used to be on the state capital grounds of Oklahoma and was the subject of numerous legal battles has gone. Under cover of night, workers removed the monument and took it to its new home outside the offices of a conservative public policy analysis group known as the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. The deadline given by the judge for removal was October 12.
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The effect of religious homeschooling on children

The Quiverfull Movement that Vyckie Garrison spoke about last night encourages parents to home school their children. These people are so far gone that they even view parochial schools, let alone public schools, as sources of contamination of dangerous ideas. These parents want their children to be just like them or even more religious if possible, and that requires that they carefully control what their children read and who they associate with. The Quiverfull Movement hopes that by producing vast numbers of children just like them, they can transform the US culture just by sheer numbers alone.
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The plot thickens on the pope’s meeting with Kim Davis

Yesterday, Charles P. Pierce wrote an article suggesting that pope Francis was likely tricked into meeting with Kim Davis by those in the hierarchy of the Catholic church who are more loyal to ex-pope Ratzinger and are unhappy with the direction that Francis is taking the church. These people may have felt that having Francis appear to be endorsing such an anti-gay bigot like Davis would leave a sour taste in the mouths of people who had been swooning over his visit to the US. Here’s how Pierce thinks the plan was implemented by Archbishop Carlo Vigano, the papal nuncio to the United States,
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Killed for eating beef

The more politicians try to appease religious groups, the worse things get as the groups demand more and more. This seems to be a global problem affecting pretty much all religions. In the US we see Christian groups seek one exemption after another from following the rules that everyone else must follow by saying that not being allowed to do so means that their religion is being persecuted. Paradoxically, these claims of persecution become worse when these religions are in the majority because they can get politicians to pander to them, as we see with Christian extremists in the US, Buddhist extremists in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, Hindu extremists in India, and Muslim extremists in many Muslim-majority countries.
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Big Mountain Jesus can stay

I came across this interesting story about a lawsuit against a statue of Jesus on a ski slope on a mountain in Montana, a statue that has come to be known as Big Mountain Jesus. Back in 1953, the US Forest Service issued a permit to the Catholic group Knights of Columbus to construct a 6 foot statue of Jesus on a 6 foot high base (now known as Big Mountain Jesus) on federal land that had been leased to a private ski resort. During winter, the base is usually covered in snow, with just the statue sticking up.
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