williamlobdell.com

4 responses so far ↓

• 1 Jumper2 // Jul 13, 2009 at 6:37 pm

  I don’t think it reflects and advancement or lack of. I think it reflects 2 things that have been wrong for many years.
  1) The church and state were too involved with each other. Separation (not expression necessarily) is needed.
  2) The church not being as the church should be. Have you read the history of religion in Holland. I’d be rather wary of it myself under such circumstances. In fact, I’m a Christian and am rather wary of religion. Of course, a big part of being wary is that Jesus told us to be wary of religion. Even before his death, his followers were in the way of his teachings.

• 2 Jumper2 // Jul 13, 2009 at 6:38 pm

  My point is that those are two countries that had the government very involved in the church an vice-versa.

• 3 Jenth101 // Jul 14, 2009 at 7:17 am

  The problem strangely is not state religions, rather the lack of a state religion. While I would not wish the US to have a state religion, the separation of church and state has been a two-edged sword. The lack of a state religion has allowed anyone with a disagreement, crazy idea, difference of opinion, a falling out etc. to break from their church or denomination and start a new one. This has resulted not only in Mormonism and Scientology, but literally thousands of Christian sects/denominations. A prime example of this is the burned-over district in western New York. This constant creation of new denominations has had the effect of keeping the waters churned, so to speak, instead of allowing the belief in God to fade away.

• 4 anardana // Jul 15, 2009 at 1:55 am

  Hi there, this isn’t about your post but about your book - it finally arrived in my public library in Canada and I just read it over two days- I loved it!! Thanks for writing it. Last year I went from “spiritual” to atheist. I love your conclusion where you talk about how freeing it is and great it feels to let go.

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