Saturday, March 25, 2023

Confessions of a Maverick Methodist Skeptic on Religion, Legitimacy and Politics

By Rudy Barnes Jr., March 25, 2023


I’m a retired lawyer, a retired Army officer, and a retired United Methodist pastor, and one who dabbled in politics along the way.  If you’ve been following my commentary, you know that I’m skeptical about politics, the law and the church as sources of our standards of legitimacy.  The jury is still out on the military, but that’s because we aren’t currently in a war.


Legitimacy is based on public perceptions of what’s right and wrong.  That includes laws made in politics and moral standards that are the province of religion.  Democracy is the context of legitimacy--both its source and how it’s applied.  Democracy has made us masters of our destiny, so that we have only ourselves to blame for whether it’s legitimate and just or not.


Winston Churchill once said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.  Russia and China are now challenging the primacy of democracy over autocracy.  Putin’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine to restore the Soviet Union is the current challenge to democracy, with China waiting in the wings to assert its claim over Taiwan.


James Carville once said that in politics it’s all about the economy.  Continuing to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression will increase America’s massive national debt as a burden on future generations, but they need our support.  Most Russians support Putin’s aggression in Ukraine to restore the Soviet Union, but Ukrainians are fighting to preserve their democracy.


The love of freedom and self-determination justify democracy.  Lincoln justified the Civil War on preserving the U.S. Union, not to end slavery; and there are those in America who once again are advocating secession.  I oppose the politics of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, but think that America could benefit from a national debate on preserving the Union.


In my commentary I have confessed my skepticism of religion and politics; but I should also confess my faith in God as a spiritual power beyond all powers, along with my love of my family and freedom that sustain my hope for the future.  Faith is not the same as religion, which is a prepackaged and institutionalized faith that I have rejected after 80 years of exposure to it.


My life experiences have provided me with faith in the teachings of Jesus as God’s Word.  It’s summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of all races and religions as we love ourselves.  I’ve been blessed with a wonderful family and a fulfilled life.  I’m not skeptical of God’s love--only of the religion and politics that sustain human depravity.


My experience as an octogenarian has made me skeptical of a Christian religion that requires belief in Jesus Christ as a Trinitarian God and the only means of salvation.  Reason and my personal life experiences have convinced me that Jesus taught and exemplified God’s Truth, and that following his teachings on our journey of faith--along with a healthy skepticism of religious doctrines--will enable us to find salvation in this world, and the next. 



Notes:


Our Theological Task: The Discipline of the United Methodist Church provides our theological task to distill God’s Truth from ancient scripture by interpreting it based on experience and reason.  It’s based on John Wesley’s quadrilateral, a methodology that relies on a mix of tradition, experience and reason to interpret scripture.  Wesley’s enlightened way of understanding scripture can prevent believers from succumbing to the temptation of bibliolatry and its false sense of security in accepting ancient scripture as God’s inerrant and infallible word.  Our theological task requires us to shape our faith independently of church doctrine and dogma.  For a brief description of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral by Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and a chart of its four elements by George E. Koeler, including the danger of bibliolotry, see Weems, John Wesley’s Message Today, Abingdon Press, 1990, pages 11-13. Our Theological Task is provided in The Discipline of the United Methodist Church at pages 78-91.  See  https://www.cokesbury.com/forms/DynamicContent.aspx?id=87&pageid=920.

 

On Faith and Religion, the Same but Different, see  http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/10/faith-and-religion-same-but-different.html.


On Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Religion and the Wisdom of God, see  http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.



Saturday, March 18, 2023

An 18th Century Preview of America's Political and Religious Schisms

By Rudy Barnes, Jr., March 18, 2023


America’s 18th century Counter-Enlightenment and its Second Great Awakening provided a preview of how a toxic mix of politics and religion created schisms in America's culture. Seth David Radwell has described the historic roots of America’s political and religious turbulence in his book, American Schism.


Thomas Jefferson was a libertarian Democratic-Republican who believed that France shared America’s democratic ideals in the Counter-Enlightenment, while Alexander Hamilton was a Federalist foil to Jefferson’s libertarian views.  Jefferson and Hamilton represented the political divisions of that era that evolved into our current polarized partisan politics.


Jefferson was a universalist child of the Enlightenment who considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever devised by man.”  Most Americans in the 18th century were Christians, but Jefferson condemned exclusivist church doctrines never taught by Jesus and emphasized the freedom of religion and the universal moral teachings of Jesus.


The  Second Great Awakening extended from the late 18th century into the early 19th century, and it emphasized Christian beliefs as the only means of salvation in churches and camp meetings across the nation.  Its emotionalism and messianic emphasis countered the universal libertarian principles of the Enlightenment and the altruistic teachings of Jesus.


Alexis DeTocqueville was a French aristocrat who visited America in the 1830s.  He saw American democracy as a fascinating experiment in libertarian government, and credited Christianity with providing the moral glue that held America’s political diversity together; but he underestimated the divisive issue of slavery that had already divided Christianity and politics.


The emphasis on exclusivist Christian beliefs as the only means of salvation in the Second Great Awakening fostered Christian nationalism and American exceptionalism--and later, the America First policies of Donald Trump.  Ironically, Putin has promoted a similar Russian version of Christian nationalism to justify his invasion of Ukraine.


In the Second Great Awakening the church ignored the moral teachings of Jefferson’s Jesus summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves. That shouldn’t be a surprise in a democracy where popularity is the measure of success in both the church and politics.


Cheap grace is the norm in American Christianity.  It’s salvation based on exclusivist Christian beliefs without having to follow the altruistic moral teachings of Jesus, which have never been popular.  Radwell cited “the balance between faith and reason as essential in Counter-Enlightenment politics;” but it will be a cold day in hell before the altruistic moral teachings of Jesus on discipleship become popular in America’s materialistic and hedonistic culture.

  


Notes:


Seth David Radwell’s American Schism (Greenleaf Group Press, 2021, in chapter 7) describes the conflict between Jefferson and Hamilton that gave birth to America’s populism and polarized partisan politics.  “It escalated when Hamilton convinced Washington to dissolve the French alliance in 1793 and to adopt a pro-British posture in the 1794 Jay Treaty against Jefferson’s fierce objections. (p 133) The juxtaposition between democratic movements and popular religious revivals that both arose bottom-up and the weaponization of these trends by political leaders seeking public support were political dynamics in the fierce battle of the two parties led by Jefferson and Hamilton.  The Federalist strategy was to portray bottom-up democratic movements of the era “as both subversive and perilous to the young nation”, comparing them to the violence in France. (p 135).  “At the end of the 18th century the highly polarizing environment of the young nation and interminable change was indisputably anxiety provoking.”  The Second Great Awakening was a broad Protestant revival beginning in Kentucky and Tennessee that spread rapidly and brought a comforting blanket of spiritual faith to huge swaths of people and counteracted a high level of socio-political uncertainty experienced in the previous decades.  It attracted many converts,  especially Methodists and Baptists, that grew relative to denominations that were dominant in the colonial period such as Anglicans, Presbyterians and Congregationalists.  The Federalists sensed a large and growing part of the population were adopting more pious views and employed Noah Webster, with his grounding in Calvinism [an 18th century Billy Graham], to advocate that Chrisitianity become more central to American life, blaming the violence of the French Revolution on a move from religion.  Webster helped shift public opinion from Jefferson’s “blasphemous” Republicans toward Hamilton’s Federalists. (p 137).  Radwell has noted that “shrewd political actors succeeded in co-opting populist movements that reflect the yearnings, fears and sentiments of common people.”  Because religious and secular populist movements can be good or bad, Radwell judges them based on egalitarian motives in their agency or intent (pp 145-148).  Radwell criticizes “the concept of imposing the strict dogma of one centralized religious institution.” (p 151)  That would include exclusivist religious doctrines on salvation and any religious discrimination that violates the freedom of religion.  Radwell cited the balance between faith and reason as essential to assess the political ramifications of the Counter-Enlightenment.” (p 152)  Unfortunately, America has allowed Christianity to outweigh reason.           


On Thomas Jefferson and Alexis deTocqueville and their views on the moral values of religion in American politics, see Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy (July 1, 2017) at http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/07/religion-moral-authority-and.html.


On competing U.S. and Russian versions of Christian nationalism, see Musings on Civil Religion, Christian Nationalism, and Cancel Culture (March 26, 2022) at 

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/03/musings-on-civil-religion-christian.html.


Other commentary on Christian nationalism:

(4/12/19): Musings on Religion, Nationalism and Libertarian Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/04/musings-on-religion-nationalism-and.html.

(8/10/19): Musings on Christian Nationalism: A Plague on the Church and Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/08/musings-on-christian-nationalism-plague.html.

(11/5/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Jesus, the Church and Christian Nationalism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/11/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-jesus.html.

(11/12/22): Musings on the Need for a Civil Religion in America’s Dysfunctional Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/11/musings-on-need-for-civil-religion-in.html.

(12/10/22): Musings on the Evolution of  Christianity into the American Civil Religion

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/12/musings-on-evolution-of-christianity.html.


On the future of a church that has lost its moral compass:

(1/7/17): Religion and Reason as Sources of Political Legitimacy, and Why They Matter

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/01/religion-and-reason-as-sources-of.html

(1/21/17): Religion and Reason Redux: Religion Is Ridiculous

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/01/religion-and-reason-redux-religion-is.html

(3/3/18): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on America’s Holy War

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/03/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(7/14/18): Musings on Why Christians Should Put Moral Standards Over Mystical Beliefs

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/07/musings-on-why-christians-should-put.html.

(9/29/18): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Resurrection of Christian Universalism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/09/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(3/9/19): Musings on the Degradation of Democracy in a Post-Christian America

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/03/musings-on-degradation-of-democracy-in.html.

(5/4/19): Musings on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/05/musings-on-good-bad-and-ugly.html.

(5/11/19): Musings on the Relevance of Jefferson’s Jesus in the 21st Century

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/05/musings-on-relevance-of-jeffersons.html.

(6/22/19): The Universal Family of God: Where Inclusivity Trumps Exclusivity

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/06/the-universal-family-of-god-where.html

(9/14/19): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Chaos as a Prelude to a New Creation

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/09/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-chaos.html

(10/5/19): Musings on the Moral Relevance of Jesus to Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/10/musings-on-moral-relevance-of-jesus-to.html.

(2/1/20): Musings on the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Altar of Partisan Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2020/02/musings-on-sacrifice-of-jesus-on-altar.html.

(12/5/20): Musings on the Preference of White Christians for Demagoguery over Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2020/12/musings-on-preference-of-white.html.

(4/17/21): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Future of the Church

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2021/04/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-future.html?

(5/15/21): Musings on the Moral Failure of American Christianity and Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2021/05/musings-on-moral-failure-of-american.html.

(8/14/21): Musings on Conflicting Concepts of God’s Truth in Christianity

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2021/08/musings-on-conflicting-concepts-of-gods.html.

(1/15/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on America’s Morally Muddled Mainstream

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/01/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on_15.html.

(1/22/22): Musings on Popularity as a Corrupting Influence in Democracy and Christianity

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/01/musings-on-popularity-as-corrupting.html.

(1/29/22): Musings on the Inadequacy of Religious Moral Standards in American Democracy   

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/01/musings-on-inadequacy-of-religious.html.

(4/30/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Obsolescence of Christianity in Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/04/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(8/6/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Moderating Hatred in Partisan Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(8/13/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Religion and the Wisdom of God

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(11/12/22): Musings on the Need for a Civil Religion in America’s Dysfunctional Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/11/musings-on-need-for-civil-religion-in.html.

(12/10/22): Musings on the Evolution of  Christianity into the American Civil Religion

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/12/musings-on-evolution-of-christianity.html.

(12/24/22): Christmas Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Myopic Methodist Schism http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/12/christmas-musings-of-maverick-methodist.html.



Saturday, March 11, 2023

Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Future of Christianity and Democracy

By  Rudy Barnes, Jr., March 11, 2026


Emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, and since then it has become the world’s most popular religion.  But trends change.  Just as white people will no longer be a majority in America in the next 20 years, Christianity is now declining and Islam is predicted to surpass Christianity as the world’s largest religion.


In the 18th and 19th centuries great “Awakenings” stimulated Christianity in America, but slavery became such a dominant issue in the mid-19th century that it split Christian denominations in the North and South.   After the Civil War, race continued to divide Christianity and politics.  William Faulkner once noted that “The past is not dead.  It’s not even past.”  


In 2016 a majority of white Christians elected Donald Trump President despite his narcissism and moral decadence--the antithesis of the altruism taught by Jesus.  Many continue to be motivated by partisan hatred, and support radical right Republicans like Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who are neither Christians nor nationalists, but nihilists. 


Partisan polarization is also dividing denominations, including the United Methodist Church, based on alternative sexual preferences and same-sex marriage. The result is an even more fragmented church that continues to limit salvation to Christians and resists moral change.  The traditional neighborhood church has become an artifact of America’s past. 


I grew up in Columbia, S.C. in the 1950s in a United Methodist Church.  It’s where I went to Sunday School, became a Boy Scout, and attended social events.  Today white churches look more like a Republican social club than a church, with mostly older people in the pews.  Black churches remain separate bastions of the Democratic Party in Christianity and politics. 


Many churches have abandoned following the teachings of Jesus and become more partisan.  Christian nationalist congregations growing in Idaho and other Western states where conservative white refugees from California and Washington are flocking to Republican rallies led by radical right Republicans like Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene.  David French has warned that we can’t ignore Greene’s warnings of a “national divorce” of red and blue states.   


Ross Douthat has opined that we can’t predict the future of religion.  Thomas Jefferson once asserted “the teachings of Jesus are the most sublime moral code ever designed by man,” and predicted that most Americans would become Universalists; but Jefferson was wrong.  In 1961, the Universalist Church of America merged with Unitarian Universalists, and all remaining churches continued to promote Christianity as the only means of salvation.


The evolution of the church and democracy in America has been erratic.  That should be expected with popularity is the measure of success in both the church and politics.  Since the teachings of Jesus were never popular, it’s not likely that his teachings on loving our neighbors of other races and religions as we love ourselves will ever supersede populist politics.



Notes:


On Christian [nationalist] patriots flocking from blue states to Idaho, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/02/24/idaho-christian-nationalism-marjorie-taylor-greene/?utm;


On Marjorie Taylor Greene's Civil War, see https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/marjorie-taylor-greene-secession-civil-war/673142/.

    

On David French’s warning to take threats of “national divorce” seriously, see https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/opinion/national-divorce-civil-war.html


Ross Doutat cited a 1822 letter from Thomas Jeffereson to the physician Benjamin Waterhouse in which Jefferson expressed his confidence that traditional Christianity in the young United States was giving way to a more enlightened faith, much like Jefferson’s own, in its rejection of the divinity of Jesus Christ. “I trust that there is not a young man now living in the U.S. who will not die an Unitarian.” In 1821 “less than a year earlier in upstate New York, a young man named Charles Grandison Finney began a multiday interplay of prayer and mystical experience that ‌‌led to a moment when, as he wrote later, “it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face … He stood before me, and I fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to Him. I wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance.” This experience set Finney on a path that would help bury Jefferson’s confident hypothesis — toward leadership in an age of revivalism, the Second Great Awakening, that forged the form of evangelical Christianity that would bestride 19th-century America and also encouraged a proliferation of novel sects with supernatural beliefs entirely distant from Jefferson’s Enlightenment religion. The history of Finney and Jefferson is a reminder that religious history is shaped as much by sudden irruptions as long trajectories, as much by the mystical and personal as by the institutional and sociological. On why you can’t predict the future of religion, see    

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/opinion/religious-revival-christianity-asbury-kentucky.html.


America experienced Christian "Awakenings" around the years 1727, 1792, 1830, 1857 and 1882. See Wikipedia,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_revival#.


The consolidation of  the Universalist Church of America and the American Unitarian Association in 1961 created the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961. See Unitarian Universalism, Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Unitarian_Universalism.  The consolidation left Jesus without a church.   


On Christian nationalism:

(4/12/19): Musings on Religion, Nationalism and Libertarian Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/04/musings-on-religion-nationalism-and.html.

(8/10/19): Musings on Christian Nationalism: A Plague on the Church and Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/08/musings-on-christian-nationalism-plague.html.

(12/5/20): Musings on the Preference of White Christians for Demagoguery over Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2020/12/musings-on-preference-of-white.html.

(3/26/22): Musings on Civil Religion, Christian Nationalism, and Cancel Culture

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/03/musings-on-civil-religion-christian.html.

(11/5/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Jesus, the Church and Christian Nationalism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/11/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-jesus.html.

(11/12/22): Musings on the Need for a Civil Religion in America’s Dysfunctional Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/11/musings-on-need-for-civil-religion-in.html.

(12/10/22): Musings on the Evolution of  Christianity into the American Civil Religion

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/12/musings-on-evolution-of-christianity.html.


On Christian universalism:

(4/5/15): Seeing the Resurrection in a New Light

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/04/seeing-resurrection-in-new-light.html

(4/19/15): Jesus: A Prophet, God’s Only Son, or the Logoshttp://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/04/jesus-prophet-god-only-son-or-logos.html

(1/2/16): God in Three Concepts

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/01/god-in-three-concepts.html

(8/12/17): The Universalist Teachings of Jesus as a Remedy for Religious Exclusivism  

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/08/the-universalist-teachings-of-jesus-as.html.

(9/29/18): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Resurrection of Christian Universalism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/09/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(3/16/19): Musings on the Evolution of Christian Exclusivism to Universalism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/03/musings-on-evolution-of-christian.html.

(6/22/19): The Universal Family of God: Where Inclusivity Trumps Exclusivity

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/06/the-universal-family-of-god-where.html

(11/12/22): Musings on the Need for a Civil Religion in America’s Dysfunctional Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/11/musings-on-need-for-civil-religion-in.html.


On the future of a church that has lost its moral compass:

(1/7/17): Religion and Reason as Sources of Political Legitimacy, and Why They Matter

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/01/religion-and-reason-as-sources-of.html

(1/21/17): Religion and Reason Redux: Religion Is Ridiculous

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/01/religion-and-reason-redux-religion-is.html

(3/3/18): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on America’s Holy War

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/03/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(7/14/18): Musings on Why Christians Should Put Moral Standards Over Mystical Beliefs

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/07/musings-on-why-christians-should-put.html.

(9/1/18): Musings on the American Civil Religion and Christianity at a Crossroads

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2018/09/musings-on-american-civil-religion-and.html.

(3/9/19): Musings on the Degradation of Democracy in a Post-Christian America

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/03/musings-on-degradation-of-democracy-in.html.

(5/4/19): Musings on the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/05/musings-on-good-bad-and-ugly.html.

(5/11/19): Musings on the Relevance of Jefferson’s Jesus in the 21st Century

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/05/musings-on-relevance-of-jeffersons.html.

(9/14/19): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Chaos as a Prelude to a New Creation

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/09/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-chaos.html

(10/5/19): Musings on the Moral Relevance of Jesus to Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2019/10/musings-on-moral-relevance-of-jesus-to.html.

(2/1/20): Musings on the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Altar of Partisan Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2020/02/musings-on-sacrifice-of-jesus-on-altar.html.

(4/17/21): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Future of the Church

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2021/04/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on-future.html?

(5/15/21): Musings on the Moral Failure of American Christianity and Democracy

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2021/05/musings-on-moral-failure-of-american.html.

(8/14/21): Musings on Conflicting Concepts of God’s Truth in Christianity

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2021/08/musings-on-conflicting-concepts-of-gods.html.

(1/15/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on America’s Morally Muddled Mainstream

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/01/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on_15.html.

(1/22/22): Musings on Popularity as a Corrupting Influence in Democracy and Christianity

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/01/musings-on-popularity-as-corrupting.html.

(1/29/22): Musings on the Inadequacy of Religious Moral Standards in American Democracy   

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/01/musings-on-inadequacy-of-religious.html.

(4/30/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Obsolescence of Christianity in Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/04/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(8/6/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Moderating Hatred in Partisan Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(8/13/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on Religion and the Wisdom of God

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/08/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.

(12/10/22): Musings on the Evolution of  Christianity into the American Civil Religion

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/12/musings-on-evolution-of-christianity.html.

(12/24/22): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Myopic Methodist Schism

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2022/12/christmas-musings-of-maverick-methodist.html.

(1/7/23): Musings of a Maverick Methodist on the Evolution of Religion and Politics

http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/01/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.