Two years ago, on this blog, I wrote, “I hate religion, but love philosophy.” I thought I had taken great care to define and explain what I meant. But in the end, that statement cost me my best friend. He heard, “I hate God,” and my love of philosophy put me in the same category as the Nazis, because it was a philosophy. Once someone has lost respect for you, even if it is due to a misunderstanding, it is almost impossible to regain that respect. The hardest part was that it was a tremendous friendship, and since the loss of my career due to cancer (and most of my previous friends were work-related), and the two and a half years I spent in isolation, friendships are precious.

So once again, I am wading into these dangerous waters, trying to separate the historical Jesus from religious Christianity. I will be writing about this for the coming weeks. Didn’t I learn my lesson? Challenging long-held traditional ways of thinking is not the best way to make friends, but you can get punched in the face.

However, I feel compelled to write about this. Everyone who is leaving Christianity is abandoning the Christian religion. I’ve never heard an ex-Christian say, “I read the Beatitudes, the things Jesus said about truth, caring for the poor, and love, and I couldn’t stand the guy. So I left.” Even though they are leaving because of the Christian religious culture, they end up throwing the baby out with the proverbial bath water.

I will say once again, the decline of Christianity in America is steep, 2% per year. That doesn’t sound like much, but in five years that’s 10%. In a decade, it is 20%. Not only that, the attrition rate is accelerating. Europe de-Christianized a century earlier. Now their great cathedrals stand empty except for pigeons and tourists.

There are two doors for those leaving. The front door where they say, “I’m done with the bullshit and I no longer believe in a creator.” Those become the “Nones.” On surveys, they choose the box marked “None” for religious beliefs. Many of you have kids or grandkids in this category, if you are not a none yourself.

Then there is the back door, where the teachings of the historical Jesus first became a complex religion. Then that religion morphs into something Jesus would never recognize. For conservative Christians, it is a political movement, such as MAGA or Christian nationalism. For progressive Christians, it is a nebulous spirituality that has no roots in historical truths beyond a personalized emotional experience.

I am sorry, but you cannot stop the hemorrhage of people by tweaking the religion or the Christian culture. It is the problem of wineskins that Jesus talked about. Neither can you reverse the hemorrhage by taking over our government and legislating Christianity as the Christian Nationalists are now trying to do. Absurd.

If you are part of a Christian church, you might be lured into thinking your church is exempt. A very few are. But do this experiment. The next time you are in church, imagine that all people over the age of 60 are gone. What’s left?

I am an eternal optimist. I believe this is an opportunity to rediscover Jesus of Galilee and to return to a simple understanding of his teachings.

Over the next few articles, I will attempt to define and separate the Christian religion from the historical Jesus of Galilee. I will try my best to be clear. But before someone has the chance to assume what I mean, I will begin with just one statement.

If you study the life of Jesus, you will see that his number one nemesis were the religious people. Indeed, they were the ones who fought back, as religious people do, and had Jesus crucified.

I will also point out that the topic of many of Jesus’ sermons was about the evils of religion, the self-centeredness of the rich, and the value of the marginalized. During that period of history (like all periods), there were homosexuals, transsexuals, and abortions. Jesus was silent about those things, which define American conservative Christianity today.

I will end this article by saying again, having been religious for decades in my youth, I now despise religion . . . just like Jesus did. But please be patient with your judgment, as greater clarification is coming.

Respectfully,

Mike