As Zwartz has writes; "I argued that the paper typically only covered three religion stories: priests molesting children, the church in decline, and the troglodyte church holding back women and gays."

I don't see much else emanating from the church these days. I find them utterly irrelevant. A spent force.

Indeed whence? Not for nothing is it writ large. Know the truth and the truth will set you free!

Would you know this truth sourced from ancient divine wisdom, learn to meditate and when accomplished enough and without any religious dogma included or attached!

Finally understand what is meant by, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven within!

Or that meditation is the practise of stilling all conscious thought or the monkey chatter that is the never ending conscious thought process! And not reflective thinking about a particular theme or writer.

Find a comfortable chair and sit upright, when refreshed rather than when tired and sleepy. Put on some soft music which you find very relaxing and just lose yourself in the moment of complete listening stillness.

Create a scene in you mind's eye, of a tropical beach nobody else has ever walked on. Observe the crunch virgin sand makes when first walked on. Then note how much the gentle waves resemble your slow steady breathing rhythm as they lap the shore. Then how the palms rustle with the very gentle zephyr of breeze.

Then note a slightly familiar place where a path ascends away from the beach toward a mountain. As you set foot upon this path note the number of steps, counted backwards, that you need to take to reach a distant if timeless plateau. Start from five hundred and reduce with time and experience to say, one hundred.

Note absolutely everything you experience along the way and when you reach the highest point.

This will completely involve your conscious mind and allow you higher still mind to just observe and listen, without being overwhelmed by the usual monkey chatter.

Use it when you are troubled and need to know the truth about anything. Or confirm a truth or a lie!

We all have a built in BS meter and it works better if we learn how to access then use it to help resolve any issue which doesn't have to be religious, just everyday stuff only important to you! Or ancient timeless wisdom.
Alan B.

What a perfect and wise conclusion:

«It is about time that the Church realises that the end of the Church as we knew it has arrived and that we cannot go on as before. It is time to circle the wagons and nurture the light of the gospel. It is time to own the fact that we are a dissident force within our culture and that we cannot rely on the old relationships to keep us in business. We have returned to the condition of the early Church; a minority living in a society that misunderstands us and persecutes us. This will be a good thing for the Church as long as it can maintain theological rigor and not lapse completely into folk religion. Such austerity may rescue the Church from nominal religion, which is what the census measures.»

Too long has Christianity been corrupted by its entanglement with the state. Same for Islam which is still entangled with certain states even today; as well as for Judaism which is entangled with the state of Israel.

May all Christians get the above message. I wish all my Christian brothers and sisters well and speedy recovery of their spiritual integrity and force.

Never mind that conventional exoteric institutional Christianity has nothing to do with Truth and Reality as these two related references point out, and describe. It is all based on and created by mind-based illusions
http://www.adidam.org/teaching/aletheon/truth-religion
http://global.adidam.org/books/gift-of-truth-itself
Plus this reference which was originally titled The Psychosis of Doubt
http://www.adidam.org/teaching/gnosticon/universal-scientism
This reference of doubt at the golem-like entity which creates conventional "religion" and culture.
http://www.dabase.org/hardware.htm
The Restoration of the Sacred
http://www.beezone.com/da_publications/restsacr.html

I was a catholic growing up: altar boy, first communion, confirmation. Have not been in a church since I was 18. I see the catholic church as a corrupt and secretive organization concerned only with protecting and perpetuating itself. Condemn (indeed excommunicate) priest liberation theologists but protect child abusers? What?
And how do you think a conversation between George Pell and Jesus of the new testament would unfold? It would not be to pell's credit.
But spirituality, or whatever you call it, is important, is part of what it means to be human. Jung spoke often about this. Nietzsche lamented the death of god, perplexed at what might come after. Me too. If the church dies, what replaces it? Neo-freakin-liberalism??

This article could only have been written by a believer. As was pointed out to me in the long ago, you must have faith to believe in god.

It is a circular and time wasting argument.

People can believe whatever they choose, it is when they attempt to impose that belief, or 'morality' based upon that belief that they have overstepped the mark.

No religion has any place in government, no place in defining what is 'moral', or what is not.