Odds and Ends are letters covering important topics that do not necessarily require a whole article.
HILLSONG FOUNDER BRIAN HOUSTON FOUND NOT GUILTY
Hillsong founder Brian Houston has been found not guilty of concealing his father’s sexual abuse of a child.
The 69-year-old has previously told a Sydney court he was left “speechless” in 1999 when he first learned of Frank Houston’s abuse of a seven-year-old boy decades earlier.
But Brian Houston insisted he did not go to the police because he was respecting the wishes of the victim, Brett Sengstock, who by that time was aged in his 30s.
He pleaded not guilty to concealing a serious indictable offence.
Magistrate Gareth Christofi on Thursday found Brian Houston not guilty, after concluding he had a “reasonable excuse” for not reporting the matter.
Frank Houston was stripped of his credentials as a pastor for the Assemblies of God and died in 2004 (abc.net.au).
‘SOUND OF FREEDOM’ BECOMES NO. 1 MOVIE IN AMERICA ON JULY 4
“Sound of Freedom” hit theaters on Tuesday, and due to the “Pay It Forward” technology used by Angel Studios, the true-life thriller, which was reported as tied with Disney/Lucasfilm’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” actually beat out the studio giant for the No.1 spot at the box office on Independence Day.
“Sound of Freedom,” shown in only 2,600 theaters, tells the true story of one man’s journey to combat child sex trafficking. The Angel Studios film is based on the life of Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent who left his job because he wanted to do more to rescue children from modern-day slavery. The film delivers a bold message calling for the freedom of millions of children enslaved in human trafficking, declaring that “God’s children are not for sale”(christianityreport.com).
BIOLOGICAL MALE NAMED MINNESOTA’S ‘WOMAN OF THE YEAR’
USA Today named Rep. Leigh Finke, a biological male who identifies as a woman, Minnesota’s “Woman of the Year” over the weekend.
According to USA Today’s profile, Finke has been “an activist for transgender and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as Black Lives Matter, almost her whole life.”
Finke is carrying a bill in the Minnesota House that would make the state a “refuge” for children seeking “gender-affirming” drugs and surgeries (alphanews.org).
THE LOST BOY SCOUTS
This year, for the first time since 2017, the Scouts held their National Jamboree in the hills of West Virginia. Reporter Mike De Socio attended and, writing in The Washington Post, described the shell of an organization he encountered. This year’s Jamboree drew only 15,000 scouts compared to 40,000 at the previous Jamboree in 2017. Between 2019 and 2021, the Boy Scouts lost 62% of its membership, and there’s no sign of a post-COVID recovery. As Carnegie Mellon’s student newspaper put it, the Boy Scouts “is a dying institution.”
According to De Socio, the blame for the organization’s near collapse should fall on the abuse scandal and the pandemic. Certainly, these factors hastened the demise we now witness, but it’s as if the author cannot imagine how the Scouts’ enthusiastic embrace of LGBT ideology over the last 10 years sealed its fate. In the same period, a Christian organization for boys called Trail Life USA saw a 70% increase in membership (breakpoint.org).
JUST HOW BAD IS DENOMINATIONAL DECLINE?
. . . Membership data on nine denominations. There are six in the mainline tradition: American Baptist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. Those six represent the vast majority of the mainline.
There are three in the evangelical tradition included as well: the Assemblies of God, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church of America. The SBC is easily the largest denomination in the evangelical family, and the AoG is growing quickly. . . But the focus here is on denominational Protestantism. So, keep that in mind.
This is the percentage change in membership between 1987 and 2021. That first date is completely arbitrary, but I think it actually may represent the high-water mark for denominational membership for a few reasons that I outline here.
The mainline is just a bloodbath. Five traditions are down by at least 30%. The ELCA is down 41%. The United Church of Christ is less than half the size it was in the late 1980s. The United Methodists are already down 31%, but with over 15% of their churches disaffiliating just this year, I wouldn’t be surprised in membership is down 40% or more by this time next year.
The SBC is only down 4%, but that’s just because its decline has been way more recent.
There are two traditions that are up. The Assemblies of God has grown by over 50% in the 35 years. The PCA has doubled in size, as well. But it’s important to put that PCA number in perspective. Even today, there are only about 400,000 members. For every PCA in the United States, there are about 33 Southern Baptists. . .
. . . I wanted to point out that the Assemblies of God numbers are not doing as well as the first graph would indicate. Sure, they have grown 50% since the late 1980s. But notice the last few years? Their growth rate has declined from 2% per annum to nearly 0% in the last few years. If that continues, the AoG might start shedding members as well (ministrywatch.com).
RISE OF THE UNAFFILIATED CHURCH
Between 2010 and 2020 nondenominational churches expanded by 2 million attendees and 9,000 congregations in the U.S., according to the 2020 U.S. Religion Census, which was released last week. The USRC is released every 10 years by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.
Nondenominational churches now make up 4% of the U.S. population and constitute the third-largest religious group in the country after Catholics and the Southern Baptist Convention. The Catholic Church has more than 61 million adherents, and the Southern Baptist Convention has the most congregations, with 51,000.
This boom in nondenominational churches is not surprising to Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, who started studying the religion in the late ‘90s. “I saw that nondenominationalism was growing and none of my colleagues were paying much attention to them,” he said.
He explained that a nondenominational church is one that chooses not to affiliate with an official denomination. He said nondenominationalism is individualism at the congregational level. Haugh said he agrees that autonomy is a draw.
“You don’t have to leave your tradition at the door,” Haugh said.
There are differences between nondenominational and evangelical denominational churches. For example, nondenominational church buildings tend to be larger in terms of seating capacity. Clergy are predominantly male, younger and less educated, with 30% having a Master of Divinity degree, compared to 47% of evangelical clergy. Meanwhile, those in the pews at nondenominational churches are younger and tend to have more college degrees than those in an evangelical church.
Thumma said nondenominational churches are also more racially diverse. “This multiracial reality is an intentional commitment for many of the nondenominational churches,” he explained, noting that when surveyed in the FACT study 48% of congregations “strongly agreed” they were striving to be diverse racially, ethnically and socially, compared to 21% of denominational evangelical churches.
. . . Most nondenominational churches describe their worship as “innovative” with the majority having informal services with projector screens and contemporary music.
Besides the music, Tranchell said the nondenominational church is appealing because the community has “local control of what matters to you, not matters to your home office”(ministrywatch.com).
ORGAN DONATION AND ‘PRESUMED CONSENT’
Following the lead of the province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick became the second jurisdiction in Canada to adopt a policy of “presumed consent” for organ and tissue donation. Instead of willingly opting in to be an organ donor, residents 19 years and older, with limited exceptions, will be opted in by default.
While many see this as a solution to the perpetual demand for transplant organs, laws like these treat the ethics of organ donation as a settled matter while treating humans and their bodies as means to other ends. Even more, considering Canada’s policy of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), this step will corrode the already thin ideas of “autonomy” and “consent” while incentivizing a utilitarian view of human nature.
For context, Canada has already experienced a dramatic expansion of MAID toward not only those facing a terminal medical diagnosis but also for those suffering from mental illness deemed “grievous and irremediable” (those who suffer solely from mental illness will not be eligible until 2024). In 2021, assisted deaths rose by 35%, reaching over 10,000, or 3% of all deaths in the country. Opponents of MAID, including virtually every disability rights group in Canada, continued to warn that a so-called “right” to die will inevitably devolve into a duty to die. People are seen, both by themselves and by others, as burdens using precious resources better spent on those with better prospects for a “better” life (breakpoint.org).
MINNESOTA BABIES WHO SURVIVE ABORTIONS NO LONGER ENTITLED TO LIFESAVING MEDICAL CARE
Babies who survive abortions will no longer be counted under a new Minnesota pro-abortion law that is now in effect.
Babies who survive abortion also have fewer rights after the state’s Democratic leaders passed the legislation that lessens the medical care requirements for those infants.
The law also changes the “reasonable measures” requirement to say that “medical personnel” should provide “care for the infant who is born alive.” There is no longer a requirement to “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant”(alphanews.com).
DOCTOR: POLICE PUT ME IN PSYCH WARD FOR COVID ‘MISINFORMATION’
A Swiss cardiologist with a doctorate in immunology and virology who has held a private practice for 24 years says police forcibly took him to a psychiatric ward to be examined for mental illness in response to his public criticism of COVID restrictions, mandates and testing he argued were unscientific.
On April 9, 2020, Dr. Thomas Binder posted to his blog an analysis of COVID-19and the government’s mitigation efforts that received 20,000 views. He hoped it would prompt action, but two colleagues alerted the chief of state police, claiming Binder was a threat to himself and the government. On the day before Easter of 2020, he was confronted outside his home by about 60 armed police officers, including 20 with the canton of Aargau’s anti-terrorism unit, ARGUS.
In a video interview with independent reporter Taylor Hudak, Binder said that after examining his online posts and messages, police concluded he was not a threat. But the officers sent an emergency physicians to examine his mental health, and he was diagnosed with “corona insanity” and placed in a psychiatric unit.
Binder was released on the condition he take psychiatric medication and continues to practice medicine in Switzerland (wnd.com).
RESOURCES
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-17/hillsong-founder-brian-houston-not-guilty/102740394
https://alphanews.org/biological-male-named-minnesotas-woman-of-the-year/
https://www.breakpoint.org/the-lost-boy-scouts/
https://ministrywatch.com/just-how-bad-is-denominational-decline/
https://breakpoint.org/organ-donation-and-presumed-consent/
https://www.wnd.com/2022/11/doctor-police-put-psych-ward-covid-misinformation/
Kairos Ministries 