Question: How many members do major U.S. religious groups have?

October 2, 2023 By Richard Ostling

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Well, that’s impossible to say with any accuracy since there’s no one agreed-upon statistical source and some groups do not collect or issue good numbers, We do know two things for sure about the U.S. 1) It remains predominantly Christian despite a recent decline, and 2) There’s been notable growth in non-Christian religions through immigration and conversion. Recently, some noteworthy new numbers about U.S. Christianity became available. We’ll review those below, but let’s begin with... Read more

Question: Is Ukraine a “Just War”?

September 23, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The good news for Russia’s Vladimir Putin: A significant national leader announces that his invasion of Ukraine is a “just fight” that will end with “a great victory in the sacred struggle.” The bad news: The speaker is North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, so what’s “just” is defined by probably the most despised despot on the planet and what’s “sacred” by an atheist who works to exterminate all religion. Each international conflict raises the matter of... Read more

Question: Why Did the Bible Accept Slavery?

September 8, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: There’s been intense discussion of this never-ending issue in 2023, as we’ll see. In essence, defenders of the Bible explain that slave-holding was a fundamental aspect of society as far back as the earliest written annals we have, well before biblical times. Due to the existence of that powerful reality, the Bible did not and could not attempt to overthrow the sinful system but worked against its evils. Fact is, slavery was so ingrained that it... Read more

Question: Why Did Early Christians Choose Only Four Gospels?

August 19, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: During the formative first centuries of Christian history there were some 40 texts in circulation that could be considered “gospels,” according to one scholar, while another counted as many as 70. Marvin Meyer of Chapman University decided a dozen such non-biblical gospels merited inclusion in an 2005 anthology, while others have proposed different listings. Early Christians dismissed what they judged to be “apocryphal” texts, meaning of doubtful authenticity, and recognized only the familiar quartet of Matthew,... Read more

Question: What do Jews believe about the death penalty?

August 7, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: There was relief last week when a unanimous Pittsburgh jury approved the death penalty for the man (not to be dignified here with a name) who in 2018 massacred eleven worshipers at the Tree of Life Congregation, in the deadliest act of anti-Jewish violence in U.S. history. There’s a strong aversion to capital punishment in the teaching across the branches of Judaism but, as we’ll see, this is not absolute, and Judaism’s biblical and textual tradition... Read more

Question: “If God is Good, Why Do Animals Suffer?”

July 18, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The question above was the sub-headline for a recent cover story in Christianity Today magazine by Calvin University theologian John R. Schneider. It’s a twist on the age-old problem defined as follows by the eminent Christian intellectual C.S. Lewis in his best-selling classic “The Problem of Pain”: “If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the... Read more

Question: Where is biblical Mount Sinai located?

July 5, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Why would anyone wonder about the sacred spot where God through Moses revealed the Ten Commandments and other biblical laws? Just look at the name. Doesn’t everybody know that Mount Sinai must of course be on the Sinai Peninsula and, specifically, at a long-venerated location there? And yet a New York Times feature on June 25 reported that since Saudi Arabia opened up to tourists in 2019, some U.S. Christians have regularly traveled to the nation’s... Read more

Question: “Did Jesus Have Brothers & Sisters?”

June 22, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER The quote above is the headline for an article this month by Ginny Baxter, the “Woman to Woman” blogger on patheos.com. She figures “the answer is a definite ‘maybe’.” See www.patheos.com/blogs/womantowoman/2023/06/did-jesus-have-brothers-sisters/. On this age-old but ever-debated topic, The Guy would answer that it depends on what church is fielding the question. From ancient times, Catholicism and Orthodoxy have said no. They believe in Mary’s “perpetual virginity,” meaning that she and husband Joseph never had sexual relations... Read more

Question: Is California’s anti-“caste” effort unfair to Hindus?

June 6, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: A bill sponsored by a Muslim legislator and passed by California’s Senate May 11 would make this the first U,S. state to add “caste” to the categories of illegal discrimination under civil rights laws. The bill defines caste as “a system of social stratification on the basis of inherited status” that involves “socially enforced restrictions on marriage, private and public segregation” and “social exclusion on the basis of perceived status.” Action on the bill by California’s... Read more

Question: “Is Premarital Sex Always Sinful?”

May 26, 2023 By Richard Ostling

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THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The question above was the headline with an April article by Talley Cross, a “gender and sexuality” blogger with patheos.com. She responded with a cautious no. A yes answer is the contrary and familiar tradition in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other faiths, and as we’ll see below has lately gotten a degree of backing from surprising places. That age-old teaching is terribly counter-cultural and also subject to critique from within religions. The Gallup Poll says in... Read more