On The News that a 221-Year-Old Church Closed its Doors for Good:

It is tempting to take the closure of the First Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, PA, as a sign of progress. Unfortunately, however, while moderate Protestant church attendance is waning, Evangelical membership is waxing. This is real cause for concern. To the extent that Evangelical Christian dogmas conflicts with science, the future of human civilization, and possibly even our species' continued survival, is placed in grave peril. While China's greenhouse gas emissions have recently exceeded America's, the USA still holds first place as the world's all-time greatest polluter. And we are quickly running out of time to address the climate change crisis. Feedback loops in the climate system are already kicking in, and the signs of impending catastrophe are everywhere: drought and megafires in the West, tornadoes and Hurricanes in the East, and crop-withering heat waves in the Midwest. The kind of science illiteracy we see in Evangelical Christian congregations has greatly enabled the fossil fuel industry to continue its rape of the natural world. Witness the high rate (85%) at which Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump, an unabashed climate science denier and toady to corporate interests. And before Trump, we were saddled with oil man George W. Bush, who billed himself "born again" and whose disastrous presidency would not have been possible without the Evangelical Christian vote. So no, I am not celebrating just yet.