A Religious Monster Bash - Catholic and Baptist Ghosts on the Rolls (SBC Ghostbusters)

Below is commentary on the USA Today story Are There Really 64 Million U.S. Roman Catholics?

US Roman Catholic Membership
To no surprise Southern Baptists are not the only religious organization suffering from AWOL members. The 2007 Official Catholic Directory for the Roman Catholic Church in America boasts of a staggering 64 million members. However, according the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, 9.5 million people consider themselves to be ex-Catholics. Of these 9.5 million ex-Catholics, 28% said they left religion altogether, while 11% claimed to have become Baptist. We can assume (maybe) that they were re-Baptized by immersion following their conversion.

SBC Membership
In 2005 the SBC claimed 16.3 million members. An increase of 400k members from 2000, an average of 80k per year. The rub is, prepare yourself, that only 38% or 6.2 million claim to regularly attend the church's primary worship service. In other words, there are 10.1 million "ghosts" on the SBC rolls.

Just as one may question the Catholic, they have the right to question the SBC - "What about integrity of church membership and accurately representing your rolls?" If you are seeing the inconsistencies and asking similar questions, have no fear.

Help is on the way.

"Who We Gonna Call?"
"Who we gonna call?" You may ask. The SBC Ghostbusters. Who else? They ain't afraid of no ghosts. The SBC Ghostbusters are a wily group of paraecclesiologists armed with proton pacs (read, membership interview process) and not afraid of a little ectoplasmic slime (read, difficulties of purging the rolls). They set up shop in a rundown firehouse and are ready for business. Their ghost eliminating method is sure to route out the Gatekeeper and Keymaster from your paranormal roster.

Select your paraecclesiologist SBC Ghostbuster.

~Dr. Raymond Stantz, aka, Dan Aykroyd, aka Mark Dever

~Dr. Peter Venkman, aka Bill Murray, aka Tom Ascol

~Dr. Egon Spengler, aka Harold Ramis, aka Matt Schmucker

~Winston Zeddmore, aka Ernie Hudson, aka Thabiti Anyabwile

There you have them...the SBC Ghostbusters.

Should I Ask the Question? Question & Comment Evaluation Chart for Students

While in the classroom have you ever thought to yourself:

1. Should I ask this question?
2. I shouldn't have asked that question.
3. I wish that person would stop asking questions/making comments and dominating class discussion.
4. I think I have something good to add to this discussion, but I'm not sure if I should say anything.
5. I should've said something.
6. I know that person has something good to say, but why won't he/she say it?
7. I'm lonely.

The folks at Christians for Better Classrooms have provided all students around the world a Question & Comment Evaluation Chart to help us answer the inner-monologue many, if not all, of us reherse each time we are in the classroom. Enjoy.

8 Reasons Why I Can't Share My Faith

I promised my wife that I would not post any more YouTube embeds on my blog. So, I'm forwarding you to one that I found on a friend's site. It's called 8 Reasons Why I Can't Share My Faith.

It's entertaining to say the least.