MTMartin Thielen

1. Article · Sep 28, 2026 · Martin Thielen

   My hopelessly bipolar relationship with institutional religion (opens the original)

   Excerpt · English

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   Although I’m retired from vocational ministry, I still have church dreams several times a week. Some are positive. Some are negative. The fact that I still frequently dream about church — and that the dreams include a mix of both good and bad experiences — confirms my deep ambivalence about institutional religion. Two recent examples of these church dreams follow. They occurred back-to-back over two nights in June this year. I’m able to share them in such detail because I carefully recorded them

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2. Article · Aug 13, 2026 · Martin Thielen

   The danger of negative religion (opens the original)

   Excerpt · Critical tone · English

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   The federal government once employed a veterinarian as a food inspector. He inspected 75,000 chickens a week at a local poultry company. One day he made an interesting comment to a friend: “I never see a good chicken.” He went on to explain that through years of inspecting millions of chickens, it became necessary for him to train his eyes to see only the bad chickens, the ones that should be rejected. Unfortunately, religious people sometimes can become like that chicken inspector. They focus o

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