Of relocated cats and losing our religion
By JEFF LAMPE
Rambling through central Illinois, hoping Andy Reid gets to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.
The other day in Toulon, I ran into Wendy Cunningham of Laura, who was a participant in our cat relocation project a few years ago. You may recall the project: my sons and I spent a summer trapping feral felines and then transporting them to anyone who wanted a cat for their barn or shed. Well, Wendy’s report was not encouraging. It seems the cats she got took off immediately and were never seen again. That made me wonder: Did anyone have luck with those feral cats we delivered? Let me know. I’d like to think that a few of them enjoyed better lives after being relocated. … Elmwood native Bob Monroe reports that his son Kyle, who plays basketball for nationally ranked Division 2 Michigan Technological University, recently poured in a school-record 53 points against Grand Valley State. A senior, Kyle made 20 of 28 shots and 10 of 13 3-pointers in a losing effort.
Organized religion is steadily disappearing. Proof comes every Sunday, when more and more pews go empty across the country. Speaking of which, the Pew Research Center says that in 2019, 65 percent of American adults describe themselves as “Christians” when asked about their religion. That’s down 12 percent over the past decade. At the same time, the “religiously unaffiliated” portion of the population has increased to 26 percent from 17 percent in 2009. … That is the background with which we note that Orange Chapel United Methodist Church (pictured above in 1957) celebrated its final service last Sunday. Church members and Pastor Don Shane – who also serves Methodist churches in Douglas and Maquon – decided to stop services after 164 years due to declining membership. This is not unique to Orange Chapel, which is a pretty little Knox County church located northwest of Maquon. The same thing is happening all over Illinois and the country. Sigh.
Just FYI, we ran two pro-Trump editorial cartoons in a row to please the folks who read our sister paper up in Toulon, where 96.3 percent of Stark County votes Republican and we are trying to drum up some business. But down here in Elmwood, we’ll officially tell people that all the pro-Trump drum beating is for John Herman of Elmwood, as rabid an orange-hair backer as we’ve seen. … Kudos: Thanks to Elmwood junior high boys basketball coach Jim Valla for all his years of running shell drills and geese drills. Winning 800 games at any level is an accomplishment. … Parting shot: A proud war veteran from Brimfield stopped by this week asking if we would pose this question to readers: “Why do American people think more of their sports teams than they do of the free country they live in?” That’s his conclusion after seeing more flags with sports teams logos than American flags flying in front of homes – not to mention plenty of poles with no flag at all. Contact Jeff Lampe at 231-6040 or jeff@wklypost.com
