So, I've got some questions about Deism and the Church of Deism. But first:
My name is Alex, I'm from Arkansas, and I'm pretty new to Deism. As an un-Organized Religion, that is. I have been a Deist without knowing it for quite a while. I tried to convince myself that I agreed with the Pauline Christian idea of God, but I just couldn't do it. He sounded nothing like the Father God that Yeshua spoke of in the Gospels (both accepted an apocryphal. My personal favorite is the Gospel of Thomas.). So I tried looking for a religion that DID seem to match the teachings of Yeshua. The closest I came to was a choice between the Essene Church of Christ (an organization that looked a whole lot like it just wanted your money) and Philosophical Taoism (which seems to be mostly Atheistic). I couldn't find it. I then looked to the modern Ebionim, those that follow the Jewish Yeshua and expect thier followers to follow either the Laws of Noah or the Laws of Moses. But in the end, they didn't have what I needed either. I was about to give up when I found Deism. The idea of Nature being the Word of God instead of any book absolutely wowed me, and made so much sense. If God/Deus wished to give all of humanity His/Her/Its word, it would make more sense that it WOULD be all of Creation, instead of a single book which may or may not agree with the descoveries made by scientests. So I looked around for some Deist organizations to join. Sadly, most of them seemed to focus on tearing down other religions, instead of building up Deism. I had dealt with enough of that in the Pauline Christian Church. Then I found the Church of Deism. It's a wonderful site you have here, and a great idea, giving Deists the chance to be ministers. But I am a little confused about some things relating to Deism and the Church of Deism. So here's the questions I mentioned up at the top. They may seem stupid, but I really am confused about these matters:
Since Deism is not an organized religion, and currently the only meeting places (at least that I know of) are online, does that mean that if one wished to have a local meeting place for Deists in his/her area they could not do so and still be considered a Deist?
You say that "A minister of Deism may officiate weddings, funerals and baptisms, perform prison ministry, and take confessions.  Ministers may also recruit other congregants and prospective ministers to the faith." But, I never see Deists evangelize. And I know of no site that trains Deists to do so. So, how would a minister go about "recruiting" people to the faith?
Is there a training program of some kind availible for those that are interested in becoming a Deist minister? Or do they just "wing it"?
Would it be alright if I link back to this site as my church on my personal website?
If I were to get together some local Deists, we found a building, and started to use it as a local meeting place, could we call it a branch of the Church of Deism?
Most Deist sites I've seen say that Faith Healing just doesn't work, and neither does any other sort of medicine other than the accepted Western Medicine, including, but not limited to, Chinese Qigong and Japanese Reiki. I have had personal experience with Qigong and Reiki, and am able to do minor healings using chi/qi/ki, so my belief in them working is not based on "blind faith," but on the fact that I tried them and they worked. Will the members of the Church of Deism believe that I am not using reason if I choose these forms of medicine over western medicine? My decision is based on the fact that my family and I have been using western medicine our whole lives, and instead of making us better it made us sicker many times (that does not mean that western medicine does not have it's place. When my mother had cancer, we didn't go to some faith healer, we went to the doctor. There are certain things that the West does better than the East, and vice versa). But once we started using Natural Medicine, and Eastern Medicine, many of our health problems simply went away. I do not consider these to be "miracles," or "magic(k)," simply an aspect to medicine and science that the West does not fully understand yet.
Thanks for any answers.