Category: Religion

Can you be smart and religious?

Before I’m called a tool of the Devil, let me just say first of all that I think this question is absurd. Intelligence and belief have nothing to do with one another despite the fact […]

Charter for Compassion

Karen Armstrong makes her case for compassion as the core value of every religion (and as the element of religion that is most desperately missing in modern religious life).

Jesus said an awful lot of nothing about gay love

After spending a few days reading up on issues related to gay Christians, I’m feeling pretty guilty that I never did this before. I just took it as obvious that God wouldn’t create gay people […]

Soul Freedom and Jesus the Hippie

If only we’d had YouTube in the 60s, surely someone would have done much better than this… Still, Jesus was kind of a hippie. To find out how that turns out, we have only to […]

Gays and Christians and Bullies, Oh My

You may or may not have been born gay, but regardless, you weren’t born an abomination. No matter who you are, God doesn’t hate you. He probably doesn’t even hate shrimp.

Jesus Loves Gay Children

A couple of weeks ago I posted a response to To Kill a Mockingbird in which I said that as an adult I am more like Maudie than Scout. Here’s one way I am like […]

Yoga for Body and Spirit

Today I drove by a church with a sign out front that said, “God responds to prayer not problems.” I thought, “What a horrible thing to say.” I’m all for the idea that God responds […]

Giving it up for Lent

I didn’t post this picture on Ash Wednesday because it looks a little demented. I thought my other self-portrait was more appropriate as a form of religious observance. Now that it is no longer Ash […]

It's easy if you try

The “Black Jesus” episode of Good Times is one of my most memorable childhood television experiences. It ranks right up there with the Pearl Harbor episode of The Waltons for TV that taught me something. […]