I ingratiated myself with the District Superintendent entirely by accident. I was observant, merely. It was an event for the DS to arrive at our little church, so small that our pastor was shared with another house of worship some five or six miles away. As I understood it, the DS was a bigger minister […]
Category Archives: Religion
Childhood Theology
Children are little theologians, seeking and defining the gods that control the universe as they perceive it. Most of the tiny gods that made up my very own pantheon, they’re gone now. Through Knowing Better and the simple forgetfulness that keeps us all relatively sane, I ask no longer as many questions as kept my […]
A Judeo-Christo-Octane Rating of 95
Amber Rhea took it. Got an 88%. Mme le Debris Blanche took it. Got a 91%. So I had to take it. You know the Bible 95%! Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses – […]
Divine Dissatisfaction
From a speech entitled “Where Do We Go From Here?,” delivered by Dr. King on August 16, 1967, before the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia: And if you will let me be a preacher just a little bit. One day, one night, a juror came to Jesus and he wanted to know what […]
On Dungeons, Dragons, Imagination, Religion and Me
Gary Gygax is dead. He created Dungeons & Dragons in 1974. I never met him. But I owe him a debt of gratitude that requires some explanation. When I was a teenager, I was into Christian Rock up to my elbows. The genre seemed a reasonable compromise between the music I wanted to hear and […]
Multitudes Missing
Post Rapture Journal – Page 1, originally uploaded by grabbingsand. Spent some quality time in the garage today, deciding what was treasure to keep or junk to toss. I threw away so much. Lots of old letters, particularly. If I haven’t read them or re-read them in over five years, then why not let them […]
On Leviticus, Shakespeare and Harry Potter
The word “warlock” is not in any English translation of the Bible. Pick any acronym from the ever-expanding alphabet soup of Bible flavors. The word is not in the KJV, the NKJV, the NIV, the ESV, the CEV or any other. I checked (twice), just to make sure. So if warlocks were the enemies of […]
A Reading Assignment
First, think of the Religious Right in America. Second, consider this list of peculiar features from Umberto Eco, author of The Name of The Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum. Reflect on the first instruction in light of this second instruction. Third, read an excerpt from the first chapter of a new book by Chris Hedges, author […]
Mostly United
The Declaration of Peace, signed Sept. 21, is described as a call for nonviolent action to end the war in Iraq. The Washington event was one of 350 that will be staged nationwide to promote the peace initiative. The declaration calls for people to “engage in peaceful protests†if there is not a plan for […]
The Economist On Obama
From the current issue: Concerning the proper role of religion in politics, Mr Obama cautions against extremism of both stripes. Believers cannot abandon what they believe; but in a nation that includes Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and non-believers, “democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns into universal, rather than religion-specific, values.†Even […]
