a common sense spirituality blog
God is so reliable. I was perusing my list of blog post ideas, looking for inspiration, when one caught my eye: Can you have faith without religion? It's a compelling question, especially since an increasing number of Americans now describe themselves as "spiritual, not religious." One study reports that as many as 33% self-identify as... Continue Reading →
I was absentmindedly watching the flight information screen as we ascended toward Istanbul from Cairo, and noticed a little factoid that had previously escaped me: The outside temperature. It was plummeting by the second. Before I switched screens to scroll through my movie choices, it was -98°F out there—almost 200° cooler than the Sahara. I... Continue Reading →
During this, the holiest week on the Christian calendar, we will attend vigils, wear hoodies to church, and post cathartic sentiments on social media in protest of the death of this innocent child and its subsequent cover-up. Then we will get down on our knees and thank God for sending another innocent young man to be slowly and sadistically tortured to death so that the guilty could be forgiven.
With every highly publicized act of inhumanity such as this, it's beginning to dawn on us that our primordial behaviors are just as beastly now as they were then. Were it not for souls such as the one who came to play the role of Troy Davis, we might still be brutally clubbing each other for sport, and offering the bodies of dead innocents as live sacrifices to imaginary mountain- and sky-dwelling gods.
Thank you, New York lawmakers. Thank you for overturning the ancient Mosaic Law that is at the root of our hate. Slowly but surely, Americans are shedding their blind belief in ancient misconceptions about human sexuality. The weary “Bible makes it very clear” defense for homophobic belief and behavior is losing its hateful grip on otherwise reasonable people, folks who believe that the Bible is “the Word of God”—with notable exceptions.
If you knew who you really are, you probably would never experience another hurt or disappointment in life.
At the heart of the Judgment Day belief is this divine question: Will Earth and every living thing that occupies it be destroyed by a sadistically punitive God who has no regard for the human life He created, and whose punishment exceeds all human crimes?
If a blood-thirsty posse approached the home of a guilty man, and his father pushed his innocent brother onto the porch, we'd be horrified. No doubt, many would declare that this father was pure evil. Why can't we see the parallel?
"Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something—and it is only... Continue Reading →
If God cares, is it about the same things you care about?
Loud Mouth in the Balcony 