Poetically Dwelling on the Earth as a Mortal
I am a religious skeptic. I don’t believe in Yahweh, Allah, Krishna, or Ogun; nor do I believe in the resurrection of bodies two days dead and buried, nor water changing into wine, nor men walking about unharmed in fiery furnaces. Likewise for angels, ghosts, demons, statues that weep milk, and miraculous cures effected by the blessed water of Lourdes. About my skepticism, I feel neither pride nor shame; it’s not an achievement, nor is it a failing. It’s just a fact about me . . . a fact … [Read More...]
Pragmatic Buddhism, Westernized Dharma, 21st-century Sangha
When I was about fifteen years old, I accidentally ran into some of the classic early meditation experiences described in the ancient texts and my reluctant spiritual quest began. I did not realize what had happened, nor did I realize that I had crossed something like a point of no return, something I would later call “The Arising and Passing Away.” I knew that I had had a very strange dream with bright lights, that my entire body and world had seemed to explode like fireworks, and that … [Read More...]
Wendell Berry, Climate Change, and Earth Breathing
Wendell Berry is the author of more than fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays, and for more than forty years, he has lived and farmed with his wife, Tanya Berry, in Kentucky. Berry is also a well-known environmental activist, and he will be present to participate this summer at the annual Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, which this year will be in Louisville, Kentucky. Berry will be joining thousands of Unitarian Universalists from around the continent on Thursday, June 20 at a … [Read More...]
Pope Fail: Francis Throws the “Nuns on the Bus” Under the Bus
I celebrated many of Pope Francis' early acts of compassionate humility -- especially his subversion of the Maundy Thursday ritual by washing the feet of youth prisoners, including two Muslim girls. I'm always grateful when I hear about prominent Christian leaders actually doing Jesus-like acts of justice and love. (For more, see "Red Shoes or Black Shoes? Does It Matter?: On the Symbolism of Pope Francis.") However, I was disheartened to read this morning in The New York Times that the … [Read More...]
The Spirituality of Spring: Creativity as Spiritual Practice
i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any — lifted from the no of all nothing … [Read More...]
In Defense of My Interfaith Marriage
A guest post from Magin LaSov Gregg: One day in 2004, I was chatting away with my best friend. During a conversational lull she said — in her most well meaning way — “You would be a perfect candidate for Jews for Jesus.” She had a point. At 24, I’d fallen in love with a Baptist minister, much to the surprise of my Jewish family and friends. They envisioned a Bible-thumping Jerry Falwell type, complete with potbelly and televangelist hair. No one was more surprised than me that … [Read More...]
Did You Just Send That Woman To a Church To Get Help with an Abortion?
Today, in the year 2013, when we reflect on what it means to talk about reproductive justice, we are inherit a strong history. To remember how we reached this present moment, we invite you to hear ten landmark changes in the history of reproductive justice. Because we have to begin somewhere, it is significant to note how long contraception has been a controversial in our nation. In the 1850s, amid opposition from conservatives and feminists alike, the first rubber condoms are … [Read More...]
Highlights from Jesus Seminar on the Road
The following are my notes from the annual Jesus Seminar on the Road in D.C., which this year was on April 5 on "Jesus and Politics in His Time and Ours": Early Christians turned Jesus into a divine Savior who demanded worship. The historical Jesus, however, talked about the Kingdom of God, not about himself. Jesus did more than simply talk about the Kingdom. He lived and invited others to live this radical vision of human life under God’s rule — not in the afterlife, but in the … [Read More...]
Practice Resurrection
There’s a man I’d like to tell you about — a man named Hermann Gunkel. But before I tell you about him, I would like to tell you about two groups that I also wish could meet Mr. Gunkel. The first group to whom I’d like to introduce Mr. Gunkel is conservative Christians. I spent a lot of time in my childhood in conservative Christian congregations, and there was much emphasis on belief — believing doctrines on Good Friday such as the “necessity and efficacy of the substitutionary … [Read More...]
What Is Our Conveyer Belt? Stages of Faith
This post's title (“What Is Our Conveyer Belt?”) is a reference to a chapter in philosopher Ken Wilber’s book Integral Spirituality. One of Wilber’s particular interests is in stages of development. Both individually and in groups there is potential to progress through stages of development along many different lines. For example, there are stages of kinesthetic development as babies learn to first hold their neck up, then roll over, crawl, walk, and run — and some people even reach … [Read More...]
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