About three months after my book Penguins, Pain and the Whole Shebang, came out, Writer’s Digest magazine contacted me for an interview. By way of planning for a special “Spirituality” issue of the magazine, they had asked their readers to recommend a book on the topic. A lot of people apparently named Penguins, and that’s why they contacted me. (more…) Read more
In yesterday’s Religious Tolerance: Lack of Conviction, or World’s Only Hope? I asserted that ultimately the only hope for mankind is if everyone who fervently believes in their religion “adheres to their belief the idea that just because something is right for them doesn’t mean it must be right for everyone else.” This idea—that the Christian must admit that the Muslim is every bit as happy and spiritually fulfilled in his faith as he is in his (and visa-versa)—is typically... Read more
In the course of the (really interesting) reader responses to yesterday’s Does God REALLY Answer My Questions? came this comment, from self-proclaimed “model agnostic” Brian Shields (whose website is here, and whose splendid photographs of my old stomping grounds, San Francisco, are here): “While God talking to John Shore seems benign to me (or even hilarious in [John’s book] “Penguins, Pain …”) there are some people who KNOW God is talking to them and telling them to hijack planes and... Read more
By way of commenting on yesterday’s I Don’t Let Go; I Don’t Let God, a reader named Claudia wrote in to ask: What I really want to know is: If you do ask Him something, does He answer? I’m not talking big-special-effects-budget, voice-from-the-sky type of answer. Someone once described it as ‘a still small voice’ (and yes, I do know that comes out of the Bible). Really? Is God really there, and does He really answer, even if only in... Read more
Think you're willing to "Let go and let God"? Think again. Read more
If getting paid for not working doesn't say "Our Elected Officials," I just don't know what does. Read more
If you go here on this sleazeball site, you’ll find what I’ve made available for free here at Seven Reasons Women Stay in Abusive Relationships, and How to Defeat Each One of Them being sold for about $10.00. (You can also “Order available CD(s) for an additional 11.90 [includes shipping]“—meaning, I guess, they’ll burn it for you onto a disc.) My work, meant to help women suffering from domestic violence, which I give away for free here on my blog,... Read more
The problem isn't that men are no good at Valentine's Day. The problem is they're TOO good at it. Read more
Christians like to think in terms of themselves or others being “pleasing to God.” But isn’t that about the most boring way of framing your relationship to God? Because who doesn’t know when they’re behaving in a way that’s displeasing to God? Who can’t tell when they’re working against God’s interest? Who sins, and doesn’t know they’re sinning? No one. Kids know when they’re being selfish, greedy, mean or wasteful. If you’re being displeasing to God, you don’t have to... Read more
There we were, inspecting the townhouse we were going to buy. It was me, my wife Cat, our (superb!) Realtor (Hi, Lynda Cook if you read this!), and Tony, our frightfully knowledgeable house inspector. Cat and Lynda were sitting at the dining room table belonging to the [major health care provider with a thriving practice] who was then renting the place, and I was tagging along behind Tony, wondering if I was even vaguely fooling him into thinking I knew... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In