THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR GETTING IT. AND THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT SO ELOQUENTLY. From Pop-Culture.org, a thoughtful, provocative, groovy site run by a church in Palatine, Illinois. Bless them. Listening, Learning, LovingThe God Factor: The Spiritual Lives of Public People By Diane Strzelecki ([email protected]) I’ll admit that what initially piqued my curiosity regarding Cathleen Falsani’s The God Factor was a blistering book review in the Wall Street Journal. In her review (“A Different Kind of Celebrity Worship” April... Read more

THAT’S MA BOY: BONO @ WILLOW CREEK’S “LEADERSHIP SUMMIT” “‘Love thy neighbor’ is not advice,” Bono told Willow’s founding pastor, the Rev. Bill Hybels. “It’s a command. . . . We can be the instrument of God’s grace.” (See the Gospel of St. Matthew 22:36-40 for more details . . .) Read more

ST. PATRICK’S BREASTPLATE: A PRAYER FOR THE FRIGHTENED I arise todayThrough a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,Through the belief in the threeness,Through confession of the onenessOf the Creator of Creation. I arise todayThrough the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom. I arise todayThrough the strength of the love of Cherubim,In obedience... Read more

“THE LOVE OF GOD IS ABSOLUTE”: DR. GRAHAM IN NEWSWEEK“Those are decisions only the Lord will make. It would be foolish for me to speculate on who will be there and who won’t. … I don’t want to speculate about all that. I believe the love of God is absolute. He said he gave his son for the whole world, and I think he loves everybody regardless of what label they have.” — The Rev. Billy Graham, in an interview... Read more

GODSTUFF: TO AIR CONDITION OR NOT TO AIR CONDITION: THAT IS THE MORAL DILEMMA“No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than central air.”— The demon Azrael (Jason Lee) in “Dogma” It’s not that I don’t care about the environment. I do, I swear. I’m not one of those religious people who thinks creation is ours to dominate and its resources ours to spend like found money because Jesus is coming back and the world is going to end soon... Read more

PUT THE JESUS JUICE DOWN AND STEP AWAY FROM THE VEHICLE: GOD GIRL ON CNN’S “SHOWBIZ TONIGHT” This just in: CNN has asked God Girl to appear on its nightly entertainment news program “Showbiz Tonight” on Monday to talk about The God Factor, celebrities and faith in general, and Mel Gibson’s religiously-loaded-and-entirely-cringeworthy meltdown last weekend. Poor soul. So tune in, if you dare. “Showbiz Tonight” airs at 11 p.m. EST Monday, Aug. 7 on CNN’s Headline News channel in most... Read more

TELL IT, DADDY! Read more

ONE HUNDRED DEGREES ON MOVING DAY: WHY DOES JESUS PLAY ME LIKE THAT?Dear readers, We moved house for the first time in a decade last weekend. Last weekend, the hottest weekend in, oh, a decade. Go figure.So we were without internets and without computer at all for a while. We’re back. And centrally air-conditioned now, so grace abounds. In our absence, there’s been this and that, but the most interesting that is a Q&A with God Girl posted on Interference.com,... Read more

GODSTUFF: EVIL GENIUS? JESUS’ S GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDAUTHOR WRITES A NOVEL(ISH) After three full years of Dan Brown overload, a few months back I swore I’d never again voluntarily type the words MARY MAGDALENE. Not even if Jesus (aka Mr. Magdalene) appeared to me himself and begged me to give the old gal another chance. But this was just too good for my inner cynic to resist. The Expected One, which is billed as fiction (more or less), is sure to be... Read more

GODSTUFF: SAY IT WITH ME NOW: ‘ITS NOT ABOUT ME’Tom Robbins assumes a Zen position What if everything you thought you knew turned out to be wrong?About the world. About God. About yourself. What would happen if everything suddenly changed, because of illness, infirmity, or, perhaps, because a bit of wisdom floats your way and knocks your perception of reality on its tuckus? Would you panic?Would you mourn?Or would you welcome the change and roll with it, enlightened being that... Read more