The Unclad Soul

For many years I had a fascination with the Catholic Church. I liked its beautiful liturgy, the formality of its worship. I was often taken with the elaborate, ornate atmosphere of their sanctuaries and cathedrals--the burning candles, the Holy Water, the Stations of the Cross, the ever present and large crucifix, the famous scenes of Jesus captured in brilliant stained glass windows, the Eucharist at the center of the altar, the burning incense, the cloistered confessionals, the priests colorful robes. I loved that they had such high regard for Mary. I was moved that they didn’t take Jesus off the Cross but left him there as a reminder of the agony and passion of his love. I liked that their priests often smoked openly and would have a drink outside the church. I related to their humanness. And I felt a kinship with their concept of the homily, the brief sermon, the message of Christ’s care for us and interest in us told in quiet words spoken in a matter of minutes. Then we ...

I am often a harsh critic of the church. Most of contemporary Christianity endlessly exasperates and offends me. So many churches today represent so little in terms of anything that comes even close to a sacred space or a place where someone might find arms of welcome no questions asked. A place where they are given room to explore their beliefs, to grow, and to remain human and real. Too many are old fashioned places of outdated rules and harsh judgments against people not like them. Or they are huge corporations for greed with their “seed faith” message and lifestyle of the rich and famous promise. Or they are political action committees that shamelessly promote specific political candidates and advocate one party representation. Or they are entertainment centers filled with garish music and an atmosphere disguised as some kind of contemporary Jesus scene with a Bible verse thrown in here and there sprinkled with empty talk of God that is little more than religious pabulum on...

The enigmatic and unconventional artist and filmmaker, Andy Warhol, once said that we all have our own America. He said it consists of “Pieces of a fantasy America” that we think exists but which we really don’t see. He said we created this America from scenes in movies, from music lyrics, and from novels and other books. The result, he said, is an America made up of “art and schmaltz and emotions.” I find a lot of truth in that. We have the recorded history of this country in thousands of books and speeches and other forms of documentation and they all tell stories of hardship and courage, genius and empty-headedness, brotherhood and bigotry, slavery and freedom, cruelty and compassion, stampeding greed and astonishing charity, gross decadence and simple living. We continue making American history and what we’re currently up to will not read well in future years. Today, we find our country crippled by a political system that has outlived itself and is so dysfunctional it ha...

For as long as I can remember Christianity has been in conflict with itself. I grew up a Southern Baptist and I was never encouraged to respect or trust other Christian denominations. The Methodists and Presbyterians were both liberal and didn’t really believe the Bible. The Lutherans were started by Martin Luther and somehow that meant they weren’t really legitimate. They followed a man instead of Christ. The Catholics weren’t really even Christians because they believed in and prayed to Mary, and their priests heard their confessions and offered them absolution, not Jesus. Of course in the Baptist Church you just walked down the aisle at the end of the church service and told the preacher you were sorry for something you did wrong that day or during the past week. He prayed with you. You asked God for forgiveness. And all was well. What the hell difference was there in that and what the Catholics did? I had no idea. Then or now. And the Episcopalians were just a step down ...