The Unclad Soul

There is a poignant scene in the British crime-drama, Broadchurch, where Cath, a woman in a dying marriage, confides in a friend. Cath has just discovered that her husband, Jim, had a brief affair with her best friend, Trish. It was Trish who told Cath about the affair. She explained that her long separation from her husband had left her terribly lonely, that she felt unattractive, and missed affection and intimacy, and that in a moment of vulnerability, she violated her best friend’s trust. Cath was furious about the betrayal, and then profoundly saddened by it. It was then that she told her boss and friend, Ed, about the whole thing. In a moment of reflection, she said, “I just thought my life would be, that I’d love someone, and they’d love me back, and it would last my whole life. Why is that so much to ask?” That comment describes the frustration and sorrow in so many marriages today. Society, the Church, our parents, do not prepare us for the difficulties of a lifel...

The religious theme, if you can actually call it that, running through this ongoing presidential campaign, is revealing a worrisome truth. And that is that we have a lot of misguided thinking in this country about religion. Many of our very religious sounding politicians today keep telling us what a dangerous threat Iran is to us. But what seems to be completely lost on them is that the government of Iran is a theocracy led by religious leaders who have made their sacred teachings the law of the land. And any violation of those teachings is strictly punishable by brutal and sometimes fatal consequences. There is a cruel and shameful trail of abuse and horror throughout history when religion has attempted to control the lives of all people. Catholics, Christians, Muslims, and Jews have all contributed to those grim periods in history when people were victimized by obsessive and extremist religious beliefs and the leaders who demanded faithfulness to them. The distinguished Sup...