The Unclad Soul

Carl Sagan, the great astronomer and author, once said that religion “assumes that people are children and need a boogeyman so they’ll behave.” He believed that religion sells people short and diminishes their ability to solve their own problems. There is truth in that. I find myself strongly in agreement with him. I grew up in the church. I wanted to be a professional baseball player or a broadcast journalist but I ended up being a Christian minister instead. A lot of it was because my parents instilled in me the notion that service to God was the highest calling available. They were deeply religious and it was difficult to ever get away from the idea that nothing much mattered except a life of devotion to the church. I spent 22 years in active ministry—preaching, teaching, writing, studying, digging into the Bible for answers to life, wrestling with the very conservative beliefs of my denomination, questioning hell and sin and judgment, reading the classical theologians, t...

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 ...

While sitting in the doctor’s office the other day I picked up a copy of “Parents” magazine. Not only does it have excellent articles with terrific parenting advice but I couldn’t help noticing the diversity of the people both children and adults in every single picture in the magazine. The ads, the photos accompanying each article, everywhere you turned a page, there was a different ethnic group represented: Blacks, Asian, Latino, and Anglo. I thought, yes, that is really what our society looks like. We are a huge melting pot of nationalities, races, cultures, ethnicities, likes and dislikes. What a beautiful, pluralistic, multicultural country we live in. Think of what we could accomplish if as an entire nation we totally welcomed, fully accepted, and genuinely embraced the diversity of the people that we are? Think of the variety of artists, writers, actors, musicians, poets, and other creative, thinking people we have in this country? They are a mix of races all of them;...

After some considerable thought, well, that’s not quite right. But anyway. I have decided to support Rick Santorum for president should he get the nomination. Here are the reasons why: 1. Back to basics. Mr. Santorum wants to take us back far past the Internet, the computer, the typewriter, the telegraph, the TV, the radio, smoke signals, and all other forms of human communication that might in some way tempt us into anything immoral. We need a leader like that. Someone with a clear vision of what’s right and what’s wrong so that we will only communicate with one another in holy words from pure souls. 2. Contraceptives. Here’s the problem in this country. As Mr. Santorum suggests, women are just being too needy of things relating to their bodies and whatnot. If Eve had listened to Adam in the Garden and simply let him pick all of the fruit while she did all the cooking then we wouldn’t even need contraceptives. Right? Sex probably wouldn’t even exist and we wouldn’t have...

Have you seen the elaborate, stylish, opulent television commercial for Cartier? The original commercial seemed to go on forever, a full three minutes. They have shortened it now, but it still drips with ostentatiousness. It is conspicuously pretentious in spite of the beautiful music and the sleek panther and the stunning scenery and the elegant model dressed in a striking red gown. The commercial takes the viewer through an amazing montage of dreamy landscapes and famous cities and spectacular stunts while moving past a giant expensive watch and finally to a glittering diamond bracelet modeled by the woman in red. Each time I see it I keep wondering who the target audience is. It seems to be such an over the top expression of unbridled greed and materialism gone ape. In a time when much of the world is starving and millions are still out of work here at home it seems bizarre that Cartier would spend what has to be millions on a television commercial celebrating 165 years in...

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...

Ingrid and I were strolling through Macy’s on our way to the food court in NorthPark mall. We walked by the men’s cologne section and I decided to stop to see if there was anything new on the shelves. I sniffed around a few things and finally sprayed on a little True Religion. It’s been around for awhile but I liked the scent. The rest of the afternoon whenever I would get a whiff of the cologne I kept thinking about the whole idea of true religion. I spent a lot of years studying religion, talking and writing about it, trying to figure out its mysteries and contradictions, its deep thoughts and arbitrary rules, its beautiful ideas and ugly prejudices. I am a Christian by family tradition, by parental influence, by focused exposure, by environmental coincidence, and as an adult, by choice. Had I grown up in India or Iran, Africa or China, Russia or Israel, I’m sure I would be something else. I do not believe any of us are destined or foreordained to be a Christian or to fo...

“The triple contagions of nationalism, utopianism and religious absolutism effervesce together into an acid that corrodes the moral metal of a race, and it shamelessly and even proudly performs deeds that it would deem vile if they were done by any other." ~ Louis Bernieres, British Novelist A country could not be any guiltier of the “triple contagion” than our own great USA. Nationalism. We have always had a sort of exalted opinion of ourselves as Americans and for good reason. We have a lot to be proud of and thankful for. But when pride and gratitude morph into arrogance and domination, then we begin to lose the grandness of our identity. We have lost our way. Neighborliness, hard work, compassion, generosity, vision, creativity, genius— gifts and character traits that were once the substance and soul of our nation are disappearing. In their place we now display a cold indifference to all who are not like us. A nation once so brimming with transcendent forces like g...

Rick Santorum’s surge and second place finish in the Iowa caucus represents one of the most cynical aspects of this already bizarre and empty presidential campaign. And that is the so called “Evangelical” vote. Who are these people? Some of them are good and decent church going folks who think they are supporting Christian values. They simply like anyone like Santorum who says religious and conservative things and so they give him their full trust. They are often fearful people who think the world is evil and hope someone will rescue them from life’s hard realities and get rid of drugs and terrorists and divorce and so forth. They think someone like Santorum can do this by legislating morality. Others are angry, ungenerous, bigoted people who hide behind their religious faith and use it to sanction their rejection and dislike and in some cases hatred for gays, blacks, immigrants, and liberals. They do not follow Jesus. They do not really believe his teachings. Read the Ser...

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...

I watched the final Republican debate last night. The candidates were in Sioux City, Iowa and were trying their best to convince voters of their individual bona fides. It was mostly a very disturbing two hours of saber rattling, Obama bashing, and self congratulating nonsense. We have no statesmanship left in this country; certainly not among any of the current Republican presidential candidates, except perhaps for Ron Paul. I have been disappointed in many of President Obama’s decisions but I do see a certain amount of decency in him. The man had a huge task handed to him the minute he walked into the White House. Blaming him for the poor economy is simply refusing to see the reality of how damaging the Bush years were. What troubles me the most, however, about the Republicans running for president is how all of them, except for Dr. Ron Paul, simply pander to voters, promise the moon, trash Obama and all Democrats, thirst for war, and create more division in the country. ...

There is this very nasty business of questioning President Obama’s citizenship that continues to drive a lot of conservatives in this country. The force behind this disgraceful display of total nonsense is a woman named Orly Taitz, a self professed lawyer and dentist, who doesn’t seem to be actively practicing either of those professions. Her full time job appears to be to somehow convince the American people that Barack Obama does not deserve to be our president now or in the future. She apparently lives somewhere in California but she is now up in New Hampshire trying to get the President’s name taken off the ballot there for the upcoming primary elections. She still claims he is not an American citizen even though Mr. Obama’s birth certificate has been declared by all manner of officials as valid and trustworthy. I don’t like the way our country is behaving. We have lost so much of what has made us a place of welcome and inspiration to the world. I don’t think I’m being na...

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 ...