The Unclad Soul

The Semana Santa, as they call it in Spain, or Holy Week, begins for Christians all over the world soon. You know the historic story and the familiar scenes of the trial of Jesus and his final journey to the Cross. It is an epic story, a story filled with drama and cruelty and mystery and love. What is it really about? The classic Christian interpretation tells us we are all sinners lost without hope. We were born ruined, the children of the first parents, corrupted by their selfishness, by their ignoring God’s command to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge, and supposedly by their wanting to be like God. As the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve whose sin we inherited and are sure to repeat, according to classic Christian theology, we are all to be punished and sent to hell. So Jesus came to die for our ruined souls. He died in our place so God would not send us to hell. He paid the ransom for us, we are told. His physical death took care of our spiritual debt. He then rose ...

It was one of those really cold dreary days recently and Ingrid and I were on our way to the Half Price Book store to browse, mingle among the shelves, look for a good book, and get something hot to drink in the Black Forest Coffee Shop. On our way we stopped at a traffic light and there on the corner, his face against the wind, a not nearly warm enough jacket on, was a small Latino man selling candy apples on a long wooden pole he held in front of him. I looked at him and thought of all the mean things that are said about immigrants these days, documented or not; how so many in this country have no interest in giving them a fair chance at making a good life here; how they supposedly steal our jobs. I wondered if he had a wife and children at home he was trying to care for. How many men would brave the cold on a Saturday afternoon to sell apples? The pole was full. I couldn’t tell he’d sold a single thing and I suspected he might have been there for some time. I commented ...

I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. ~ Stanley Kunitz

Below is a link to a terrific essay. It is written by a friend of mine in Los Angeles. She used this essay to come out and declare herself as a Lesbian.  Regina Cates is a beautiful soul, loving and kind, fun and funny, and brilliant! Her story is moving and so needed. Once a man-hater, and with too many good reasons to be so, she allowed herself to evolve, soften, learn, and grow in ways that enabled her to at last have genuine male friends. Here is a part of her story. Please Read This!

The movie, “Annie,” has been remade and the cast includes a young black girl as the star. Quvenzhané Wallis , a ten-year old black actress is Annie. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as Hushpuppy in the 2012 movie, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” when she was only 8 years old. If you have never seen that movie please watch it. Wallis’s performance is brilliant, moving and powerful, as a child living in poverty and chaos with her hot tempered and ill father. The new Annie brings a fresh approach to the original movie and Broadway musical. I celebrate the choice of Quvenzhané Wallis for the leading role. She will be wonderful. Not everyone is happy about this, however, and rude critics have shown up on social media channels like Twitter and Facebook and elsewhere. Some really vicious things have been said about this child actor. Racism still exists in this country and, sadly, always will, I suppose. It is expressed in people who are terrified of change and ...

If your religion helps you manage your addictions; if it creates a safer home environment for you and your loved ones; if it enables you to treat others with respect and worth; if it guides you into responsible life choices; if it enriches your inner self and leads you into a deeper understanding of the human condition; if it nurtures your sense of compassion and causes you to lift up the fallen and the hurting and the damaged and the left out; if it encourages you to embrace all people whatever their race, beliefs, social status, or sexual orientation; if it celebrates the earth and asks you to take care of it; if it ultimately provides you a healthier human spirit, then your religious beliefs and practices serve a useful purpose. But if your religion gives you permission to hate or mistreat other people; if it makes you feel superior to all other religious beliefs; if it says you will always be better than those who don’t believe; if it promises you rewards at no cost to you at...

Let’s let it be said that too much of Christian religious talk and action today is a wild distortion of what we have traditionally understood Christianity to be. This fear driven, hostile, endlessly close-minded Christianity of today is a vulgar mishandling of faith. It is a treacherous attack not on liberalism, socialism, atheism. Its target is humanity. And with unscrupulous ferocity it is deadening the spirits of its followers, and, it is literally destroying any possibility of cooperative problem solving in this country. The institutional Church, whatever Christian form it currently takes—Protestant or Catholic, Liberal or Fundamentalist, Strip Mall setting or giant Multiplex Citadel—is in danger of total irrelevance simply because of the grotesque arrogance of today’s far right radical, strident, offensive Christians and their pervasive attacks on people they dislike. They’re not picky. They’re after anyone who does not walk in lock step with their extremism. This row...