The Unclad Soul

The movie Bohemian Rhapsody looks at the 70s rock band Queen and its lead singer, Freddie Mercury, played brilliantly by actor Rami Malek. The critics panned the movie saying it played too safe with the complex real-life story of Mercury, his flamboyant life as a gay man, his long relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton), his Parsi or Persian family, and his death from AIDS. I thought the film provided an important portrayal of Mercury and Queen. It showed the human side of the band members and their struggle with success, with sharing the limelight, and with Mercury’s moods and genius. The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 70s, the Hippy Movement, and the rise of heavy metal music, rock, funk, and disco were all transformative. Janis Joplin, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and of course the Beatles all shaped not just the music scene, but society, in extraordinary ways. Queen, though, had Freddie Mercury and that made them unique. I found a distinct sadne...

Life is often defined by small acts of goodness, kindness, love. When I was a boy, I had reoccurring bouts of tonsillitis. My tonsils were large and they seemed to be always getting inflamed. Each time, the doctor would prescribe an antibiotic in capsule form. I hated trying to swallow those things. So my maternal grandmother, whom I called Momo and who with my grandfather lived a few blocks from us, would come over each morning that I was sick, open the capsule into a tablespoon, mix in a little honey, and give it to me. “Here, sweetie,” she would say. “Swallow it all at once.” It went down so easily. In one of the early congregations that I served as a young minister, there was a dear church member, an older woman slightly mentally challenged. Her life had been sadly difficult. Never given a proper education or help with her disability, she floundered but somehow made a life for herself. Every now and then she would bake a loaf of homemade bread for me and my wife. She would...

I recently posted on Facebook an article from the Houston Chronicle about sexual abuse and sexual harassment from ministers within the Southern Baptist Convention. The author provided solid research that spanned the last 20 years involving pastors, youth workers, deacons, and volunteers within local SBC churches who sexually used, abused, or assaulted teens and women in their congregations. We have seen how pervasive this problem has been within the Catholic Church, but the truth is, it has been going on for years in churches across all denominations. Ministers have easy access to vulnerable teens both male and female, and, to women in their churches. Some come for counseling and end up in some sexual relationship with a pastor or youth minister. Church leaders are often so revered they are considered above reproach and this can create manipulation and taking advantage of a person’s trust by them. It is something some morally weak ministers fall into, and, something unscrupulo...

Out on the busy noisy streets Walk the dregs of humanity The homeless The addicts The creeps The hooker The gang banger The snobs The elitists The bigots The perverts The abusers The bully cops The Capitalist crooks The control freaks The compromised preachers The cheaters The lonely The wounded The broken The disabled The lost You. Me. And out on the busy noisy streets Walk the decent, the lovely The kindhearted The compassionate The dreamers The visionaries The tireless workers The aging wise The innocent young The risk takers The pioneers The gentle The funny and free The huggers The kissers The benevolent neighbor The listening physician The insightful therapist The good cops The bankers with integrity The caring authentic ministers The teachers who inspire The poets and their dazzling words The angelic babies with their piercing eyes The working moms The patient dads The adorni...

Parenting is one of the fantastic experiences of life. Of course, it comes with some of the most exasperating experiences as well. Jerry Seinfeld has said, “Having a two-year-old is like owning a blender you don’t have the top for.” So true. Not everyone can be a parent, and some people simply choose not to have children. I have friends like that and they are perfectly wonderful people and have fulfilling lives. Most of them do have pets, though! I always wanted children. Maybe it had something to do with how I was loved as a child. I’m not sure. But thankfully, I have two beautiful sons, both grown now with their own families. I adore all of them—my sons, their wives, and their children. They also have pets, too, which I also love. I suppose like many people, when my wife and I divorced, our home was deeply disrupted. My divorce affected my career, my friends, but worst of all, it caused a lot of sorrow and confusion for my sons. My oldest was 15. My youngest 13. Crit...

And what is it that stirs your soul in these maddening days? What melts your heart? What enlivens you? What makes you want to run flat out full speed until out of breath you stop and hold your arms out to the sky? What motivates you to smile, to laugh out loud, to relish the moment with delight? What creates deep inside you, feelings of warmth, of affection, of love? Is it music? Listening to a beautiful song, being moved by the music and the lyrics? Is it reading a captivating book, following some story whether in a novel or some historical setting, that keeps you turning the page? Is it a movie, whether sitting in a theater or watching at home on live streaming TV, a movie that holds you in its spell until the credits run at the end? Is it attending a play, perhaps a musical, like Hamilton, Les Miserables, the Lion King, or some other fantastic performance that soars and enlightens and sends you home emotionally spent, or tingling inside, or singing all t...

The Sundance Now, BBC series, The Split, brilliantly captures the emotions, heartache, messiness, and collapse of relationships both in marriage and divorce. I recently subscribed to Sundance Now and while browsing the program selections found this gem. Marriage has got to be one of the most complicated of human relationships we will ever enter. Society, Church, and Hollywood, have too often created an illusion surrounding marriage that simply does not exist in reality. Marriage is hard work. Most relationships are. But marriage requires a stubborn love, a willingness to change and grow, an unconditional acceptance of the other in all of their character flaws, irritating habits, stubbornness, sensitivity to criticism, and well, just being a human being. The idea that we can be married a lifetime is a lovely concept, but life has a way of interrupting things, and staying together to the end is not for everyone. I have often suggested to friends there ought to be ter...