One fine priest

I have discovered the most engaging religious scholar, thinker, writer and speaker that I have come across in many a decade. Father Robert Barron   is well known to others but it took a special online friend to turn me on to him.  He knows a lot about contemporary culture and he has some brilliantly insightful things to say about it. Plus his education and smarts, he's an appealing communicator.  He enjoys what he does and the audience enjoys watching him do it. I am hooked. If it matters at all, I'm not Catholic.

Church Forever

The Christian Church will survive in spite of itself. In spite of all the dreadful things done by its crazy leaders and members over the centuries.  Why will it survive? My far left friends will not like my simple minded answer a whole lot:  Because God wants it to.

Don't dally with the Dalai

I must be missing something about the Dalai Lama. I confess to being just a bit puzzled that he is apparently the most revered spiritual leader on the planet, almost always referred to as "His Holiness" by those who don't usually speak with such reverence about anyone.

The Bible Says ...

Quoting the Bible to prove or disprove something is a pointless pursuit than only leads to an argument.

Ain't no Christians

Contemporary thinking about religion:  "You are not a Christian if you _____."
Fill in the blank and you'll find others ready to help you get rid of him/her/them. I don't know if God is laughing or crying. I just want to cover my head, take a nap and hope it all goes away.

Joel's Teeth

I really, seriously try to avoid saying things that might offend my religious/spiritual friends.  That's not easy for one who enjoys nasty snide sarcasm. Sometimes it just pops out before I can stop it.  It happens when I watch Joel Osteen.  He sure has a lot of pearly whites.  How can anybody take him seriously? There, I said it.  Will I go to hell? Will my Joel fan friends unfriend me?

You can't win

This one will get me in trouble if anybody reads it.  That's why I put it here rather than on Facebook where folks love a good fight.  Here goes.  Way back, far back, I called myself a religious Liberal.  The L word didn't mean what it seems to mean these days. If being liberal means saying vile. obscene  or silly things like "Conservatives have no right to call themselves Christians" about anyone who speaks on the negative side of some current hot button issue, I would be inclined to call it reverse fundamentalism.  But that won't work either. It would offend my fundamentalist friends.  Yup, I have some.  They are quite decent, even admirable in their good works.  I don't even care  if they  pray for me to change my misguided thinking.  No matter what you say about politics, religion or just about anything else, somebody gets sore.  You can't win.