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September 2018

September 27, 2018

Where Did That Come From?

Although it often caused trouble and brought me grief during my primary and secondary education...

September 20, 2018

Calling God Back to the Mountain

What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both...

September 13, 2018

The Sun, the Moon, and Prayer

Shortly before the 2013 conclave that would elect him as Pope Francis I, then Cardinal...

September 09, 2018

Right-Brain Faith in a Left-Brain World

At age thirty-seven, Harvard trained brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor woke up one morning with...

September 04, 2018

Whatever Prayer Is For, It Isn’t That

A week ago, the small Episcopal church that I frequently attend moved its morning services...

August 2018

August 07, 2018

The Most Profoundly Religious Statement of All: “I Don’t Know”

Let me tell you here first, “trust in God” has never floated my boat as...

July 2018

July 31, 2018

Magnetic Jesus

In one of the many recent books written by an atheist about Christianity (I forget...

July 08, 2018

God is Just a Story (and so are we)

Although the name of this blog is “Freelance Christianity,” and it is published on Patheos’...

June 2018

June 14, 2018

Lessons Learned From a Blackberry Bush

A few years ago, Jeanne returned from a weekend with a friend in Vermont with...

June 12, 2018

The God of History is an Atheist

Atheism is a purification Simone Weil Former President Obama loved to quote a hopeful statement from...

May 2018

May 08, 2018

The Lord Be With You . . .

What is the best way to get the attention of a bunch of Episcopalians? I...

April 2018

April 24, 2018

The A$$hole Saint

I come from a hardcore Protestant world, a world in which we did not do...

April 12, 2018

Just the Facts

I drove past a billboard not long ago that raised my blood pressure a bit....

February 2018

February 25, 2018

Sharing My Faith

I grew up in the world of evangelical Christianity, and have spent much of my...

January 2018

January 30, 2018

Insufficient Evidence

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activist and...

January 15, 2018

A S**thole Town Like Nazareth

My father was a Baptist minister who was a voracious and eclectic reader. Often his...

January 12, 2018

What Are You Reading?

Over the holiday season my house always welcomes at least a half dozen new books...

December 2017

December 22, 2017

A Rashomon Nativity: Why the Details of Jesus’ Birth Don’t Matter

A few weeks ago, I was asked to take on a temporary administrative position in...

December 12, 2017

It’s About Time

Time has been on my mind recently. A couple of months ago in my freshman...

December 03, 2017

What Advent Teaches Us About Ourselves

In Philosophical Fragments, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard tells a lovely story about a powerful king who...

November 2017

November 21, 2017

Another Book That May Change Your Life

We wake, if we ever wake at all, to mystery, rumors of death, beauty, violence....

November 14, 2017

This Book May Change Your Life

A candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning . . . It seems...

November 02, 2017

A Lonely Pawn

Have you never felt like one of those pawns forgotten in a corner of the...

October 2017

October 29, 2017

Why I Am Not an Atheist

Despite my consistent self-description as a “person of faith,” I have been accused occasionally over...

October 24, 2017

Ordinary Miracles

Every year, between Pentecost and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the lectionary takes us through week...

October 10, 2017

Knowing the Unknowable

Every fall I spend a week with over one hundred freshman exploring the familiar but...

September 2017

September 06, 2017

We Are Not Alone

In last Sunday's gospel reading, Jesus tells us that those who wish to follow him...

August 2017

August 01, 2017

Am I an Impostor? Do I Have Any Real Significance?

As everyone else I know, I often suffer from impostor's syndrome and feelings of insignificance....

July 2017

July 25, 2017

Step to the Right: Practicing Right Brain Faith in a Left Brain World

After a major stroke, neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor lost function in her left brain. But...

May 2017

May 31, 2017

When a Coincidence is more than a Coincidence

Frederick Buechner suggests that coincidences may be more than chance occurrences. They may be trying...

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