Not-yet-published pieces, stories, essays, rants, and random strangenesses

I wrote the following piece for the blog BLT Is Not Just a Sandwich, and I’ve already gotten myself into trouble over it. I’ll reprint...

Note: I originally wrote this essay for the blog “BLT Is Not Just a Sandwich“—a place to discuss the Bible, other Literature, and its...

The older I get, the more Christmas fills me with a terrible ambivalence. But please note: “ambivalent” doesn’t imply a...

Marguerite Louise Russell Bachman Smith died one year ago today, ten days shy of her eighty-eighth birthday. It was a decent day. I’m...

A friend and blogger—or, to be more specific, a blogger I admire who has become an online friend—has challenged me to participate in a...

A friend was checking in with me today—how things were going in Mom’s absence. I told her I was behaving as if I were grieving or...

The story of Christmas is the story of assimilation. Sorry to put it so nakedly, but it’s true. Wrapped up in this holiday, this holy...

Maybe the changing seasons are prompting people to cover up. Maybe the political climate is making everyone more conservative. Maybe...

If you’re going to be in the area this Sunday, July 13, feel free to drop by the Yogashakti Mission (a Hindu ashram devoted to the study...

An acquaintance asks, “Why no laughs in the Bible? Didn’t they make the cut?” Bob Hostetler, the author of a number of Evangelical books,...

As much as I would like to say I’m a thoroughgoing pagan, albeit one with synchretist tendencies, there are certain times of the year...

The Kaddish—that is, the so-called “Mourner’s Kaddish” that is recited for the dead in Jewish prayer services—was originally prayed by...

I am pleased to announce that The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation It is a completely new translation of the Bible from...

by Abe Novick, special to the (Baltimore) Jewish Times It was cable TV that came out of the gate early this summer. While the networks...

“When I was thirty years old and living among the exiles by the Kebar River, on the fifth day of the fourth month, the heavens opened and...

Adam’s question yesterday about the redemption of the firstborn got me thinking about the whole biblical concept of redemption, and...

In many countries, a sneeze that occurs after making a statement is often interpreted as a confirmation by God that the statement was...

by Jason Godesky, The Anthropik Network I’m dazzled by so much that Jason Godesky has to say, but this article is, to my mind, one of his...

One of my big challenges is how to get (and stay) Unstuck. I’ll have a little breakthrough, and think I’m finally able to make...