So Apparently I’m Antisemitic

I have been called “antisemitic” many times. I found out a long time ago that if you are ever critical of anything that happens in Israel, you are instantly labeled as antisemitic. I don’t think I am. My Christ is a Jew. Daily, I read the Bible, which was written by Jewish people. The foundation … Read more

Never Become a Teacher in the United States

Never become a teacher in the United States. I never thought I would ever say such a thing. I have a great deal of admiration for teachers at all levels. My mom was a great teacher—so patient! I married a teacher who loved to teach kindergarteners critical thinking. She retired when her school district required … Read more

They’re Hard to Stop

In June 2023, we were going to our youngest granddaughter’s high school graduation here in Orange County, California. As we walked in, a group of women were handing out a flyer that read “Protect Public Education” in an attempt to recall four of their newly elected school district board members. These people who are being … Read more

Do You Know a Snollygoster?

Every day I receive two emails from Words Trivia. This company offers exercises designed to help people increase their vocabulary (and advertise stuff). Half the time I have to guess the meaning of the word, and about half that time I guess right. This morning’s word was ubiquity. I thought I knew it so I … Read more

Go High!

On the first Tuesday in November 2008, Annie and I were driving cross-country from the East Coast to the West to return to our home in Orange County, California. We were staying in a Motel 6 in not the nicest neighborhood in some Midwestern city and listening intensely as the election results were pouring in. … Read more

Church Secrets from Honest Clergy

Jim Palmer, a former megachurch pastor, left that ministry because he could no longer tolerate the hypocrisy. He shared some of what he calls misguided religious establishment thinking. I call them dirty little church secrets. Much religion today is toxic, especially from ultraconservatives. It is rooted in fear, false doctrine (e.g., hell being a place), … Read more

I Have an Idea

I have an idea: let’s reinstate the death penalty nationally—but there’s a caveat! I concocted this brilliant idea after Robert Bowers, age fifty, was sentenced to death on August 2, 2023, for murdering eleven innocent Jewish folks and wounding six others at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 27, 2018. This … Read more

My Preface

This week’s blog post is the preface to my new book, How to Make Love (the Agape Kind) with Jesus, available now. As always, let me know what you think. God is the same as nature. —Sister Julian of Norwich A six-year-old girl stood in front of her parents and emphatically stated, “Why should I … Read more

Now I See Clearly

Someone sent me a cartoon showing a little boy asking his teacher in Sunday school, “Why did God have to send himself down to earth to become his own son to sacrifice himself to himself just to convince himself to forgive us?” This is my exact feeling about the theology of the church. It just … Read more