“The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A Spiritual Biography”

I kid ye not! The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A Spiritual Biography is a brand-new book cowritten by David Brody, a reporter for the Christian Broadcasting Network, and Scott Lamb, a Southern Baptist pastor. I’m being a little facetious, but I thought that maybe the book would be ten pages long with a big … Read more

If Religious, Will One Live Longer?

The February 26, 2018, issue of Time magazine featured several articles on the theme of how to live longer better. One article entitled “You Asked: Do Religious People Live Longer?” insinuated that going to church might increase longevity. My last book, Cramming for the Finals, was dedicated to a Roman Catholic priest, Father Tom Schutter, … Read more

What Do You Fear?

These days, I am sensing that people have lots of fears. Maybe it’s because so many of the things that Congress is trying to do hurt the average citizen, such as repealing healthcare for millions, barring people from entering the United States because they are from Muslim countries, cutting services for the little guy, and … Read more

What Stage of Faith Are You In?

One of my favorite subscriptions is a weekly called The Spong Newsletter. It’s distributed by ProgressiveChristianity.org, which I suspect is on the Forbidden to Read List for some Christian sects. On March 9, David Felten, a Methodist pastor with a congregation in Fountain Hills, Arizona, published “How to Repeal and Replace Christianity’s Addiction to ‘Fake … Read more

Are Christians Cannibals?

In the early church, when the Followers of Jesus had diverged from Judaism (about 88 CE), they gained the reputation of being cannibals. They were a mysterious group. They met in secret places like catacombs and had strange signs and signals such as a fish—in Greek, ichthus. If two people met on a road, one … Read more

Today I Went to Heaven. It Was Hell Getting There!

In March 2017, Annie and I were in China cruising on the Yangtze River. Every day we disembarked and saw fascinating things. The day before we left the river for the city of Xi’an and the terracotta warriors, we took a short bus ride to a four-century-old Buddhist pagoda. It was next to very high … Read more