Category Archives: Faith & Witness

Polling station

The Words in Red

I recall a great conversation I had once with someone who was, like me, a very spiritual person but not really a “religious” person. This was a long time ago when I might not yet have considered myself a Christian, but I was seeking to

Polling station

A Meditation on Addictive Religion

Take right-wing religion’s teaching that people are basically so evil and lost that they deserve eternal, abusive punishment. Add its effectiveness at convincing people of their innate evil because they’re prepared for it through childrearing methods that punish inherently bad children. Enforce such messages with

Dove flying in Lisbon, Portugal

Being Single, Christian and Content

A wise man once said, “there are two ways to getting enough; the one way is to accumulate more things and the other is to desire less.” But desire is often difficult to curb, especially when love or lust is involved. And the problem is

Dove flying in Lisbon, Portugal

Gay Fundamentalist

God touched my life many years ago. I learned to have a relationship with God and morphed into an evangelical fundamentalist. I was an elder in a church where we all knew gays were horrible evil creatures with an agenda. In a loveless marriage, I

Hymnal music

Jerusalem, My Destiny

Our musical enjoyment is often communal, but for each of us, the experience is also intensely individual. No two people’s musical “biographies” are ever alike. But despite the differences between my melodious memories and yours, music can link us together as almost nothing else can.

Hymnal music

In Perfect Harmony

Believe it or not, I was once a “rock star” (or at least, attempting to make it as one). I had four years of professional classical voice training (and even more “learning by experience,” which can often be a superior teacher in many ways) as

Hymnal music

Music and Spirituality

Music is an interesting enigma in many aspects and regardless of your personal interest or lack of interest in music, you have to admit that in this day and age with the ease at which music can be produced, bought and sold, downloaded and even