Taking a cue from Jana:

Going to the American Academy of Religion’s Western Regional Conference. Meeting with dear old friends and making fascinating new ones. Remembering why I chose an academic career, and feeling reinvigorated by talking to other religious studies geeks.
Trying to run alongside while the kids get used to their bikes.
Cooking breakfast […]

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Station #05 on the OC Pilgrimage was the Temple Israel Long Beach.
“Waitaminute,” you say, “Long Beach isn’t in Orange County!” And you’re absolutely right. Long Beach really should be its own county. I can’t afford to not write about my first experience with a Jewish service. My OC Pilgrimage just put […]

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This entry is inspired in part by Hugo‚Äôs self-critical post against sexism. In my fight against sexism, it makes sense to begin with the person over whom I have the most influence. As a result, this will be more inward-looking rather than going over the problems of sexism in the grand arena (you […]

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Today is International Women’s Day, and the folks over at VeganKid are encouraging bloggers to Blog against Sexism today:
While those that write about sexism on a regular basis are gladly asked to join in, we enourage those that never or rarely talk about this important topic to join in. There are no guidelines. All that […]

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Here are a few more incredible insights from a woman who essentially starved herself to death at the age of 34. The following are from Waiting for God. Replace Catholicism with “Mormonism” or “organized religion” and this expresses many of my concerns beautifully:
[From the introduction:] It was with Father Perrin that Simone Weil argued […]

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I’m generally quiet about our charitable giving, but the more I think about it, the more I think we should talk about the organizations we support with our voluntary offerings. We transmit all kinds of information via word of mouth: good movies and books, gossip, jokes, stories–what could be more important to pass on […]

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Religion inspired by monster truck madness: the mock radio ad and the blog post. Thanks to Starfoxy for the link!

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The government of South Dakota has thrown down the constitutional gauntlet.
My thoughts and feelings concerning abortion are complex. I apologize for going over well-worn ground here, but I’d like to take a moment to examine where I stand. I used to subscribe to a “consistent life ethic.” That is, I valued life in […]

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I try to open each day by reading from and then meditating on the writings of Christian mystics. Right now I’m supping from the pages of Simone Weil’s Waiting for God:
If it were conceivable that in obeying God one should bring about one’s own damnation while in disobeying him one could be saved, I […]

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It’s late, and I’ve still got lots of reading to do, so I’m just going to post a couple of links tonight (but they are worthy links!):
Rolling Stone has an expos?© on the Church of Scientology.
NBC and CBS refused to run a commercial for the United Church of Christ because it was too controversial (it […]

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