Sisters and brothers and everyone in between, welcome to the Church of John!  [insert organ riff] One of the great blessing of being a skeptic is that you can find your scripture anywhere. Emily Dickinson, Bad Religion, William Gibson and Joss Whedon are my prophets. When I was lost in the darkness […]

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Because they compact revelations into a glance.  This one’s called “How it Works”:

This comic is more eloquent than any treatise I can write on the power of stereotypes (and of sexism in particular). I’m thinking of how many times someone’s annoyed me with their going 45mph down the 405.  As I pass them, I glance […]

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When considering the common elements of Islam and Christianity, “Jesus” is perhaps not the first thing to come to mind (at least not to Western Christians). The theological overlap and differences are highlighted in a movie that is being touted as the “Iranian Passion of Christ.” ABC has an interview with film […]

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I have missed the beginning of Lent, hidden as it was this year, on Super Tuesday (followed by Awesome Wednesday and in 30 or so more days, Good Friday). I have a new friend for whom my respect has grown because he becomes vegan for the whole season (including Sundays). It makes me want to […]

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First, there was John’s dabbling in mapping lolCats onto traditional religious images. Then, the folks over at Cracked gave us some awesome lolReligion interspersed in their 10 Things Christians and Atheists Can Agree On (scroll down for the lolDog in need of a Catholic exorcism). But it didn’t stop there, oh no! Someone linked John […]

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Note: This is the latest installment of “Leaving the Garden,” a weekly series in which we ask someone to reflect on their journey from religious conviction to uncertainty, from dogmatism to doubt. Religion is filled with stories of faith; here we collect narratives of unbelief. Some are lifelong atheists who have flirted with religion; others […]

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The Hathor Legacy & Zenit have awesome pieces up right now about women’s role in violence against them. The Hathor Legacy examines the myth of equating surrender to protection while Zenit has a startlingly (and I believe unintentionally) feminist examination of women’s role in their own subjugation. Both are worth a read (in the order […]

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All right, I’m usually one of those cynical bastards who bemoans the commercial underpinnings of Valentine’s Day–created by candymakers and gift card companies, blah blah blah humbug blah. I include this qualification because I don’t want my second romantic post in two days to completely obliterate my gruff, sardonic reputation. I’m a mean […]

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19 years ago, Jana and I met. We danced. I asked her out. I washed her hair. We fell in love.
18 years ago, we kissed. Then we kissed a lot more. I left for my mission in Japan. We didn’t promise to wait for each other.
17 years ago, […]

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(Apologies to Aretha Franklin)
I do not agree with many of Senator Clinton’s positions. I’ve never met her, so I shall reserve thoughts on her personality. But she has my respect. She is a woman in the most manish of manish professions, she has worked her way into the halls of male privilege, and I’d like […]

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