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Author Archive
 Apart from the Dalai Lama, who reportedly had never heard of him until earlier this week, Tiger Woods is the most famous Buddhist on the planet.
But until Woods invoked his Buddhist identity during a televised mea culpa for cheating on…
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Tags: addict, addiction, apology, Buddhism, Buddhist, compassion, Dalai Lama, eight fold path, faith, grace, identity, mahayana buddhists, mea culpa, moral foundation, path, redemption, Religion, Religious, sin, teaching, teachings of buddhism, Thailand, Thomas Merton, tiger woods, Western
 We love a redemption story.
The profound appeal of rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches or the fall-from-grace-followed-by-a-spectacular-comeback is about as ingrained in our American psyche (and soul) as rooting for the underdog, generosity to those in distress, and second chances.
When I walked into the movie…
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Tags: addict, addiction, alcoholism, America, beauty, budgets, Despair, Film, journalist, movie, Music, pray, profession, redemption, truth
 Earlier this month, the nice folks over at The Washington Post’s Outlook section asked me to write an essay about what I thought the worst religious idea of the past decade was. I ended up giving them two essays, as…
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Tags: Bible, bumper sticker, Christ, christian rock music, Christianity, church, faith, God, hebrew scripture, jail, Jesus, Lord, market, micah, Movement, orphan, pastor, Poor, prison, prophet, Prosperity Gospel, Religious, rob bell, Scripture, son of god, vegetarian, velvet elvis, washington post, wwjd movement
Compassion is, by one definition, “a deep awareness and sympathy for another’s suffering.”
Karen Armstrong, the former Roman Catholic nun and one of the foremost writers on religion of our generation, and the renowned African spiritual leader and peacemaker Archbishop Desmond…
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Tags: abrahamic religions, Christianity, Community, compassion, Desmond Tutu, enemy, golden rule, hatred, Islam, jesus christ, Jewish, Judaism, Movement, oppression, peace, peacemaker, rabbi, Religion, Religious, religious leaders, Scripture, torah, Video
Do you find yourself adding more to your to-do list, even though you already feel overwhelmed?
Are your weekends just as jam-packed as your workdays?
When you try to pray, do you find your mind swimming with yesterday’s worries?
If, like me, you…
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 Recenly, I had a bad day. Epically bad.
I ran out of cash.
I lost my credit card.
I missed my flight.
And then, standing outside the United Airlines terminal at O’Hare, I dropped my cell phone, and as if in slow motion, watched…
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Tags: bad guys, coen brothers, crime, dark comedy, death, Depression, Film, films, hebrew scripture, Humor, Jew, Jewish, joel and ethan coen, Judaism, money, movie, myth, Post-Modern, rabbi, raising arizona, Religious, Scripture, Spirituality, theologian, trials and tribulations
If there had been a way to power-wash my brain, I would have done it.
The words, images, and emotions left with me after I watched a half-dozen video clips of actress Mackenzie Phillips’ interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this week…
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Tags: America, apology, bubble bath, car accident, confession, culture, day of atonement, faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, human, interview, Jewish, jewish calendar, mackenzie phillips, oprah winfrey, pornography, rabbi, Repentance, sin, Stories, tragedy, trainwreck, twitter, yom kippur
 To work is to pray.
It’s a Latin phrase that the Order of St. Benedict adopted as its motto.
St. Benedict, the founder of the order, recognized the sacred value of hard work, the notion that through the sweat of our brows…
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Tags: american federation of labor, christian traditions, churches, compassion, congregations, Congress, Economic, fast-food, health care, Holiday, injustice, Jesus, Labor Day, living wage, market, minimum wage, Ministry, national council of churches, order of st benedict, pay, Poverty, Prayer, sermons, servant, service, stock market, sunday sermons, wage, wages, Work, Workers, Worship
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”
— Jesus in the gospel of St. Matthew
“From man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world.”
— St. Arnold of Metz, patron saint of brewers
When President Obama popped…
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Tags: aid, application, Baseball, Black, blessed are the peacemakers, blog, blue, cathleen falsani, celebration, Christian, Christianity, church, class, Community, embrace, equality, faith, Family, friend, Gospel, grace, henry louis gates, henry louis gates jr, james crowley, Jesus, jesus christ, love, Lyndon Johnson, male, opportunity, peace, peacemakers, Peacemaking, Politics, power, President, President Obama, red, Religious, southern baptist, Spirituality, tradition, wheaton college, White, Work, youtube
One of the everyday things Vasco has enjoyed most since arriving in Chicago from Malawi five weeks ago is being able to go into the kitchen and pour a cool glass of crystal clear water, from the sink or the…
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Tags: adequate sanitation, Africa, aid, blessing, blog, borehole, Chicago, Children, Community, congenital heart defect, cooking, crisis, crystal clear water, deaths, diarrhea, everyday things, Global, Health, Hope, hope children, International, Labor, legislation, Malawi, meal, milk, oak park, open heart surgery, Race, sanitation, sanitation collaborative council, sub saharan africa, United Nations, water, water supply and sanitation, wee man, Women, Work, world health organization
 There’s roads and there’s roads
And they call, can’t you hear it?
Roads of the earth
And roads of the spirit . . .
— Bruce Cockburn’s “Child of the Wind”
Mali. Mozambique. Central America. The Himalayas. Kosovo.
I’ve never been to any of these exotic…
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Tags: Bruce Cockburn, Buddhist, Canada, Central America, developing world, development, documentary, Global, guitar, International, killing fields, Music, organic farming, Poor, singer, singing, songwriter, Spirituality, Stories, Story, Storytelling
Twenty-seven years ago this month, Brenda and Scott Kniffen, a homemaker and an inventory manager of a diesel shop, were arrested and charged with sexually abusing their two young sons, Brian and Brandon, ages 6 and 8.
Under intense questioning by…
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Tags: abuse, arrest, brenda and scott kniffen, Children, coercive interrogation, corruption, crime, documentary, exonerations, Film, Good Friday, injustice, interrogation, Jesus, justice, movie, prison, prosecutorial misconduct, public corruption, public hysteria, satanic cult, system, tainted evidence, witch hunt
 Walking in botanical gardens one recent, perfect, early spring day, a quick burst of movement in the thicket of a yellow Carolina jasmine hedge caught my eye.
It was a mouse. A Peromyscus leucopus to be precise — a white-footed mouse with…
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Tags: biblical, Books, Children, economy, faith, fear, Fiction, grace, human, independent bookstore, literature, Noah, pencil drawings, Poems, Story, values, wendell berry, white footed mouse
 Without a line on the horizon, we may feel like there is no limit to how far we can go. But it also makes the seas difficult to navigate.
That is, in many ways, where we find ourselves today. It’s as…
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Tags: adam clayton, art, Bono, Christ, Christian, Emmanuel, faith, Forgiveness, God, Good News, Gospel, gospel music, grace, hymn, larry mullen jr, Liturgy, Music, Prayer, riad, rock n roll, singing, the edge, U2, u2 album
“The difference between men and women,” the humorist Dave Barry says, “is that, if given the choice between saving the life of an infant or catching a fly ball, a woman will automatically choose to save the infant, without even…
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Tags: church, churches, difference between men and women, faith, Families, Family, female, Gender, gene, genetic difference, genetics, human spirituality, husband, marriage, mother, Pew Forum, pew research center, Pew survey, Politics, pray, Prayer, Religion, religions, Spirituality, Women, Worship
 The first three screenings of Tyler Perry’s new film, Madea Goes to Jail, that I tried to go to last week were sold out. When I finally did get a ticket, I had one of the last single seats in…
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Tags: African-American, Black, church, diary of a mad black woman, faith, Families, Family, Film, films, Forgiveness, grace, jail, Jesus, madea goes to jail, movie, prison, Religion, tyler perry
Over brunch with my husband and one of my best guy friends last weekend, conversation turned, as it does, to Major League Baseball, doping and the nature of sin.
“A-Rod, possibly the greatest baseball player in the history of the game,…
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Tags: addiction, Alex Rodriguez, apology, Baseball, culture, Drugs, Forgiveness, Gay Marriage, Jesus, murder, Race, Racism, Religion, Scripture, shame, Sports
 
Chicago’s own Dwight L. Moody, the great American evangelist of the 19th century, once said that of 100 people, one would read the Bible, and the other 99 would “read the Christian.”
Let’s face it: Christianity has an image problem.
When you…
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Tags: America, Bible, bill maher, Books, Christian, Christianity, church, churches, Civility, culture, debate, documentary, Emerging, Evangelical, evangelist, faith, Film, Gospel, grace, Jesus, Jon Stewart, leaders, love, Media, movie, pastor, pastors, Politics, prophet, Religion, Religious, Rick Warren, Tony Campolo
Tags: Arab, Bible, Books, Christian, Christians, church, conflict, Congress, Egypt, Evangelical, Gaza, History, Holy Land, IRA, Israel, Israeli, israelis, Jesus, Jew, Jewish, Jews, Jimmy Carter, Middle East, Muslim, New Baptist Covenant, New Testament, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Palestinians, peace, peacemakers, Persecution, President Obama, Religion, religions, Religious, Scripture, territory, UN, values, War, West Bank
President Obama’s inaugural address might not have been one for the ages.
But it certainly was the right one for the moment.
Somber, sober, and almost stern, our new president placed a mantle before the nation — We, the people — and gave us…
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Tags: 1 Corinthians 13, Apostle Paul, Barack Obama, Bible, Corinthians, Inauguration, love, Paul, President, President Obama, Scripture, St. Paul, unity
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Former President Jimmy Carter just published a new book about the ongoing violent unrest in the Middle East titled, 
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