Religion

  • A Dream Within a Dream

    A Dream Within a Dream

    I’ve been reading a great deal lately about humanity’s place in the universe. The deeper I go, the more fascinated I become by one simple fact. Across thousands of years, civilizations that never knew one another often arrived at remarkably similar questions about reality itself. I’ve spent time in Sumerian texts, Buddhist teachings, Greek philosophy,…

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  • You Were Never Broken

    You Were Never Broken

    Can you imagine being a kid, going to church, doing your best to be good, and then hearing something that changes your world? The very thing you were born to be, they are saying, is unholy. That you are unholy. You go to school, so happy to make friends, and that’s when you’re called “fag”…

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  • The Rules to the Game

    The Rules to the Game

    Right after my sister died, I went down a spiral questioning absolutely everything about life. I became angry and bitter. My mind was filled with questions, but one kept circling louder than the others: are we really in control of our lives, or is everything already decided and fate simply set into motion? Fate. There…

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  • Coordinating the Impossible

    You know what aggravates me? I mean, can I talk openly with you all without someone going off the deep end because they accidentally recognize themselves in what I’m about to say? I hope so because you know me. I’m going to say it anyway, and preferably before my coffee gets cold. I’m tired of…

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  • Nothing Else Should Matter

    Nothing Else Should Matter— Steven A. LaChance How did we learn to live like this,in a world that leans so easily toward hate? Where did it begin,this quiet beliefthat we are somehow betterthan the person standing beside us,to the right,to the left,close enough to touchbut kept at a distanceby nothing more than an idea. What…

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  • Easter Monday

    Easter Monday

    The 1949 St. Louis exorcism is one of the most documented and debated cases of possession in American history. It is the case that inspired The Exorcist, but most of what people think they know comes from film, not from the actual accounts. When you go back to Father Bishop’s diary and read what was…

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  • Inside Grace

    Inside Grace

    I’ve spent some time over this past week writing about the crucifixion and the resurrection. Not because I felt the need to explain them, and not because I think I have answers that anyone else doesn’t. I wrote because I had something to say, and because it is still rare to see a gay man…

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  • He is Risen

    He is Risen

    He is risen. That is the line that survives. Clean. Direct. Easy to hold onto. But it is not where the story ends. It is where things become harder to understand. Just days before, the people of Jerusalem thought they knew who Jesus was. They welcomed him with an understanding of a version of him…

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  • Good Friday

    Good Friday

    I have been thinking about Good Friday. Not just as a day on a calendar, but as a moment that changed the course of the world and history in a way that is hard to fully take in. It is often told quickly, moved through on the way to something else. But when you slow…

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  • A Night of Betrayal

    A Night of Betrayal

    Lately, I have been spending time in some of the most ancient biblical texts we have, not just reading them, but really contemplating them. Looking at what was kept, what was emphasized, and what seems to have been left behind along the way. There is a quiet pattern that starts to emerge when you do…

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