Blog
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
What the pandemic showed me is that we can no longer take our faith and congregations for granted. A time may come again where we could be separated indefinitely from the real-world, flesh-and-blood, brick-and-mortar, united practice of the religions we hold so dear. As such, since our church re-opened, my family and I have been even more “religious” about attending.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
It was Ramadan and they instinctively wanted to share their good food with neighbors, just like they were used to doing back home.
TOLERANCE
Some might quibble about the differences in our faiths and beliefs. I choose not to. Instead, I choose to join in the prayer for ourselves, for our fellows, for our nation and for the world. I choose to pray for our essential goodness to flourish in all of us.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
A few bigoted individuals have used the pandemic as an excuse to spread hate against Asian Americans. By the same illogic Asians could blame me for the proliferation of gigantic American sodas and refined fast-food carbohydrates ruining people’s health around the world.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Regardless of the form, such scandalmongers pander to some of the baser human traits, the thirst for gossip, rumor and bad news about your neighbor. And I believe even their readers know these publications are of less than no benefit to humankind.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Reducing hundreds of thousands of sincere individuals to a sneering allusion at the end of a snide put-down is not journalism, nor is it even writing. It’s propaganda, pure and simple.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
It turns out that we were about to hear an extraordinary update on a project involving tens of thousands of hours from Church staff all over the world. Mr. Miscavige began explaining the task he and his team had been working on for decades.
TOLERANCE
On the first real day of spring here in central Oregon, I dusted off my bicycle and went for a ride. My neighbors, devout Christians, waved and wished me well. I returned their kindness.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Just as criminologists have developed profiles of common traits for individuals like serial killers, mass murderers, terrorists, and the like, it would be an interesting exercise to develop a profile for ranting, raving bigots who infest the internet fringe.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Targeting people, especially strangers at random, to be punished simply because of how they look or where they come from is insane behavior that should be treated as such. There is no place for it in a civilized society.
