My readers in Europe see one thing more clearly than we in the States do – that Americans have a gun obsession. No matter your position on gun ownership or gun control, guns are larger than life. Either they are necessary and good, delivering protection from forces of evil that can be arrayed against you without warning, or they are evil itself, the cause of all that we need protection from. I am not writin ...

Today, 9/11/2012, marks the release of Brian McLaren’s book Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Muhammad Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World. The date, of course, is significant. It’s been 11 years since the tragedy of 9/11 – a tragedy that had religious overtones, but also political and economic overtones as well. The question I often ask myself about religion is simple: What needs ...

When was the last time you took a word of advice from someone? I tend to get a bit prickly when, for example, my husband dares to suggest I stand a bit further from the ball on my tee shot or my sister reminds me that I haven’t called Mom and Dad lately. I immediately get defensive, and my mind races for a justifying explanation that preserves my tidy little story about myself as someone who is wise and per ...

Our project must be nothing less than to expose the monster that lurks within all our religions, ideologies, parties, and philosophies, and to drive the monster out of hiding and into light. -Sid (aka Siddhartha Guatama … aka the Buddha) in The Girl with the Dove Tattoo Brian McLaren's latest fictional ebook, The Girl with the Dove Tattoo, is a powerful account of human nature and the nature of God. This sh ...

The popular Christian author Brian McLaren has written two pieces of short fiction that imagine God entering directly into the American political “conversation” (or should I say “head-on collision”). God speaks to both Republicans and Democrats in their own book and I decided to read The Word of the Lord to Democrats first. Why? Because I know me. Though I’m not nearly as political as I used to be, I still ...

Last week, Suzanne and I had the good fortune to attend this year’s Theology and Peace conference at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Maryland.  Well, Suzanne did more than attend.  She was one of three keynote speakers.  Suzanne presented a wonderful paper about education in the church entitled “Beyond Power Struggles: Teaching without Rivalry.”  The other keynotes were Michael Hardin, who delivered ...