Category: Reflections

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/   Thank you Sage!

Jamie, I adore you.  And not just because you quoted e.e. Cummings in my comment section. Okay, lots to chew on here and so new post so the comment section doesn’t burst. Jamie says: “I have to say that by definition all churches (maybe all religions) are cults.  The question is what degree of harm… Continue reading A Long Answer to a Few of Jamie’s Comments

Here’s the news, as reported by MSNBC:  Fourteen years ago, a member of the Trinity Baptist Church in Concord, NH, allegedly rapes his 15-yr-old babysitter and gets her pregnant. Then, the pastor at the time, Rev. Charles Phelps makes her read a forced written statement of apology about being immoral and recommends/helps her family move… Continue reading What Defines a Cult?

Mark 3:25 — “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Wow. Talk about a house divided.  Denominational politics at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem literally block the construction of a much needed fire exit. Nothing quite sums up the problems of denominational relations like this piece in… Continue reading The Complexities of Christianity

About Mister Rogers.  If you haven’t read it yet, you should. Click Here.    

John 9:1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in… Continue reading Suffering

Next week is the one year anniversary of my friend Pat’s death. She died of a blood clot on her 43rd birthday. Pat’s life means so much to me as I consider her death.  Pat knew how to live.  She always told me, “Why are you not eating at Ohio’s only 5-star French restaurant? It’s… Continue reading Happy Birthday Pat

Last week I discussed the seven deadly sins.  This week I want to talk about death. I have always wanted to die peacefully. I believe my husband wants to die with some vibrato.  My son asks weekly if we must die because he wants no part of that nonsense. Often death is the most defining… Continue reading Death Week

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas said of Greed: “it is a sin directly against one’s neighbor; since one man cannot over-abound in external riches, without another man lacking them… it is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, inasmuch as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things.” A bit like Sloth,… Continue reading Greed

It’s everywhere. Thomas Aquinas would flip his lid to see the modern and expanded manifestations of lust. Pornography is a $13 billion dollar industry.  I have no personal tales of lust.  Aren’t you relieved?  😉 I direct you instead to an interesting and controversial Christian solution to Lust.  Have you been to XXXChurch.com?