I had to face the possibility that the art of living in the way of Jesus was no longer carried on in a holistic way by any single tradition.

At their best, religious and spiritual communities help us discover this pure and naked spiritual encounter. At their worst, they simply make us more ashamed, pressuring us to cover up more, pushing us to further enhance our image with the best designer labels and latest spiritual fads, weighing us down with layer upon layer of heavy, uncomfortable, pretentious, well-starched religiosity.

I had to face the possibility that the art of living in the way of Jesus was no longer carried on in a holistic way by any single tradition.

... why are so many religious people arguing about the origin of the species but so few concerned about the extinction of the species?

If your goal is to produce firefighters and rescue workers, you have to produce people willing to enter burning buildings.

The church latched on to that old doctrine of original sin like a dog to a stick, and before you knew it, the whole gospel got twisted around it. Instead of being God’s big message of saving love for the whole world, the gospel became a little bit of secret information on how to solve the pesky legal problem of original sin.

You know what, the thing that breaks my heart is that there's no way I can answer it without hurting someone on either side.