Back in 1986, I was browsing my university bookstore when someone yelled, “How dare you wear that?!” Before I turned around, I glanced down to make sure my pants matched my shirt. What could I be wearing that was so offensive? Was this hostility even directed at me? The scowling woman was dressed in a […]
Return to the scene of our baptism
A little oasis lives in the city of man,
a place insiders drink to divinity.
Their libations skim the surface bare —
lauding scapegoats, mocking strangers.
Jesus
Barefoot, transient, swaddled in rags, born in a manger. Friend to the marginalized, the lepers, the homeless. The sick, the sad, and the forgotten. Radical Revolutionary. Peaceful leader. Turn the other cheek, Give the coat off your back. Wash the dirty feet of neighbor, stranger, and friend. Deliverer of hope. Lover of souls. Healer. Without […]
Myths and misunderstandings
A writer friend told me I was passed over for a recent book-signing because the organizer finds my book title “scary.” This wasn’t the first time I learned of such a reaction to Jesus Loves Women: A Memoir of Body and Spirit.[Read More]
In Search of Sacred Love: A Review of “Jesus Loves Women” by Tricia Gates Brown
With an honesty that’s redemptive rather than brutal, Ms. Brown recounts how she “awakened to the goodness of being a sensual, sexual creature…”, a painful journey for which most of us growing up in the United States—inheritors of the Puritan worldview as we are—receive little support. [Read More]
What Jesus smells like
Everything he ever laid a blue-veined compassionate hand on even the one with the spear that touched Him through a shaft of wood and a head of metal many of us are built like that dense and piercing killing that we’ve only just begun to love Jesus smelled like that like unrequited love and passion […]
Forgiveness and Light
It is the first time I’ve driven up the long driveway leading to the monastery. For years I’ve imagined visiting, but life’s busyness never allowed the time. Now I am desperate for quiet. The desire to escape is strong—much like my childhood desire for invisibility to avoid my father’s bullying. With a lull in life’s […]
Hollywood Jesus
I saw Jesus in Hollywood many times over the course of my decade working there. And most of them were surprises. And mysteries. For me, Jesus is like a puzzle I’ve been assembling since youth. I know I don’t have the whole picture yet, but the few pieces that have come together thrill me. Did […]
Waddling toward Jerusalem
There are two ways of viewing the idea of sacrifice in human culture. One is a selfless gift or a waiver of gratification. The other involves a taking of life for personal gain. [Read More]
Speech to Neah-Kah-Nie High School National Honors Society: Service
What I love most is that you don’t have to be a hero to serve. No matter what little you do of it. It still helps whether it be a grandiose or subtle gesture. But, you’re either serving or not. [Read More]
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