I believe America has a model of heroic warriors that transcends war. We celebrate the Americans who toiled through the Second World War, calling them “The Greatest Generation.” Sometimes the heroic image

(Note to the Reader: The next two chapters focus on our internal battle with selfishness. In these chapters, among other things, I grapple with a personal tension: can a person critique their nation's

Religious justification of exploitation and control has an ancient history. It did not start with Christians using god to justify slavery, colonization, and other evil realities. Leaders from various times

The Christian tradition often invokes the term “our god.” On the positive side such language provides a personal and communal sense of relationship with god or the mystery of existence. However, there

ALL-GOOD Within the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, god has historically been understood as entirely good. As children of this all-good god, we sometimes assume ourselves to be perfectly good. While

ALL-KNOWING Another part of our idolatry of self is assuming, like god, that we are all-knowing. Christianity has often spoken about god in certain terms. That certainty easily translates into other

Unlike the traditional assumption regarding the “all-powerful” god, Jesus does not impose his will. The story of “The Rich Young Man” reveals Jesus to be uninterested in controlling others. In this story

WHO OR WHAT IS OUR GOD? The Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition’s creation myth connects our archetypal sin with the desire to be like god. The serpent tempts Eve to eat the fruit saying, “God knows that

Well, I received my first critical response. I don’t enjoy debate. I am inclined toward right relationship and feel uncomfortable when someone is in disagreement with me (Regardless of whether that

I have been feeling down recently. It’s frustrating to see so much unnecessary hurting in America, and to feel so powerless to address the problems. Last week I attended a couple rallies where I heard

SEEING OUR BROKEN WORLD Cardinal Joseph Cardign developed a popular approach to social justice described simply as the See-Judge-Act method. Reflective of modern, secular trends that adapted Immanuel Kant’s

(This is the 6th post from a book I spent the last 5ish years writing. I published "I am not God: Searching for a path toward Personal and Global Well-Being" last June. I will continue to post

A NATURAL RESPONSE TO A NATURAL QUESTION It is reasonable to ask, “Isn’t it natural to be self-centered?” Selfishness and self-centeredness can legitimately be viewed as natural. Ego and self-centeredness

A friend of mine recently gave me a book titled "Divinity of Doubt: The God Question." The author, Vincent Bugliosi, offers reasonable critiques of famous religious thinkers as well as critical

(I am going to the mountains for a week, so I'll start posting Ch. 1 late next week - peace) OVERVIEW: A SPIRITUALITY EVERYONE COULD AGREE ON Ultimately, this book is an invitation to examine the orientation

GOING FORWARD (a few notes) (1) While I have read and found life-changing inspiration in much non-Christian spiritual literature and find tremendous value in the discoveries of modern science, my personal

(I intend to post my whole book on Steemit in the upcoming months. This week, I will post my introduction in three parts - the first of which follows this note. When I share my book with others, I always

The summer of 2016 I was involved in organizing an alternative political convention. “The people’s convention for peace and justice” was to be a community effort to create a platform that didn’t start

Thanks for visiting my new steemit page. Before I start putting out content, I’d like to spend my first post introducing myself and the blog. Currently I teach social justice to high school students; I