Last year, I instituted a new celebration for the Sunday before Advent: Christ Consciousness Sunday. My intention is to replace “Christ the King Sunday” because turning Jesus into a king completely misses the point of his existence and teaching. The “Christ the King” holiday was invented by the Catholic Church…

Hal Taussig, whose terrific book A New New Testament enhances the standard Bible with newly discovered ancient texts, describes Jesus’ first followers as “Jesus people.” It’s a valuable tag because it’s important to remember that Jesus’ first followers were not Christians. Jesus’ earliest disciples considered themselves good and faithful Jews…

There’s a lot of pop culture talk and imagery about “spiritual awakening,” almost all of it in solitude — a mountain cabin or a silent retreat. Personal time with God is essential. But sometimes, the singular Love Consciousness of God finds us in the most ordinary places, like grocery stores. …

Stanford neurobiologist and amateur Hammurabi impersonator Robert Sapolsky has been tearing up the news cycle.

One of the Bible’s main storylines concerns how often humans mess up, only to recover and mess up again. The book is full of hope in the face of oppression, terror, famine, and other natural disasters. Its many human authors dealt with nearly all the same issues we face today…

Recently, I quoted a passage of scripture from Mark 10 about the faithful, prosperous man wondering if he could achieve the continuous state of grace in which Jesus lived, which people of the era often referred to as “eternal life.” Mark 10:21–22 (NIV) Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One…

Each year, on World Communion Sunday, nearly every Christian church from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe celebrates communion. Also known as The Lord’s Supper, The Last Supper, the Holy Eucharist, and the Holy Sacrament, Communion has as many meanings as there are Christian denominations — at last count, nearly 45,000, according to…

It’s Yom Kippur, the holiest season of the Jewish year. As Jesus did throughout his life, we are to take this time to reflect upon the people we have slighted, situations we’ve taken for granted, and our general lousy behavior the past year. We seek to atone, to reignite our…

The current spate of UFO stories, mummified alien bodies, and general brouhaha about extraterrestrials reminds me of my teenage youth and the “Golden Era” of Ufology in the late 1970s. Dr. J. Allen Hynek, CUFOS and MUFON, Project Blue Book, and MIB were all part of the cultural zeitgeist, if…