b.rox

A year ago I set myself a project, an experiment, a journey, a spiritual quest. I wanted to discover, uncover, delineate and define my religion. I wanted to deepen, strengthen, and integrate everything in my life. I wanted to live with greater intention. And I wanted it all to happen on a one-year schedule. It [...]

A sick and hateful man killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. My heart goes out to the families of those who have been killed. A community has been wounded, and in some way we are all hurt by such violence. As Maitri notes, we are all in the gutter. But I didn’t [...]

BART, you probably haven’t read about this [forwarded message: Why Did Jesus Fold the Napkin?] —– you are so brilliant, and I understand how your mind was to reject Jesus, but He is the only way to salvation, He is the only God who died on the cross for our sins—statues of buddah, baal and [...]

We gather by the side of the road on the edge of an urban forest. I know the others only because they are dressed like me, in white clothing. We talk amongst ourselves, getting to know each other. The signal comes at twilight, just as the sun is setting and everything is growing dark. We [...]

March 14, 2012: International Day of Action to Defend Blasphemers and Apostates. I suppose I am both an apostate and a blasphemer, at least by by some definitions. I’m fortunate to live in a country where religious freedom, though constantly contested, is guaranteed by the constitution. But things are very different in some other nations. [...]

We’ve had the habit for many years of constantly making stock. We are always saving any bits of vegetables left after slicing and dicing — carrot tops, onion skins — as well as the occasional bone. We save these in the fridge and, every few days, we boil them in water to make a stock. [...]

What’s in an Acronym I work at an HBCU. That acronym is not recognized by my spellchecker, nor was it in my vocabulary until I came to work here. It stands for “Historically Black College or University,” a term which requires even more unpacking. In a nutshell, the story is this. Once upon a time [...]

I’m not quite in my right mind today, thanks to some cold medicine I took this morning. So this might be the perfect time to revisit The Good News Bible Hour #14. The always-amazing Eric Spears (nee White) just excavated this video from his personal collection a few days ago, digitized it and posted it [...]

It’s been almost two weeks since I got back from POD 2010, and I still haven’t managed to write about it. But I find I can’t write about POD 2010 until I’ve addressed POD 2009. POD stands for the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education, and it’s pretty much the big conference for [...]

Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future by Bron Taylor My rating: 5 of 5 stars Here’s a rarity — an academic book that is also a page-turner, at least for me. I couldn’t put it down. This is a broad survey of an emergent global phenomenon which might be called earth worship [...]

Some people criticize the green movement for being almost like a religious faith. Others say the green movement has lost touch with its spiritual roots. Now Dark Green Religion by Bron Taylor has landed on my reading list. I’ll report back if I figure anything out.

Dear Aunt Ron, Thanks for Persephone’s birthday gift. It will probably take her a while to grow into those clothes, but better too big than too small. I also appreciated the letter you included. Rest assured, I won’t “disown” you for the suggestions you make regarding Persephone’s religious education. In fact I am touched that [...]

Check out my new podcast, Anonymous Informants. I started this to learn more about podcasting, improve my interviewing techniques, and explore some issues that I find interesting. I’ve done two episodes so far, and clearly I’ve got a lot to learn. But that’s the point.

Regarding the current foofaraw being raised over remarks by Obama’s former pastor, Xy made the following observation: If I could hear preaching like that, I’d go to church more often. Amen. Indeed, it’s our feeling that the real shame here is not the remarks Wright made. The shame is that Obama feels the need to [...]

A question to all the Christians out there: How would you like to see non-Christians act with regard to Christmas? How can we be both respectful to you and true to ourselves? Clearly we can’t celebrate the religious aspect of the holiday, so would you rather we not participate at all? That doesn’t seem quite [...]

So last night, in his big “religion” speech, Mitt Romney warned of nefarious forces bent on “establishing a new religion in America — the religion of secularism.” Meanwhile, a new poll reveals more Americans believe in the devil than Darwin’s theory of evolution. Those results hardly suggest a rising tide of secularism. I’m forced to [...]

Xy and I did something today that we’ve never done together before: We went to church. Oh sure, we’ve gone into church buildings together. We have even attended worship services together at least three times, but those events were occasioned by obligations either to my family or her employer. I don’t count them as legitimate [...]

Viriler. That’s the word I used as the first play of our first game of Scrabble last night. (It was four-way Scrabble: Xy vs. me vs. MaPó vs. Martin, whom we had over for basil burgers.) Because it cleared my tray, it was worth 70-some points, and of course awed my opponents. A pretty good [...]

We’ve just about fleshed out the itinerary for our upcoming trip, and I realize now that we’ll be at my parents’ house on Sunday morning. As a rule, this is something I’ve tried to avoid in recent years, as it brings up the sometimes awkward matter of going to church — or not going to [...]

Last week’s episode of This American Life was the most thought-provoking I’ve ever heard, on a subject of great interest to me: religion. And it’s now available online for your listening pleasure.