Laura approached the Duane house cautiously, like a burglar, trying to silence her footsteps on the hard, crunchy snow covering the concrete walkway. The house was small, with a shingled hip roof and rusty gutters that ran next to the porch and bounced against the wooden railing after each of Laura’s footsteps. She knocked twice and Mrs. Duane opened the door and ushered her into the foyer. Read on…
A child of twelve in a wonderful Black Baptist church can be captured by the activity, no matter the boy’s personal color. The preacher perched up high, talking about heaven or hell, saying we’ll all be saved by jeee-sus. All those people shouting and singing, happy and good people. Box lunches full of homemade fried chicken. It was a dream come true for an adolescent boy. Read on…
The messiah’s mother was born in Devon, England, in April of 1750. What, you didn’t know? It was a strange day, featherstitched with endings and beginnings. Mobs stormed the French royals, Thomas Paine published The Rights of Man, Voltaire sewed seeds of doubt and sedition, and everywhere were new prophets and seers, feeding on spiritual anomie like the wild mushrooms of a wet, warm spring. In England was Joanna Southcott. A simple farmer’s daughter, former domestic servant and fairly bland … Read on…
Dan Barker had religion, big-time. As a teenager he became a high-octane evangelical preacher, making his living performing at churches and writing Christian songs. After 19 years, he quit, having after a long struggle come to realize it was all hokum. His book, Losing Faith in Faith, explains. It’s axiomatic that religionists and atheists have difficulty understanding each other. Barker’s book is useful because he has inhabited both worlds, and understands better than most atheists the religious psychology he critiques. … Read on…