Deep Dive

Reading Time: 2 minutes You may have heard about Pat Robertson’s reliably idiotic response to the Haitian earthquake — that Haiti is reaping the consequences of a pact made with the devil in the 18th century by Haitian slaves. Sane commentators, both religious and non, have rightly heaped outrage and derision on Robertson’s latest departure from human decency. But […]

Reading Time: 6 minutes I started this series-about-Facebook-within-a-series-about-communication by describing an exchange with two normal, non-crazy, hearable and listenable religious friends. I wanted to show (1) that most religious people are, in fact, normal, non-crazy, hearable and listenable, (2) that it’s best to assume someone is all those things until proven otherwise, and (3) that time spent communicating thoughtfully […]

Reading Time: 5 minutes When she says “I’m Sagittarian” I confess a pigeonhole starts to form And is immediately filled with pigeon When she says her name is Storm. Tim Minchin, “Storm” We all do it. We listen for a few clues, then assign a pigeonhole to the speaker. Maybe the beak’s still moving, who knows. It’s hard to […]

Reading Time: 4 minutes Last time I described an exchange I had on Facebook. A friend asked what I considered to be the negatives of church community. I answered, and the friend who had asked the question expressed real appreciation for the reply — despite the fact that it includes actual direct critique. A fellow secular humanist asked how […]