I’m always in awe of people who can quote scripture. I’m equally intrigued when they insist that it is the Word of God. My latest book delves into our beliefs a bit. I am convinced that many of us haven’t the slightest idea what we believe, what our beliefs really mean or why we believe them.

Is it important to understand what you believe? Well, since our beliefs motivate our actions, I think so–and so does retired Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong*, renowned expert on the Bible, best-selling author and former fundamentalist from the Bible belt.

A minister at my church, who knows I am a big fan of Bishop Spong’s, sent me this illuminating speech. I thought I’d share. When you have 83 minutes to spare, it will be time well-spent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZM3FXlLMug

Enjoy the enlightenment!

A few days ago, I theorized in this space that violent behavior stems from our beliefs about what God is and what God does. If we believe ancient stories that tell us that God solves problems by killing people, we’re more likely to view violence as a logical and acceptable way to solve our problems.

Within 24 hours of posting that essay, a Kirkwood, Missouri man left home saying, “To God be the glory!” Moments later, he shot six and killed five people that, he believed, were causing him a problem.

These horrific murders caused me to examine my theory more closely. What I found was scientific evidence that I might be on the right track. I posted those findings in today’s edition of The Daily Voice, where I serve as the spirituality editor.

I stopped watching the evening news and switched to online newspapers. Not only was I was burned out, after 20 years in TV news, I typically felt emotionally drained at the end of the newscast, a bit overwhelmed by man’s inhumanity to man.

Now that watching is no longer a job requirement, I choose not. If a headline is screaming bad news, I can instantly dash to another part of the page; I don’t have to sit through the bloody details or watch the crime scene video.

I swear, if one more anchor reported a “senseless” murder, I was going to scream. Are there any murders that make sense? Let’s see: Five women slain in a clothing store, man opens fire in a shopping mall, a Boy Scout kills his parents, women suicide bombers wreak havoc. Which of these made sense?

The acts are becoming more and more bizarre, more and more inhumane. I could be wrong, but I’ve theorized that the way we solve problems is directly related to our beliefs about God.

We can be as punitive and unforgiving as the God who kicked Adam and Eve to kingdom come. We can be as outraged and brutal as the God who commits filicide or genocide. We believe that Our Father solves problems by killing His own, torturing His own, threatening His own. He favors some over others. Human life is expendable.

We were taught this as children. It’s deeply seeded in our psyches: this is the way to solve problems. This is the way we treat others.

In that context, murders make perfect sense, and they will continue until we shift our perceptions about what God is and what God does, until we decide to believe that God behaves more divinely.

It’s an option. I’m not sure if we can do it; we are so attached to the sadistic model of God. In fact, we believe that God will torture us eternally, if we believe otherwise. Fascinating stuff.

At times, it seems hopeless to think that we can grasp how heinous we believe God is. Only a Pollyanna would believe that we can challenge these reports of Godly misconduct by asking, “Would LOVE do that?”

There is hope. Today, I am filled with it, after receiving an email today from the Rev. Shaheerah Stephens, a New Thought minister in Detroit. Maybe you’d like some hope, too: The Shift Movie

“Next, send this message to everyone you know. In a while, more people will have
prayed for you and you would have obtained a lot of people praying for others!”

In principle, it sounded reasonable and mathematically sound; but I have hundreds of friends in my address book, including many who do not say “The Lord’s Prayer”. Plus, I have no doubt that many who do wouldn’t know what to say, in response to the writer’s next command. I was a bit speechless myself:

“Next, stop and think and appreciate God’s power in your life, for doing what
you know is pleasing to Him.”

I stopped and thought. I’m still not sure whether this writer was saying that God would have power in my life if I pleased “Him”, and no power if I didn’t–i.e. a conditionally powerful quid pro quo God? Alrighty now!

And then came the Big Threat, the one that has found its way to the Loud Mouth’s mailbox once too often:

“If you are not ashamed to do this, follow the instructions! Jesus said, ‘If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before My Father.’
“If you are not ashamed, send this message… only if you believe.”

Believe what, exactly? Does this writer want us to believe that Jesus was a hypocrite? That’s what we’d have to believe, to accept anyone’s claim that he made such a manipulative, vindictive threat. This proclamation defies the spirit, intent and teachings of Jesus.

Believe what, exactly? Does this writer want us to believe that Jesus was a hypocrite? That’s what we’d have to believe, to accept anyone’s claim that he made such a manipulative, vindictive threat. This proclamation defies the spirit, intent and teachings of Jesus.

Bible scholars tell us that this alleged direct quote was written 70-85 years after Jesus’ crucifixion–and not by one of his disciples. In fact, they say, none of the gospels was written by someone who personally knew Jesus. Why do we repeat second-hand information that maligns his character and makes him appear duplicitous?

What we know, for sure, is that Matthew wrote this quote–and he clearly couldn’t have been paying attention to anything else Jesus reportedly said, or he would have written something that was more accurately aligned with his character and teachings.

Maybe Matthew was being overly zealous in his attempt to attract converts to Judaism’s Christian sect. I don’t know. And I don’t know what motivates those who keep breathing life into such a damning characterization of Jesus by tacking this threat to the end of their e-mails, either.
This one stood out from the rest because, like Matthew, the scribe wasn’t thinking clearly. In the same e-mail, the writer wrote every word of “The Lord’s Prayer,” but apparently didn’t read them–and expected us to say them and not read them, either. Curious stuff.

The writer obviously believes that Jesus prayed, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others’,” before the crowd gathered on the Mount, but would not be forgiving of others, when in his Father’s presence.

Makes you wonder: Who’s really the non-believer here?

You might recall that this time last year, the ancient Law of Attraction was in the process of becoming a 21st century fad. That excitement soon faded, after millions did not get the results they desired. It’s not that the bearers of this ancient Truth were wrong; they weren’t. They simply didn’t tell us the entire secret.

I promised in this space several months ago that I would fill in some of those blanks. At that time, I’d hoped to be able to deliver it to you around Thanksgiving. However, the Universe felt that this was a better time; winter solstice, New Year, it’s a period of rebirth.

It’s now time to understand why many of those Law of Attraction tactics didn’t work the way you wanted or expected. It’s finally time to discuss the secrets of this spiritual Law that no one seems to want to talk about. (They don’t call me the “Loud Mouth in the Balcony” for nothin’! I’m tellin’.)

On New Year’s Day, you can find out what those secrets are: the four simple principles that determine your outcomes. They’re revealed in a free audio book that will help you enter 2008 with a new aptitude for why you attract certain experiences and people into your life. This is the full narration of my March 2008 hardcover release, Crossing an Unseen Bridge. The audio book will sell for $29.95 after the holidays. Right now, it is my gift to you with every pre-order of the printed edition ($15.95).

Crossing an Unseen Bridge promises to be as enlightening, empowering and entertaining as my whimsical spiritual memoir, EARTH Is the MOTHER of All Drama Queens. I hope this audio gift will be as much of a blessing to everyone as that book, and that it will provide a powerful start to your New Year.

This free audio book offer is open only to members
of my mailing list, as of December 31, 2007!
You can join that list by signing up in the

Drama Queen Workshops bookstore.

So many have commented that reading my work is like having me in the room talking to them. This time, I will really be there! I look forward to spending quality time with you.

Merry Christmas and a Happier New Year!

I just read a fascinating article in today’s New York Times. They’re examining commonplace aspects of the American justice system that are unique. This kind of justice happens nowhere else in the civilized world. This article, the second installment of a series, focuses on a young man who is serving life in prison without chance of parole. Why? Because he loaned his Chevy Metro to a friend.

Read the NYT article, and share your thoughts: Should anyone be severely punished for someone else’s sin–under any circumstances. If you don’t mind mentioning your religious affiliation (if any) in your response, I’d appreciate it.

A few months ago in this space, I suggested that we needed a prequel to the red hot best sellers touting the Law of Attraction. You know—something that lends credibility to claims that it’s really a law. After all, spiritual laws work for 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time. But 100% of the readers of these books didn’t get what they expected.

Maybe it’s because they needed a tad bit more than a magnet in their back packs before they could attract the life of their dreams, valuable and vital information that anyone must know before paying too much attention to ancient secrets. I waited for someone to put it in a nice handy book that’s simple to read and understand. Then one day I said to myself, “Why wait? You’re a journalist. Write it yourself.”

That’s what I’ve been doing in my spare time, instead of blogging. By the way, a special edition of that prequel will be available free at the DQW Bookstore around Thanksgiving, if I’m not sidetracked by too many distractions. This week, several have given me a wink and a nod, trying to coax me back into blogging mode.

But it was the teenager distributing religious tracts in front of the Wrigley Building and moments later, the guy screaming Divine threats through a bullhorn as the crowds walked by Water Tower Place that really prompted me to momentarily push the prequel aside.

I had the distinct pleasure of encountering the young girl and a few of her family members today on my way to a luncheon and again on my way back. From several hundred feet away, I could read the big bold white letters on their t-shirts: “JESUS HATES SIN.” I groaned in disbelief, but managed to maintain my composure as I neared them.

Apparently, I appeared to be an approachable soul (or at least a salvageable one). The girl extended a tract in my direction. Instead of reaching for it, I leaned over and said quietly, “Jesus doesn’t hate anything, Sweetheart.” I smiled and walked on.

“Judge not, judge not”, I kept repeating to myself, harkening Jesus’ loving wisdom. I’m not sure it worked. I was quite offended that someone would construct a sentence with “Jesus” as the subject and “hates” as the predicate. Fewer things are more oxymoronic. Oops, I forgot—judge not.

Pardon me, I’m still evolving. And, I have to remind myself, so are those who believe that Jesus hates anything. So, on my way back, when the young lady stepped toward me, I tried to say something more empowering: “Seventy times seven, dear. Remember ‘seventy times seven.’”

I figured that she could use a reminder, too—or at minimum, she could do the math. Surely someone who says to forgive a sin 490 times can’t really “hate” sin—unless of course, he’s a hypocrite.

And that brings me to the angry man down the street, who didn’t need a bullhorn to be heard above the noisy Michigan Avenue traffic. He had an important message that he was bellowing to pedestrians within earshot: God is going to torture us with endless doses of excruciating pain if we don’t clean up our acts.

Would that be the God of “God is Love”/“Prince of Peace” fame? I wondered.

A steady flow of passersby kept it moving, pretending to ignore the rant. However, one young man objected to being assaulted by someone’s religious views as he was going about his day.

And that’s when it happened, much to the chagrin of those of us who believe that God is good all the time. The man went into a rage. “God’s going to throw you right in hell! You’re going straight to hell (and more venomous blah, blah, blah)!”

I shook my head and smiled at the couple standing nearby. “Now, isn’t that Christ-like?”

Have mercy! The mouth behind the bullhorn then started screaming at me. I mean he ripped me a new one. The Christ was undoubtedly missing from this card-carrying Christian.

Call me crazy, but I think it’s folks like him who are directly responsible for the skyrocketing membership in the Church Alumni Association, as Bishop John Shelby Spong lovingly dubbed it. Fewer folks are willing to accept portrayals of God as Boogie Man or terrorist, no matter where it’s written.

That leads to the third thing that caught my eye this week: a lawsuit filed by a Nebraska state law maker. The defendant in State Sen. Ernie Chambers’ lawsuit is none other than…God.

If I may invoke legal parlance, “based on information and belief”, Chambers’ suit accused God of inspiring fear and causing “fearsome floods … horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes…widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.” To make matters worse, the lawsuit claims, God has threatened Chambers and his constituents with bodily harm. In response, Chambers is seeking a permanent injunction against the Almighty.

The senator acknowledges that his lawsuit is frivolous by design. He’s trying to make the point that anybody in Douglas County, Nebraska can file a lawsuit for any ridiculous reason. And he wants the practice to stop.

But Chambers—who is known to jab unChrist-like Christians now and again—appears to be making another point, too: The acts that God has been accused of intentionally committing against mankind are indisputably terroristic and inhumane. In some cases, they are petty, vengeful, unforgiving—and even hateful. Notably, God is said to have claimed responsibility, actually confessed, to acts that qualify for criminal prosecution.

Would Love do any of it? Could it be that the heinous accusations against God are as frivolous as Chambers’ lawsuit?

Are some of us boldly promoting God’s accusers rather than God’s goodness?

The last few weeks have been fascinating to watch from any seat in the balcony of Life. A veritable duel between contemporary and ancient thought played onstage:

Earth science students found really, really old fossils in Illinois. The Pope changed his mind about Original Sin. And Creationists opened a $27 million museum near Cincinnati with exhibits depicting the Bible’s book of Genesis, which, among other things, claims that the Universe was created in six days, a mere 6,000 years ago–only 14 billion years short of geological estimates.

Speaking of geology, a University of Illinois at Chicago earth and environmental sciences professor and his students recently set out to explore a limestone cave in nearby Kendall County. Because northeastern Illinois is believed to have once been covered by a sea, the group expected to find 450 million-year-old fossils from marine life.

The fossils they found were quite a bit younger, only 310 million years old; and they weren’t aquatic. But the group was hardly disappointed with their treasures. These fossils were of plant spores, scorpion parts and needles from a coniferous tree-maybe the oldest ever found in North America!

But perhaps the most astounding news came from Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI uprooted a centuries-old Church belief, by approving a report claiming that there’s reason to believe that children who die without being baptized are not excluded from heaven. Before now, it was believed that these children still carry the burden of original sin, and would go into a limbo state after death because they weren’t acceptable to commune with God in heaven.

Of course, original sin hinges on the belief that God mercilessly blames every human for sins we didn’t personally commit. Millions fervently believe this. I wonder how many of them believe that it is fair, reasonable or Godly to jail them for someone else’s crime.

Either we believe in a just God or we don’t. Wouldn’t it be a novel idea if, when we read something that claims that God did something unjust, we questioned it instead of maligning God’s character by perpetuating the tale for generations?

Actually, some folks will go to great heights to defend God’s goodness. Case in point: the news conference for the Answers in Genesis organization’s state-of-the-art Creationist museum opening.

Buzzzzzzz. A buzzing sound overhead shifted everyone’s attention skyward. It was a small plane. From its tail flew a huge banner, commanding: “Thou Shalt Not Lie.”

That promises to be the first of many protests at this Bible-affirming museum that features graphics in its lobby of children playing with dinosaurs. Bet you didn’t know that dinosaurs were domesticated playmates, did you? In fact, one exhibit contends that dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark. How many cubits long and deep was that boat, again? Either the dinosaurs were runts or the ark made an ocean liner look like a tub toy.
It was that great punishing flood, the Creationist museum’s founders insist, that carved out the Grand Canyon in a matter of weeks-a claim universally disputed by scientists, who insist that the canyon was formed over a period of 6 million years and its deep channels reveal two billion years of the planet’s geological history.

Of course, the Great Flood story hinges on the belief that God is satanically genocidal and plays favorites.

Hey, will somebody please cue that plane?