I went to our local Barnes & Noble Monday morning and picked up Sinclair Lewis’s famous study of religious hypocrisy–the 1927 novel called “Elmer Gantry” (which became an Academy Award-winning film starring Burt Lancaster in 1960). In the novel, Elmer Gantry is a fictionalized Christian evangelist who drinks, womanizes and secretly indulges in a life…

We don’t really know yet which charges against Ted Haggard are true or false, but it’s impossible to watch the unfolding of the evangelical pastor’s alleged gay sex scandal without thinking of Carl Jung’s writings on “shadow”–the least acknowledged or examined parts of the self–and Ken Wilber’s belief in the importance of shadow integration for…

As I grapple with a father and two in-laws who hate the idea of assisted-living communities, I keep insisting “As for me, I’m ready to move into one now.” Who can beat daily yoga classes in the rec room, Tai Chi, movie night, poker, trivia games, plus round-the-clock nursing? Count me in, I’m on my…

Some of you guys seemed annoyed with me for saying anything nice about KFC (its executives have just agreed to use a healthier, trans-fat-free frying oil). I don’t eat Kentucky Fried Chicken, but some 736 millions chickens are sold at their franchised stores annually. Yep, they’ve got a long way to go on the MSG,…

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