O Me of Little Faith

I want to mention politics as little as possible on this blog, because it’s so divisive and quickly leads to defensiveness and name-calling and the spread of hurtful misinformation (and that’s just on my part!), but I have to bring attention today to Barack Obama’s long-awaited speech on race and racial relations and the whole…

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here’s a little background information (from my upcoming book, Pocket Guide to Sainthood) about the patron saint of Ireland and notable Christian missionary: St. PatrickIreland (5th century)Feast day: March 17Also known as: Patricius, Naomh Pádraig, Gaewyn Sure, the dragon-slayers and hermits and pillar-sitters have been weird, but here’s where…

Quick vocabulary lesson for you: Hermeneutics is the word theologians and ministers use to describe the study of interpretation of religious texts — in most cases, the Bible. Scot McKnight, one of my favorite New Testament theologians and proprietor of the popular blog JesusCreed.org, has put together a handy interactive quiz that helps give some…

Here’s what’s funny: this political season, the three remaining candidates for the presidency all have pretty solid Christian credentials — and are probably more outspokenly Christian than most candidates have ever been — but quite a few watchdogs of the religious right don’t like any of them. Why? Apparently, they’re not Christian enough. In fact,…

I’m pretty entrenched as a Protestant, but I try to keep an open mind. I really do. I love many aspects of the Catholic liturgy, and most of my favorite devotional writers have been Roman Catholics. I’m a big fan of great Catholics past like St. Francis of Assisi, and St. Patrick, and Dorothy Day,…

I am at the writing stage right now where the “being a writer” part is not that attractive. Pocket Guide to Sainthood is finished and the manuscript has been turned in to the publisher (no doubt, several rounds of edits will follow, but it’s still good to check one big project off the list). Now…

I have a couple of pieces in the March/April issue of Relevant Magazine. One is a “Statement” column involving the (duh) obvious connection between Bigfoot and Easter, and the other is a quickie interview with Trace & Becca Bundy about their work with Agros International. Trace is a good friend and an amazing acoustic guitarist…

Just letting you in on some advance content from my upcoming book (summer 2009) called Pocket Guide to Sainthood (Jossey-Bass). Here’s a selection from the last chapter, which features miscellaneous lists related to saints: Eight Saints With Brutally Ironic Patronages 1. St. Adrian of Nicomedia, patron saint of arms dealers, whose arms were amputated during…

I’m always interested in the traffic that ends up at this blog via Google searches, because it always surprises me how quickly the Goog attaches blog posts to topics — especially to newsworthy names. Yesterday — based on the Margaret B. Jones post below — this blog had the 6th spot on Google if you…

There’s another literary scandal unfolding, and this one’s pretty juicy, to mix a delicious metaphor. Margaret B. Jones just released a harrowing memoir called Love and Consequences. It’s about how she, a half-white, half-Native American, ended up in a foster family in south L.A. — where she joined the Bloods, sold drugs, lived the life…

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