I retrieved boxes of my books from the attic above my garage and re-read this one for the first time since Truth and Meaning class in seminary with Dr. Don Juel in the winter of 1993. I remember Juel said, "I find Kermode damn irritating because he's so right."

Reading Liberation Psychology will start a new book on November 15th. New members welcome We meet 1x monthly, 3rd Saturdays We'll be reading "We've Had 100 Years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting Worse" by James Hillman

From Dylan’s Idiot Wind. Apropos of nothing🥸

We gathered as a family yesterday and buried our dog’s ashes yesterday along with one of his toys. Elvis was a Blue Tick Coonhound and so I read from Wilson Rawl’s Where the Red Fern Grows.

Looking for my people, spiritual misfits with a vast inner life, old souls, curious explorers, readers, rebels, reformers, doubters, queer folks, neurodiverse, questioners, co-creators, the ones who don’t fit in, change makers, and those who make all things new. Begins Monday. Register in link.

this workshop, with myself as a facilitator may not be a good fit for everyone. You are welcome to make donations on your own schedule, so that if you determine this workshop is not for you after enrolling you can withdraw without feeling bound by your donation. I don’t want anyone feeling “stuck”

My mom had a bunch of books in Swedish from her ancestors. This is the one has the most Scandinavian title ever - On the Roads of Misfortune and Other Tales. Or more simply, On the Wrong Path/Astray. Four generations later, I’m on my own path.

Looking for my people, spiritual misfits with a vast inner life, old souls, curious explorers, readers, rebels, reformers, doubters, queer folks, neurodiverse, questioners, co-creators, the ones who don’t fit in, change makers, and those who make all things new. Begins Monday. Register in link.

From one of my great-grandparent’s books. Scarlet and Purple: A study of Souls and “Signs” by Sidney Watson (c) 1921, Bible Institute of Los Angeles 😳

“The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.” ~ Annie Savoy in Bull Durham Are you cursed with self-awareness? Or maybe blessed by it? Spirituality for Times Like This is for you.

What are you gonna do with all those thoughts in your head and stirrings in your soul? Spirituality can help organize them for personal and communal transformation. Another group of Spirituality for Times Like This begins September 15 at 7 pm Central. Additional info in the link.

Spirituality is facing something challenging, even painful that is essential to life’s purpose. These are spiritual times. So-called secular or irreligious folks get this more than the churchgoing, especially US Protestants. Spiritually for Times Like This begins September 15 online at 7 pm Central

Okay: This is a thread of groups and workshops I'll be facilitating this fall: Most start at the end of September. I try to hold about 4 free seats - sometimes more, (sometimes no one uses them!) - in every workshop! All offered by donation. To see a calendar - click here:

Little Cardinal Flower amidst the grass by the pond

For your consideration. A new group of Spirituality for Times Like This begins Monday September 15 on Zoom at 7 pm Central. “If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you” ~ Rudyard Kipling

For your consideration. A new group of Spirituality for Times Like This begins Monday September 15 on Zoom at 7 pm Central. “If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you” ~ Rudyard Kipling

Please consider joining Spirituality for Times Like This as a response to these times. Thank you. Additional info and registration at the link below. Peace

Fall sessions of Spirituality for Times Like This are open for registration!

These times sure have disproven the idea that excessive and continuous anger causes heart attacks.

Late summer colors beginning to pop around my backyard pond in Sota

This discussion with @revwendyvie.bsky.social was so nice and I thank all who attended and had thoughts and experiences to share! If you want to register to receive a link to the recording - by donation - you can do so here!

Logging off to get read for this community discussion You are still welcome to join us if you want to contend with what is stuck to you about Christianity and what you stand against in historical and current Christian institutions:

2 thoughts on this group discussion with @whatashrinkthinks.com in a few hours. We might have called it “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” Punk Rocker Joe Strummer’s question as “Clampdown” begins, “What are we gonna do now?” is always a great way to start. Join us by donation. See you soon!

You can attend and be silent and listen with your screen off You can attend for free or make an affordable donation You can come and share your own complexities. Christianity is a fucking mess right now and it bugs the shit out of me even though I don’t identify as Christian.

My ancestors were strong Christians. My mom shared that her grandpa sold and moved his farm by train because their church and pastor were weak. Among my tasks is the re-shaping of what I have received to better serve me, family and communities. Curious? Join me and @whatashrinkthinks.com on Sunday

Richard Holloway’s follow-up to Doubts and Loves. Another beautiful epigraph begins Chapter One: All religions will pass, but this will remain: simply sitting in a chair and looking in the distance. ~Vasilii Rozanov

I stumbled across this little but powerful book in the aftermath of 9.11.2001. It reached deep inside me gave me comfort that I was not alone in seeking a different path from what Christianity had become.

We are talking about what we love and hate about Christianity here: As people who don't identify as Christian, but still feel a strong stake in its abuses, oppressions and distortions, and its liberatory possibilities too. with @revwendyvie.bsky.social

“Divide all human beings into two groups, using any biological or psychological trait (aside from parts of the reproductive system). This will never result in one group of only males/men and the other of only females/women.” Claudette Kulkarni In the Wake and Shadow of the “Battle of the Sexes”

Why do I continue to wrestle with Christianity? I’m a pastor who hasn’t identified as a Christian in 25 years. It’s my history, in every ancestor, in my adaptive dna. The church is behemoth and needs renewal. Similarly, as a white person who rejects white supremacy I can’t just wash my hands.

@revwendyvie.bsky.social and I are going to talk with each other and with folks who join the conversation about our extremely complicated relationship with Christianity The oppressions and abuses that we rejected and survived and why we haven’t rejected those theologies outright.

Imagination. Wonder. Freedom. Co-creation. Renewal of entrenched systems rises first in the individual whose soul which connects to everything. Please join us as we explore ways to hang in there and move forward. Peace

If you are interested in attending this public discussion of Christ myths by non-Christians confronting the entanglement of Christianity & Empire, uplifting the social gospel exploring co-creation and trans-identities You can join us for free or by donation With @revwendyvie.bsky.social

Non-Christocentric folks actually have a legitimate stake in how the Christian scriptures are constantly conscripted by nations and empires and patriarchy to justify oppression and abuse. You can attend for free or make a donation with @revwendyvie.bsky.social

I’m grateful to be leading this along with the sharp minded and kind hearted @whatashrinkthinks.com I’ve had difficulty finding my place in the religion-church-faith-spirituality complex for years, but especially since resigning as a church pastor in 2019.

Honored to co-lead this discussion with @whatashrinkthinks.com. Over my lifetime, I’ve seen Christianity in nearly all its expressions. In far too many adherents, the good news becomes bad news for others and the world. Please join us as we lift up expressions and explorations of good news for all!

Saint Mary Magdalene, 22 July

A bookseller in Canada won’t ship to me because I live in the US. Now I understand the real purpose of the tariffs. Frumph!

This community discussion on wrestling with Christianity, its mythology, institutions, cruelties and graces with @revwendyvie.bsky.social August 3rd.

One’s shadow seems to be within another shadow in these times.

A discussion for those engaged in the complexities of co-creation, and finding their way through the distortions, projections, and gifts of a vast continuum of Christian thought that extends far beyond institutional dogma.

Please join me and my colleague, the brilliant Martha Crawford @whatashrinkthinks.com for the discussion group Christianity: Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It. Live on Zoom, Sunday, August 3, 2025, Noon Central.

Remember when we were about freedom? Even though it was an imperfect freedom. As Jack Nicholson’s character says in Easy Rider, “They'll talk to you and talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare them.” Dammit.

I think of this song everyday lately, singing the chorus quietly to myself. I once preached on it, and today seems like a good day to share. Saint John of the Cross and Johnny Thunders back to back will grab you by the hair. The song's gist is that creatives show the way forward in times like this.

Working my way through Aion. Three passages I read this morning speak to these times. “... there are people and things that, although created by God, are good only to the minimal and bad to the maximal degree." (94)

The spiritual process of my transgender identity.

Happy Pride everyone. I wrote a column about gay rights pioneer Thom Higgins, who called Minnesota home for most of his (too short) life. I really want more people to know the story of this remarkable guy. Please read and share (gift link)!

Process theology, Liberation theology Ecumenism & mystic traditions I’m not a Christian but I’m not letting the far right claim ownership of a enlightened wisdom teacher who changed the world.