Mark's Blog

The data suggests that the fastest growing religious group in the United States today are “nones”, which refer to the growing number of people who reply “none” when asked of their religious affiliation.  Into this expanding vacuum is an attitude and a practice that...

“I hope you burn in Hell.”  I have read this condemnation several times over the past few weeks, the vitriol coming from someone who is incensed over someone else’s position or action.   Over the years I have heard it said directly, not at me, but at a close friend...

“There are two kinds of movements:  those which seek converts, and those which hunt heretics.”    I read these words  in a recent op-ed by David French, a more conservative opinion writer for the New York Times, quoting his more progressive colleague, Michelle...

People often tell me, with some commitment and considerable pride, that they are spiritual.  That they have moments— on a mountain or at the seashore, or have created spaces in their lives, where they feel a deep connection with the world, each other — and a divine...

I was profoundly irritated, the intensity of which surprised me.  I was watching the semi-final US Open match between Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova.   I was relaxed and enjoying their skill and passion, and silently hoping that some of the former might rub off on...

Evil is a problem. And for millenia, philosophers, theologians and novelists have grappled with this problem: what is evil, how did it start, why does it exist, how do we respond? It has been, and continues to be, a confounding intellectual and emotional challenge....

In 2009 journalist Bill Bishop wrote a compelling book, The Big Sort:  Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing us Apart.  Bishop makes the case that over the past several decades people have been living, working, worshipping and vacationing in places...

“No killer statements”, we agreed would be the first rule we would follow in our time together on a retreat with a group of teenagers and a few adult chaperones.  A killer statement was anything that was said that demeaned, dismissed, or denied someone else.  Our...

“Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke,” Office of Management and Budget Director Bert Lance said at a Congressional hearing in 1977.  I don’t remember what the hearing was about, but along with millions of others, I easily recall the phrase.  Most of us don’t refer to it...