The answer to the first question, “Do I believe Jesus is the Son of God?” is a simple, straightforward, “Yes!” The answer to the second about what “Son of God” means is a lot more complicated.

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I never met an atheist I could like. Surely, somewhere on this planet, there is a friendly atheist, but I haven’t bumped into one yet.

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That people pray is not as interesting as how people pray. But theologians have thoroughly explored the latter at the expense of the former. Praying, it would seem, is as old as the human race.

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When it is the earth that created you, care of the environment becomes a central religious tenet. But believers who use the Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures as the basis for their concern about the environment have a bigger mountain to climb than witches.

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Catholics believe marriage is a sacrament. Since the sacraments give grace to the believer with their practice, the renewal of marital love in the physical act of sex is – for Catholics — a source of divine grace. The more times you have sex, the more grace you both receive.

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There is theological wiggle room to ask questions about the capacity for people of the same sex to enter into lasting relationships that have faith-filled meaning, despite a physical inability to propagate except by extraordinary means.

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You can’t be an educated person today unless you have studied religion. Notice, I didn’t say you had to BELIEVE in religion to be educated.

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A question about incorporating practices of other religions is a question about syncretism. Most believers in the Abrahamic faiths don’t like the word “syncretism.” It implies imitation of something alien to your religion, which means that your faith was “inferior” before the syncretism began.

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“If I had served my God as diligently as I did my king, He would not have given me over in my grey hairs." I cannot help but think of this death bed declaration of the Renaissance English Cardinal Wolsey in searching for a comment on the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell. I wonder if the famous televangelist asked the same of his dedication to the Republican Party when going to meet his Maker.

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Actually, the question of Heaven or Hell depends upon the reality of the after-life. Is there a personal spirit existence for each of us that endures separately after the body dies? A thinking, rational person is hard put to deny evidence of spirits. In my opinion, the reality of such spirits is more proximate than the existence of God.

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I have more of a problem with the use of the word "pagan" on this page than I have with pagan chaplains in the military. There is an obvious gain in respect for "paganism" to receive the official sanction that employment in the chaplains’ ranks will provide. However, are these modern day shamans up to the professionalism required of today’s chaplains?

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“Where tyranny is law, revolution is order.” This is my second most motivating verse after, “If you want peace, work for justice.” Both these quotes are derived from modern sources that have applied the Gospel message to social needs.

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The “revelation” that Mother Teresa endured a dark night of the soul proves beyond a doubt that atheists and non-believers in the modern world have opted for the easy path. As the just published reflections show, it is harder today to have faith in God that to lapse into disbelief.

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As a professor, I was there to equip open-minded students to analyze religious experiences, rather than to get them to believe in the afterlife or disbelieve in spirits. My main objective was to have them prepared to understand that religion explains such events as evidence of life after death.

In my classes on religion over the past twenty years, a question about speaking with the dead always shows up in a course. I can practically recite my response with my eyes shut, making three points:

No. 1. Yes, there are para-normal experiences amply documented in the past and continuing into the present that as yet have no scientific explanation.

No. 2. Some people conclude there are reasons to attribute the events to spirits, thus indicating an after-life.

No. 3. Even in the face of evidence contradicting their pre-determined convictions, some will refuse to believe there is life after death.

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The religious meaning of Thanksgiving is historically suspect. As more than one historian has pointed out, the original Thanksgiving both culminated and began a relationship literally performed “under the gun.” On more than one occasion, the European immigrants forced the native Wampanoags and Pequots to surrender food they had in order to feed the Pilgrims, who had been less provident. You would have to deny the Native Americans basic rights in order to find God’s Hand in any of this. Since I don’t believe in a Christ who loves only white Europeans, I find the invocation of God’s blessings on the invasion of the Americas to be heretical.

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