Something in us wants to belong. But something in us also wants to be free, to be authentic, to be the truest, most genuine version of ourselves that we can be. Those two desires can be in tension. Something in us wants to be honest. But something in us also wants to be liked by …
Check out this Q&A from the 2021 Wild Goose Festival: Faithful Creation Care with Brian McLaren, Miriam Smith, Scott Hardin-Nieri, Susannah Tuttle
Now when it comes to intellectual doubt, you’re dealing primarily with your meaning module, the part of your brain committee that thinks critically and analytically. But your meaning module’s independent thought processes are constantly being monitored and even censored by your belonging and survival modules. They constantly whisper their respective warnings: “If you think or …
For them, it’s primarily a matter of belonging (I enjoy being part of a church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or dharma group) or of survival (I don’t want to go to hell; I want to maintain God’s blessings of health and wealth for my continued well-being in this life.) They haven’t had an intellectual question or …
Thank you Brian McLaren and Red Letter Christians!https://www.redletterchristians.org/healing-our-divides-why-this-matters/
Before becoming a pastor, I thought more time in Bible study, more time in prayer, more time exposed to hymns and worship songs, more time in Christian fellowship meant my doubts would decrease, not increase. But when I became an insider to the religious industrial complex, I saw things I hadn’t seen before. I saw …
Contrived excuses rather than convincing explanations Read More »
Your singular human brain functions like a three-member committee. Each of your three primary modules includes many distinct submodules that in turn contain even smaller submodules, and the interactions among these modules and submodules are so fast, so complex, and so overlapping and interconnected that your brain can hardly even begin to understand its own …
For many of us, faith is our map of reality, our map of the universe. It tells us where we are, where we’ve been, where we’re going, where to turn. But as soon as our trusted map stops matching reality, we feel disoriented. We have no idea where to turn, what to do, how to …
Back in 2011, Richard Rohr wrote a book called Falling Upward. Richard, a warmhearted Franciscan brother, Catholic priest, insightful teacher, and bestselling author, is founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation, and I am honored to call him friend, mentor, and colleague. Falling Upward resonated with hundreds of thousands of readers because it told …
