KtBlog
musings, news, events, and your letters to the editors
God, Mammon, Bathrooms, and Basketball
In the Tuesday-morning quiet of a Chapel Hill that will be riding high from its NCAA championship win last night for the foreseeable future, the news arrives that the NCAA…
Uggs for Gaza
“After a few drinks, Mitch gleaned that Rafe and Joey were “just friends,” which he found encouraging. Less encouraging—downright puzzling, really—was when the conversation turned to environmental concerns, or their…
Art in Dark Times: A (Made-Up) Solstice Ritual
Around this time of year, I often find myself telling people about the mixture of holidays I grew up celebrating as a child. My back-to-the-land hippie parents, one Jewish, one…
The Klan Never Ends
When Gospel According to the Klan was published in 2011, the reactions to the book surprised me at first. I had some white people, including scholars, tell me that the…
We’ve Got the Torch Now
The small rural town where I went to high school had a newspaper and I looked on its classified section last year and there were three jobs. I’m not going…
Election History, Second Draft
Killing the Buddha is going to have a lot to say in the coming weeks about the presidential election of a man best described as Voldemort. We will be bringing…
KtB in person, this Sunday at AAR San Antonio!
Religion-scholar friends of KtB, please join us at the American Academy of Religion conference this weekend for an exciting and (if we do say so ourselves) eminently necessary conversation about…
Aleppo Is Us
With the recent “What is Aleppo?” gaffe by Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, the news cycle has long moved on from the child whose image quickly became an icon of…
The First Long, Dark Night After The Earthquake
A dry hot month to beat the records was passing its torch to the newspapers when the earthquake struck early Wednesday, causing untold damage and ceaseless unhappiness as the tremors…
Goodbye, Tim LaHaye
When I first encountered Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind (1995), I was sitting on the a sage-colored corduroy coach at my mom’s house. Left Behind rested on a…
On Love and Chicken Sandwiches
Dear Cathy Family of Chik-Fil-A Fame, Recent Donors of Chicken Sandwiches to Honor the Orlando Victims, in Spite of Their Gayness, or Perhaps Because of It, I Don’t Know: You…
Against Literary Transphobia
An early writing mentor told me once that sharing my story will save lives. I believe in the power of words to save lives, but the flipside is their power…
An Open Letter to The Antioch Review
Dear Antioch Review, In your May 5th statement regarding the essay, “The Sacred Androgen: The Transgender Debate” by Daniel Harris, you celebrate an admittedly “deeply offensive” essay for “stirring debate.”…
Celebrate with KtB, Thurs. 3/10 in Brooklyn!
Dear Readers, You are warmly invited to join Killing the Buddha this Thursday evening for: Love You to Death! a raucous celebration of the publication of Ann Neumann‘s The Good Death: An…
Without Meaning To
I search for meaning everywhere. In television shows, theme songs, top 40 hits, novels, Internet memes, and casual comments from friends and strangers. I look for meaning in relationships. In…
For Anna
I am in the middle of movement and want nothing but to stop. I am starved for silence, for stillness in the New Delhi swirl. I’m disoriented without the sight…
