Believer Beware

"'Show some respect,' I told myself. After all, Mary is a Jewish mother."

The Only Jew for Miles

By Gordon Haber | August 17, 2005

An unlikely pilgrim to Poland sees more, and less, than he’d hoped.

"I’ve never had a student fail with me,” he said. "But with you something is different."

Dreading the Buzzer

By Hasdai Westbrook | November 4, 2004

A tale of God, lies and audiotape.

Thomas Huxley

The New Agnosticism?

By Ben Rutter | September 24, 2004

An old word putting forth new shoots — agnosticism is being tugged toward faith.

Bible Porn

Bible Porn

By Erik Hanson | August 14, 2004

Sometimes corrupting children is a religious duty.

"The hose stretched just long enough to insert one end over the tailpipe and the other end into the driver’s window."

The Only Truth That Mattered

By Rebecca Donner | July 19, 2004

How I lost my father to Buddhism.

Art by Michael Allen Potter

God is Electric, Jesus Electrochemical

By Michael Allen Potter | June 7, 2004

The author goes in search of God and his birth mother. Only one gets found.

"This New Year is a time to look carefully at all the missed opportunities, the things we meant to do, but didn’t do in the year we are leaving behind..." (High Holy Days postcard, circa 1915.)

To Pardon All Our Fucking Iniquities

By Laurel Snyder | October 3, 2003

A half-Jew writes her own Yom Kippur prayer.

“For most people, ‘Kum Ba Ya’ is the canonical Christian camp hymn.”

I Am a Sea

By Patton Dodd | May 14, 2003

Learning to speak a new language is never easy, especially one that is already dead.

"You be the prophet. Go ahead."

Please Don’t Feed the Prophet

By Daniel S. Brenner | December 13, 2002

What would you do if you got a note from God? Would you sell it on Ebay? Would you call the cops?

A monk said to Joshu, "Hey Moe!" Joshu said, "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk..."

Ouga Chaka Zen

By Paul W. Morris | November 22, 2002

With a pie in the face or a poke in the eye, the rhyme and reason of Buddhism remains as elusive as ever.

worf-little.jpg

Raised by Jews

By Naomi Seidman | May 25, 2002

Reflections on a belated apostasy.

The Tucumcari Devils, New Mexico High School Champions, 2000

Lost Temple of the Pennytitties

By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet | March 12, 2002

Tall tales and blood libel in the New Mexican desert.

sects

Sects and the City, Part 1

By Elizabeth Frankenberger | January 28, 2002

Candace Bushnell meets Anne Frank in Sex and the City of God.

Stars

Seeing Things

By Bia Lowe | November 28, 2001

Love incites our imaginations, the sky demands our projections, and yet we’re still blind. Can desire alone make us see?

past_jersey

What’s Past Jersey?

By Seth Castleman | November 20, 2001

A dispatch from the co-founder of The Lineage Project, an organization bringing storytelling, meditation, and yoga to incarcerated youth in New York City and Riker’s Island City Jail.

The author and his mother, 1975

The Many Times My Mother Died

By Jeff Sharlet | August 6, 2001

If the body is a temple, what happens to faith when it’s destroyed?

Oklahoma City

The Joy of Dissent, or Why I Miss Fundamentalism

By E.J. Park | June 1, 2001

Timothy McVeigh and the impossibility of transcending the market.

Killing the Buddha

The Doctrine of Sugar

By Catherine Allgor | March 14, 2001

Chocolate, cherry pie, and all that can’t be left behind.