childhood

fishsex1

The Good, The Bad and Bumping Uglys

By Scott Cheshire | April 27, 2009

Some thoughts on masturbation, Mailer, and the Good Book.

cartwheels-cover

Cartwheels in a Sari

By Jayanti Tamm | April 24, 2009

When you grow up cult, you learn to keep your mouth shut.

By W. David Powell

Love

By Greg Bottoms | March 5, 2009

This is what you do when you love someone. Not just like. Only if you’re in love.

By ashley.adcox via Flickr

Silver Trumpets

By Jeremy B. Jones | February 17, 2009

The rise and fall of a cussin’ campus Christian rock star.

Tea

Tea with God

By Susan Moon | December 21, 2008

After a lifetime spent looking for God, Sue finally finds him. And he’s pretty steamy.

illustration by W. David Powell

Mothers

By Greg Bottoms | November 12, 2008

On learning to inhale, and a breeze of insignificance. Another excerpt from Greg Bottoms’ new book, Fight Scenes

Fight Scenes

Thieves

By Greg Bottoms | October 2, 2008

To be a lover and a car thief on a Saturday morn

Mango

When Hunger Can’t Be Fed

By Ananya Vajpeyi | August 14, 2008

Remembering to eat, and live, when the stuff of life becomes unpalatable.

The Ten Plagues, detail

Exodus

By Francine Prose | April 22, 2005

A Passover reading from Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible.

"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.

Sudanese street scene

Drinking in Tongues

By Vinton Kevitt | July 8, 2004

In Sudan, a wayward youth faces the wrath of Mom, Dad, and Allah.

"I began to pray for forgiveness, thinking the cherries might line up, the machine spilling shiny tokens of good fate."

Slot-Machine God

By Donald Miller | July 9, 2003

When beliefs can change as easily as the weather, so do your chances of hitting the jackpot — or experiencing revelation.

Ignoble

Ignoble Truths

By Kate Brandt | September 13, 2002

Life’s a bitch and then you die. Sex, suffering, and the Buddha’s First Noble Truth.

“It’s hard to be a priest,” says Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk

Confessions of an Ex-Seminarian

By Gregory Flannery | August 16, 2002

Porn, drugs and the devil in a Cincinnati seminary. And that’s nothing compared to the sins of the archbishop.

Killing the Buddha

The Doctrine of Sugar

By Catherine Allgor | March 14, 2001

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

chalice

The Mucus

By Mary Valle | November 13, 2000

Catholics. Sex. Insert punchline here.