Not everybody, and certainly not all Christians, suspend their belief in science to embrace as fact the variety of miracles that are included in the Bible, the resurrection being one of them. However, as Christians we do have to grapple theologically with them. Here are my thoughts on Easter in the form of a question:Which is Easier?

Is it easier to say to “Be healed” or to say “Your sins are forgiven”?

            he asked the skeptics...

I am currently in Cambridge MA at the Episcopal Divinity School as one of their two Proctor Scholars this semester. And, while for many people reading and writing might not sound like a lot of fun, it is a wonderful experience for me and an honor to be chosen. This is affording me the time and place to think theologically about how to best present my own sexual/spiritual stories to a wider audience. I hope to have a significant amount of writing done by early summer even as I am reading and...

On the occasion of commemorating World AIDS day I am remembering coming to Philadelphia in 1989 and walking through the AIDS quilt for the first time. It was at the Armory on Drexels’ campus that the AIDS crisis hit me personally. While the whole experience was powerful it was seeing the little girl dresses and little boy play clothes sown into the fabric by grieving relatives that made me grab the box of tissues sensitively handed to me by volunteer staffers. I was a mother of a girl and a...

So here is my question: Is it possible to get psychologically "addicted" to something if it is not wrong or sinful or shameful and if it is not connected to guilt in your mind? The Huffington Post says the rate of porn addiction among clergy is the same as that of the general populace. Surprise, Surprise! Yes, pastors are people just like the rest of you. But what I want to tease out is which pastors are the ones who are compulsively looking at porn? That is the more interesting...

At first my mind could not possibly get around the idea that a thousand college students would rally on behalf of popular coach Joe Paterno, who knew about the sexual abuses perpetrated by one of his staff, Jerry Sandusky. I tried to excuse those 18 and 19 year olds who have never known or experienced sexual harassment or abuse. But this illegal and immoral activity was not a single incident. At least eight children and young adults over a ten year period were involved, including a 10 year old...

I didn't know we have already had a gay president (James Buchanan). I didn't know the president from Illinois where I was born and raised, Abraham Lincoln, liked to sleep with men nor did I know just how devious J Edgar Hoover was in blackmailing so many as the head of the FBI.All this and more are juicy tidbits from Larry Flynt and David Eisenbach's book "One Nation Under Sex." One would think that with the word sex in the title and the Hustler publisher (Larry Flynt) in the...

The question on the index card read, “I have never had an orgasmic experience…I am Catholic and the church frowns upon masturbation. How do you recommend moving past that negativity?” I immediately had the vision of the Pope in his big pointy hat and white robes standing at the bedside wagging a judgmental finger. My response was, “You have to get the Pope out of your bedroom!” For those of us who were unfortunate enough to have a strong religious background that included much sexual...

The room was full of people who had come to hear some good news about their sexual bodies and spirituality. As the program unfolded folks learned; there is a difference between purity (which is not a biblical expectation for humanity) and holiness (And that is an expectation that translates to how we treat ourselves and others.), that it is ok to ‘seduce ourselves’ as we enjoy our bodies, that reverence and joy can be associated with our own sexual bodies, that while we are more than our bodies...

I guess I should not have been surprised but the ignorance of sexual repression always astonishes me. Here is what happened:

I went to a women’s shelter staffed by the Salvation Army with the intention of offering free admission for any of the woman who wanted to attend my fall programming on “Meditations on the Gift of Sexuality.” I asked the program staff person,

“Would you have anyone here who could benefit from a program focused on positive body images and self-care? My program on 10/15...

Just as the pastor moves into a series of stewardship sermons I am informed by a well-known and wonderfully insightful author/theologian  that there is very little money to be made in books written for the liberal audience. (Are we not reading here or simply going to the library?) Then, not an hour later I hear of an effective religious organization that is seeking to address the political attacks on a healthy sexuality that has a hard time finding funds. Another organization of clergy...