All Religions Are Designed To

And Sometimes It's The Very Otherness Of A Stranger, Someone Who Doesn't Belong To Our Ethnic Or Ideological Or Religious Group, An Otherness That Can Repel Us Initially, But Which Can Jerk Us Out Of Our Habitual Selfishness, And Give Us Intonations Of That Sacred Otherness, Which Is God.

We Talk About God As Though He Was Like A Somebody. We Ask Him To Bless Our Nation, Or Save Our Queen, Or Give Us A Fine Day For The Picnic. And We Actually Expect Him To Be On Our Side In An Election Or War Even Though Our Opponents Are Also God's Children.

Fundamentalists Are Not Friends Of Democracy. And That Includes Your Fundamentalists In The United States.

Religion Is Not About Accepting Twenty Impossible Propositions Before Breakfast, But About Doing Things That Change You. It Is A Moral Aesthetic, An Ethical Alchemy. If You Behave In A Certain Way, You Will Be Transformed. The Myths And Laws Of Religion Are Not True Because They They Conform To Some Metaphysical, Scientific Or Historical Reality But Because They Are Life Enhancing. They Tell You How Human Nature Functions, But You Will Not Discover Their Truth Unless You Apply These Myths And Doctrines To Your Own Life And Put Them Into Practice.

We Should Probably All Pause To Confront Our Past From Time To Time, Because It Changes Its Meaning As Our Circumstances Alter.