One of the things that people find shocking in religion polls, and that I used to find shocking, is that people who don’t necessarily believe in God actually make up a pretty good percentage of self-described religious adherents, including about 1 in 5 Jewish Americans and 1 in 10 Christian…

My beloved city of Jackson, Mississippi is experiencing triple-digit homicides again this year, and in response many of us are taking on superstitious practices that will actually make our lives worse. These practices include: Avoiding specific cities or parts of cities (the vast majority of homicide victims are murdered near…

Stop me if I’ve told you this story. I tell it a lot. I briefly joined a local right-wing site’s comment section around 2004 because I wanted to enter into dialogue with these folks. At first it wasn’t too bad. Then came an anti-gay post, and I spoke up. Then…

I live in central Mississippi, and as of November 2021 there’s no opportunity to earn an ACPE-accredited Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) unit around here. (The local VA hospital has a program, but COVID seems to have derailed it.) Fortunately, the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) has accredited 26 programs…