Illness Itself Can Make You Angry, Enraged,

Theologians In All The Great Faiths Have Devised All Kinds Of Myths To Show That This Type Of Kenosis, Of Self-emptying, Is Found In The Life Of God Itself. They Do Not Do This Because It Sounds Edifying, But Because This Is The Way That Human Nature Seems To Work. We Are Most Creative And Sense Other Possibilities That Transcend Our Ordinary Experience When We Leave Ourselves Behind.

Here In America, Religious People Often Prefer To Be Right Rather Than Compassionate. They've Lost The Axial Age Vision Of Concern For Everybody.

Ironically, The First Thing That Appealed To Me About Islam Was Its Pluralism. The Fact That The Koran Praises All The Great Prophets Of The Past.

You Have To Get Into The Water And Learn Against What Seems To Be The Law Gravity To Float And Dancing, Or Athletics Takes You Years Before You Develop A Skill. But If You Work At It, Practicing Daily, You Can Enable Your Body To Do Things That Are Utterly Impossible To An Untrained Physic.

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.