Reverend Jeber

  James Morrow wrote the Godhead Trilogy, the first volume of which is titled Towing Jehovah. It’s a unique fantasy story explained and reviewed below; God is dead. "Died and fell into the sea. " That's what Raphael, a despondent angel with luminous white wings and a blinking halo, tells Anthony Van Horne on his fiftieth birthday. Soon Van Horne is chared with captaining the supertanker Carpco Valparaiso (flying the colors of the Vatican) as it tows the two-mile-long corpse through the Atlantic toward the Arctic, in order to preserve Him from sharks and decomposition. Van Horne must also contend with ecological guilt, a militant girlfriend, an estranged father, sabotage both natural and spiritual, a crew on (and sometimes past) the brink of mutiny, and greedy hucksters of oil, condoms, and doubtful ideas. As he rings his wild, Vonnegutian changes on everything from male chauvinism to the Catholic Church, James Morrow proves himself to be one of the premier satirists of ou

I wonder if DJT, the lord of evangelicals, has ever read Matthew 5:25-26? “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

We’ll never know, but I have to think this world would have been a friendlier, saner place if there had been no religion or other superstitions, and there had been no white patriarchy but instead racial and gender equality from the start.  Since this isn’t the case, I don’t see humanity as it now exists doing any better if we move to Mars or wherever. We’ll just drag our already proven shitty way of living along with us.

  We have, at best, 80 to 90 years on this planet. That may seem like a lot when you’re 20. When you’re 70 you wonder how all that time passed so quickly.  To make the most of those years we need to be ourselves, speak honestly, live our own lives. If we allow others to define us or if we live to please others, we cheat ourselves.  We don’t get a second chance. No do-overs. At the end of our lives we can look back with regret or satisfaction. Living to satisfy our own standards will give us satisfaction. Letting others dictate our lives will bring regret.  We should not only strive to avoid our own suffering but the suffering of others as well. Empathy and compassion are the hallmarks of a satisfied life. We should want the best possible life for everyone.  We are members of a single race, the human race, and every human is as deserving of a good life as the next.  None of us can fully control what happens around us, but we can control our response to it. Self-control is a valuable ass

  Skepticism is a philosophical approach that emphasizes the importance of questioning beliefs, ideas, and claims before accepting them as true. It involves maintaining a critical attitude toward information, evidence, and arguments, rather than simply accepting them at face value. Skepticism encourages individuals to demand evidence and to scrutinize the reasoning behind assertions, with the goal of distinguishing between reliable knowledge and unfounded beliefs or falsehoods. This approach fosters intellectual humility and encourages a healthy skepticism toward authority, tradition, and popular opinion, promoting a more thoughtful and evidence-based understanding of the world. Critical thinking is a cognitive skillset and mindset that enables individuals to analyze, evaluate, and interpret information in a logical and rational manner. It involves actively engaging with ideas and evidence, considering different perspectives, and applying reasoning to assess the validity and reliabilit

 I was never pushed into religion, I waded in all on my own at a young age. It took me until I was 22 to wade back out.  So for me it was a natural progression in my search for meaning. Now I look to philosophy and physics. When I look back at my former beliefs it’s like remembering when I believed in Santa.

For many years I’ve refused to give advice. What’s worked in my unique life may not work in someone else’s. Besides, they often don’t listen anyway, or they do, the advice doesn’t work, and they resent you.  But lately I’ve been seeing people who are down on themselves, being subjected to the bigoted or ignorant comments of others. I feel an urge to reach out, to offer aid and comfort. That’s why I got ordained, to minister. Not with religion but with support and acceptance. So that’s my mission now. To encourage those who are down to ignore the opinions of others and to find their unique inner strength and beauty. If I can help one person become happy with themselves and inspire them to find the value of themselves, I will consider my life well spent.