Finding, Losing Faith in Foxholes
Photo by Eric Feferberg The aphorism “There are no atheists in foxholes” first arose to describe the pleas for salvation prayed by terrified soldiers facing impending death in the trenches of Europe …
Author: dheller
California Megachurches
Megachurches Adapted from the description provided by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. When researchers talk about “megachurches,” they are generally referring to any Protestant congregation with a sustained average weekly attendance …
Churched Out
I’m churched out. I’ve gone to more church services in the last two months than I have over the past 30 years. Now, I’m not exactly complaining about this development since these …
Pirates in the White Room
Cartoon by Matt Bors. Last week I met Gary Wexler, who teaches in the communications management program at USC’s Annenberg School. The two of us were having lunch with my CRCC colleagues …
The Wild, Wild West of Mindfulness
Diana Winston’s post-college spiritual journey was something of an anachronism. After she graduated from Brown in the late 1980s, Winston traveled to Southeast Asia, where she spent several years working with Theravada …
Want to Build a More Resilient City? Bring Faith to the Table
Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced his commitment to hire a Chief Resilience Officer, who will be tasked with increasing the city’s ability to recover from man-made and natural disasters. This …
The Tidal Wave of Indifference: I Don’t Church, I Brunch
A lot has been written recently about the spiritual-but-not-religious crowd, or the “religious nones”–people who have no particular religious affiliation–and how their numbers are rapidly growing in the U.S. Recent reports place …
Heart of Dharma: Comparing Buddhist Practice, East and West
A dozen or so Vipassana (Insight) practitioners have just ended a session of “sitting” (meditation) and discussion in one of the numerous Insight meditation centers in Los Angeles. In light of the …
Iceberg Lettuce vs. Arugula: Religion and Gentrification in Los Feliz
Last week I took a walk on the gentrifying edge of Los Feliz with the pastor of a local church that mainly ministers to the down-and-out. We talked about the urban landscape …
Meditation and Authenticity: Everything Old Is New Again
A mindfulness teacher loosely associated with Against the Stream described his unconventional approach to meditation–keep a notebook close at hand to record your thoughts and feelings–as a more faithful reflection of the …