The Golden Calf

My good friend, and nicest person you've ever met, Scott Korb is whetting our appetite for his forthcoming book in yesterday's Philadelphia Enquirer. He writes what I want to write, but instead of using foul language and amateurish metaphors, he uses, uh... what's that, um... oh – talent and insight.

...the most central notions of our faiths, like the dignity of our neighbor - created in God's image - are somehow cast aside as less central. We find distressing the results of the National Survey of Youth and Religion, published last year, which show that previously key elements of our religious imagination - repentance, selflessness, social justice, self-discipline, self-sacrifice and humility, for example - no longer hold a prominent place. And worse, for too many, the hatred and violence we see escalating every day in the name of religion have created additional reasons for these youth and others to reject such ethical values, seeing them as too intimately connected with the violent means some believe will establish God's kingdom on Earth.

Read the rest. You'll enjoy it. And then buy his book when it comes out and maybe he'll take us all out to dinner.