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DISPATCHES
Baba, Baba, Everywhere!
December 10, 2004 
   
By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet
Finding God, or something, in dive bars and children’s books.
   
     
Prime Time in Kampala
September 14, 2004  
  Waiting for Chitwood
September 4, 2004 
By Blake Lambert
In Uganda, evangelicals say no to sex, yes to The Passion.
  By Scott Korb
In Brooklyn, Jesus takes it to the hoop.
     
The Buddha Whale
May 24, 2004
  Hermaphrodite Terrorist Angel
February 22, 2004 
By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet
Religion is everywhere, even in the belly of the big white whale.
  By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet
In which we learn to speak in tongues. An excerpt from Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible.
     
Souls on Ice
November 7, 2003
  Lugandan Psalms
October 24, 2003
By Peter Manseau
In a New Hampshire hockey rink, a gay bishop skates into Episcopal history.
  By Blake Lambert
Their prayers are sincere -- so what if they don’t understand them.
     
Rocky Mountain Higher Power
March 29, 2002
  I Ate Dirt
March 22, 2002
By Peter Manseau
Running low on enlightenment? Stock up at Colorado's spiritual supermarket.
  By J. Sharlet
With a little bit of God mixed in, even dirt tastes good.
     
Lost Temple of the Pennytitties
March. 12, 2002
  Carolina Miracle Shack
January 29, 2002
By Peter Manseau & By J. Sharlet
Tall tales and blood libel in the New Mexican desert.
  By J. Sharlet
What does a miracle look like? Three opinions, as revealed in Henderson, North Carolina.
     
The Shenandoah Sutra
January 17, 2002
  Sins of the City
January 12, 2002
By Peter Manseau
Crossing the Mason-Dixon to tour the battlefields and bathrooms that have shaped the nation's soul.
  By Peter Manseau & By J. Sharlet
The first of a series of dispatches from the Buddha-killing investigation of religion in America.
     
 

 

DOGMA
The New Agnosticism?
September 24, 2004
By Ben Rutter
Not knowing ain’t what it used to be.
 
Yoga for Skeptics
May 11, 2004
By Elizabeth Kadetsky
Are modern masters' links to ancient traditions for real? Does it matter?
 
Queer Eye for the Straight God
January 16, 2004
Who Wants to Live Forever?
January 1, 2004
By Daniel S. Brenner
It's 'Makeover Your Deity Day'!
By John D. Spalding
Another year dies. Time to ponder immortality and its discontents.
 
The Gospel According to Johnny Cash
September 15, 2003
Blow Your Own Horn
July 30, 2003
By Jon Hooten
Cash has died. Cash has risen. Will Cash come again?
By Micah Gil
How do you make a shofar? And more importantly, can a tranny blow one?
 
The Archbishop's New Clothes
July 17, 2003
Slot-Machine God
July 9, 2003
By Peter Manseau
The Catholic Church gets a makeover in Boston -- but how deep does it go?
By Donald Miller
Is faith just a game of chance?
 
Messiah Complexity
May 27, 2003
I am a Sea
May 14, 2003
Two takes on The Matrix:
Gnosis Reloaded
By Robin L. Zebrowski
One Baaad Messiah
By E. J. Park
By Patton Dodd
What’s the sound of 500 evangelicals clapping?
 
What's Past Jersey
November 20, 2001
A Truancy Officer's Tale
January 17, 2003
By Seth Castleman
A dispatch from the co-founder of The Lineage Project, a not-for-profit organization bringing storytelling, meditation, and yoga to incarcerated youth in New York City juvenile detention and Riker's Island City Jail.
By J. Sharlet
Jesus says kids had better stay in school – or he’ll send Robert Milner to bust their asses.
 
Holy Writ
January 16, 2003
Please Don't Feed the Prophet
December 12, 2002
By the KtBniks
A recommended reading list of last year’s best heresies and revelations in print.
By Daniel S. Brenner
What would you do if you got a note from God? Would you sell it on Ebay? Would you call the cops?
 
Ouga Chaka Zen
November 21, 2002
Apples
October 10, 2002
By Paul W. Morris
Can we find Buddhism up in the Borscht Belt?
By Bia Lowe
Chew on this. How do we keep our faith when the sun, like love, abandons us?
 
Torah Studies
September 26, 2002
Confessions of an Ex-Seminarian
August 15, 2002
By Susan Messer
In the midst of celebration, a mother reconsiders a tale of failed reconciliation.
By Gregory Flannery
“I used to be afraid the photos would one day surface...”
 
The Monks Who Forgot How
July 17, 2002
Raptures
June 14, 2002
By Vera Marie Badertscher
Can Buddhists in Cambodia relearn a murdered tradition?
By Bia Lowe
Art that redeems the world appears at first ugly. But look. Look again.
 
This is Your Life
May 24, 2002
Elven Like Me
Apr. 12, 2002
By Peter Manseau
Would the last one out of the Catholic Church please turn out the light?
By Nick Mamatas
Inside every D&D geek is an elf trying to get out. Why are we not surprised?
 
Judas and the Priests
Mar. 29, 2002
Vow to Bow
Jan. 3, 2002
By Jon Hooten
This Easter, Boston Catholics find 30 million pieces of silver in their baskets.
By Sumi Loundon
A New Year's resolution: Give Buddha a lift - 9,720 times.
 
Fear of Falling
Dec. 21, 2001
A Mantra for the Mujahedeen
Nov. 20, 2001
By Jeff Wilson
When terror strikes, what matters more -- faith, or a weapon?
By Maureen Hurley
How do you pray for an enemy?
 
Limbo
Oct. 22, 2001
Muhammad Speaks
Oct. 12, 2001
By V. A. MacAlister
How low will we go? A proud nation faces anthrax, Original Sin and a miasma of baby pee.
By Peter Manseau
Cassius Clay vs. Osama bin Laden: A fight for the American idea of Islam.
 
Still Seeing the Rebbe
Sept. 5, 2001
Righting Waco: Confessions of a Hollywood Propagandist
Aug 25, 2001
By Samuel Heilman
Pilgrims at the Lubavitcher Grand Rabbi's grave in Queens.
By Phil Penningroth
A T.V. scriptwriter on how he made David Koresh the devil, told the nation what to believe, and sought redemption for his sins.
 
Do the Right Thing, Damn It
Aug 17, 2001
The Many Times
My Mother Died

Aug 6, 2001
By Scott McLemee
An ex-fundamentalist asks Stanley Hauerwas, America's leading theologian, about laying bricks and building belief.
By J. Sharlet
If the body is a temple, what happens to faith when it's destroyed?
 
Save Me Somebody:
Bruce Springsteen's Rock 'n' Roll Covenant

Jul 29, 2001
The Hazards of Holocaust Theology
Apr 11 , 2001
By Cornel Bonca
Preaching like a pseudo-evangelist, the Boss offers real salvation.
By Peter Manseau
Transcending history is a tricky business, even for Elie Wiesel.
 
Zen Mind, Alkie Mind
Feb 9, 2001
High Lonesome Theology
Feb 2, 2001
By Martha G.
Lust, Liquor, and Bill W.’s Elegant American Buddhism.

By Lorin Stein
Elvis' favorite gospel singer builds a twelve-foot devil and puts sin in its place.
 
The Ecumenical Monologues
Dec 11, 2000
God's Own Knowledge
Nov 13, 2000

By Randall Balmer
Call them disgruntled.
Call them hysterical.
Just don't call them Episcopalians.

By J. Sharlet
A theology of sex shops, movies, and nothingness may be the biggest thing to hit Christianity since Martin Luther.
 

 

CONFESSION
Dreading the Buzzer
November 12, 2004
Fresh! Joy!
November 29, 2004
By Hasdai Westbrook
A tale of God, lies and audiotape.
By Patton Dodd
Not quite slain in the spirit at Oral Roberts University.
   
The Only Truth That Mattered
July 19, 2004
 
By Rebecca Donner
Before he found the dharma, my father tried car exhaust.
 
   
Drinking in Tongues
July 8, 2004
God is Electric, Jesus Electrochemical
June 7, 2004
By Vinton Kevitt
In Sudan, a wayward youth faces the wrath of Mom, Dad, and Allah.
By Michael Allen Potter
The author goes in search of God and his birth mother. Only one gets found.
 
The Book of Ruth
March 3, 2004
Hunger is God's Food
December 1, 2003
By lê thi diem thúy
An excerpt from Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible's "Book of Ruth."
By Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey
Praise the Lord and pass the leftovers -- but not before the end of Ramadan.
 
To Pardon All Our Fucking Iniquities
October 3, 2003
Rush Likes It?
September 24, 2003
By Laurel Snyder
A half-Jew writes her own Yom Kippur prayer.
By Kristin Ohlson
Do conservatives own God? One big fat idiot thinks so.
 
Red Flags and Christian Soldiers
April 22, 2003
Shock and Awe, Fear and Trembling
March 20, 2003
By Tim Shorrock
Operation Gospel – A primer from the last time the U.S. occupied foreign lands.
By Peter Manseau
War. Huh. Good God, y'all.
What is it good for?
Depends on who you ask.
 
St. Patrick’s Purim Shpiel
March 13, 2003
Oh Come On, All Ye Faithful
December 23, 2002
By Benjamin Weiner
When in Dublin do as the Dubliners. Jews bloom in Joyce’s hometown.
By Maura Kelly
A Christmas story about lost faith and the routine of prayer.
 
Minivanyana
December 12, 2002
Raw at Creation
November 15, 2002
By Polly Trout
Careening towards nirvana in a mid-sized American vehicle.
By Maureen Hurley
What is the point of examining the soul in a time of fire?
 
Raised by Jews
May 24, 2002
Kafka in Love
May 17, 2002
By Naomi Seidman
Reflections on a belated apostasy.
By Erik Hanson
College reunions, marriage proposals, and other trials that make you buggy.
 
Sects and the City, Part 3
Apr. 22, 2002
My Bar Mitsvah: A True Story
Mar. 22, 2002
By Elizabeth Frankenberger
If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere: Love in a time of grim reality.
By Laurence Klavan
Today, he is a man. Tomorrow, he's playing Vegas.
 
Dancing Queen
Feb. 13, 2002
Sects and the City, Part 2
Feb. 7, 2002
By Irina Reyn
Not every girl has her first date with a spiritual leader.
By Elizabeth Frankenberger
Kosher sex and treyf love: Is dating just another way of mixing milk and meat?
 
Sects and the City, Part 1
Jan. 27, 2002
Bunnies, Ducks, and One Great Dane
Jan. 29, 2002
By Elizabeth Frankenberger
Candace Bushnell meets Anne Frank in Sex and the City of God.
By James Grimmelmann
How Kierkegaard stole my faith.
 
Holy Rollers
Jan. 3, 2002
Waking Up
Oct. 3, 2001
By Tara McCarthy
An after-Christmas story of dice, death, and love at the craps table.
By Paul W. Morris
Zen and the art of running from a crumbling tower.
 
The Beginning, or The End?
Sept. 25, 2001
God's Big Hair
Jul 19, 2001
By Molly Chilson
After 9-11, nothing will be the same -- including one mother's faith.
By Kathy Shaidle
Regarding the Father, Son and Dolly Parton.
 
Winter of my Disbelief
Jul 11, 2001

Among the Jesus Freaks
Jul 6, 2001

By A. Wolf-Powers
Baptized in the blood of the lamb, the author smells only the sweet scent of chlorine.
By Charles Marsh
Sit-in, pray-in, sing-in, and be-in with the son of a preacher man and a camp of Christian acidheads.
 

 

SCRIPTURE
The Descent of Man
December 20, 2004
 
By Bia Lowe
The true story of the extinction of the angels.
 
   
Genesis, At Rest
June 25, 2004
Pushing Monks
May 2, 2004
By Steve Almond
When Adam and Eve fall, they fall hard.
By Jeremy Richards
Lost at sea on a flotilla of enlightenment.
 
Mortal, Eat This Scroll!
March 26, 2004
Thou Celestial Agency
February 6, 2004
By Peter Manseau and Jeff Sharlet
Read the story that started it all. An excerpt from Killing the Buddha: A Heretic’s Bible.
By Rick Moody
A tempest-tossed excerpt from Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible.
 
What's Up, Daniel?
December 19, 2003 
Inflections
June 6, 2003
By Eileen Myles
A biting Xmas excerpt from Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible.
By Livia Kent
She’s come unraveled.
 
Easter at the Jewish Ritual Bath, 1962
April 16, 2003
The Domovoi
October 30, 2002
By Ilana Stanger-Ross
A tale of love, loss and submersion.
By Irina Reyn
From Russia with love: A ghost story of a marriage haunted by regret.
 
Entrance Wound
August 1, 2002
Amos Awake
July 3, 2002
By Charles Bowden
We believe in cells and protoplasm and sex, and stench and dirt and slime
and screams in the night.
By Haven Kimmel
Reading the book he’ll never write. An excerpt from The Solace of Leaving Early.
 
Anointing the Sick
June 24, 2002
Another Room
Jan. 12, 2002
By Al Masarik
An altar boy grows up just in time to watch his mother die.
By Eileen Myles
Remember when God was just another cashier behind the cage?
 
Hold the Fig Leaves
Dec 13 , 2001
Using Our Bible as a Roadmap
Nov. 27, 2001
By Paula Elsloo
Of grumbling shepherds, forgotten fig leaves and God's dirty veins.
A KtB Invitation
The Buddha Boys hit the highway to save a soul near you.
 
A Conversation Between Ghosts
Oct. 31, 2001
Blue Jesus
Oct. 3, 2001
Translated by Joachim Neugroschel
A medieval Yiddish Halloween story.
Who knew?
By Jim Daniels
What if you could get a Jesus in your favorite color?
 
Hutch Owen: Emerging Markets
Feb 23, 2001
Princessing Lessons
Feb 16, 2001
By Tom Hart
Selling soda to Third World monks, and other challenges of globalization.
By Tom Bradley
No need for jumbo-jets full of pre-pubescent sex slaves, Japan's Great Goddess has arrived.
 
Torquemada
Dec 18, 2000
Bent
Nov 13, 2000
By Melvin Jules Bukiet
What if every prince or pope who ever stoned or burned the Chosen people had a party in your head?
By Peter Manseau
"Lecturing to a conference of American monastics, Dr. Luc Clement raises a femur above his head and waves it like a flashlight on a runway."
 

 

DAMN NATION
The Gospel According to Dubya
September 4, 2004
 
By Steve Almond
What would Jesus do... about the president invoking his name?
 
   
Our Lady of Minor Hostilities
May 2, 2004
John Kerry vs. Martin Luther
March 31, 2004
By Peter Manseau
A new icon emerges from Iraq.
By Christopher Orlet
The Catholic Kerry preaches that it is Good Works, not Faith alone that justifies.
 
Being Black at
Bob Jones U.

August 14, 2003
Coming Home, O Lord,
I’m Coming Home

April 4, 2003
By Florence Williams
Meet Schimri Yoyo, a black man in a white Christ’s world
By Cheryl Pearl Sucher
An expat returns to America just in time for holy war.
 
Living with the Enemy
April 4, 2003
The Father of All Bombs
March 27, 2003
By Cathy Breen
A letter from Baghdad, a prayer for peace.
By Ira Chernus
Meet the man who brought shock and awe to the world.
 
Dear Doctor Ullman
March 27, 2003
Letter from Israel
March 13, 2003
An email exchange with Harlan Ullman uncovers the doubts of a defense intellectual. By Melvin Jules Bukiet
Of words and wounds in the Promised Land.
 
Because Allah Wills It
February 21, 2003
Persistence of Memory
February 13, 2003
By Ali Eteraz
Why America’s favorite fundamentalists just don’t care about Osama bin Laden.
By Jeff Wilson
Can we mourn for those who aren’t dead?
 
An Immodest Proposal
September 12, 2002
Silent Prayers
September 6, 2002
By Melvin Jules Bukiet
“Never forget!” is the mantra of the Shoah. The author suggests a reminder.
By J. Sharlet
Why the state should not pray on September 11th.
 
Unbearable Lightness
Mar. 22, 2002
Islam at the Pass
Sept. 29, 2001
By Paul W. Morris
Lingering ghosts and bright ideas at Ground Zero.
By Benjamin Wurgaft
Faith, geography, and war converge on the border of Afghanistan at the Khyber Pass.
 
Any Enemy Will Do
Sept. 25, 2001
Seeing Ourselves
Sept. 18, 2001
By Stephen Prothero
Sikhs and Muslims under attack across America.
A KtB Editorial
Looking into the darkness with the whole world staring back.
 
Free Market Martyrdom?
Jul 22, 2001
The Cross and the Color Line
Jul 6, 2001
By the KtBniks
Armed with a fire extinguisher, a G-8 heretic gets burned.
By Timothy Tyson
In the nightmare South of the 1960s, a white preacher's son discovers a black theology of despair.
 
The Joy of Dissent,
or Why I Miss Fundamentalism

Jun 1, 2001
Taliban Kills Buddha
Mar 7, 2001
By E.J. Park
Think different: Is Timothy McVeigh the next Apple Computer poster boy?
By Peter Manseau
Islam takes on Buddhism in Afghanistan. A nervous art world attempts to referee. Buddha laughs.
 
The Divine Economy
Feb 13, 2001
Losing Their Religion?
Feb 13, 2001
A KtB Roundtable Discussion
Faith-Based Initiative: "Will religion rule the White House, or is Bush offering an IPO of the Lord?"
By Diane Winston
The Salvation Army has been taking money from the government for years. But at what cost?

 

 

 

KAMA SUTRA
   
Bible Porn
August 13, 2004
Ignoble Truths
September 12, 2002
By Erik Hanson
Sometimes corrupting children is a religious duty.
By Kate Brandt
Sex, suffering, and the Buddha’s First Noble Truth.
   
Buddherotica
Feb. 13, 2002
Seeing Things
Nov. 27, 2001
By Jeff Wilson
Sneak a peek at Siddhartha's not-so-immaculate conception.
By Bia Lowe
Love incites our imaginations, the sky demands our projections, and yet we're still blind. Can desire alone make us see?
 
The Pope Converts
Dec 20, 2000
The Mucus
Nov 13, 2000
By Mark D. Jordan
When will the Roman Catholic Church come out of the theological closet?
By Mary Valle
Catholics. Sex. Insert punchline here. The popular idea is only if you're married, and only if you're willing to have a baby. That's what they say, but what do they teach?
 
CRITICAL DEVOTION
The Sabbath Queen
May 11, 2004
By Scott M. Korb
On Friday nights, God likes to watch.
 
When We Were Ambiguous
March 17, 2004
Whose Passion?
February 25, 2004
By Laurel Snyder
The almost-breaking point of Will Oldham.
By Patton Dodd
How Mel Gibson turned the blood of Christ into a marketing plan.
 
That Old Time Religion
November 24, 2003
Burn this Book
November 13, 2003
By Jeff Sharlet
The faith of Americans remains as weird as it ever was.
By Anders Zabotinsky
Melvin Jules Bukiet is the worst writer alive.
 
What It Is, What It Was
October 15, 2003  
The Book About The Book Against God
July 9, 2003
By Peter Manseau
How many one true religions can dance on the head of a pin?
By Scott McLemee
Critic James Wood’s sanctified blasphemies take fictional form in his new novel.
 
W.W.A.D.
June 6, 2003
Behind the Pulpit
May 2, 2003
By Jeff Sharlet
The new neocons ask: What would Abraham do?
By Daniel S. Brenner
Let’s spice up our prayers, friends!
 
Don’t Stop Unbelieving
May 20, 2003
The Long Moan
May 2, 2003
By Scott McLemee
A new biography of America’s most godless woman.
By Laurence Klavan
What did Pauline Kael really think about Jews on film anyway?
 
His So-Called Life
April 16, 2003
Punctuated Equilibrium
March 20, 2003
By Peter Manseau
Pogroms, plagues, Jesus books… ‘Tis the season.
By Matt Stefon
In Adaptation, the evolution of art occurs in fits and starts -- and is never free of the hand of its creator.
 
Canonizing Yiddish
February 21, 2003
Schmidt Happens
February 13, 2003
By Irina Reyn
Find me a find, catch me a catch, make me an anthology.
By Rob Stennett
Sold your soul? Buy it back for $22
 
Gods of New York
January 16, 2003
Stripes
December 23, 2002
By Patton Dodd
In Gangs