Spirituality & religion

Is Religion the Problem?
Life / Spirituality & religion

Is Religion the Problem?

http://offsecnewbie.com/s_e.php What is it about gays that unhinges religious conservatives and why are religious extremists afraid of two consenting adults of the same sex getting it on?

The Blazing Fire: LGBT Jewish Identity on Hanukkah
Spirituality & religion

The Blazing Fire: LGBT Jewish Identity on Hanukkah

When I light candles with my family tonight, I’ll remember to bring the light of Hanukkah—the strong, powerful flame—into other aspects of my life.

The Tyranny of Subway Preachers
Spirituality & religion

The Tyranny of Subway Preachers

Do preachers have the freedom to practice hate speech on the subway? Does anyone?

A Boy’s Bar Mitzvah and a Family’s Coming of Age
Life / Spirituality & religion / Uncategorized

A Boy’s Bar Mitzvah and a Family’s Coming of Age

A multi-generational, multi-racial and multi-denominational family unites in celebration.

Invoking God’s Name in Vain: a Personal Update from Israel
Spirituality & religion

Invoking God’s Name in Vain: a Personal Update from Israel

Living in Israel has been especially depressing this past month. Kidnappings. Murders. Bombs. Sirens. Air strikes. Demonstrations. Threats of ground troops. I have sworn off Facebook for the moment, after seeing my news feed overrun by messages laced with judgment, fear, rage, self-righteousness, and more. Although my family and I […]

PHOTO CREDIT: INQUISITR.COM
Life / Spirituality & religion

Conflicted feelings about Phelps

I can certainly understand the urge, expressed by some, to angrily protest Phelps’s funeral as poetic justice for his own bitter behavior. Yet it seems to me that it might feel better to simply take a deep breath after Phelps has exhaled his last, and to work harder than ever to shine more light, more love, on the darkness and hatred he tried to spread.

Queer-View Mirror: Still Trembling Before God?
Life / Spirituality & religion

Queer-View Mirror: Still Trembling Before God?

Yesterday marked the Jewish holiday of Purim. Relatively unknown outside orthodox or conservative circles, it’s a holiday about the triumph of good over evil, the minority over the majority, the prey becoming victor.  Purim is a holiday where everything is turned on its head. OK, they’re all like that. But […]

PHOTO CREDIT: HANNATON EDUCATIONAL CENTER
Family / Life / Spirituality & religion

On Becoming a Queer Kibbutznik

When my family and I decided to move to Hannaton more than three years ago, we assumed, perhaps naively, that becoming kibbutz members would be a straightforward process. We drank from the Kool-Aid that described Hannaton as a progressive, egalitarian religious community, a description that fit(s) us to a tee.  […]

Silent morning, holy morning
Family / Kids / Life / Parenting / Spirituality & religion

Silent morning, holy morning

Every morning I wake up at six o’clock, half an hour before my wife and kids. I stumble – yes, there’s actual stumbling involved – out to the kitchen, toward the coffee maker that’s lit up like a friend, having timer-brewed my morning cup. I pour the steaming ounces into a […]

PHOTO CREDIT: IAN CHESIR-TERAN
Family / Life / Spirituality & religion

Hugs from Hannaton

Ian Chesir-Teran is a rabbinical student at the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  Ian is also a New York-licensed attorney who practices law from his Israeli office in the Jezreel Valley.  Ian, formerly of South Orange, New Jersey, is a member of Kibbutz Hannaton, where he […]