Sizing up Karen Armstrong’s Spiral Staircase

A friend recently handed me a copy of Karen Armstrong’s 2005 Bestseller, The Spiral Staircase. 

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Armstrong entered the convent in 1962 at the age of 17.  These were very difficult years for her, due to the rigid religious dogma that permeated her training.  She ultimately renounced her vows at the age of 24.  Armstrong has written numerous books on religion since that time, focusing on all of the major monotheistic religions.  She makes regular appearances on NPR. The Spiral Staircase was Armstrong’s account of her own struggles with regard to her personal beliefs. 

As I read passages of The Spiral Staircase, I was intrigued by my own difficulty of categorizing Armstrong. I wondered why she would cling to traditional notions of worship at the point when, intellectually, she had already reduced “God” to a all-but-abstract principle.  Though she seems to be a fence sitter, she’s firmly there.  She refuses to allow any atheist or theist knock her off.  See, again, how should one describe her? Is she a Christian, a sympathizer of Islam, an agnostic, an atheist, a Buddhist or something else?  She admits that she was, at one time in “an agnostic, perhaps an atheist.”  (Page 272).  Is she now really a freelance monotheist?: 

I usually describe myself, perhaps flippantly, as a freelance monotheist I draw sustenance from all three of the faiths of Abraham.  I can’t see any one of them as having the monopoly of truth, any one of them as superior to any of

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Bush gets another “F” in honesty

According to CNN,the Bush administration figured out all it needed to do, to substantially reduce the Iraq monthly death total, was stop counting all of those dead people.  You know how the number of deaths dipped sharply for August . . . well, it didn't really happen.   Here's how CNN reports…

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Proof of God #387: by motorcycle jumping through wall of fire

A friend from Wyoming recently sent me this newspaper clipping from the Sept. 9-10, 2006 Jackson Hole Daily. As you can see, a devout man will prove his faith by jumping his motorcycle through a wall of fire.   Here is the note my friend sent along with the clipping: dear e:…

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The game of telephone – on a web site

Here’s a fun site.  Did you ever play “telephone” as a child?  Check out this clever website:  Lost in Translation.   It takes advantage of the successive use of good quality Internet language translators.  It will convert an English passage into a different language and back to English, five times in succession. …

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God bless us, with material things

This much should be obvious to anyone attending most big American churches:  on Sunday mornings, those lots are covered with expensive vehicles.  If you doubt me, just go out and check them; most American churches, any Sunday.  Do we need expensive vehicles to get from here to there?  Absolutely not. 

Is there hypocrisy in the air?  Most churches are “country clubs with steeples,” according to a friend of mine who believes deeply in God but deals with his God privately, not as part of an organized religion. 

Hey, why am I picking on churches?  Well, maybe it’s because church-goers repeatedly claim to me that they are morally superior to me because they are church-goers.  They also tell me that it’s the teachings of Jesus that make them morally superior.  Now I am quite aware that a teaching often attributed to Jesus is that one needs to first sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor before following Him.  This passage makes me think:  “Hey, church-goers, if you are all so morally superior, show it.”  That’s what I think when I see all those unnecessarily fancy vehicles on the church parking lot.

Where do all those church-goers park those vehicles?  Here’s where: in their big garages attached to their expensive houses.   Here’s the issue then:  these holders of substantial wealth are often the same people who profess to believe literally in Biblical scripture. Yet the New Testament isn’t known for encouraging people to acquire wealth.  Or is …

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