Sometimes I just have to clap at the end of a film in a movie theater. I did that one recent Saturday at the end of the showing of  ”The Help,” and it started a modest clapping by others at a Harkins theater in Chandler. You just have to clap when insidious human practices are so wonderfully exposed.  Blatant racism of the Old South is showcased.
“The Help,” which has finished three weeks in a row at the top of  film ticket receipts, demonstrates why movies are made, why they need to be …

It was nearly four years ago that a Boeing engineer, Lyndon Lamborn, contacted me at the East Valley Tribune to tell me the Mormon Church was excommunicating him and making it quite public — as a kind of warning to the rest of the flock that his ideas and criticism of the church were too explosive.
I especially remember my front-page Sunday morning article for the huge reaction – more than 18,000 hits on the Website story (the newspaper’s record at the time) and hundreds and hundreds of  reader comments.   I did a number of follow-up stories and was amazed by the public interest in the …

I’ve long believed that if we give validity to religions, spirituality and the metaphysical, then we have to be fully open to the psychic realm where people today claim to have gifts in the paranormal, including extra-sensory perception, foretelling the future and other unexplainable skills. 
Alas, many orthodox and traditional believers in a higher being are skeptical of contemporary metaphysical practices, from channeling to crystals to angels to Reiki to palm reading to astrology and earth religions.  Some write off these as New Age woo-woo. Yet, humans’ now and in the great past have developed broadly diverse and …

I got up shortly after 1 a.m. today to watch the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  We were eight time zones behind.  The technology of broadcasting was light years ahead of  that provided by the  wedding  we watched in the middle of the night back in 1981 for William’s mother, Diana, and Prince Charles, also held in Westminster Abbey. In retrospect, that one 30 years ago seemed staid and more sober. Where did the 30 years go?
Many dismiss these weddings affairs of  wealthy blue noses exercising unbridled self-indulgence. Royalty is …

I first met the Rev. Dale Fushek  nearly 25 years ago when I, in my role as religion editor for the Tribune,  accepted an invitation from Marge Injasoulian, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic of Diocese, to serve on a committee to plan press and media coverage and logistics for the 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II.  I was there to help make sure we in the secular press had ideal access and that the diocese knew of our needs.
Fushek, pastor of St. Timothy’s Catholic Community in Mesa, was also the Vicar of Worship for …

Over the years writing  religion articles for newspapers, I have been skeptical about faiths with claims of possessing authentic fragments of Christ’s experiences on earth.  The Roman Catholic Church is said to possess an incredible range of items from the scene of  Christ’s crucifixion, including particles of the cross, Jesus’  loin cloth and Mary’s cloak.   There’s a dizzying list of relics in the bowels and vaults of the Vatican and in possession of Catholic churches. “Jesus’ baby blanket” is said to be in Aachen, Germany. There are many claims of having nails or fragments of nails from …

When I was younger, I relished church talent shows and putting together several acts each year that  we staged them.  Churches are already abuzz with vast talent and people typically enjoying the chance to showcase their abilities and have fun doing it.  Off and on for nearly 40 years, I’ve taken advantage of the chances to entertain, well, because it is really pretty easy to do.
As a compulsive writer since school days, I have always found it easy to come up with some clever script.  Pick some well-known entertainer and mimic …

Life is so good when we experience  justice. This day, we bask in the progress of an American president signing into law a new national military policy that anyone, regardless of sexual identity, may serve his or her nation authentically.  We revel in Congress’ passage of the legislation to remove the ignoble ”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
I think back to my U.S. Army days in 1971 when the clerk in Company A-2-3 told me he was gay on the night before his discharge. He had to head off to New York …

I spent three hours today ringing a Salvation Army bell outside a Frys store at Rural Road and Southern Avenue in Tempe.  I will be there at the same time next Saturday 4-7 p.m.   My stint today was as a volunteer from my Kiwanis Club of Tempe. Next week, it will be as a board member, and secretary, of the Tempe Salvation Army Corps.
The red kettles and the bell-ringing outside of retail and food stores is a part of the Christmas season in America and across the world. The beneficence …

Most of us have friends who pass on books to us to read.  While they were reading those books, we came to mind. They thought we were persons who could get something out of the books, as well.
Recently one of my friends who is a giant in the community for social justice and living out his faith with courage handed me a book about a Presbyterian clergyman from the 19th century who c0-championed the causes of the freedom of the press and of ending American slavery.  My friend and I are …