In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

73 How We Talk In front of the kids, as if nothing is sacred and everything is—kids who put up a Christmas tree, put down tobacco at first thunder, visit Ganesh and household gods, Buddhist shrines, and wonder if Jesus is some kind of benign zombie. We’ve made a mess and may be fundamentalists yet. Or prey for cults as Grandma said of unbaptized babies. My guess is she got them wet on a stroll past the church one day or used the tub. She always had arcane Church Law down pat: Baptism of Desire. See the eagle looking for good people? No wait. I think that one has its eye on our tasty little dog . . . Creation is glorious, we should thank creation for including us . . . We can bring flowers for the shrine, sure . . . You can’t chant just any old chant . . . The good news is there’s no Hell, the bad news is there may be no Heaven, either. The way we talk, in front of the kids, as if nothing and everything were sacred all at once. ...

Share