Commentary

Victims of trauma, or members of a people group that was traumatized, don’t owe the perpetrators anything in particular. What they must do, as individuals and/or as a community, is decide what the best way is to move forward to meet their own needs.

Sex can be a touchy subject, and when it comes to church, people often feel that they are being judged or shamed for their behavior in their private lives.

Everybody has beliefs. We’d have to be a block of wood not to.

My life, a doorway for grace Does goodness pass through?

Years later, as a scholar and author of “Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli,” I came to understand why the Jewish practice of abstaining from food on Yom Kippur is so out of step with the rest of Jewish tradition.

I will share my spiritual journey in parts to the holiest places on earth for the monotheistic religions, Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Baha’i.