I love NY!

Just back from the Big Apple. Wow do I love New York City. Manhattan is so alive, so full of energy. People moving all night long! I went for the ASJA writer's conference and met with my agent, and with some publishers, and also spent some time catching up with friends and exploring Manhattan. Went to SOHO, Greenwich Village, East Village, Chinatown, Little Italy, Broadway, Central Park... Cool beans. Seeing NYC from the air is also a trip. I loved Central Park also. The day we walked around it was a drop dead gorgeous day, and Sharon and Miranda - two writing friends - and I had a blast. The day before I'd met with a friend Jenna Minardi I hadn't seen in 20 years, who I'd gone to high school with. She now runs a yoga studio in the Hamptons. It was so great to see her!! (Photo to left - NYC through Central Park)

I have been busy working on my book proposal, the book formerly known as "The Fish Wars: How Evolution and Christianity Can Make Peace" which I'm renaming "Losing My Religion: A Christian Gets Fed Up..." I need to come up with the second half of that sentence or just leave it as is. I am taking a much more first-person approach and will talk about how the anti-science fervor, the literalism and fundamentalism and Christian right mixing politics with religion is not just about as opposite as you can get from what Jesus was all about, it's causing a lot of people to laugh at and walk away from Christianity.

My book will also talk about how the people in the church were not there for me during and after my divorce while all my non-Christian friends were. What does this say about the faith? Or about theirs anyway? Not good. I have met person after person who have said the same thing. I am not embarrased in any way to be a Christian. I love the Bible, I love Jesus, and I think it's a beautiful empowering faith. But I am increasingly embarrassed by the Christians... the judgmentalism and narrow-minded pursuit of a political agenda, making creationism, abortion, gay marriage the main topics in their repertoire. What about poverty? What about being there for people in your life, and not running away or judging people who are not perfect? What about forgiveness?

There are certainly many wonderful things Christians have done in the world and continue to do. But in America, where I'm from and what I know, it's a mixed bag. All I know is that many intelligent and compassionate people would not think of becoming a Christian because of its rejection of science - which if you understand anything about the nature of science is as ignorant as it can get. It's actually quite harmful to our society, and quite scary how sheep-like people can be. I used to wonder how people could have ever been so naive as to follow Hitler as a leader. I completely understand now. People often blindly follow and don't think much. Jesus himself spoke of this... referring to people time and again as sheep. It's not pretty folks. Think!

I think I'm going to start a blog on this topic... Stay tuned.