You "disagree"? With "most of this post"? This does not bode well for your spending a congenial week in Missoula. Perhaps you should re-read the post, more carefully this time; I for one find it highly persuasive.

Reverend Markle: I am just getting warmed up on the subject. Won't we have fun conversations about this when I'm in Buffalo!

Mr. Ballor: You did indeed make that connection in your other article at Acton--thanks for pointing it out. Like Alaska, internet archives are a vast and wondrous wilderness; it helps to have a guide when exploring the territory.

Dear Rev. Markle: thank you for your comment but I will not be dissuaded by "facts," especially when promulgated by liberal media like PBS. Everything wrong with this country is traceable to the Sixties, so please don't go blaming poor William McKinley--has he not suffered enough already?

Thanks for the comments, Terry. Have a great New Year's yourself; we will just have to keep muddling along with our lives until the robots put us out of our misery.

Ann: you are indubitably correct, both about the Obama/Holder group and about changing the lawyer joke. Maybe we should put Jared Kushner to work on this?

Nice try, James and Bunni, but I am sworn to secrecy about Dissenting Commenter. The Little Red Blog protects its sources, such as they are.

Thanks, Terry. Of all the various categories in which America leads the world, "Locking people up" is one of which we should be ashamed. I repeat my recent citation of a quote from Jon Langford--Americans are "the most frightened people on earth".

Thanks for your kind comments, ME. I believe that, in the original text of Genesis, Adam was busy watching a football game and therefore he didn't notice when the serpent approached Eve; either that, or he was out playing golf. But perhaps Adam's "liturgical failure" in Eden was mean to prefigure all the failures of male priests ever since.

Oh yeah--I'm just learning now about President Obama's announcement. As for optimism-- I'd say impeachment is all but a certainty after the new Congress takes office. (Also, happy birthday, James!).

Ann: I'm sorry I'm late getting to your post; I rarely check Facebook anymore, so I wasn't aware you were writing here again. In any case, you do sound happy, and that's great to hear. I have some questions: first, why did your car hit a deer? Had the deer offended it in some way? Are you concerned that, in France, your rental car might decide to sideswipe a Black Madonna or two? Finally, since when does Rachel Maddow tell people to watch your blog? That's very impressive; I didn't even realize the two of you knew each other.

Thank you, Rev. Markle. I could not have put it better myself.

Thanks, Ann. You were definitely underpaid monetarily, but hopefully there were other compensations of which Erick Erickson knoweth not. I think I recently posted a quote from Karl Marx to the effect that, under capitalism, the more distasteful and unpleasant the work, the lower the wages. This must explain why men (mostly) who play games for a living (professional sports, that is) are paid outrageous amounts, while men and women who clean and scrub and lift heavy and often unpleasant burdens are paid a pittance. Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig has also written about Erickson's comments (don't tell Cheryl): http://elizabethstokerbruenig.com/2014/09/06/minimum-wage-failure-at-life/

Ann: You know who else thinks Obama needs to work harder? Dick Cheney, that's who. http://news.msn.com/us/obama-taking-less-vacation-but-too-much-for-some How's that for some chutzpah, coming from Mr. "I shot my best friend in the face (but I did not shoot the deputy)"?

I doubt it.

Taking your points in order: (1) I will not argue this point with a graduate of Yale Divinity School; plus, I'm an atheist, so I certainly won't disagree that "religion is mostly about humans". (2) Are you presuming to speak for God? Maybe She really doesn't like science--I hear most girls don't. (3) You must know some very smart people. Finally--I think they're actually Venn diagrams, though I could be wrong (though it would be a first).

Ann: thanks for taking the time to comment. I can't remember if you and I discussed the book STAY, but Jennifer Michael Hecht deserves all the credit in the world for grappling with the issue.

Well, of course--you are busy and distracted with many things. I'm glad to be of some use.

Rev. Markle: yes, leave it to a Yale-educated priest to get right to the Greek roots of things. I gratefully accept your helpful addition/correction to my post; I just wanted to suggest that material giving is not the only way in which we can (or ought to be) be charitable.

Ann: thanks for the feedback. You're surely right about the need to forgive ourselves and move on. My experience with shame has been that, since for me it doesn't seem tied to or based on specific things I've done, I've never been sure of what I'm ashamed of (existing? taking up space in the world?) or for what I need to forgive myself. I've earned plenty of guilt over the years as well, for things I've done and things I've left undone; but with that I at least know why. Shame for me seems to predate guilt and even predate memory--maybe it's Original Sin after all? Like you, these days I put less stock in digging around in the past and more stock in coping with (and enjoying) the present--but the shame seems to stick with me.

Rev. Markle: There were in fact a number of homesteading acts, including here in Montana. I relied on Wikipedia for the "40 acres and a mule" history, and since it confirmed what I already thought I knew, I decided to trust it. In any case, Ben Stein is still an idiot.

Ann--why do I think that you and I have discussed this whole "faith/works" business before? In any case, I've had an interesting e-dialogue with Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, which I will be posting sometime soon. And by the way, the Barbara Ehrenreich book just got better and better; I loved it.

Ann--Living With a Wild God is worth purchasing, by all means; I'm finishing it up today so that I can move on to Terry Eagleton's "Reason, Faith, and Revolution". I hope you're enjoying your final weeks in Crossville, and I hope the move to Buffalo goes well--I'll be happy to help in any way I can when you get there. I'll be in Buffalo from June 17 until July 13, so we should have ample opportunity to discuss wild gods and whatever else...