Believer, Beware: First-person Dispatches from the Margins of Faith

by Jeff Sharlet (Editor), Peter Manseau (Editor)

Overview

A Killing the Buddha Anthology

The second collection to spring from KillingTheBuddha.com, Believer, Beware presents true tales of sex ed in Catholic school, witches in Kansas, sects and the city, Buddhists in the barbershop, Sufis under your nose, an adolescent Jewish messiah in Queens, and more.

In a world riven by absolute convictions, these ambivalent confessions, skeptical testimonies, and personal revelations speak to the subtler and stranger dilemmas of faith and doubt-of religion lost and found and lost again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807077399
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jeff Sharlet is the cofounder of the online literary magazine Killing the Buddha. Sharlet is also the author of The Family, and a contributing editor to Harper's and Rolling Stone.

Peter Manseau is the cofounder of the online literary magazine Killing the Buddha. Manseau's other books include Vows, Rag and Bone, and the novel Songs for the Butcher's Daughter.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Apocalypse Is Always Now Jeff Sharlet ix

Jew Like Me Peter Manseau 1

The Temple Door Danielle Trussoni 4

Zen Mind, Alkie Mind Martha G. 10

What's Past Jersey? Seth Castleman 18

I Am a Sea Patton Dodd 22

My Holy Ghost People Ashley Makar 27

God Is Electric, Jesus Electrochemical Michael Allen Potter 32

Everybody Has a Mother, and They All Die Jeff Sharlet 39

To Pardon All Our Fucking Iniquities Laurel Snyder 65

Bible Porn Erik Hanson 70

The Mucus Mary Valle 79

Sects and the City Elizabeth Frankenberger 87

Agnostic Front Ben Rutter 92

Please Don't Feed the Prophet Daniel S. Brenner 98

You're Not in Oz Anymore Velvet, as told to Peter Manseau Jeff Sharlet 103

Cowboy for Christ Quince Mountain 108

Jesus Gonna Strip You Naked Jeff Sharlet 118

The Joy of Dissent (Or, Why I Miss Fundamentalism) E. J. Park 122

The Cross and the Color Line Timothy B. Tyson 126

Another Man's Prayers Stephen Prothero 131

I Was a Prepubescent Messiah Irina Reyn 136

Dreading the Buzzer Hasdai Westbrook 140

Raised by Jews Naomi Seidman 149

The Only Truth That Mattered Rebecca Donner 157

Ooga Chaka Zen Paul W. Morris 161

Hunger Is God's Food Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey 171

Revelation Road Peter Manseau 178

Searching for Sufis Jill Hamburg Coplan 196

Barbershop Dharma Jeff Wilson 203

The Doctrine of Sugar Catherine Allgor 211

Jesus Is Just Alright Mark Dery 216

The Lost Temple of the Pennytitties Peter Manseau Jeff Sharlet 224

The Only Jew for Miles Gordon Haber 228

Banana Slug Psalm Meera Subramanian 237

Seeing Things Bia Lowe 242

Acknowledgments 255

Contributors' Notes 257

Editorial Reviews

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From the Publisher