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Keith Mannes

Keith Mannes is the author of UnMediated: Simple Faith. Pure Love. Spiritual Growth without the Interference of Christianity, due out in early September, 2024 (please go to https://keithamannes.com or email manneskeith@gmail.com for more information). Keith is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, expressing that ordination as a hospice chaplain.

Featured

Thoughts While Burning My Flag

What it means to be an American and a Christ follower is the defining question for the American church today. There, in the wet grass and the fog, with the ashes already cooling, I struggled to discern a way to be both.
Keith Mannes
February 12, 2024
Featured

The Reformation According to Janet

As Janet spoke, though, it came to me again that religion mangles the Gospel sometimes. It had, for example, taught both Janet’s and Chester’s parents a harsh script, and they had acted it out; it was Janet who bore the spiritual pain of that bad teaching.
Keith Mannes
November 27, 2023
Featured

Hermit Crabs, Caligula’s Horse, and Six Other Images of Religious Power

All of earth’s empires crumble. Caligula’s did. I pray not, but possibly, someday, even the United States will crumble. The Apostle Paul taught that any religious system which humans have constructed with merely physical elements will disintegrate. Jesus told us that any religious power which has attached itself to the building blocks of an earthly nation will be left with not one stone standing an another.
Keith Mannes
June 5, 2023
EssayFeatured

Sick of God’s Name, and Using It Less: My Boss, the Van, the Bird, and Ron DeSantis

When football teams brag that God gave them the win, when musical artists sing about drinking and sex and then win an award and point to the heavens and thank Jesus, when people put silver fish on their cars amid bumper stickers about God and guns . . . I’m sick of all of it. Sick of tee-shirts with bloody images of Jesus on his cross and yards signs declaring Jesus is Lord of our county. Even Christian music, all…
Keith Mannes
January 23, 2023
CultureFeatured

The Pearl Principle

God is compassion. God is mercy. I see God, like Pearl, in a garden. With her hands, she clears away thorn and weed. She sends rain and summons life from the soil. Light warms and synthesizes unseen elements into nutrient. She offers food, and generous souls share it, because,
Keith Mannes
January 3, 2022