Holy Barbecue Pits!
It's a mystery: why some people never lost faith, felt no religious disillusionment growing up but I did. A cloud of alienation hangs over fellow travelers like me, along with consternation that others are untroubled by the lack of convincing evidence for the Apostle's Creed and the absurdity (in the terms by which we judge the rest of life) of God becoming a man whose sacrifice two thousand years ago gave everlasting life. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proofs, and no double-blind experiments have replicated this or its ancient rationale: the power of blood sacrifice to purge guilt. Slaughtered animals were burned for gods or spirits all over traditional European and Asian religions, but nowhere in my Christian experience have there been any sacred barbecue grills, though that's exactly what the Lord's altar in the Temple was. The sacrifice of chickens in Voodoo and Jewish rites is attacked as animal cruelty, even as Purdue's mechanically offed...