williamlobdell.com

How can you tell a good religion reporter from an inexperienced or bad one? Study the sources who turn up in their stories.
For instance, there should be moratorium on interviewing the Rev. Wiley Drake of Buena Park, Calif. (disclosure, I did interviewed Drake once or twice in my early years as a religion reporter). The [...]

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This is an AMAZING piece of journalism, especially for anyone who has wondered how a loving God could banish one of his children to an eternity in hell.
It shows what happens when a courageous preacher starts to think rationally.

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It feels good to nail down my first book signing. It will be at Borders in Costa Mesa (the one on 19th Street and Newport Boulveard, at the end of the 55 Freeway), on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 2 p.m. Please make sure I’m not only.
FYI, on my previous post, my point wasn’t that it [...]

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The Kentucky Office of Homeland Security states that “dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth.”
Really? God can be used as a kind of Star Wars’ shield? It hasn’t worked too well for the people of Israel, who are supposedly God’s “chosen people.” And what about the Holocaust?
Thank God American [...]

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I got out of the Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, in the nick of time, and my severance package is safely in my bank account.
But the severance packages of my friends who were laid off most recently in October are now at the mercy of a federal bankruptcy court, thanks to their [...]

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It felt like a dear friend had died when I heard the news today that the Tribune Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy protection because of its crushing $12 billion debt and plummeting circulation and advertising revenues.
It’s one thing to predict where a newspaper is going (as I have several times [...]

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So far on Amazon, my memoir has received 17 reviews from citizen reviewers who received early copies of the book. Here’s the breakdown:
Five stars: 9
Four stars: 5
Three stars: 1
Two stars: 2
So, of course, my focus all day has been on the two-star reviews. One review, who appears to be a fundamentalist Christian, begins:
Too bad Willliam [...]

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Two new reviews from Amazon. Both give my book five out of five stars.
As the title suggests, LOSING MY RELIGION: HOW I LOST MY FAITH REPORTING ON RELIGION IN AMERICA–AND FOUND UNEXPECTED PEACE is the memoir of one man’s struggle with his religious convictions in the face of overwhelming evidence against their validity. In this [...]

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Action film star Jason Statham looks just like me, except that he’s younger and his body is a little softer, though he works out almost as much as I do.

Okay, I had an infected foot that kept me from working out for a couple of weeks. Worse than that, much of the time I was [...]

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I wrote this column for the OC Metro this month. It felt like writing an obit.

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