Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Autobiography of an Earthling: My Funky Spiritual Memoir
    Autobiography of an Earthling: My Funky Spiritual Memoir
    Autobiography of an Earthling: My Funky Spiritual Memoir
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    Autobiography of an Earthling: My Funky Spiritual Memoir

    By Jack Preston King

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The last day of confirmation class arrived. Reverend Fire and Brimstone, having taught us everything he believed an eleven year old needed to know before making an informed lifetime commitment to the Methodist Church, now reminded us of the gravity of the choice before us. He opened the floor to questions.

    "Final Questions..." is the term I remember him using, as if we faced a firing squad, though my memory may be skewed on that one.

    A squeaky, quavering voice shattered the wall of silence around me. To my horror, I recognized it as my own.

    "So, um... Like, what would happen if, like, after you join the church and stuff, like, maybe as an adult, a person sort of, like, decided to change religions or something?"

    Fire and Brimstone pressed his large hands together prayerfully and broke into a wide, patient smile.

    "That's okay," he said, beaming. "Good question, Jack. Say a person starts out a Methodist, and decides later to become a Presbyterian or a Baptist. That's okay, because we're all brothers in Christ. When people get married, for example, they often change denominations, so the husband and wife can attend the same church." He scanned the crowd of cowering middle school faces as if measuring our comprehension and blind acceptance.

    To my renewed horror, I felt my mouth opening again, heard words again splashing out like flat rocks breaking still water.

    "Okay, thanks, Reverend... But like, okay, what if someone, as a grown-up maybe, wanted to become something like, say, a Buddhist?"

    “This is spiritual memoir at its finest, at once insightful, funny, honest and profoundly moving. But more, I am amazed how artfully, yet accurately, King manages to weave a treasure trove of important, hands-on spiritual knowledge into this deeply personal, riotously entertaining narrative.” - Harold Zo, author of Zo-Zen: Zen Buddhist Essays and Insights from the Small Town "Big Mind" of Harold Zo.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNew Paradigm Press
    Release dateMar 18, 2010
    ISBN9781452369396
    Autobiography of an Earthling: My Funky Spiritual Memoir
    Author

    Jack Preston King

    Jack Preston King is the author of "In Defense of Magical Thinking: Essays in Defiance of Conformity to Reason" and other books for rebels against the spiritual, creative, and cultural status quo. He writes unruly poems, short stories and novels, too. Visit him on the web at jackprestonking.com. He's also on Twitter, Medium and Facebook.

    Read more from Jack Preston King

    Related to Autobiography of an Earthling

    Related ebooks

    New Age & Spirituality For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Blood Ritual

      Jun 5, 2023

      Blood Ritual
      20 min read

    • Article

      Ten Ways to Change Your God

      Jul 1, 2019

      Conversion narratives are the most human of tales, for the drama of redemption is an internal one, played out between the protagonist and his demons. The post Ten Ways to Change Your God appeared first on The Millions.

      28 min read

    • Article

      A Pained Intuition and a Palpable Longing: Katie Ford on Theology, Poetry, and the Unknowable

      Sep 13, 2018

      If You Have to Go, the new collection of poems by Katie Ford, is a book that conjures powers of possession. I feel that way about all of her books: Her poems bring me to a mystical plane somewhere between language and life. I’m left shaken. Her willi

      17 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Iľja Rákoš

      Dec 23, 2020

      I’d been out of the hospital following (let’s call it) treatment for COVID-19 about a month. My hospital ward of 50 patients had one oxygen concentrator. Despite my blood-oxygen saturation levels of 90%, that device wasn’t coming my way anytime soon.

      6 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of The Story

      Jan 22, 2018

      In Search Of The Story
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ghosts Who Walk Among Us: The Millions Interviews Claire Cronin

      Oct 19, 2020

      It wasn’t ghosts and demons that most frightened me while writing; I was haunted by God. The post Ghosts Who Walk Among Us: The Millions Interviews Claire Cronin appeared first on The Millions.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Man of Science, Man of Faith

      Sep 22, 2017

      Man of Science, Man of Faith
      14 min read

    • Article

      A Language Beyond Reason

      Feb 27, 2020

      I grew up in a scientific family. My grandmother Irene was the daughter of the physicist Max Born, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum mechanics and was a close friend of Albert Einstein. She was herself scientifically well educated and h

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Uneasy Yoke

      Sep 12, 2018

      The Uneasy Yoke
      5 min read

    • Article

      Charlatans, False Prophets, And Flimflammers

      Jun 27, 2023

      My late father-in-law, an Episcopal priest, had a cartoon taped to his kitchen wall in Sherman that skewers an obnoxious feature of American religion. In the cartoon, a grinning devil, sitting on a throne surrounded by flames, instructs a horned appr

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Seven Signs That You’re in a Cult

      Jun 18, 2014

      A former member of a tight-knit college prayer group describes his community’s disintegration—and how one of its members ended up dead.

      11 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Religion Pops Out Of Pandora’s Box

      Jun 8, 2023

      “One nation, under God . . .” Interesting addition to the Pledge, considering, you know, the separation of church and state. I actually remember it — it was 1954. I was in third grade, and had been reciting the Pledge with my classmates every morning

      3 min read

    • Article

      God & Me magic Mushrooms

      Oct 5, 2023

      God & Me magic Mushrooms
      22 min read

    • Article

      Elaine Pagels Is Famous For Asking Hard Questions. Her Latest: ‘Why Religion?’

      Dec 19, 2018

      The scholar’s professional life has been about challenging orthodox ways of thinking about Christianity. In her new book, she shows the personal struggle behind that quest.

      7 min read

    • Article

      ‘Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness’: Ninth Commandment Goes To Princeton

      Dec 19, 2019

      Alexi Sargeant has a distinctive approach to honoring the truth both professionally and personally. Part of a series on the Decalogue in modern life.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Most American Religion

      Dec 16, 2020

      The Most American Religion
      31 min read

    • Article

      An Apex of Babble

      Mar 6, 2019

      An Apex of Babble
      13 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Autobiography of an Earthling

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Autobiography of an Earthling - Jack Preston King

      scbook_preview_excerpt.html}X[Jǔ"pzc$+Ka5f 3Mt;G5|ę,HJ!W=pgx/iv.ߗu-q<LW6ѻ037mQۄ 9v>cAy[1?oMe;T\XvcN3 h[']Xo+Ka1_,ޣYdM`aM15|j §ʒ5(0 "*q/ʌb^yvwm$B/{{re/]=;𨘼[d.u|+ΪG/(~Sp+bͭ -{1[yx^"JL__O\gIc/ !CH|c+Jf؋X@o)ƖF<fp2L$>A@f,$r:ntq ~ vrbOm{.Mt bR7{: *(wx/TFfD۾[& $Q@G7DaF}Ķod[7b륳ҒwۅOT6u#K+WSc@D%e Bd%,}½k>4Z",!E]H^ަ׵Wx ܡ 频qNjrFB+JX7P0"ܷ<΅~B[,kֿ5)_)4W_BLzQ^{=r9 ssGhaB+pFvd*B&!0hc!,Y*uBg n5HR{eZAfJ$%*]5U5nUO\B';5J ];@oʡ+fb 3pdegpxϦU" A'FKS9XBXPrcק=[NC`+ 6~>UTkQ'6:VR )[vZlIa@*ݢ+5f|E`\5E I?=r{:vt6oN^trB#=̏Yh h$ЍM"u4IAԠ] ⷫQ:bL`e5,97&T)a2K'fTn3JڧvrA֔@(=mjU QAlx7hA;n/jFK+6ׯ`E_̖ &D7J&)7Ș2vi3:;ʏe[@I`Ѓy\yC&E\yc(a'oi*^;䂋eK 1 W6E8=f 4T1>3GLۍwmI>D6j5>_pqӶU26LzĜj-%`̞pr#s/N}A+N>m"H1+G>5C;D_[ ƈgTHN@nיִ\:@xݽzGpԽHpUZgUUȎOjy݆s
      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1