Do human beings have a lot to learn from ants? Do scientists have a lot to learn from Christians? Will we find out before we come to a crisis point?

It's not a bad word.

Recently, I was in a leadership training class. We were directed to pick one thing that most influenced our interactions with the world around us. The choices were: age, income level, gender, education, etc. We weren’t given much time to think about our choice. I found myself walking toward the giant sign that said “religion.” A huddle of about twenty people stood right next to me. I was pleasantly surprised to see others had joined me in my choice….until the instructor walked towards me.

“Which group are you in?” he asked.

“I miss my TV,” my daughter’s classmate lamented to me. We were on our third day of an elementary school camp. Though we had luxuries like heated cabins, running water, and our days were occupied with endless outdoor activities, there were no TV’s in sight.

“Do you have a TV in your room?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said.

“What do you watch?”

“Whatever I want,” she replied. “I go to sleep with it every night.”

On a walk through a nearby suburb of Seattle a few months ago, my husband and I noticed a large banner in front of a popular mega-church: “Free parenting class!” The sign read. We were curious.

“Let’s go in!” my husband said. We had always wondered what this church looked like inside.

As we walked up the steps and into the glossy, posh surroundings – it felt we were in an elite social club. Young couples like us flowed through the doors before and after us. Men and women stood in clusters, chit-chatting while sipping their grande lattes. Everyone was having a good time. No one even noticed we were there (and we were okay with that).

In "The First Wives Club," three women get into an argument when their differences matter more than their common goal. Under duress, movie star Elise (Goldie Hawn) rages; flamboyant Brenda (Bette Midler) hurls insults (and a Golden Globe). And when the two turn to mild-mannered Annie (Diane Keaton) to arbitrate, she founders and blurts out, "You both have severe psychological problems and I'm ... I'm the Nice One here!"

Boy, do I sympathize, Annie. I'm the Nice One, too. I think a lot of church-people are. I may not have been the most popular in school, or the best athlete. I may not ever win a Golden Globe or have one thrown at me. But everyone else is crazy, and I'm nice.

What do many bestselling authors of marriage and intimacy books have in common? Yes, they’re all well-known, often quoted and referred to, and specialize in helping couples improve their marriages and intimate connections. But you missed one key thing: More and more, "top experts" are recommending pornography for couples to spice up their marriages.

Is there really anything wrong with porn, when such well-respected experts recommend it? I mean, they’ve spent years on the subject. They know what they’re talking about, right?

I pass judgment on my friends, my clients and utter strangers all the time. I offer opinions about their clothes, their taste in movies, their writing, their charity or lack of charity and what they do. But I keep telling myself I shouldn’t do that. It’s wrong to judge.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.” That’s Luke 6:37. Pretty obvious, right? But is it? What does it really mean? Do we mean the same thing the secular culture means by “don’t judge”?

When I finished my most recent blog post for this site, I was overcome by the kind of nervous shaking that people who hate public speaking fear worse than death.

The voices were screaming, "They'll find out about you!" "You can't talk about Flip Wilson on an Orthodox site!" "Somebody will be mad!" "It's too out-there!" "It's boring!" The accusations came at me from all directions at once, suggesting that an angry mob waving torches and pitchforks would appear outside my door.

Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update last week saw the humorous "Really!?!" bit take on the topic of Contraception and Abortion.

In the 1970s, comedian Flip Wilson used to do a skit about Reverend Leroy of the Church of What's Happenin' Now. Wilson, who died in 1998 at the age of 64, was a master of the comic character, and Reverend Leroy was a funny sendup of the Christian who cloaks his self-indulgence under a mantle of “relevance.”

But I'm not writing about Reverend Leroy. I'm writing about his Church of What's Happenin' Now, because if we understand “now,” that name is a fitting description of Orthodox Christianity at her best.