"Random Epiphanies" is a collection of Norman Shoaf's award-winning
"Portfolio" columns on the kaleidoscope of faith. Through short but
profound, compulsively readable ruminations such as "The Faithful Expect
Miracles," "Battling Addictions -- With a Healthy Dose of Faith," "10 Things
I Hate About Religion," "10 Things I Love About Religion," "Whatever
Happened to Ancient Christianity?" and "Call Now! Angels Standing By to
Assist You," Shoaf shares insight from unusual personalities, multiple
belief systems, the frontiers of science, and simple, sudden inspiration.
Anyone with an interest in the world of faith, students of comparative
religion, history buffs, theology classes, ethicians and even skeptics will
be carried to those plateaus above the maelstrom below where everything
suddenly makes sense -- those cosmic "A-ha!" moments of clarity and
overarching insight.
Shoaf has written hundreds of articles on religion, ethics and moral
behavior under his own byline, and ghosted articles for multiple
high-ranking church officials. He has traveled throughout the United States
and other nations to cover topics such as church burnings in the U.S. South,
suicide in France, Sinhalese-Tamil strife in Sri Lanka, the role of women in
Thailand, religious cults, the history of church doctrine, and interfaith
dialogue.
He has earned writing awards from the California Newspaper Publishers
Association and the Suburban Newspaper Association and received the Walter
Everett Fellowship from the American Press Institute.
Norman Shoaf published his first article at age 10 in a neighborhood church
newsletter, decrying inner-city decay in St. Louis, Mo. He has spent most of
the following four decades in journalism and publication production, earning
a bachelor's degree in mass communication and a master's degree in
organization development along the way. In 2001, he was awarded an honorary
doctorate in comparative religion from the University of St. Gregorios.
In 2002, he wrote a series of articles drawing international attention to
the disruption of a Wiccan religious service by a group of evangelical
Christians in Southern California.
As Opinion and Religion Editor and, later, City Editor at the Antelope
Valley Press in northern Los Angeles County, California, Shoaf earned awards
for editorial writing from the California Newspaper Publishers Association
and for music reviewing from the Suburban Newspaper Association. His weekly
"Portfolio" column won him recognition in 2003 as a Blue Ribbon Finalist for
Columns, Commentary and Criticism from the CNPA Better Newspaper Contest. In
2005 he received the Walter Everett Fellowship from the American Press
Institute.
Shoaf has taught communication at the elementary, high school, undergraduate
and postgraduate level. He is a talented photographer and enjoys
portraiture, editorial cartooning, travel and public speaking.
He lives in Southern California.
"Random Epiphanies" is his first collection of columns.
A few years ago my daughter Lillian and I were
walking down the main street of the city where we
lived.
Lillian, then about 3 years old, was sort of marching
along right behind me, holding on to my belt as we
went.
At a certain point on the sidewalk, Lillian stumbled
and fell, pulling my pants down as she did. I thus found
myself on the city's main drag, pants down, standing
next to my 3-year-old as heavy traffic whizzed by us.
I looked around, mortified, then quickly corrected
the situation, snatching up my trousers and imploring
Lil the Thrill in future to refrain from holding on to
them as she marched.
When we got home, I related the adventure to my
loving and supportive wife, Pamela, who spent the next
10 minutes rolling on the floor, literally, convulsed in no
doubt good-natured but slightly irksome laughter.
She guffawed between clutching her aching sides,
"What kind of underwear did you have on?”
She then rang up my loving and supportive mother-in-
Iaw, Sandra, and the two of them bonded in several
more minutes of no doubt good-natured, but even more
irksome laughter.
My mother-in-law said, "Well, if he's going to do
that, he might as well go down to Chippendales (a
celebrated men's strip club) and make some money at
it."
Go ahead, laugh. This is a book about religious
faith, after all.
My point? If you had been one of the motorists
who passed Lillian and me that day, and you had seen
a bewildered looking dude, sans pants (but with really
nice legs), standing next to the cutest tot you could
imagine, what conclusion might you have drawn?
It was all perfectly innocent, of course.
How often do we jump to conclusions about
situations we come across, new ideas to which we're
introduced, people when we first meet, religious texts
we haven't researched?
The Old Testament book of Joshua, chapter 22, tells
how a jumped-to but erroneous conclusion nearly led to
a civil war among the ancient Israelites.
As a number of families separated from the main
body of Israelites to cross the Jordan River and take
possession of territory that had been allotted to them,
they constructed an imposing altar at the border. The rest
of the Israelites, fearing their fellows had plunged into
pagan rebellion against God by constructing the altar,
gathered to launch what would have been a fatricidal
war (verses 10-11).
The families had intended no such purpose, of
course. "On the contrary," they protested, "it is to be
a witness between us and you and the generations to
follow, that we will worship the Lord … Then in the
future your descendants will not be able to say to ours,
'You have no share in the Lord' … Far be it from us to
rebel against the Lord and turn away from him today"
(verses 27, 29).