On transcendence, coherence, and the priestly vocation.
I gave up Christianity.
I gave up belief in the supernatural.
But I did not give up being a priest of truth and transcendence.
I still wear the collar—not as a symbol of belief, but of vocation.
Not because I represent God,
but because I represent something sacred:
our human attempt to understand who we are,
where we are,
and how we are to live
in the face of a vast, unfinished reality.
I wear it because I am still a priest.
Still a theologian.
Still a monk in this aching world.
Religion, to me, is not a system of belief.
It’s the way we try—together—to make meaning
in a universe that doesn’t explain itself.
Yesterday, a man asked me why I still wear the collar.
I surprised both of us with the answer.
I am not here to hand out answers.
Not to defend old creeds.
But to stay with the questions.
To tend the sacred fire of coherence when everything else fractures.
To bear witness to something deeper than belief:
the shared human effort to transcend the smallness of self
and live toward something larger,
truer,
more whole.
That’s what the collar means now.
It doesn’t say, “I believe.”
It says, “I care.”
It says, “I won’t turn away.”
It says, “This matters.”