Who made the monster? While the lion’s share of the failures which led to the massacre in Atlanta must be recognized as personal and possibly neurological or psychological, while again, as the dream voice instructs, the “metaphysical weather” must be taken into account, the monster did not emerge from a vacuum. It is clear that some of what happened there is the result of a wider failure on the part not only of society in general, but in particular of those in the religious community who, rather than convey a message of love and acceptance including the love of one’s own God- given sexual nature whatever form that may take, deliver a message of shame and rejection. The truth of this failure was on display just a few days ago when the Pope reaffirmed the teaching which, because the church thinks they are excluded from God’s plan, because they are “illicit,” because they are “sin,” bars priests from blessing same-sex unions. The position, not just of the Catholic church but of conservative religion across the board with regard to same sex union, is part and parcel of its ungenerous attitude towards sex as a whole, including the belief that sex should be between a man and a woman exclusively, for the purpose of procreation only, and that sexual activity outside of the marriage of one man and one woman is a sin. There is much good in religion, much that is good in the Bible, much that is good in the people who lead the religious community, but if religion is to matter at all, if it is to have a positive meaning and value in the days to come, there is also much that deserves to be challenged, reconsidered and in some cases wholly rejected including the shame that accompanies sex… The demonization of the human body is a hate crime too. Dream “Why am I afraid when I say b-b-bottom?” asks my father in a dream, stuttering on the ‘b.’ “Because society teaches us that certain parts of the body are not good, even though all parts of the body are from God, even though God has a bottom too. Man was created in the image of God wasn’t he?” I ask. “I don’t accept that” says my father. End