Peace

Issues of war and peace have been on my mind a lot lately. To put it simply I am a pacifist, I mourn war whenever and where ever it happens. I was deeply saddened by President Obama's announcement that we will be escalating the war in Afghanistan . I don't want to see more young men and women put in harms way. It saddens me to see the collateral damage and the civilian casualties. Even the death of an enemy should never be celebrated.

I'm troubled by a justification for just war being given at the noble peace ceremony.

Many of my heros are nobel peace prize winners. When I think of the prize I think of those like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa and Gandhi, people who were committed to the cause of non violence. Don't get me wrong I deeply respect President Obama, but that does not I have to agree with him on every issue.

I think my faith calls me to stand against the use of force and violence as means to farther foreign policy. The thing is I understand how people can see the pacifist position as unrealistic, but I think it is important that someone is communicating with those in power the need to try to seek peaceful solutions in all things. I don't see it as a moral failing for others to see war as an acceptable option but that is just not my opinion. My understanding of my faith doesn't allow me to support war, but I would never make that claim that a person who supports war cannot be Christian.

It saddens me that the different sides of the war debate spend so much time making generalizations about each other. I seriously doubt that there are a large number of people out there who truly are happy to see war happen. Most people see war as regrettable so I don't buy into the rhetoric that sometimes comes out from fellow pacifists that equates supporting war with enjoying war.

Lastly I want to speak to a issue that is near and dear to my heart. I respectfully disagree which anyone who says that it is not possible to be a pacifist and support those in uniform. I have a number of family members and friends in the military and I think about them everyday. I think about our military women and men everyday, I pray for their safety and I respect the fact that they are willing to put their lives on the line for what they consider to be a just cause. I think that is possible to respect and disagree with people at the same time. Just because one persons path is not mine does not mean I have to demean it.

To those of you who might be members of the military who are reading this I understand you put yourself on the line everyday believing deeply that you are protecting the principle that I can without fear hold my beliefs as a pacifist, I truly thank you for that.

Rethinking Advent

I may be more excited about advent this year than I have been in a long time. I like many have come to dread advent because it meant having ten thousand things to do and ten thousand obligations. I'm committed to doing advent differently this year and I'm very excited about the possibilities that that will represent.

I've been inspired by a number of groups both spiritual and secular who all make good critics of the way the holiday season is done by many. It has been a good spiritual practice for me to reflect on how I have been celebrating or missing celebrating this upcoming season.

My plan is this; first be intentional about my spirituality during advent. I plan to explore what the season has to offer to my soul in as many ways as I can, to hopefully regain that sense of wonder about the season. Second I plan to be more open to those around me during the season, sharing my time and enjoying doing so rather than seeing all the extra things that take place during advent as obligations I'm going to focus on the joy of being around the people I love during the season. Third I'm going to do my best to be socially responsible in my gift giving. I plan on making the gifts I give unique, socially responsible and from the heart. Hopefully this will help make me feel more connected with those I am getting the gifts for, and I hope they will feel the care that will go into these gifts. Fourth, I plan to be intentional about carrying this reflection and the incites gained beyond the holiday season and into the dawning of a New Year.

So as I said I'm excited. In some ways I feel like a child again looking forward to the season, only this time it is not because of the physical gifts that the season has to offer, but rather because of ways the season can make me a better gift giver and receiver. The gift I hope for most this year is a Advent and Christmas season full of wonder, fellowship, love and new discovery.

The Christian Interfaith Narrative

This is a sermon given on November 8th at our faithspring worship service. I have been asked by a couple of people for it's text so I'm posting it here to my blog.

In his book “Acts of Faith” Eboo Patel a young Muslim man and creator of the Interfaith youth core relates a story of being involved with the Leaders School at the YMCA. As a part of this he had learned the song “Pass it On.” He sang that song around the house for weeks after. Sometime during those several weeks he overhead his father raise the concern to Eboo’s mother that the YMCA might be trying to teach Eboo Christianity. His mother responded in a beautiful way. She said, “I hope so. I hope they teach the kids Jewish songs and Hindu songs, too. That’s the kind of Muslims we want our kids to be.”

We only have to look around us to realize that we live in a world where interfaith dialogue is important. You can’t turn on the news without hearing about another conflict that is couched in religious terms. In which both sides are manipulating religion to justify some of the most horrific acts that can be imagined. Often times these conflicts are intensified by misunderstandings and sometimes outright lies about the other faith.

Not only this, but we live in a world where telecommunications allows us to instantly talk to someone on the other side of the world. And with the internet and social networking sites it is easy to have contact with those thousands of miles away.

We are not only able to talk to people around the world but do business with them as well. As industry continues to become more global it becomes more likely that we will be working with people that not only have different cultural values with but also religious beliefs.

Even within Christianity there are such a wide variety of faith traditions that dialogue can often be complicated among Christians. If you have ever visited a “Christian” chat room or message board you know how true this is. Often times these “discussions” become nothing but hate filled attacks at one another.

So we live in a time in human history when it is more important issue than it has ever been to be in conversation with those who differ from us. But this is not an easy thing to do because the dominate narrative out there is that conflict between people of different faiths is inevitable. This voice tells us that we must look out for own, we have to circle the wagons, because those other people are out to get us. We are made to believe that “they” whoever they may be are out to destroy the very things that we hold dearest. It’s us vs. them and there will be winners and losers. We are told that we need to come out on the “winning” side.

As Christians I believe that we are to live a different narrative. Our narrative calls us not only to actively be engaged in interfaith dialogue but to stand against that false dynamics that lead to conflict.

We can find the beginnings of this interfaith narrative at the very beginnings of our scriptural journey. In Genesis we find that it explained that Abraham is to be blessed so that his offspring may be a blessing to all other nations. This explanation of for Abraham’s blessing shows up explicitly not once, not twice but three times in Genesis and is implied a number other times. To bless another person means to have to know them, care for them, so that in and of itself makes interfaith dialogue a necessity. It calls us to not only be in conversation, but to be in cooperation to fight the injustices that exist in this world. The call to be a blessing directly leads to being in community with others. It breaks us out of the look out for only your own mentality. It speaks to cooperation instead of conflict. It is a narrative that breaks down fear, anger and hatred, replacing them with understanding, reconciliation, and care for all human kind.

Once we see the importance of collaborating with those of other faith traditions and religious beliefs the question becomes how. What should interfaith dialogue look like. The scripture we read earlier is a good guide. It is one of those scriptures that it is easy to gloss over, because it is a familiar scripture to many of us. But, today I hope we can look at it with new eyes. As Jesus is answering the question about what the greatest commandment is he lays out for us what I think is a really good model for being in interfaith dialogue. Jesus reminds us to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and all our mind. In other words be grounded in your tradition, our narrative. Be grounded in God. Then love your neighbor as yourself.

Loving ones neighbor means getting to know them, it means knowing their hopes, knowing their dreams, and seeing the image of God that resides within them. It means moving beyond that win/ lose dynamic to a place where we can be in relationship. Jesus sees this grounding in the narrative of our faith and relationship building as so important he says that “On these two things hang all the law and the prophets.” In other words they are at the very core of our faith.

I can attest to the fact that being in true relationship with those of other faiths is truly rewarding. When it is at its best interfaith dialogue it will touch all involved in it. I have often in my life been taught to be a better Christian by those of other faiths and I hope that from our interaction that those people learned something about their own tradition that deepened their walk on their journey in that tradition.

I’m not saying that there are not differences but rather I’m saying that we are not to be afraid of those differences. Rather those differences should be celebrated and understood. Those differences can often help us to see our own faith in a new light.

In 1950 Martin Luther King Jr. was a 20 year old seminary student he heard a sermon on Christian Passivism that spoke about Gandhi as an example of what life lived in Christian Passivism could look like. King was so taken by Gandhi that he later traveled to India to learn about what Gandhi had done. When he got there he discovered that the movement that Gandhi had put together was an interfaith movement. The values that Gandhi had found in his Hinduism, connected with the values that King found in Christianity and that was obvious true about others as well because Gandhi’s movement Seeks, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists. King was quite taken by this fact so much so that from a pulpit in Montgomery, Alabama he began his prayer this way. “O God, our gracious heavenly father. We call you this name. Some call thee Allah, some call you Elohim. Some call you Jehovah, some call you Brahma." Later when he lead the bus boycott he took the principles that Gandhi had used in India and created an interfaith movement to fight for equality for all Americans.

King could have as easily listened to the dominate narrative that night and walked away saying that because Gandhi was a Hindu he had nothing that could be important. Instead King recognized the interfaith narrative that existed within the Christian tradition. And not despite of his faith but rather because of his Christian faith learned much from Gandhi so that he could better fight the injustices of this world.

If we can see past our differences there is much to be gained. Not only will we learn much about others, but there is a true opportunity to make this world a better place. If we actively engage in interfaith dialogue then maybe rather than fighting each other we could fight malaria and AIDS. Maybe instead of worrying what name we call God, we could worry about those who don’t have clean water to drink. Rather than worrying about who is right, could worry about who is suffering.

I don’t think that this kind of interfaith cooperation is just a dream or an idea. We can engage in it now and work toward a better world. Working together as brothers and sisters. We can share the journey even if we do have different paths. Because in the end just as Eboo Patel’s mother wished for him, I wish for us, that we might became that kind of Christian, the one sing the songs of faiths that are not ours while engaging fully our own faith traditions. May the faith we find in our hearts truly bless others. Amen

Ramadan Kareem

As I was reading the ISU Daily today I had the opportunity to read a nice little article about Muslim students who were observing Ramadan. So I read the article with great interest, and when I noticed the comments I went to read them with interest. When I opened the comment page my heart sank. It was full of hateful and frankly false speech, so I left my Ramadan wishes for my Muslim brothers and sisters, not acknowledging the commenters spreading hate, because they did not deserve acknowledging. But as I have been thinking the rest of the day I think I owe it to my Muslim sisters and bothers to write about my positive experiences of Ramadan and of Muslims.

For those of you who did not know my wife and I spent time teaching in Bahrain (the island Kingdom of the Coast of Saudi Arabia). Less than a month of us arriving in Bahrain we got our first experience of Ramadan. It completely changed the entire country for that month. Things were closed during the day so that people could observe the fast. They opened back up in the evening as people broke the fast. I truly admired how much commitment it takes to fast from Sunrise to sunset for a whole month.

I taught 5th graders and a good number of them were trying to observe the fast for one of their first times, so out of respect for my students I fasted while I was at school. Being that I was fasting I used that fasting as a time for me to be intentionally spiritual in my Christian faith as well. It surprised me just how much of a time of spiritual renewal this was for me. I got to spend time thinking about those who could not afford to eat everyday. I got to learn how to rely on God in those times when physically you are not at the top of your game but you need to keep going. I spent time thinking about all of the famous fasts that were in the scripture. And in the end I found, as I did many times when I was in Bahrain, that my Muslim sisters and brothers had spurred me on to be a better Christian.

The fact is that the people I met in the middle east were easily some of the most welcoming, accepting and warm people I have ever met in my life.

I am tempted to tell you how "they" are this and "they" are that, but I don't want to label them as "they." The truth is that "they" are us, we are sisters and brothers. I tired of the fear mongering people are people and deserve to be treated as such.

So in this holy month I wish all people a Ramadan Kareem and as Ramadan ends next week eid mubarak. And hope that maybe this Ramadan we can all because better adherents to our own faiths. That maybe we can find understanding, because we have much to learn from one another.

Debunking the Sacred and Secular Divide

I've been thinking about this a lot recently I refuse to put my faith in a box and divide my life between the sacred and the secular... let me explain.

Those who know me know I'm a bit of a movie nerd. I love movies and the art that is cinema. When I was in college I started noticing something the movies I watched and loved often times at themes that tied into faith, or spoke to my spiritual side. Over the eight years sense that realization I've discovered that I am not the only one who recognized this, I have sat with countless groups, watching countless movies that have spurred countless theological discussions. If I were to discount these movies or themes simply because they were "secular" I would have missed many great insights about my faith and my spirituality.

I believe that God can and does speak through art, through movies, through music. I reject that that art must specifically speak about God to have something to say about faith. I heard a speaker say "we need less Christian music, and more Christians making music." I agree this this statement totally. I'm tired of having my faith sold back to me in the form of "christian" music, movies and art. Not that there is not some good "Christian" music, movies and art out there but I think the majority of it is spiritual junk food. It may be sweet but your in trouble if you are trying to live on it.

I don't want to have to leave God at the door when I leave the church and I don't want to have to leave behind the insights I've gotten from watching the latest episode of House as I walk in the church door. Our faith should effect our journey and I would hope that we would bring that viewpoint to the things we are watching and listening to.

After all am I worshiping God any less if I'm doing it while singing "Big Yellow Taxi" and not "How Great Thou Art"? I don't think so. So I pray that God effects every part of my journey and that it does not become divided between the sacred and secular. Instead let me see God where ever God may be.

Thank God for College Students!

I love my job working as a campus ministry associate. I can not express to you how fulfilling what I do each day is.  This blog is not about me though this blog is about my students.  

I have to thank God each day for the students I work with.  They are amazing. Each of them on very different journeys but coming together to be a community.   As they walk their faith journey each day, they enrich the faith journey of those around them. I know this because they have enriched my journey so much. 

The truth is that the students I work will have a positive effect on all the groups and communities they are apart of.  They live their faith don't just believe in it.  They are always ready to explore their faith and try to deepen their relationship with God. What they don't often realize is that while they do this they act as example for others in the church to do the same. 

These students are the very reason that I'm so concerned about the national trend to defund campus ministries. I'm lucky to work in a church and in a conference that is very supportive of it's campus ministries but that is not where a lot of churches and conferences around the country are.  I think it is a grave mistake for the conferences and churches to get rid of campus ministries.  The fact is that as the students I work with bring life to the church; so will other students bring life to other churches.  I often hear that students are the future of the church, but the fact is that students and the campus ministries that are apart of are the here and now of the church.

These young adults have much to offer and they simply want to be asked. Let young adults into the conversation. The life and passion that they bring with them is simply transformative.  They are ready to be a part of your communities you simply need to ask them and treat them like they have something to offer because they do. 

So tonight on the cusp of another school year I'm thanking God for college students, for those students I work with, and for how they enrich the church.

Lessons I've Learned from Riding My Motorcycle. aka Enjoying the Ride.

I bought my first motorcycle this summer and I have to say that it is one of the best purchases I have ever made.  I can not begin to tell you how much enjoyment I've gotten from riding everywhere this summer. I also have learned a great deal from my experiences on the back of the motorcycle, here are just a couple. 

It may be safer and more comfortable to travel in a climate controlled metal box but you also miss out on a lot.  By taking the risk of exposing yourself and being outside of your comfort zone you see things that you have missed otherwise.  I can not count the number of great experiences I have had seeing birds fly by my bike, seeing beautiful scenery, experiencing the smell of the fresh air around me all of which I missed out on if I had gone in a car instead of on the motorcycle. 

The trip can be just as much fun if not more fun than the destination.  The beauty and freedom that the motorcycle provides has helped me to rediscover how wonderful the process of traveling can be. It makes me think of all the time I has wasted in my life wishing I was there when I just could have been enjoying the journey. 

You take the good with the bad.  I've been lucky to have a lot of really great days to ride but I've also been stuck in rain.  I've enjoyed the fresh air and smells of fresh baked food, I've also been stuck behind cattle trucks, smelled dead skunk and driven by stock yards.  The really amazing thing is the "bad" things can be very memorable and in the end be good stories and good memories. 

Share your enjoyment with someone else. It was a while before my wife Tammy got on the motorcycle with me because we both wanted to make sure that I had to skills to keep us both safe.  I loved those earlier rides but they don't even compare to how wonderful it has been when Tammy and I have gotten share the enjoyment of the motorcycle. We both now lament when we have to take to car on a trip because we both love the experience the motorcycle offers.

Mostly find something that brings you enjoyment and do it all you can.  Life is too short not to enjoy ourselves. 

We have to Make Ourselves Aware.

I read an article this week that I consider a must read  "Is it a Crime to be Poor?" By Barbara Enrenreich.  Enrenreich writes about how many cities and state in this country are writing laws that are intentionally or unintentionally criminalizing poverty. 

We must pay attention to the way that most vulnerable are treated.  Just because a law applies to all people it does not make it "fair" or more importantly right.  We can not continue to make laws that adversely effect the last and the least and expect the problems in this world to get any better. All people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, no exceptions. The fact is that that is not happening. 

I think that has been made more clear to me as I have watched the "debate," if one can call it that, on health care reform.  Let me put this simply I believe that health care should be a right, a basic human right.  We truly must think about those who currently have no way of getting health care and ask ourself how it serves the public good for people to go uninsured. I understand that the plan out there may not be perfect but something has to change to protect those who currently not being served by the status quo. 

It is time for people of good will to educate ourselves about the laws in our area and speak against those that leave others behind. We can not continue to let our differences continue to divide us. We must find common ground to fight the real evils in this world like poverty, hunger and disease.  The real fight in this world is not between people who may disagree socially, politically or religiously but rather between people of good will and the problems of the world.  We must move beyond the rhetoric.

So I hope you read the Enrenreich article and I hope it makes you think, wether you agree with it or not.  

When We Struggle

I have started writing this post 3 times over the past week and concluded that I didn't have the words to express what I wanted to, but I think this is important enough that I'm going to comment even if I'm not the most eloquent person to do so.  I read recently about the number of people being diagnosed with depression going up exponentially. The issues of struggles with depression and anxiety are often taboo in faith communities, the very place that one should feel comfortable enough to open up about these struggles. It is this reason that I feel I need to speak out on this issue.

A little background first. I have struggled with anxiety and depression for most of my life. For many years I was to proud or embarrassed or hard headed to seek out help with these issues. I did finally have a panic attack that was so intense it sent me to the emergency room thinking I was having a heart attack. It was after this experience that I finally decided I needed to see a doctor to help with the physical issues that were causing the anxiety and depression, and also to see a counselor to explore the emotional baggage and to get some strategies for coping. This has helped me significantly over the last couple of years and I would tell anyone who is on the fence about getting help that it is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Now I want to make one thing clear mine is not a story of "overcoming" these issues but rather learning about how these issues are a part of how I am and dealing with them. 

To those reading this who are dealing with issues of depression or anxiety my heart goes with you. It is not an easy thing to deal with and I know it can feel lonely. I want to tell you that you are first off not alone there are may people of faith who deal with this issues.  You also need to know that dealing with these issues do not indicate any lack of faith, they do not mean that God has left you (no matter how much it may feel that way) and it does not mean that you are any less of a Christian or any less of a person. Some reading this might think those feeling are pretty out there. To those who feel that way I say they are not nearly as out there as you might think and I myself have felt each of them at sometime in my life. 

Dealing with depression and anxiety does not make you "defective." You are still a whole person even when you deal with these issues.  I know that sometimes these issues can make you feel that way and sometime the way others around you probably make you feel that way as well, if they mean to or not. 

It always amazes me the number of people who try to "cheer me up" when I'm dealing with the depression.  This may not be try for everyone but I know for me that always made me feel worse. What I need when I'm depressed is not another person to "fix" me but rather someone to walk the road with me, not judging me for what I'm going through.  I don't need to be fixed like I'm a broken lamp but rather I need a person to understand what I'm going through and to be there to hear me in those tough moments. 

Know that the next time you go through issues of depression or anxiety that you are in my prayers.

To my sisters and brothers who do not have these issues I implore you to be sensitive to these issues because chances are that you know someone who does deal with these issues. Be open to those around you without judgement and without trying to fix them.  Mostly walk the journey with all your brothers and sisters letting them be who they are.  Be a vehicle of God's love to those around you always.

Science and Faith

I have heard discussions lately about faith and science.  So it wasn't a surprise to me when I opened my most resent issue of sojourners and the first bit of commentary was on this issue. The article "With All Your Mind" By Francis Collins is a great argument as to how you can be both a person of faith and a person of science.

It shocks me that this is still an issue that persists.  As a person of faith I see no reason that one can not both believe in God and also believe in science. I accept Darwin's Theory of Evolution the evidence is overwhelming. I was shocked when I read in Collins article that only 24% of regular church goers believe in evolution. This saddens me a little because as humans I think we are called to use the great gift of reason that we have been given.   My faith tells me that the processes of nature are much more beautiful when we learn about them through science. If we simply say God commanded and boom it happened, God is turned into nothing but a simple magician. I don't wish to reduce God to nothing more than another David Blaine or Chris Angel. I find the idea that God may have used natural processes to be more reasonable.  

People who have faith need not to be afraid of the teachings of science, it gives us greater understanding of the world we live in.  I would ask someone who says that science is a danger to faith the question, "how strong is a faith that can be swayed so easily?" I would advocate for people of faith who are also thinking people. As Christians we have moved beyond the idea that the earth is the center of the universe, can we not also take a second look at the rest of the ancient cosmetology.  We must recognize that the Bible is NOT a science book and should not be used as one.

Faith and science can become a social issue as well. I think what we know about the human genome is not only fascinating but has the possibility of saving many, many lives.  Stem cell research can give hope to people with many conditions that otherwise have no hope. 

Now that I have spoken a great deal about why faith should not fear science I want to talk a little about a speech I heard the other day from a scientist who was arguing against faith because it caused people to simply accept the things that they can not understand. I would like to refute this point by saying that it is because of my faith that I want to learn as much I can about the world around me. I think that God has given me a brain to explore the world around me. So I believe that faith can spur interest in science and not just detract from it.  I think it is ok to recognize the mystery that exists in the universe while still trying to learn more about it. 

Faith and Science are not mutually exclusive because they ask different questions. Science answers how and faith attempts to answer why.  I believe one can be and I  try to be a person of both faith and science.

A Different Kind of Truth

While my wife and I where in Omaha this weekend we ate at a 50's style diner.  When you go to a place like a fifties style diner you are not going to a "authentic" one, even if they say you are. You are instead going to someone's memory of a fifties diner.  The people who make these diners had such a good memory of the original diners that they wish to share their memory of that with the world.  This is always colored by what that persons experience of the diner was. 

This is not only true with theme restaurants though this pervades every part of our lives every museum that you have ever been to is the same way. You are not seeing history but someone's interpretation of history. I think the sooner to realize this the better off we will be. 

I'm not saying that we have to throw these things out because they are interpretations of history rather I think we need to rethink our idea of truth. I think that the modern world is a little too wrapped up in the idea for something to have truth it must also be factual. I don't think this is the case. In fact I would argue that allegory, prose, and poetry can have just as much truth in it as can actual factual stories. 

I also think it is important that we try to recognize what is allegory and what is fact when we come to it. I'm not saying one has any more importance than the other but if we recognize allegory as allegory we can then see the deeper layers of meaning in story. I think this is especially important when reading the scripture, though I think this skill should be employed when reading anything. 

We loose so much when we ignore allegory or short change it by trying to make it fact. If we could only realize that the someone's memory of a fifties diner, though not the real thing, still tells us something important about how people experienced the fifties diner then we might be able to find all kinds of truth that we never knew were there before. 

I Got to Get This Off My Chest

As I started to think about what I was going to do for my first post I was thinking of ways to introduce myself and I realized that all labels I was going to use to describe myself had baggage attached to them, especially the ones that mean the most to me. So I decided that my intent in this blog is not so much to talk about my self but my thoughts about the topics and issues that are on my mind. So instead I'm going to talk about the baggage that I'm ready to unload.

I'm a person of faith, a Christian and my thoughts are coming from that perspective. That word, Christian, has a lot of baggage attached to it and much of it is well deserved baggage. I once heard a person describe it as being a Christian but. "I'm a Christian but I don't..." you fill in the blank. I want to claim the name Christian, I work in a church so I carry around much of that baggage. So today I want to get some things off my chest. I have wanted to do this for years and am happy to have the opportunity.

I want to start by saying I'm sorry...

I'm sorry for all the ways that Christianity has hurt and oppressed people over the history. I would really like to name each of those grievances and apologize for them individually but I could not name them all the wars, the violence, the misdeeds that have been done mistakenly in the name of God. You may say that I have had nothing to do with these but I say because I want to claim to name Christian, I must too accept the history that comes with it. So for these things I am sorry.

I am sorry for the actions that some Christians take that alienate people. These actions are unequivocally wrong and there is no excuse for them.

I am sorry for every person who has been hurt by the Church (universal use of the word) in any way. I wish I knew all your names and could personally apologize to you for this in person. You are a person and are therefore worthwhile. Don't let anyone tell you differently. It should be the Church of all places where you should be accepted. I specifically want to address the LGBT community and say that grievous things have been done to you by some Christians and for that I apologize.

For every person who has been judged in any way by Christians I apologize. We often spend too much time obsessing over the spec in others eyes when we have planks in our own. I wish I could hear each of your stories and learn about you as the person which is what each person deserves.

For each person who has not been told they are wrong because Christians to often assume we have all the answers I apologize. Truth is that as Christians we are on a journey just like everyone else and we are trying to figure things out. We should not be arrogant enough to believe we understand everything. So for the claim Christians have it all figured out I'm sorry.

To those who have suffered from the us vs. them attitude that Christianity has sometimes taken I'm sorry. The truth is there is no reason a christian can not be a christian and also take science seriously. There is no reason to leave our reason at the door, in fact it is important that we do not. We need to be thinking persons.

I'm sorry that we have not often had a sense of humor about our own foibles. As Christians we do take our faith seriously but we must be able to laugh at ourselves when we realize that there is much to laugh about.

Mostly I want to apologize for I have been hypocritical. I try to live my life the best I can to the principles I talk about. But the truth is I don't always succeed in this so I apologize when I myself have done harm to the name Christian.

It feels good to get that off my chest. I have always wanted to make these apologies but have never had a forum to do it. Now I know that by apologizing I don't right all these wrongs, but at least I can shed a little light on them.

I also don't want people to think that I am ashamed of my faith because I am not. My faith feeds me, and I can not measure the importance that it plays in my life.

The last thing I want to do in this first blog is to say that one of my hopes is that the things I write start a conversation so always feel free to comment.