Getting started

I was raised in a very religious, Baptist home. We attended church more than most, and it was a big part of our lives. It still is a big part of the lives of the rest of my family members. I was raised in a Christian school, which my parents created within the church they co-founded, and I was pretty saturated with their beliefs during my formative years.


I was raised with a very black and white view of faith, God, church, and everything beyond that. It was really easy to know how I felt about things, and my beliefs didn't involve a lot of introspection.


I accepted Jesus into my heart, which we called it at the time, when I was four. I'm not sure why the popular ticket into heaven of the time was reduced to that. I know it was originally meant to mean so much more, but at four years old, I thought that in order to avoid hell, I needed to tell Jesus that I accepted him into my heart.


Even at four, I wanted to change the world. I was convinced that I needed to do whatever I could to get people to say that they wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts, and I could help them avoid eternal damnation in hell! It seemed pretty urgent to me!


I remember devising a plan to trick my neighbor into the field behind our house, and tell her I was going to get a snack, but I was really going to get my sister to help me convince her that she needed to ask Jesus into her heart. Salvation by sabotage. That was my plan.


When I was in high school, I was a part of a First Night production of skits put on by my school. We offered free hot chocolate and harmless skits as a way to ensnare the unsuspecting New Years celebrant, and once we got them into the gymnasium, we began skits depicting demons (dressed in black), eerily circling unsuspecting people, set to dramatic music, and demonstrating that the world is a spiritual battle, and there are demons around at all times. If you want to avoid hell, you better listen to what we have to say.


After these horror skits, we'd quickly filter into the crowd and corner whoever we could. We had a little booklet called the Four Spiritual Laws, and we'd try to save these people from eternal damnation. Even at 13 and 14, I still misunderstood the bigger picture. I would tell these people that they may not feel it's necessary to pray this prayer with me today, but if they don't, they're going to go to hell, so what can it hurt?


I've always been good at sales, and I don't recall many people saying no to me, and I really thought I was guiding them to salvation...by strongarming them into saying a specific prayer.


I spent my high school summers traveling all over New England, and even some time in New York City, to share God's word with the children. My sales pitch was still just trying to get these kids to say the magic words that unlocked the keys to heaven.


Now, the children's clubs were a bit more effective than the hell scare skits of New Year's Eve. At least we taught them actual stories from the bible, and told them of God's love in a creative and loving manner. I think some of these kids may have opened their hearts to God's love, and for that I feel like I did some good.


Still, I thought it was all cut and dry. Black and white. I wish it was just that simple.

I was 10 years old before I realized my parents were even capable of sinning or being wrong. Once that realization hit, I questioned everything. My Dad had a double major in college in Bible and Psychology, and he had reference books that enabled me to translate sections of the Bible into the original Greek and Hebrew.

I began to question why our church would not allow women to be pastors. I noticed the more research I did, the more I realized the church (organized religion as a whole) has a bad habit of imposing their beliefs on top of God's instructions.

For example, I grew up calling God the Lord. I didn't realize that the first time that imagery was assigned to God was when King James decided to have a version of the Bible translated into his name, and then all the class systems and royalty references were introduced.

I should have known better. God chose to have Jesus born into the humblest of beginnings, living a life as a carpenter and socializing with the outcasts of the world. The Lord imagery is something that man would value.

These types of subtle, and not so subtle, changes that came with the translations of the words of God have shaped today's organized religion into a shadow of what I believe in my heart that God envisioned.

I am not a theologian, and I do not have the skills or resources to translate the Bible into English, without prejudice. I don't think I have the integrity to do such a thing anyway. I clearly have an agenda. I believe that God loves us all, and that men and women are created equal in God's eyes. While there are clear differences between the genders, I do not believe that God chose men to rule over women.

I think in order to have a truly unbiased translation, the translators should probably have no vested interest in the outcome of the translation. I think that makes sense!

For now, I will defer to the translations I have access to, and I will focus on the teachings of Jesus. It's a good place to start, since much of the Old Testament is discounted by the New Testament, and things like the Levitical Code are so obviously abused by some fanatical groups/religions, I don't want to go there.

Then there's the Apostle Paul, whose letters were published as part of the "word of God." Paul liked to throw his own two cents in from time to time, and that can just get confusing too, because it can be difficult to understand if Paul is talking or if God is talking. Some people say God was talking through Paul, but I don't know about that necessarily. I'm pretty sure God wired things for people to populate the earth at that time. Paul seemed to be a big fan of the single/celibate life.

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about how if people feel they must, then they should get married, but he would prefer everyone were (single/celibate) like him. He appears to suggest that marriage is really just a solution for people who do not have the self control to be celibate. He also appears to say he is okay with divorce, as long as there is no remarriage.

For years, I was raised believing that it was okay to divorce (in the case of abuse or infidelity), but that it was not okay to remarry after divorce. That doesn't even make sense. The only reason I was taught that was because that was Paul's opinion, and we're taking the advice of someone who clearly advocates a single lifestyle. Also, he made it clear he has no idea what God would say about marriage, and he was just offering his own advice. There is nothing wrong with that, but I wonder why these letters made it into the Bible.

I guess it wouldn't be so troubling if so many people didn't take every word so very literally, which in all actuality is impossible, because every Bible scholar knows that the Bible contradicts itself constantly, if interpreted literally.

Which brings me back to my plan to start with Jesus. I think we can all agree that Jesus' life can teach us great truths, and it really does give us a roadmap of how we should live our lives. I know that's really WWJD talk, but in the spirit of simplicity, I'm starting with the man who changed the world.