In Order to Understand Where I'm Going...

You should probably know how I got here.

I was raised in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I went to Sunday School every single Sunday unless I had some sort of childhood contagion. My mother went from Sunday School teacher, to Church Secretary, to Associate Pastor. I knew all the stories, and hymns, and traditions. Church was something that I couldn't even believe that other people didn't participate in.  In middle school, I brought my friends from school to my youth group events with such frequency, the senior staff referred to me as "the evangelical," until confirmation class at least.

I went through most of my confirmation class at my mother's church... and then dropped out, inspiring a few fellow confirmands to follow suit. That Sunday, we were talking about who gets into heaven, and who goes to hell.  My Youth Pastor, who was leading the discussion, put forth that if you don't believe that Jesus Christ was your Lord and Saviour, you would end up in the fiery underworld. If you did believe, however, you were saved... but only if you believed. Being the argumentative type, I said, "Well what about Gandhi?" My Youth Pastor then essentially said that because Gandhi was Hindu, one of the most peaceful and loving people ever to have walked the planet was in hell. I simply cannot fathom that. What kind of God would do that?

I started soul-searching. A lot. I still am, and probably always will be. I've learned about all kinds of traditions, religions, and spiritualities that I otherwise may have just skipped over completely.  In the last ten years, the only belief that I have consistently returned to is that there must be something greater out there than ourselves. Whether it's God, or gods, or goddesses, or karma, or even the Force. I don't know, and I'm comfortable with that.

This year has seen several sizable life changes.  Somehow after ten (count 'em 10) years, I'm back attending a PC(USA) regularly. Like, an in the choir, being an adult leader at youth group, part of a bible study group kind of regular attendance. It's a little weird for me, but neither the church nor I have been struck down by hellfire or holy wrath yet.  Anyways, I've decided to do something that I have never in my life ever done before.  Read the whole Bible. All of it from start to finish: Genesis to Revelations... and then probably the Gnostic Gospels, too, for good measure.  And aren't you lucky? I'm going to write about it.

I expect that I'll be reading the Bible from an intellectual/literary criticism perspective while bearing in mind that it is a religious text, and therefore, deeply personal.  I'll be using an NRSV Study Bible (which will be arriving in the mail in the next few days) in hopes that some of the finer points of the geography and important contexts will be touched on, as well as the provision of inevitable discussion questions. As I mentioned, I do plan on reading it in the paginated order it appears between the covers, about a chapter at a time, and posting about three times a week.  I'll even post about Sunday's sermon/liturgy as an occasional bonus!  I do not, however, want to take this journey all by myself, hence the blog. I welcome comments, questions, discussion, links to articles or sermons or even a lesson in Hebrew or Greek. That being said, hatefulness of any kind will not be tolerated. Love your neighbor folks, am I right?

<3 Agnostic in the Pews