Confident 2 July 2010, Friday

I believe I’m finally confident enough to tell my family about my agnosticism–but I think I’ll leave it up to them to ask. I had a chance a few months ago, when my mom asked what my problem with church was, but I was caught off guard and only said, “I just have too many [...]

Hello again. 6 April 2010, Tuesday

I’m rarely home and never know when I’ll next get the chance to hop a budget flight back to my hometown, so I seized upon the extra two days off last week (God bless you, mostly Catholic government) to make it to some special occasions, apart from Easter, for my family. Once these occasions were [...]

Thorns 4 February 2010, Thursday

One notion I have retained from Christianity is that my body is not me; it is just a shell that will empty when I die. It’s the main reason I would rather be cremated than buried; I would rather not have family and friends gathering regularly at a grave to visit me when I am [...]

Three inches off the back, please. 21 January 2010, Thursday

I may have written before that I’d reached a point where it felt wrong to go on attending Bible study group meetings without some action on my part. Either I had to come clean and tell them that I doubted (optional to tell them I’d been dating a non-evangelical for almost a year), or I [...]

Don’t Romans 8:28 me now. 14 January 2010, Thursday

Last week, T broke his leg. I thought this was just a matter of putting it in a cast and then taking it off after a few months, but this is a case of surgery and then three years of rehabilitation. It’s a process that T already went through when he first had problems with [...]

27 December 2009, Sunday

The meaning of Christmas seems lost to me now. Yes, I know that it’s the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ; yes, I know that Christians are celebrating the birth of the long-foretold Messiah. But it doesn’t seem to mean anything for me anymore. Last Christmas, I was tearing up at church because I [...]

Initial thoughts on Ken Daniels’s “Why I Believed” 6 December 2009, Sunday

I’ve been reading “Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary,” by Kenneth Daniels. Two things repeatedly cross my mind as I read: there are things different about my faith that have allowed me to keep it, despite my doubts; and, maybe it’s time to tell people that I am no longer an evangelical Christian. [...]

Linux user, or Reformatted 4 December 2009, Friday

Yesterday, I found a secondhand copy of “The Sinner’s Guide to the Evangelical Right,” by Robert Lanham. So far, it’s funny, though some readers might be confused as to whether some statements are sarcastic or just plain mean and biased. It’s also discomfiting that this book is about the people who presumably control not just [...]

Faint Markings 3 December 2009, Thursday

I’ve finally gotten around to rereading Mark, but nothing grips me. I’m supposed to be amazed at God become man, but nothing convinces me that he is God. It occured to me in the middle of Chapter 4 or 5, This man is supposed to be the Son of God, but Mark doesn’t really say [...]

Eet eet eet 27 November 2009, Friday

It’s like forgetting the words to your favorite song. You can’t believe it; you were always singing along. It was so easy and the words so sweet. You can’t remember; you try to feel the beat. – Regina Spektor, “Eet” When I think about religion now, it feels as though I’m missing something. I’ve forgotten [...]