I don't want to be flippant about my faith or the faith of others in this blog. I have been writing about feeling a release; a new excitement about my faith. Maybe what is new is the freedom to no longer hang onto some of the basic doctrines of Christianity that are clearly not plausible to me anymore. I am feeling freed from hanging on to these teachings that I don't think I ever accepted. I still remember my reaction and that of many in the crowd when Bishop Spong exclaimed, "Jesus did not die for my sins!" There was such a release in hearing him publicly and proudly proclaim a faith view that I dare not say since it is considered heresy. It certainly engendered a new freedom in me.

It is getting close to a year since I started this blog last March. I initially just wanted to bookmark and comment on items that were attracting my attention. Then within a month, I went to the talk by Bishop Spong mentioned above. At some point, I decided to write my spiritual autobiography and started using the profile to do that. I haven't gotten back to it though I had made a list of significant influences on me that I seemed to have misplaced. Maybe I will change the profile to such a list and comment on their significance in the blog.

I also do not want to make this blog a criticism of others. There are two aspects to that. I am discussing it here because I am not sure who is ready to talk about this stuff. I do not want to be critical of where they are at. Secondly, there is a huge urge to be critical of the Christian Right. Much of what their leaders do has nothing to do with faith. They are trying to promote a political agenda and find manipulating believers as a handy tool. Many of them have to keep the excitement up to keep bringing in the money. This article is an example of the things that scare me about the Religious Right.