I posted this on my MySpace blog back in December of 2005, but after seeing the movie 8: The Mormon Proposition as a part of SIFF this year I felt compelled to repost it here. This was written after hearing NPR's "This I Believe" segment. I did submit it to NPR, although they never used it.
This I Believe
I believe in God. I know that I am going to Heaven because I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. The key word in that phrase is personal - my faith is personal and private. You won't find me preaching to others about my beliefs, or wagging my fingers at others about their sins.
I believe in prayer. I believe that God answers all prayers, but sometimes the answer is 'No', although thankfully, sometimes the answer is 'Yes'. Recently I was having one of those days at work. Every one and every thing was getting on my nerves, and I was about to completely lose my temper. I took a break and went outside to calm down and regain some sense of peace. I started to pray, just asking for patience and the belief that the day would get better for me. In the middle of my prayer, a woman, a complete stranger, came up to ask me if I was all right. I believe that God sent her to me, to remind me that I am loved, that people care about me, and that everything would be okay.
I believe in the Bible. Not as a rulebook for life, but as a symbol for the kind of life I would like to lead. I believe that it is irresponsible to pick and choose the parts of the Bible you want to preach, and that by doing so you are doing a disservice to the Bible.
I believe that if you feel that homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so (Lev. 18:22), then you must also feel that working on the Sabbath is wrong (Exodus 35:2), and that eating seafood and shellfish is wrong (Lev. 11:10), therefore you must treat those that indulge in these biblical abominations in the same manner. Of course you must also believe that Jesus said "As I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34).
I believe in the Constitution. I also believe that the Constitution supersedes the Bible. We know who wrote the Constitution, we know where and when they wrote it, and it was written in English, so there is no need for any translations that might lead to controversy. The Bible carries no such guarantees.
I believe in the phrase "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" which is contained in the Bill of Rights. With this in mind, I believe that 'Constitutional Amendment' and 'the Bible states' are mutually exclusive.
I guess what it all boils down to is that I believe in having balance in your life. I took a survey recently that identified my religion as Liberal Christian, which sounds about right. I'm take it on faith Christian mixed with no-nonsense logistician. I'm okay with that, and I believe that God is too.
