I believe that is what the God experience does for us. It calls us beyond our limits into the fullness of life - into a capacity to love people we are not taught to love - and into an ability to be who we are.
Let me say that I consider myself a deep believer in the reality of God. I might define God quite differently from the way some people in the Christian faith would do so, but I do not doubt the reality of that experience.
I want the traditional family upheld, but I don't want it upheld to the detriment of other people.
I think the best way to view the Gospels is to view them as a magnificent portrait being painted by Jewish artists to try to capture the essence of a God experience that they believe they had with Jesus of Nazareth.
The Bible interprets life from its particular perspective; it does not record in a factual way the human journey through history.
I live on the other side of Copernicus and Galileo; I can no longer conceive of God as sort of above the sky, looking down and keeping record books.
If I were a child of Tibet or of Arabia, I suspect the path I'd walk would be the Buddhist path or the Muslim path. And I don't mind saying that I don't invalidate any of those paths.
If you begin to give people hope that there is a brighter future, there is a new tomorrow, then the people who were yesterday's terrorists become tomorrow's elected officials and they're part of the system.
I don't think much about my physical body going off into the long, green fairways of Heaven to play golf.
My sense is if the Episcopal Church can't stand challenge within its own ranks, then it is not a church I would want to be a member of anyway.
It's just not easy enough to say that I pray and God will accomplish.
Religion is a mixed blessing.
I believe that God is very real. I believe that I live my life every day inside the reality of this God. I call this God by different words. I describe God as the source of life and the source of love and the ground of being.
Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state.
You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.
I learned early in life that you get places by having the right enemies.
I believe that God is very real.
I experience God as the power of love.
The way that I see Christianity is that its role is to enhance the life of every person.
I can only give away the love that I have received.
