Sure. I was sent to catholic school in HS and I spent a healthy amount of time contradicting and challenging my theology teachers. I was adamant that it was all a bunch of hogwash. It wasn't until I was 29 years old that I decided to take a year long bible study course to truly dive in to the text and study it without any mockery. The class was at a United Methodist church just a couple of doors down from the home I was living in. Every Tuesday night at 8pm a group of about 12 of us would meet to discuss the bible as we read through it chronologically. I learned a great deal about myself and I made some friendships that have been amazing.

In short, what I learned from the bible is that the teachings of Christ would be a fantastic guide for anyone to adhere to in life. What I've also learned since is that any of the bigotry or fear-mongering that is done in the name of Christ, is done so only where ambiguity in the text exists. If people were to stick to the lessons of Christ that are obvious and non-subjective, we'd live in a much nicer world. In short, after reading the bible I developed a strong affection for Jesus Christ and his teachings and I am able to separate Christ from Christians. Two very different things.

Often, on Hubski I will criticize christians for hypocrisy or attempting to push public policy based on religious precepts. I hope that this is never misconstrued as me criticizing Christ. I love Jesus Christ and his teachings. I am a fan of Jefferson's approach to the new Testament.

I also use metaphors often when trying to convey complex ideas in both my personal and business life and I do think hearing Jesus' parables from a young age helped to instill this tactic in me. The bible can be a beautiful thing, especially the New Testament. It gets scary when people see it as an absolute directive, especially the OLD Testament. The New Testament, for believers, is supposed to be a new covenant between man and God. A new contract so to speak. Still, so many people use the Old Testament when it is convenient to pursue policies of fear and bigotry. These same type of people used it to pursue the policies of racism. I've actually spoken to someone that admits their father was a racist and used the bible to justify it and agrees that this was wrong. This same person now uses the bible to say that homosexuality is a sin. -The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

So, I have a greater ability to have discussions with religious people and know both sides of the argument and, more importantly, I am able to completely respect Christ while often having little regard for "christians."

Hope that explains it. Kind of all over the place...