A reader writes:
I just read your essay on "Why I Call Myself a Christian" on BeliefNet.
Your reflection on faith – this specific faith of Christianity – is beautiful. Having grown up in a world of conservative evangelicals who were mostly concerned with sheltering me from a dangerous world, your thoughts on the importance of letting go mean much. I had to learn the hard way, first by letting go of faith altogether, that real faith has little to do with control and that the message of Jesus of Nazareth wasn't one of laws and moral codes, but one of self-sacrificing, abundant love. After all, control is mostly about fear, and 1 John 4 makes it clear that fear, not hate, is the opposite of love.
Reading this in the context of your debate with Sam Harris made me think about that relationship between control, fear, and belief in more stark terms. Is the inability to believe rooted in truth, or is it the product of fear of letting go? There came a point in my life when I just chose to believe, because living without faith, hope, and love was something I just couldn't do. Was it psychologically weak? Intellectually dishonest? Maybe, but I don't care. What I understood about the world and about myself didn't make sense if faith wasn't involved.
The Dish 