For those of you who don't already know me, my name is Drew. Thank you for joining me on my Bible Challenge.
As a little introduction, I am a College senior in Columbus Ohio Studying Psychology and Organizational Communications with relatively little idea in what direction my life is headed. I am not a church official, ordained, and I don't really have any special qualifications for this page. I am, however, a former college athlete, a musician, a practicing Christian, and a child of God. I grew up in the Episcopal Church, and for the many of you who do not know what it is, think of it as a bridge between the Catholic and protestant churches. The Episcopal church practices many of the traditions of the Catholic Church while maintaining a pretty liberal outlook on the world. I grew up in a church headed by a woman (not allowed in the Catholic Faith) who is openly gay (really not allowed in the Catholic Faith and frowned upon in many other denominations). I heard political sermons week in and week out that inspired a passion for social justice and a want to bring God's kingdom here to earth.
But while my church life was liberal to say the least, my home town was as conservative as it gets. I drove by churches who planted little crosses in the front yards for the victims of abortion. I listened to sermons about the issues of gun violence in society on Sundays, and would return home to a community that had more registered guns then citizens. As you can imagine, this lead to many spirited debates about the meaning of God's word and the applications of it hear on earth and these debates continued into college as I struggled to find other Christians who shared my political affiliations.
About this Page
All of these experiences (and more that we will no doubt get into as my readings progress) have built my faith and what I believe in. I can not fathom a creator who would send his creations to hell. So to accommodate that, I believe that all people go to heaven, regardless of faith or deeds. I believe that the Bible was divinely inspired, but should not be used as a history book. I believe in Jesus our Passover and the importance of Jesus's teachings over all else in the Bible. I believe in the rights of gay marriage and believe that any monogamous, God centered relationship is holy in God's eyes. And I have strong views on many other social and economic issues that I hope to explore in this site.
However, I need to be sure that the values I have grown up with are based on scripture if I am going to call myself a Christian. And while I am sure I have heard most of the bible through church and through my own previous readings, but to say that I have a strong enough biblical base would be a lie. Now however, I plan on doing the Bible Challenge. Over the next year, I will read a portion of the bible every day based on the Schedule laid out on the Bible Challenge website (link below) and write a little bit about what I've read and how it affects my life and my faith. I will not shy away from hard material, ignore the things that I don't agree with, or sidestep hard answers. Instead, I hope to provide a hard hitting and relevant synopsis of what I've read and how it affects my life. In all, I'm putting my beliefs to the test to find out whether the beliefs I hold dear are based scripture... or not.
It is my hope that this site will be of some help to you, and welcome you to interact with me on Twitter (@sagittins) or by emailing me ([email protected]). I promise to treat your thoughts with respect.