I did not compose my work as one might put on a church vestment... rather it sprung from the truly fervent faith of my heart, such as I have felt it since my childhood.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I grew up in the church, and I feel very strongly about it.
While I have never been a regular churchgoer, I'm anything but immune to the power and the majesty of the religious experience.
My faith isn't very churchy, it's a pretty personal, intimate thing and has been a huge source of strength in moments of life and death.
There is in my work a very strong religious foreground and background. In the later work some of that tends to diminish, but it's certainly present in the early work.
I have often felt a motion of love to leave some hints in writing of my experience of the goodness of God, and now, in the thirty-sixth year of my age, I begin this work.
I have always felt that my work is religious, not sacrilegious.
My religion lies in my composition.
I have felt the inspiration of the living God directing me in my labors.
It was all a back-handed blessing, and my friends were the ones who kept the faith, read my work, and urged me to submit it to publishers (by sending it out for me - they would not hear no for an answer.
Only a couple of times have I ever been to church and felt enlightened by it.