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My father was my main influence. He was a preacher, but he was also a history and political science teacher, and since he was my hero, I wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a teacher.

I was raised in a very activist household so that I grew up surrounded by people who were activists.

My mother was the influence in my life. She was strong; she had great faith in the ultimate triumph of justice and hard work. She believed passionately in education.

I had a very moral upbringing, and spiritual in a sort of not very specific way.

Had I been more religious in my youth, I might have become a pastor, for it was the pastoral role I'd sought.

I had been a journalist in Europe and then went to divinity school in the early 1990s, and came out as somebody who had the perspective of a journalist and was now also theologically educated.

The arts and a belief in the values of the civil rights movement, in the overwhelming virtue of diversity, these were our religion. My parents worshipped those ideals.

I'm a spiritual person. I'm not very religious. I was raised Catholic, but I am influenced a lot by Buddhism and Hinduism.