It has been religious people, often within the organized church, who have been the most critical of and even hostile to my relationship with God.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
People who don't know the true character of God - who don't believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger - can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.
My mother was a personal friend of God's. They had ongoing conversations.
In the periods of my life when I've had least contact with the Church, I've always assumed a belief in God is a solid thing, but clearly it's a relationship; it has good days and bad days.
A lot of people, because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion, think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed, to be the repository of other people's hope.
The audience that I try to reach are members of what I call the church alumni association. Now they are people who have not found in institutional religion a God big enough to be God for their world.
They have vilified me, they have crucified me; yes, they have even criticized me.
The Lord has placed next to me many people, who, with generosity and love for God and the church, have helped me and been close to me.
There's always been a religious strain in me. I can't get rid of it. I don't want to get rid of it. I'm not involved in a church, but I understand that impulse to believe in something that's never going to betray you.
Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me.
My mother and grandmother had me in church, and I was the kid that played in church. But pastor was telling me something totally different that there was a God. He knit me together in my mother's womb. He made me special. He wanted to have a personal relationship with me.