Glimmer of hope

Greg Boyd,
 
Roughly a week ago I heard of you for the first time from a friend during a dinner conversation. We went through our usual political, social banters – stopping just long enough in the realm of theology to discover that my friend adheres to Open Theism. Despite being a fairly opinionated person I haven’t grappled with that subject enough to care much. He advised I read a book or two you’ve written, but considering the fact that I work full-time and am preparing for my postgraduate studies to begin shortly, I wasn’t particularly keen on running out to purchase additional reading material.  
 
For some reason I decided to wikipedia Open Theism later that evening. In it, I saw your name was linked, and recognizing it from the earlier conversation I followed it. (All apologies for being long winded, but I am telling my story so bear with me.) The link didn’t actually work, but when I Googled your name it led me to your site, which I then followed to your church’s site.
 
I’m not sure how I first started listening through the sermon archive, but nonetheless, I first listened to a sermon from 2004 entitled Taking America Back for God and ended up playing the rest of the series while at work over the next couple of days. The truth is I expected to hear more right-wing Evangelical bullshit – maybe something eschatological in nature about America fulfilling its destiny as the world slides towards the End. Definitely material that I could use as ammunition to pound my Christian heritage with in subsequent converations.
 
I’m in large part fed up with being a Christian. After recently moving to the Midwest from the West Coast, I optimistically began my search for a congregation to belong to. After attending roughly a dozen churches across denominational lines I have an entire list of outrageous material I’ve been subjected from across the pulpit. I’ve endured hearing racism, denominationalism, ethnocentrism, imperialism, legalism, violence and blind support for the State of Israel all touted as Christian virtues. 
 
If I could get Jesus out of my head, I would. If I could just convert to Buddhism or agnosticism, I would. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I can’t shake the belief that the historical man – Jesus of Nazareth – had the Divine in him. Even just reading the Gospel accounts from a literary perspective I am captured by his revolutionary ideal of the kingdom of God. The problem is finding a sane and intelligent group of people to try and live that kingdom out with is not easy, and sometimes feels impossible.
 
I am being more transparent than I could ever be in real life, ironically with a stranger that I’ve only heard from some dumb podcast. The thing is that your sermons have given me a glimmer of hope, that maybe there are Christians out there who I wouldn’t be ashamed of being associated with, and I just wanted to thank you for that.
 
Best Regards