Argh. No exclamation mark needed. It’s not that bad. I was trying to figure out how this damn thing got started in the first place. It occurred to me that there have been more than one beginning, including a big one, and roots that go a lot further back. This is more complex than I would have thought.

The big one came in my first year of my theology degree as an adult student. It was looking at the Bible as other than “the word of God”. How as it put together, different sources in books, Yahwest and Priestly come to mind. Oh, and Q source in the Gospels. And Edits along the way in the early years. And the shit that went down at the Nicean Councils? Holy fuck. It didn’t take long to realize that I would have to define Church and Christianity on my own because, well, which denomination is correct, or even most correct?

I decided then to be Christian but denomination X for the purpose of worship. I go to be with fellow Christians whether they believe as I do or not. I have had to be careful at times. I watched a more liberal church get hijacked by seven day creationists and got caught in the crossfire. That was the big beginning.

Other beginnings include an art ministry, a music ministry, and this experiment. I have been doing this for a while now, at least consciously that is. It maybe that my first year university decision simply evolved over the years and only surfaced a while back.

I like writing essays. My degree was essentially a paper driven one. It’s only a bachelors but take a bit of pride as more than one prof said to me, “you realize this is a master’s level degree almost everywhere else?” I graduated on the cusp of a Magnum cum laude. Not bad for a guy drying out from a pretty long bout of alcoholism.