About My Faith

“Feed Your Mind With Good Ideas, and Refine Your Philosophy.” – Jim Rhon

When I was thirteen, my mom remarried and we moved across the country from East Coast to West Coast. That was the beginning of a huge culture shock. My new step-dad would often invite his seminary students over for lunch after church. As a teen, I watched from the sidelines while they debated their differing viewpoints. The one with the more persuasive argument would win the debate. Did that make one more right and the others more wrong? No, but they all conceded anyway. Intellectualism. Logic. Reason. Disputes. That’s the way churches divide and new denominations are formed. My grandfather founded a very Orthodox one and his sons all followed in his footsteps. After years of attending public schools in New York and Florida, I was sent to private school for 8th grade. This school had a doctrine that was touted as the “most pure.” They were the Elect. They were the Chosen. Stand up. Recite The Creed. Sit down. Repeat. But, severe cruelty and mean-spirited bullying made the teaching sound like a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. I no longer wanted to be a part of the “faith”, if that was what it was. The next year I switched to another private school. This one in Solana Beach. The kids weren’t perfect, but Oil from Azusa flowed down the street and a Spirit of Love filled the air. I’d lived in the Mid-West, the North, and the South–– that part they call the Bible Belt. I’d attended church three times a week, but I had never seen the LOVE-GOD in a religious setting. No one at this new school seemed to care about intellectual arguments or keeping the doctrine pure. They just loved you and accepted you however you came. Why was it so different here? Was it a different religion? Was it a different God? I wasn’t sure, but suddenly I wanted to be a part of it – whatever it was. 

This was my first introduction to God as Love.

Later, in my search for Truth, I got lost along the way and wound up in a dark place. I had to work hard to relearn the Truth and get back on The Way. My other dad (not step-dad) is a psychologist. He did the best he could with what he knew, but he had wavering faith and never found much joy or health. So I resolved to run my own race with faith, even when religion didn’t add up with science or there wasn’t any Love in it. That proved to be quite a challenge. Then, I discovered Dr. Caroline Leaf. Finally Logic and Reason married together with Faith, Hope, and Love… what? Neuroscience, plasticity, psychology, physics . . . and faith? We can hear God in our thoughts? He’s as close as our breath?

A new spiritual dimension opened up & a courtship with the Love-God began.

My philosophy may, or may not, resonate with your own.
But, my philosophy is to love either way.