Dear Reader,

"It's odd, he thought... how sharing a sense of doubt can bring men together even more than sharing a faith.  The believer will fight another believer over a shade of difference; the doubter fights only with himself....  Doubt is not great treachery as [some] seem to think.  Doubt is human."

-Graham Greene, from his novel Monsignor Quixote

Miguel de Cervantes' hero, Don Quixote, wandered the world with his loyal companion, Sancho Panza, trying to make it a better place - he fancied himself a defender of the powerless.  He often made a fool of himself -- battling barbers and tilting at windmills.  By the second book, others who have heard of his exploits make sport of him, sending him on quests and imagined adventures.  Even Quixote's friends send along the arrogant Samson Carrasco to bring him home.

At the beginning of their journey, I laughed at the comic exploits of these adventurers, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.  But as the story continued I found myself cheering for Quixote - not laughing at him.  I celebrated his victory over Carrasco's "Knight of the Wood".  There was a nobility - a goodness - to his faith.

Centuries later, Graham Greene imagined a new ending to the tale of Don Quixote.  After the adventures -- long after the windmills -- the old man settles down as a Monsignor in the Catholic Church in Greene's version.  Sancho Panza becomes governor of a small leftist state.  And the two friends remain faithful companions.  A piece of their discussion on faith and doubt is quoted above...

Consider this the beginning of a conversation.  A conversation between you and me.  A conversation with other voices too.  This is not a debate -- not a battle of wits and sophistry, each side seeking victory.  No, this is simply a conversation between friends seeking truth.

A friend proposed the idea of this open conversation.  His journal is subtitled "Why I am not a Christian."  And so this page where you have found yourself in the abyss of cyberspace might be titled, "Why I am a Christian."

For I am a Christian.  I believe.  I believe and I doubt...  Perhaps it is best said that I choose to believe.  I cannot prove my faith - and so those looking for such an apologetic in these pages will be sorely disappointed.  That is not to say that my faith flies in spite of reason.  Quite to the contrary.  I find good reason to believe.  But that falls far short of proof.  I fell in love with the story of the Bible and with the God to whom it testifies.  I have experienced God as ever faithful in my own life.  I have been blessed.  And so I choose to believe.

I believe and I doubt.  Faith and doubt are not mutually exclusive as some imagine.  They are entwined, married.  And their child is hope.