Stacy, you have me a bit confused. I read your paragraph, ” the story of a creator god, who crafted in love and redeemed what rebelled is one i can imagine. a figure like christ, who fit himself into smallness to reclaim my heart, i can follow” doesn’t fit with your claim that the “Bible belongs to a religion I distrust”. You say you don’t know what “god” you’ll find. And you are blaming people that you say claim to have all rights on god.

I submit that 1. - the Christ you can follow can only be known about through this book, the Bible. The account of his life and purpose are only found there. 2. - If I read a book and then tell you all about the book; and tell you false information, how is that the fault of the book? Have you read the book all the way through for yourself?

You say, “centuries of this religion of christianity - that comes from careful human reading and study of scripture - dictates that i must listen to both its leaders and the collective. the religion of christianity does not support the “get to know god on your own with the bible.” This statement contradicts what you said earlier that you don’t trust this religion or the people who “claim to have all rights on ‘god’”. You seem to be saying that you can only trust the people that you don’t trust. Maybe I am misreading. Yet you go on to say that if you’re going to embrace the Christian god you must listen to the “wise and beautiful people who carry a general consensus of what his scripture says.” Okay, so how does this preclude you from reading the scripture for yourself? Are these ‘wise and beautiful people’ somehow smarter than you? And besides, how do you know that they really are wise? And just WHO are THEY, anyway? Are they the ones whose ’ hierarchical’ leadership you wish to leave behind? You are so non-specific that it becomes rather hard to follow your line of reasoning. I can’t decide if you are for ‘em or again’ ‘em