
I was raised with three Methodist ministers in the family, and I grew up attending church twice a week and spitting out Protestant doctrine like a good little straight-A Sunday Schooler. Then as I grew up, I sort of lost my religion. After all, how could I even call myself a Christian if I don’t believe that an afterlife is reserved exclusively for those who have made Jesus Christ their personal Lord and Savior? So God and I kept chatting, and I never lost my love for Jesus, but I pretty much started boycotting church -- every time I attended, someone was preaching the sort of intolerance and closed-mindedness that made me want to take someone out with an Uzi. And that definitely violates those commandments.
Lately, my life seems to revolve around local Marin author Isabel Allende, who wrote The House of the Spirits, Eva Luna,

Amma, the Divine Mother