Project Conversion

“Is there a God? If so, what’s he/she/it like?”

“What do you believe about the divine?”

“Is God one essence displaying itself in many forms?“

I get these perennial questions now and then and I assume it’s because of my recent immersion into 12 faith systems from around the world. It seems that I am at most, an expert on the matter, or at the very least, capable of some spiritual and flowery b.s. that makes everyone happy enough to quit asking.

Turns out, I’m neither.

Project Conversion, folks often forget, was not a journey in discovering faith, but in rediscovering people I once hated. Yes, I had some trippy experiences. Yes, one could say that I found God, but as they say, “the devil is in the details.” Continue Reading This Post »

My phone rang around 4:30 yesterday afternoon, just as I had finished washing a sink full of dishes. I looked at the caller I.D. and smiled. I tapped the “answer” button and said, “Allah’u'Abha!”

It was my Baha’i Mentor from February of 2011, Dr. McCormick. She still gets tickled by the fact that I remember the Baha’i greeting.

“Allah’u'Abha Andrew, how are you?”

“Oh I’m hanging in there. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I know you’re busy these days, but we’re having Study Circle tonight and I wondered if you’d like to attend?”

I stopped drying a plate. “Did you say ‘we’?”

“Yes! There are a few people coming over who are investigating and I thought who better to help me than my old student.”

Frankly, she had me at Allah’u'Abha. Continue Reading This Post »

The email around here since Project Conversion began in January of 2011 is an interesting place. A veritable Cracker-Jack box of emotionally laced messages, I never know what surprise will emerge each day.

Sometimes people inform me that I’m heading toward hell and so take it upon themselves to save me. Others simply insist that I go to hell. According to these various messages, Project Conversion has done everything from leading folks down the path of destruction, to reawakening the dormant faith of an entire family, to ushering an actual conversion.

Project Conversion then is like a piece of abstract art: Interpretation may vary.

That said, it’s emails like Bethany’s of western North Carolina that stop me in my tracks. Continue Reading This Post »

Moms are kind of a big deal, so it’s no surprise that cultures around the world celebrate the blessing of motherhood in various ways. Continue Reading This Post »