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My Faith
Tell Us Your Story
Share your story of spirituality -- a time of crisis that tested your faith, the person who most influenced your beliefs, or a life-changing event that shaped your spiritual identity. When has your faith helped you forge a connection with a stranger? How did you worship when you were a child? Email your story of 400 words or less to faith@washpost.com and include a daytime phone number.
Religion News | Special Report: On Faith | Discussions
 

My Faith

ArticleCan a Gay Man Reconcile With His Catholic Upbringing?
The giant cathedral seemed filled with my guilt, echoing back to me, forcing me out of its cavernous space. Were people staring at us as we made our way to the exit?

My Faith

ArticleA Helpless Old Man Offered a Gift of Faith To a Summer Volunteer
The name of the place was the Home for the Dying. It was in Calcutta. I was there, spending part of my summer volunteering for Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. And I hated it.
ArticleQuenching a Spiritual Thirst
I once heard a pastor speaking to a young man during a church service while holding up a can of Sprite. "Obey your thirst," he said to the young man. The pastor was referring to the thirst that God puts in us for Him.
ArticleFinding God's Presence Within Ourselves
In 2000, I met "God" and "faith", neatly packaged into one man with flowing robes and long hair -- His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
ArticleVietnam, Religion and The Wall
I can't prove it, but I feel that God spared my life in order to accomplish something during my time here. In 1979, I decided to build a memorial on the Mall with the names of all those who died in Vietnam.
ArticleUnderstanding the Life-Force
I recognized my own religious perspective. I think of it as the life-force. It persists in generating life beyond all reason.
ArticleDoubts of God Inspire Universalist Outlook
"Dad, I don't think I believe in God, is that okay?" What could I say? This wasn't your usual father-daughter conversation. Why couldn't she have picked an easier topic, like sex? But there was no escape.
ArticleA Moment of Pure Grace
Most people will go through life without ever experiencing a moment of pure terror -- a moment when time seems to slow down as you are hurtling toward what you believe to be a certain death and knowing that there is absolutely nothing that you can do about it. I have lived through such a moment.
ArticleOn the Front Lines of Racism
It wasn't until I lost my grandmother, Alpha Robertson, four years ago that I understood how deeply she influenced my spiritual beliefs. You see, she had long been a hero to many.
ArticleHaving a Conversation with God
When he came back to life he told my mother that he went to a place that was so beautiful that words could not describe it. He saw a light and knew that the light was God.
ArticleFinding Faith in God's Perfect Love
Religion is humanity's attempt to put faith in a box, to constrain it, to order it, to control it and to create a hierarchy between the faithful and the object of their faith. I am a person of faith, but not of religion.
ArticleA Bahai Pilgrimage Comes Full Circle
While visiting the Bahai shrine, I read a passage on the wall from the faith's scriptures that I found soul stirring. After I left Haifa, the sense of glory I experienced upon reading it resonated with me.
ArticleFasting for Revelation
It's Ramadan. Around the world, Muslims are fasting. This year, I'm going to join them.
ArticleEven a Little Prayer Can Get an Answer
God hears all of our simple, mundane, "Jesus-I-need-a-legal-parking-space-at-noon-in-front-of-DC-Superior-Court" prayers. Sometimes, He says, "Yes".
ArticleSearching for Help After Heartache
I was desperate to hear God and was so frustrated by his silence. Why didn't he protect me from the loss of our second son?
ArticleIn Chinese Adoptions, Uncanny Connections
Some people believe that there is an invisible "red thread" that connects orphans in China with the families they are destined to be with.
ArticleA Brutal Lesson in Humanity
I was barely five years old when the 1984 assassination of then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi sparked riots that shook India to its core. The memory of one particular incident still haunts me.
ArticleThe Courage to Be Honest
I'd been taught to keep things from God. "Dear God, I hate my father for leaving, my mother for checking out and my sexual-predator youth adviser for existing" were all off-limits.
ArticleNearly Every Creed in the World
When I was growing up, I held signs in the streets that said "Abortion Is Murder." I interrupted strangers having lunch at the local mall to warn them about going to hell.
ArticleA Window Home in Wartime
At Sunday services in Kosovo, I would close my eyes and imagine that I was standing next to my wife, praying and worshipping with her.
ArticleThe Preacher's Kid
As a child, I sat with my mother and two brothers in the very last pew every Sunday. We were PKs, or preacher's kids, and church was not optional unless we were on our deathbeds.
ArticleA Faith More Cultural Than Religious
On my wedding day, I only wanted to confess to beliefs I was certain of and to make promises I intended to keep.
ArticleMy Hindu Outlook
I was relatively free of indoctrination from my parents. Thank God for that.
ArticleThe Divine Power of Nature
One summer's afternoon, visiting the Oregon coast, I found myself having an unexpected moment of clarity.
ArticleGospel Is Good News for the Poor
My spirituality was forged during the era of Vietnam and civil rights' marches when we were challenged to see the Gospel as an alternative history that is good news for the poor.
ArticleFinding a Way Back Home
One spring evening I sat behind the library almost in tears when the thought came: "Go to church."
ArticleGod and Music: Intangible and Powerful
I grew up attending a Methodist church every Sunday. But I was an inquisitive child with a strong interest in science, and by the time I reached high school, religion as I understood it no longer made sense to me. Reading the Bible on my own did not help, as I found it dense and inscrutable.
ArticleFinding New Hope by Taking Buddhist Path
The events of September 11th shook my sense of security in the world and reminded me of the ultimate fragility of life. But most of all, they made me wonder how people could be filled with so much hate that killing themselves and others in this horrible way was the answer.
ArticleCommunity Allows Beliefs To Evolve
I'm a very optimistic agnostic, ripe for a deathbed epiphany. I found my faith in a community, not a creed.
ArticleForgiveness Is Not a Weakness
Americans expect those wronged not to court forgiveness but to take those who have wronged them to court. Contrary to this erroneous belief, Catholicism teaches me that forgiveness, like love in its purest state, must be unconditional.
ArticleSpirituality Outside of Religion
I do not follow any particular religion, rather I consider myself to be an inquisitive agnostic. Not following a religion and having an agnostic leaning doesn't mean that I lack a sense of spirituality.
ArticleThe Faith of the Fortunate
The generation before mine is often referred to as the "great" generation. I think of my generation as the "fortunate" generation. I have been fortunate in so many ways, and I sometimes worry that I am not grateful enough.
ArticleBelief Is the Ultimate Surrender of Control
Most would explain their coming to church as an expression of their faith: "I worship because I believe." I explain it differently: "I believe because I worship."
ArticleCall for Charity Transcends Religion
Last year, when my grandmother died, my father told me to read "Surat Yasin," a chapter of the Islamic holy book often referred to as "the heart of the Koran."
ArticleHumans and Their Flaws
Perhaps the most life changing event with regard to my own faith has been the realization that my church (the Roman Catholic Church) is made up of human beings: some of whom are very flawed just like the rest of humanity -- and some who are very sincerely dedicated to their ministry.
ArticleHeal Thyself, Heal the World
I consider myself a practicing spiritual seeker... For many years I suffered from mental illness disorders which put me on a quest for a higher self far from psychiatric medications, psychiatrists and mental hospitals.
© 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive