Here's a great article on dealing with faith in the context of a happy-happy rah-rah Jesus camp. I think that this cheerleader-quality type of religion contributed more than anything else to my inability to be a Christian. My parents, their siblings, my cousins -- all of them subscribe to this nauseating rose-colored view of Christianity, a view that completely ignores the meat-and-potatoes of what it means to suffer and be moral in the face of a harsh world (which is what Xianity is about, right?) for the creme brulee (if you will) of Jesus-loves-me-so-I-don't-care. I wish I could believe in spiritual meaning, and I admire those I know who believe unflinchingly with their eyes open, but I just can't. I'm a humanist and afflicted with existential doubt. The only meaning I see in this world is how people treat each other while they're here and what they leave behind when they're gone. The concept of Heaven and eternal reward sullies the nobility of morality (which actually seems to me to be a deeply Christian approach - my problem was that I read the fucking Bible too often and really listened in Sunday School. I might be able to be a Christian if I didn't take it so seriously, I guess). Anyway, rambling aside, I think that the author of that piece hit the right notes of ambiguity. Consider me spoken to.

This link was shamelessly stolen from John James's ultrasharp blog. Read it every day.