I don't want to start with my publication (Messianic Jewish Congregations: Who Sold this Business to the Gentiles? Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000. That was just a point in time, and although it represents something of where I was in 1997--well I have wandered since then. I could have started with my childhood and bored everyone! There will be time for that.
I sure couldn't start with the chapter about me in Robin Moore's 1977 book, Rhodesia. I only slightly resembled his characterization of my military adventures in Africa at the time. I remember he put some words in my mouth that I don't understand to this day.
Should I start with my late teenage years as a secular Jew raised by a Reform mother and Orthodox father? Or should I start with my LSD and teargas experiences as a University of Wisconsin-Madison student in 1967?
Where do you start the story to explain how a nice Jewish boy from Louisville ended up as a Christian missionary in Africa? And then how do you begin to explain how the birth of my only child, Abigail, in 1986 began the path that would end my association with Christianity, my career as a seminary professor, and bring me back to be a practicing Jew?
And how did I get stuck working for AT&T for 9 years? Who cares--I am actually happy to be one of the 12,000 who were just "canned" as a part of the current economic crisis. The result is that this is where I am--call me retired, call it my retirement career, call it what I should have done 9 years ago instead of taking that "temporary" job with AT&T while I looked for a teaching position at a secular institution.
This is where I have wandered and it is where I will start. I will probably upset Jews and Gentiles alike as I tell my story, but hey what are you going to do--fire me? Too late for that--AT&T beat you to the punch!
This is a great start and I'm glad I'm FINALLY reading it!
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