I was quite pleased to stumble across an interview with Jay Bakker in the NY Times. Several years ago Terry Gross interviewed him on Fresh Air, and now, as then, I am both intrigued and impressed.

In contrast to his father, who larded his show-biz patina thick, Bakker is unpolished and self-effacing. He has mild dyslexia, which makes it hard for him to write, and as a child he suffered from an eating disorder. Recently he stopped taking the antidepressant Paxil, which had caused him to gain weight, and started taking a little Zoloft instead. ”We are who we are, and that’s got a lot to do with punk,” he said. ”We try not to live a lie or have a false perception of ourselves, that we’re holier or better than other people. We don’t try to live up to the standards of mainline Christian society and the pressures they put on you.”

One reason this article resonated with me, is because earlier this week I ran across another incidence of “God hates Gays,” for a forceful reminder of why I avoid organized religion. I stumble across things like this and end up reading some of the diatribe before I quite realize what it is, at which point I can’t get away fast enough.

But then I’m left with a simmering anger and intense dislike of people who would believe that God would could hate any of creation. That a God who created men and women to be a certain way would then hate those people for being as they were created. It’s illogical and it’s ugly and I want nothing to do with it.

So it’s a relief to read about someone like Jay Bakker. Someone who seems to be, not interested in telling people how to live their lives, but in trying to live his life as best he can, and helping others to do the same.

Perhaps that’s too simple a summary of what he’s doing, but to me, it seems to be the essence of faith and religion.