The Bible: What the dealio?

The Bible is a really long book. Because of this, lots of people have never read it (myself included), and yet its contents impact so much of our world.

I've tried reading it in fits and starts, always resolving to get through it from beginning to end. But it's a daunting task. So many begats, archaic cities and unrecognizable names (Zaphnath-paaneah... ZAPHNATH-PAANEAH?!?!?!?)

So I'm going to attempt to read it all the way through. Again. Except this time, I thought it might help to keep a journal as I read, and I thought, why not post it online?

First, a little about me... I have liberal leaning views, so there's a conflict right there. I believe in things like gay marriage and a woman's right to choose. Premarital sex is alright with me, though I respect those who want to wait unitl marriage. I'm a voting Democrat, and I live in LA.

While both my parents and my brother are Catholic, I haven't settled on one religion yet. I have a very strong feeling that there is something bigger than ourselves out there, but I've never been comfortable saying I'm a Christian, because it seems like to say your a Christian means that you believe whole-heartedly everything in the Bible. Since I don't know 99% of what's written in that text, I just can't bring myself to believe it blindly.

I figure that the best way to find out what this whole Christianity thing is about is for me to really sit down and read every word of the Bible. Hopefully, this blog will help me with that.

There's a story in Genesis I know of where Jacob, a descendant of Abraham, is attacked in the desert by an angel. Jacob fights for hours until he's pinned the angel down and demands a blessing, which the angel gives him, along with a new name - Israel.

It's my hope that through reading and analyzing the Bible, really struggling with it, trying to reconcile what it has to tell me with my own beliefs, I'll become a better person for it. Just like Jacob became blessed through his struggle with higher powers.