For P.E. Pendleton & Faith

i much prefer
my church
my temple
to be all of
Mother Earth
and more
The Universe
so when I want to be reminded of
Love
I walk
not into
a building of brick and mortar
but out
of one
where I am encircled
by the dancing heavens
and lifted
to my place.
-P.E. Pendleton
2/6/93

I have struggled with my faith for so many years. Struggled with myself and with God for so many years. I have struggled with the Bible and some of its teachings.
I do not believe that God would hate someone who is different from so many people.
I feel that we are all created in the face of God. He does not create trash and things that are not beautiful in His eye's.
I do not believe that church and love and God and faith and all the lofty ideas that go along with it can be confined to four brick and mortar walls. I find more peace and closeness to God when I am seated at the top of a butte in the Badlands of North Dakota or out in nature feeling the crisp fall air blow through my face as I look out into the red and orange leaved trees.
There is where God lives...