This is the most important email I’ve ever sent you…

Hi Reader,

Whoo. Where to start? There’s so much I want to share with you, and don’t know how to share with you, and am nervous about sharing with you.

Please make some quiet time to sit down with this email. It’s my hope that after reading this email, you’ll have one of two very clear thoughts. Either…

“THIS IS TOTALLY FOR ME!!!”

Or, you know… not that.

Actually, either response is great, because they’re both indications that I’ve described my vision clearly. And that’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time.

Let’s find out, shall we?

Ok. Let’s start with what I mentioned two weeks ago. I said I needed to restore my integrity with you. That involves, at the very least, following through on my promises. And you have this email in your inbox. So. One down.

There’s more, but I won’t go into it because there’s too much else I need to get to.

The other thing I mentioned last email was a vision. This is where things may start to get controversial for you, depending on what you believe. But, let’s ease into it.

A question for you:

Are you the kind of person who’s willing to change their mind?

Read that question again. Note that I didn’t ask a simpler version of it: Are you willing to change your mind? Because it honestly doesn’t matter if you’re willing to change your mind (and, to a lesser extent, it doesn’t matter if you change your mind). What matters is your way of being in the world.

Are you the kind of person who’s willing to change their mind?

I ask this question up front because if there’s one thing that’s a prerequisite for coming down on the THIS IS TOTALLY FOR ME side of things, it’s going to be your willingness to change your mind.

If this were a book and not an email, at this point I’d go into how we don’t really change our minds anyway—they just get changed based on the people and ideas we encounter. But, we can certainly resist that changing.

And that, I think, is the important thing (not that there’s a right and wrong way; I’m merely suggesting that it’s important to observe and acknowledge our tendencies).

I change my mind a lot. Most often in small ways, but occasionally in big ways.

Twice in my life I’ve changed my mind in what seemed like bedrock, foundational ways. The first time was when I stopped being a Christian. I was pretty sure at that point that no religion was true and that I’d never be wrestling with issues of God or theology ever again.

But, a few years ago, I did change my mind again. Not in precisely the way I expected not to—I’m still not religious—but in what was for me a completely surprising way. A subtler, more nuanced way. A way that I tried to describe, in part, in The Forest is the Tree, but realize now that when I was writing that book, I didn’t have a very clear vision of it.

That vision is much clearer now, and I’d like to share it with you, in the hopes it will help with a problem you have, and I have, and the whole world has.

So, yeah. That’s the first question: are you the kind of person who’s willing to change their mind?

If not, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! It would be my guess that you’ll be less interested in what I have to say below. But, I could be completely wrong about that! If I am, I’d be very interested to hear about it from you!

But if you are that kind of person, then my next question is deeply, genuinely for you.

Consider the role religion plays in your life. In what ways does it divide things up?

I intend this question in an expansive way. Perhaps religion divides your week, like into Sunday and not-Sunday. Perhaps it somehow divides things geographically. Perhaps it gets in the middle of relationships that are important to you. Maybe it’s there now in your relationship with yourself (for instance, in the struggle between faith and doubt). At the very least, you can consider the ways religion functions to divide us at a societal level: a huge amount of violence is done in the name of religion, sending people to whatever afterlife there is (or isn’t), whether or not that’s the one they believe in.

So, again:

In what ways does religion divide your life?

I’d love for you to share with me a heartfelt response to this question. This is a huge part of the work I’ll be doing moving forward. And if you identified yourself as the kind of person willing to change their mind, then anything you choose to share with me could very well help everyone I’m trying to help with this vision (and maybe I can specifically help you with it, as well).

Ok, those are the key pieces! As a reminder:

1. Are you the kind of person who’s willing to change their mind?
2. In what ways does religion divide your life?

If your answer to the first question is “YES!” and you have no shortage of answers to the second, then I think I can say with confidence that the vision I’m about to share will resonate with you.

If your answer to the first question is “NO!” or you don’t see any immediate examples of how religion divides your life, then I’m guessing you won’t find this vision compelling. (But I would love to be surprised if you do!)

With all that blah blah blah out of the way, here it is. Here’s my vision for the future that I want to share with you:

I see the possibility of a world no longer divided by religion.

And that’s what I’m committing myself and my work to creating. I hope you’ll support me. I’d be honored if you choose to.

But, before we get into that—HOLY COW, MICHAEL!!! HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO THIS CRAZY THING?!?! After all, hasn’t the world been divided by religion since, well… since always?

Thanks for asking, supporter! The honestest (sic) answer is that I don’t know. I do have an idea (and I’ll share it in a bit), but I’m going to start with the best response I can think of when I don’t know something: I’m going to educate myself. Right now, that involves two parts:

1. Listening to you and your stories about how religion has divided your life. So, seriously. Please share your answer to that second question with me: how has religion divided your life?

2. Reading a lot. Here’s a picture of the books that have arrived so far. I have another dozen or so on the way.

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So: get educated. Check. I’ll reply to whatever thoughts you send my way, and keep you updated on my reading.

But here is the other idea I have for getting started on this work right away. There are two parts to it. The first follows from a recognition that what is true of us as individuals is true of humanity as a whole. When we are selfish, humanity is selfish. When we are hopeful, humanity is hopeful. When we are bitter and cynical, humanity is bitter and cynical.

And when we are divided by religion, humanity is divided by religion.

So my first step is to heal the divide in me. To find within myself—or, failing that, to create within myself—a heart at peace.

But that will not be enough. If I am cloistered in my home, reading my books with a peaceful heart, I won’t be able to have any impact on the world. So the second step is to be out in the world. Which might make it hard to maintain that peaceful heart. But that, I suppose, is the practice.

And here’s the thing. My practicing a heart at peace (which in all honesty I am far, far, faaaaaaaaar from having) is not something I can do alone. I must do it with others, in community. And that’s where you come in.

In service of this vision, I also want to help you have a heart at peace. And that is the first place I’m inviting you to take part in making this vision a reality. In creating a world no longer divided by religion, it is people like us, having hearts at peace and being in the world, that could make the necessary difference.

So, what would it be like for you if you had a heart at peace?

What thoughts or questions do you notice arising in contemplating that? I invite you to share them with me!

Ok, I’m out of time for this week, so I need to wrap this up. In two weeks, I’ll get more specific about two things (at least):

First, I’ll tie up some loose ends from this email about my own journey to this vision.

Second, I’ll give you information on how you can support this vision becoming reality (both financially and otherwise).

I hope, as you read this email, you were thinking “THIS IS TOTALLY FOR ME!!!”

But, if not, that’s fine, too. I invite you to stick around and see what we get up to.

Ok, that’s all! Hit reply and share your thoughts!