Well written
"His raison d'etre seemed to be that the message of love and hope that Christianity in its entirety desperately tried but failed to encapsulate was such a beautiful ideal that it was worth compromising to preach it."

This ideal is not restricted to Christianity, or for that matter, religious people. I’ve often come to the conclusion that religions are nothing more than a philosophy with a culture stapled to them. Faith, love, hope and generally not being a dick are purely abstract concepts that are best expressed through the use of creative writing and storytelling. The Bible is just a collection of such stories.

Your friend’s dad sounds like one of the ‘good Christians’ (the ‘bad Christians’ are the sort that will think you’ll go straight to hell unless you accept Jesus into your heart (another concrete-ised abstract concept)). He seems like he did his job as a means of preaching his ideals, which were consistent with the underlying philosophy of Christianity. More Christians and people of other religions need to be like him.

And no need to apologise for length, it said what needed to be said and I enjoyed reading it.

@BGB: My sentiments too.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Fri 16 May 2008, 11:22, Reply)