Total Conversion
I have had a religious conversion. It happened during my heart attack and consequent hospital stay. Do not worry about my physical health: I am doing very well indeed, thank you, and I regard the physical damage to my body to be temporary and unreal.
I am no longer an atheist: instead, I am now a worshiper and servant of the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I hope that my Jewish or Islamic friends will pray for me if we happen to disagree on the question of whether or not Jesus is the Son of God. We are all still on the same team, after all, followers of the same Almighty Lord. May He forgive the disputes of His children with each other!
I hope my pagan friends will think favorably of me in their rituals and spells, and bless me; the divine spirits or angels whom they praise in their rites are God’s creatures also, and it may be His plan to lead some of his children from types and images to truth by gentle steps. Since I now believe in miracles, it would ill behoove me to scorn those who believe in magic.
I hope my atheist friends will continue to think kindly of me: I mean no insult to your doctrines. It was for no intellectual reason that I rejected them, it would be closer to the truth to say that a contrary teaching, which I had falsely thought to be merely one doctrine among many, turned out to be a living thing, like a Word sprung to life, which came to me in my hour of need and possessed me.
And I hope my Christian friends will pray for me. More is accomplished by prayer than men can guess: it is to the gentle prayers of friends that I owe my life. I doubt I could have come out of surgery so filled with health and good spirits had not angels, called by those prayers, rushed down from heaven to protect me.
I was drowning in deep waters, and was pulled ashore; I was surrounded by many waters, drowning, and was lifted up to safety. I will never cease to praise my savior.
If any of the readers of my journal has any questions for me concerning the thoughts or experiences accompanying this change, or want to know the motives or reasons impelling it, you may write me at john-c-wright@sff.net, and I will write a personal reply. It is not a fit topic to discuss in public, however.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
