I grew up going to a Congregational church. In high school I took confirmation classes to join the church. During confirmation we had to write an essay about who we think Jesus is. I wasn’t sure the pastor of the church actually believed the Bible, so I wrote my essay a “Jesus was a team of specially trained angels come to Earth to teach about God” based on the GI Joe cartoon from the 1980s. I knew this wasn’t what the Bible said about Jesus but I wanted to see if it would be accepted. It was! But I was reminded that I had to read it in front of the church when I joined, so I rewrote it as a more traditional essay. That moment stuck with me. It was the first time I realized I could play the part of a believer without actually believing. This is the first time I remember changing my mind: from “we go to church” to “I don’t believe.” Note that many years later I was told by my aunt that at VBS one year I “accepted Jesus into my heart” but I have no memory of that.