Gregory - Hows your faith? : an unlikely spiritual journey

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I am most grateful to my wife, Beth, for her inspiration, influence, and her guidance throughout the process of writing this book, in addition to her love. Without her, I wouldnt have gotten this far along the journey. She was also kind enough to let me share details of our life together, which would never be her first choice. Just as important, she was a careful editor, saving me from myself.

My children, Ava, Max, and Jed, fill my soul daily. They cheered me on while I was writing the book, and made some suggestions, but mostly by their very presence, they encourage me to keep striving in all aspects of my life. Ava, in particular, reminds me to avoid taking myself too seriously. Asked if she would raise Jewish children, she recently told me that it depends on how seriously her mate takes his faith. If its a close call, she said, We could do rock, paper, scissors; best two out of three.

While still very much a work in progress, I also dont know where I would be in my spiritual life without my friend and teacher Erica Brown. She was an early champion of this book and has played a huge role in shaping me as a person of faith.

Im grateful to my parents, Don Gregory and Carolyn Surtees, and to my sister, Stephanie Mitchell, for their support and valuable feedback. Reexamining a key part of my childhood wasnt always easy for us, but I feel closer to them as a result. Im also blessed to have and love my stepparents, Kaye Gregory and Jim Surtees.

In the writing of this book I had valuable help from Miranda Kennedy.

Jon Karp, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, was my editor on this book, but quickly became my friend. I cannot imagine having a more encouraging, nurturing, and patient editor in my corner over the period of years during which we discussed this idea and shaped it into what it is. This is my first book, and he has taught me an enormous amount.

Jon is supported by a great team at Simon & Schuster and that team fully supported me: Associate Editor Jonathan Cox, Associate Publisher Richard Rhorer, Publicity Director Cary Goldstein, Associate Marketing Manager Dana Trocker, Publishing Assistant Megan Hogan, Art Director Jackie Seow, Design Director Joy OMeara, Senior Production Manager Lisa Erwin, Director of Copyediting Navorn Johnson, Copyeditor Beth Thomas, Managing Editor Kristen Lemire, and Assistant Managing Editor Allison Har-zvi. They embraced me from the start. They also helped me make this book infinitely better.

I was very fortunate to have friends willing to review the manuscript early and give me great feedback, including Jeffrey Goldberg, Meg Herman, Ellen Perry, David Brooks, Jon Meacham, Michael Cromartie, Rabbi Danny Zemel, and the aforementioned Erica Brown.

Robert Barnett, my attorney, provided me with counsel throughout this process and insight into the publishing world, which proved invaluable.

I have learned so much during the reporting of this book and been spiritually enriched by those religious figures who made time to speak to me, in some cases more than once. Pastor Joel Osteen was very accepting and gave me some of his valuable time on an incredibly busy Sunday at Lakewood Church in Houston. Im grateful as well to my friend and wonderful teacher Rachel Cowan, and Pastor Ginger Gaines-Cirelli from Foundry United Methodist Church. Timothy Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, has been a great interview for me for several years, but our discussion for this book is the one I found most meaningful. Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention provided great counsel and insight. Tim Keller from Redeemer Presbyterian was generous to give me the time he did and taught me a great deal about myself and my search. Imam Mohamed Magid welcomed me to the ADAMS center in Northern Virginia for Friday prayers and taught me valuable aspects of Islam. Rabbi Larry Hoffman is a friend who has always encouraged me and has deepened my understanding of my Jewish faith. And Im always grateful to my friend and rabbi Danny Zemel for the support he shows me and my family.

Over the past twenty-five years, David Gregorys work as a journalist has taken him across the country and around the world. During a twenty-year career at NBC News, he served as White House Correspondent covering the presidency of George W. Bush. He was also the moderator of NBCs flagship political program, Meet the Press. David serves on the board of the community-based social service organization Marthas Table in Washington, where he lives with his wife, Beth, and three children.

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Pain

In these pages, I tell secrets about my parents, my children, myself because that is one way of keeping track and because I believe that it is not only more honest but also vastly more interesting than to pretend that I have no such secrets to tell. I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are your secrets. Our secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with each other has much to do with the secret of what it is to be human.

Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner

I n a line, this is my spiritual autobiography: I grew up with a strong sense of Jewish identity, but I didnt have much belief.

And it makes sense, given who my parents are. My mom, Carolyn, grew up Catholic and left the faith when my sister and I were still little. She had a bad experience after a stillborn birth in a Catholic hospital, and it turned her against the Catholic Church for good. She was conflicted about whether to baptize us. In the end, my older sister, Stephanie ( I called her Ci, pronounced Kigh, because I couldnt pronounce her name) was baptized and I was not; I was named in synagogue. For the most part, Mom was content to leave our religious upbringing to my dad, and Dads Jewish identity has always been more ethnic than religious.

As a result, I did not think much about God or spirituality. The concepts felt too abstract. My mother encouraged me to pray, in spite of her negative experience with the Church; she told me once at bedtime that speaking to God was as easy as starting a conversation in my head. Some people might even call Him Champ, she said, knowing that anything to do with the film Rocky was likely to inspire me.

I identified with my dads brand of Jewishness, a cultural identity developed in New York and L.A. I was bar mitzvahed at the Synagogue for the Performing Arts, centered in Beverly Hills. The performing arts part was not a new denomination of our faith but a reflection of where we lived.

My dad, Don, chose the Synagogue for the Performing Arts to celebrate the High Holidaysthe times when most Jews attend synagoguebecause that was where his community was. It was a warm place with many great families and kids my age. It was also a place that could be easily caricatured, because so many of those who attended were associated with the entertainment industry, and Judaism was commingled with the signs and symbols of Hollywood success.