I would like to use the Easter holiday as an opportunity to say something brief on the subject of faith.

Surely you have heard about the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I am not going to discuss the reverend’s “social gospel” diatribes — Rule #1 when conversing in the online PC community is to *avoid politics*. But I do want to talk about Obama’s repeated public pronouncements that it was Rev. Wright who made Jesus a meaningful part of his life.

Some people might think it strange that a man as intelligent, accomplished and eloquent as Barack Obama believes in “Organized Religion”: Religion is for dummies, they say, especially Jewish, Christian and Muslim. Maybe not so much in the U.S. as in “post-Christian” Europe.

So Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins must be stewing in their atheistic juices when they see the former president of the Harvard Law Review and potential Democratic presidential nominee telling the world that his Christian faith means so much to him that it would be unthinkable for him to “disown” the person who gave it to him, his spiritual mentor, Rev. Wright. Even if he has to pay a price for it.

I am not a Christian and my religious faith is about the size of a mustard seed. Nevertheless, I was raised in a religious household and know the comfort and pleasure that true faith can bring (as well as the downside). And numerous studies have shown that having a spiritual or religious practice can enhance life and increase longevity.  Specifically for people with cancer.

So, to the many prostate cancer survivors and friends for whom faith feels foreign, I just want to make a simple point, via my dear husband: if you feel unfamiliar stirrings which you think may have religious undertones, “listen” to them” rather than hastily dismiss them. DH found religion as an adult and so did Barack Obama.

You never know where your strength will come from.