Dodd's My Faith So Far

Patton Dodd, currently a PhD student at BU, marked a turning point of his faith journey when responding to an altar call at a charismatic megachurch and that's how his faith memoir begins. His tale is largely a look at his struggles in combining his Christian faith with both the secular and Christian cultures. Towards the beginning of the book, he struggles to free himself of his old patterns and addictions by clinging to the Christian culture. Rather than being a place of refuge and comfort, Dodd experiences incongruities and excesses in both his charismatic megachurch and in his time at Oral Roberts University. His faith being neither simple or easy strives to find a middle ground. Here's some of the good stuff:
p1 "Becoming [a Christian] has to do with daily practice--what to think, what to say, what to read, where to put one's foot down and why."
p14 On speaking in tongues "Ooh, it sounds horrible. The deacon does it so naturally, and I sound like one of the Sand People on Tatooine. But as I speak, the deacon starts praising God, so I figure I am doing something right."
p19 "Growing up evangelical means that turning on the radio involves a moral decision."
p33 "If I can see it, it must be temporary. If I can't it must eternal, and therefore true"
p39 "I leave the service knowing that God Himself has taken a spoon and scooped all the nastiness out of my chest and flung it into the stratosphere... I want to be Shop-Vac'd by God."
p49 "The Southern Baptists, the Lutherans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians--I see that they are Christians, too. They are on the right path, but they are walking awfully slowly."
p57 "Religions people don't worship God; they worship the form of God."
p88 "Faith is a tool, like a crowbar the believer constantly uses to pry obstacles aside, or a paintbrush to alter the appearance of the world."
p101 "Our testimonies sometimes take the form of spitting contests"
p106 "Without really knowing that I'm doing it, I have started to compile a list of Screwy Christian Stuff: certain parts of the Bible, certain interactions with other believers, certain moments in certain church services that upset my idea of a Christianity that works they way I expect it to."
p122 "Also on the Screwy list: Is Jesus mean?"
p160 "Others have found it: a place where you can believe and not feel as though you have to jump off a cliff to do it, a place where you can achieve a kind of modified contentment in a flawed faith culture."
p163 "You'll get stronger, and you'll screw up, and then you'll get stronger some more. Eventually, you'll get over it. It's called sanctification, and it takes a while."
p171 "ORU skateboarder Jason, who is now Eastern Orthodox ('It's all about the Eucharist, man')"
p174 "People who believe in Jesus, yes, but who have to remind themselves why. People who love God, of course, but who have trouble expressing how. People who have faith, though not as much as they'd like. But they're working on it."