Reviewing Jeff Chu's recently published and favorably received Does Jesus Really Love Me?  A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America, Lauren Sandler, a confirmed (and straight) atheist, writes, "[this book] lays bare a vast national offense:  valuing identity over experience, judgment over love."
     Ms. Sandler's first comment makes an intriguing point.  Do we construct our sense of self on the basis of an unchanging dynamic of person, or on the basis of our experience?  Or put another way, using more technical language, do we construct ourselves ontologically or existentially?
     In truth, it is both.  We are born with a certain set of genes and its attendant characteristics, but we become ourselves as what we inherit responds to what we experience.  We cannot completely escape the tendencies and mannerisms to which our genes incline us, but we also cannot totally evade our own capacities to shape or direct such things through the effects of what we encounter in our life experience.
     If I am understanding Ms. Sandler correctly, it is our experience that is more formative and significant in determining who we are.  She may well be right, in part; the "nature vs. nurture" argument will never be resolved fully.  What we can say, however, is that whether identity or experience are prime, our call is to love each person identity, experience, and all, unconditionally.  In the end, each person is a human being, made in God's image and imbued with nearly infinite worth and value.  There is purpose in why each person is here.