Dear Kai,

THANK YOU!!! There is the heart of the matter! You've nailed it. To answer your question, no. I fall short of Christ's teachings daily. But, that doesn't mean that I try to rationalize His teachings to accomodate my shortcomings. I do not try to "interpret" scripture so as to assuage my own sensibilities. It is a matter of aligning my belief to what scriptures say, not aligning scriptures to mean what I believe.