I believe in a God too great to be confined within the limits of any manmade organization. I am able to associate lovingly with members of all religious groups without concern for their labels. As Alexander Pope said, We are all parts of one stupendous whole whose body nature is, and God the soul. There was joy in my youthful discovery that I could do business directly with God, that to avail myself of God's gifts, it was not necessary for me to seek the help of a special priesthood or to worship in chapels or cathedrals. Emerson, who was a great influence on me in my teens, wrote, There is no screen or ceiling between our heads and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the soul where man, the effect, ceases and God, the cause, begins.