"According to a new Pew survey, 21% of American atheists believe in God or a universal spirit, 12% believe in heaven and 10% pray at least once a week. What do you make of this?"

I love this question and the reality to which it points, namely, that people are complex and perpetually surprising. What the finding about atheists suggests to me is something that I came across many times in my work as a pastor: when people call themselves atheists, they often mean not that they don't believe in any god at all as the term would indicate, but they don't believe in a particular version or description of God.

I think of a fellow who attended my church for several months and then told me how much he enjoyed my sermons. "I agree with everything you teach," he said, which surprised me since I was pretty sure my wife wouldn't say that! Then he quickly added, "Except for one thing ... I don't believe in God."

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For 24 years I was a pastor in a local church in the Washington, D.C. area. I felt my primary calling was to people like Sally Quinn -- people who may have identified themselves as atheists, agnostics, spiritual-but-not-religious, or church dropouts, but who are increasingly open to and sometimes hungry for the possibility of experiencing God in their lives. Now, as an author and speaker, I feel that same calling no less, but my parish is a bit less bounded.

Sally Qunn's tribute to Tim Russert, and in particular the story of her choosing to take the eucharist at Tim's Catholic funeral, reminded me of so many stories I've heard through the years ... stories of sincere people with little or no religious commitment, meeting someone like Tim Russert whose faith was real and winsome, and through them being drawn closer to God, or at least to the possibility of searching for God.

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