I have this personal policy not to answer those goof-ball “tags” that bloggers get every now and then. What are “tags?” They are a  list of questions that a person is supposed to answer on his blog. After answering, the blogger person is supposed to “tag” someone else to answer the same list of inane questions.

Me? I ignore the tags. Since I started writing on Saint Matthew’s blog, I have to say I’ve only answered one tag. The others – I think I’ve gotten tagged five or six times – I’ve ignored them completely.

But this morning, when answering email, I received a list of 6 questions from a reader (yes, people actually read this thing) who lives somewhere in New Jersey. The suggestion by the emailer was to answer them on the blog. Since it is Monday and my day off, I figured I could spend the time answering these questions.

Don’t get me wrong – I hate the fact I am answering them. But I’m doing it because I’m a nice pastor:

1. How have your experiences at being a pastor been different from your life before becoming a man of God?

To define an experience, I have to dig a little deeper. Before seminary and the parish, my experiences were conceptually different than they are now. In my life before Fort Wayne and seminary, I was more worried about myself. Of course I cared about other people, but there was a greater point in my life where I was at the center of my life. I was someone who tried to make myself happy. When life is centered in this realm, it takes a different road to gratification. While my spiritual life was fine, it wasn’t as dramatically pronounced as it is in my life now.

Today, living the role of Christ’s undershepherd, the experiences are different. Primarily, my focus on “me” is not pronounced. My heart is focused on the greater. I deal with the care of souls. On the “sad side of life,” I deal with sickness, death, pain, and suffering of members of Saint Matthew’s. But I also experience incredible joy and happiness of the members when the good things happen in their lives.

My experiences today fall under the category of “Christ’s servant.” And that means a heck of a lot more than my previous “me servant” outlook.

2. Who is the most profound philosopher who has impacted your life?

Ah, the “philosopher” question. When President George W. Bush was asked this question, I cringed when he said that his favorite “philosopher” was Jesus Christ.

To clarify my cringe-ment: JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. HE ISN’T A PHILOSOPHER. HE’S THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD. When we start thinking of him in any other way, we begin to lose sight of who He is.

Me? I don’t have a favorite philosopher, unless George Carlin can be considered one. Why? In his comedy, he always seemed to drag me into thinking about the world in a different way.

3. You’ve written that you are a subscriber to XM Satellite Radio. Why?

Ever listen to terrestrial radio lately? The music stations are hideous and filled with commercials. The formats are cookie-cutter and narrowly focused. Soft adult contemporary music with touches of 70s and 80s? Even softer adult contemporary music that has more hints of modern music? Rap and hip-hop, narrowly casted to either a greater urban audience or to a broader audience? Classic rock with modern rock mixed in? Dance music in all its forms that are dissected to reach either moms with teens or just teens and twenty-somethings.

Please. Give me a modern rock station that isn’t afraid to be a modern rock station. What about music station geared toward the music I grew up on – the 80s? And please, give me a modern adult contemporary station that doesn’t treat me and all listeners like dorks (think: WPLJ). 

That is why I am an XM subscriber. They give me all that, and more. I love baseball – and they air every baseball radiocast. I love listening to sports talk, and XM gives multiple choices of sports talk. And rock music - every genre you can think of and more. 

Right now as I type this, I am listening to the 80s channel on XM – Dennis DeYoung “Desert Moon.”

4. If you can pick one place in this world to live, where would it be?

Before seminary, if I couldn’t live in New York, I would have loved to live in Italy – whether near Naples or further north, it wouldn’t matter.

Today, it is anywhere God sees fit to place me. He’s placed me here in New Milford to serve His people. That’s the greatest place in the world to live, at least to me, because I am serving the Lord.

5. Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh? Bob Grant or Sean Hannity?

Rush Limbaugh – he’s the godfather of talk radio. Bill O’Reilly is good, but I find him better suited for TV than radio.

The other part of the question is hard. On Bob Grant – he was the quintessential New York radio voice. I can never see myself going against him in a poll. But I have to say, during his WOR days, I found myself listening to Sean on a nearly daily basis. Today, Hannity is a part of my radio listening lineup. If I could pick both, then I’d do that. If I can’t, I pull the lever for Bob because of what he meant to talk radio in the New York area.

And yes, I listen to a lot of radio. When I’m working in the office or at home or driving in car, I have the radio on. Mostly XM – except for Rush, who is on WABC.

6. Where did you do your undergraduate studies and why did you choose to attend that particular school?

I graduated from Saint John’s University in NYC as a communications major (journalism).

I was torn between Saint John’s and the School of Visual Arts, also in New York City, and Boston College. I was accepted at all three. What pushed me to stay close to home was my mother. She started to get sick and I didn’t want to be far from home. Do I regret not attending Boston College? No.

The School of Visual Arts appealed greatly to me. They were spread out all through Manhattan. I would have been completely immersed in the lifestyle of the City, something that I always longed to be a part of the culture that was New York. SoVA would have allowed me a greater access to the media world because it was so tied into the media world, something that budding journalists long for in their studies. That appealed to me soooooo much.

But Saint John’s offered a more traditional college experience. When I met the professors, they all seemed to actually like themselves and the areas they were teaching. Two of the leaders in the journalism department – Drs. Frank Brady and Roger Wetherington – showed a true care for their craft and taught from their love of the field. The campus just seemed to fit me. Everything was just ‘there.’ The library was opened late. The student center was relaxing. The school paper (the Saint John’s Today, not the student paper, “The Torch“) and the people who worked there were just wonderful to interact with. And the school actually had a moral center – I guess since it is a Roman Catholic institution, it should have a moral compass leading it.

In the end, it came down to where I would feel more comfortable. While longing for the free-styling educational experience of the School of Visual Arts, I felt I would be better suited for a more traditional system at Saint John’s. And as I type this, I don’t regret a moment of my decision.