For many people, Lent is all about subtracting – giving up chocolate, Facebook or alcohol in observance of the holy season before Easter.
For third-year MDiv student Peggy Jean Craig, this Lent was all about adding – adding to the conversation of what it means to be a Christian.
Craig, who is finishing her education with a semester in Washington, D.C., at Wesley Theological Seminary, says that her stint in the nation’s capital during an election year has highlighted for her the limited ways Christianity is presented in the media.
"The current conversation is very polarizing," she says. "People are being told ‘This is what a Christian looks like,’ and that narrow image doesn’t reflect the true diversity of Christianity."
At a social media conference, she met the people behind “30 Mosques in 30 Days,” a blog that tracked two Muslims’ visits to mosques in 30 states over the course of Ramadan; the project garnered acclaim for the way it upended stereotypes about Muslims in the United States.
Craig began thinking of how she could use that model to aid in discussions about Christianity, and she came up with a Lenten discipline for herself entitled "40 Days and 40 Nights." Every day during Lent, she has posted on YouTube a two-to-three minute video of a Christian talking about his or her faith and has maintained "40 Days and 40 Nights" Facebook and Twitter accounts.