My wife Martha Lynn and some other teachers left right after school yesterday to go to Decatur for a workshop. Feeling just a little lonely and put upon, I did what I usually do in such situations - I went to the library. I checked out the one Martha Grimes novel on the shelf that I have not yet read, and then wandered rather aimlessly through the non-fiction shelves. In the Religion and Philosophy area, the title caught my eye: Stealing Jesus, How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity, by Bruce Bawer.
Every so often, a book will grab my consciousness and I literally don't want to put it down. This is one of those. He deals with so many of the concerns that I have had, and he sheds so much light on the history of the fundamentalist movement in America. In the very first chapter, he discusses how embarrassed he is by the term "Christian" because of the way it has been corrupted by the modern right-wing Protestants. He talks about the dichotomy between a Religion of Love, which focuses on Jesus' admonition to love our neighbor as ourselves; and a Religion of Law, which deals with a transactional analysis - believe what I tell you to believe and you'll go to Heaven when you die. Doubters and questioners will go straight to Hell.
It is such a liberating experience to have your fears and questions explained and validated. Living as I do in the epicenter of conservative theology, it is easy to feel isolated and alone; even to doubt what I have long believed to be the truth. It's not that he explains away those fears. He is just as apprehensive as I am about the growing domination of political life by those whose nature is to be very intolerant of anyone who does not share their beliefs. He may be more apprehensive, since he is so much better informed.
The liberation comes from the affirmation that there is a Truth, and that it is not found in the narrow legalism of Pat Robertson. It's a very simple Truth, "Love your neighbor as yourself.". Nothing else matters; not the Virgin Birth, not the creeds and sacraments, nothing. And, that Truth will ultimately prevail over the ignorance and superstition of fundamentalism. I sang "Danny Boy" in the shower this morning for the first time in a long time.
Thomas R. Borden Montgomery, Alabama January 13, 2001