Part 3: true? Truth? not true? or just true-ish?

Find Part 1 HERE;  Find Part 2 HERE;  Find prequel HERE  (in which I come clean about my faith); Find epilogue HERE

Part 3 of 3
The Bible is the story of the failings, passions, false starts and victories of a people grappling to understand God’s character and stance toward humanity. It’s a record of misperceptions and bad decisions and incredibly redemptive and noble acts. It speaks to our fears and our hopes; it’s chalk full of nighttime weeping and morning joy. It’s a history of man’s attempt to understand mystery. It addresses the questions that mean the most to us: Are we loved? Do we matter? Is there purpose? And how, therefore, should we live? It’s the story of heaven meeting earth, where things can get really, really messy.

There have always been fundamentalists, even before that particular word showed up in the 20^th century. Their hallmark is a hyper, laser-like focus on Absolute Biblical Truth (in the Christian version of fundamentalism) that conveniently happens to be what they themselves believe to be Absolutely Biblically True. Their psychology tends toward the need to embrace certainty and control, both of which tend to strangle the life out of mystery. They feel anxious when all the pieces don’t line up right, when they don’t know the rules, when they aren’t certain. And the Bible in the hands of fundagelicals can quickly degenerate from a book full of truths about man’s longing for spirit into The Incredible Supernatural One Stop Book of 100% Accurate and Infallible Facts That Are Always And In Every Situation And Time Absolutely True.

(By the way, I myself have these tendencies in spades. I was a really good fundamentalist, before I began to morph into…whatever the hell I am now. But I retain my over-developed need for certainty and my love affair with control. I fight these demons daily…and, happily, lately I’ve been winning a little more than I’ve been losing.)

Also, I feel I need to say this here (as I did in parts 1 & 2 of this series). I know that I am not describing every Christian in these articles, and I’m not describing most of my Christian friends. However, I am talking about a very real dynamic among conservative Christians – and including conservative Christians who don’t recognize these very real tendencies in themselves.

In part two of this series I stated that there are four very unfortunate and ultimately dangerous things that occur when individuals exchange mystery for certainty and come to rely on a rigid literal framework. In that article I mentioned two of them:

1. We polarize…and hurt one another, and
2. We destroy Jesus’ (and other Christians’) reputation

I’ll finish this series with what I believe are two additional things that happen when we take the fundamentalist-Absolute-Always-100%- Unarguable-Truth approach to interpreting the Bible.

(And I’m not going to repeat again here all the good that I believe faith communities bring to themselves and the world. I hope you’re all clear that I’m speaking of a particular brand of Christianity in these articles – not of the Church in general.)

3. We come down on the wrong side of history.

“Speaking truth to power”
“Standing up against unjust systems”
“Fighting for the rights of the oppressed”

It’s ironic what happens when you type some of these phrases into Google. You pretty much get a mixture of two kinds of sites: You get Bible-quote sites (Isaiah 1:17 – “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression…”) and liberal organizations (the ACLU, etc.). Stated differently, you get quotes from the Bible telling us to behave this way, and you get anti-religious organizations that are actually known for behaving this way.

Who have been the people throughout history who have consistently spoken truth to power, stood up against unjust systems and fought for the rights of the oppressed? Where has the conservative church tended to stand on the important human rights issues of their day?

As a general rule (with many notable, heroic, faithful, God-loving exceptions, such as William Wilberforce, the Quakers, etc.), true-fundamentalist Christians have tended to be behind the rest of the world, not in front, on issues like equality for women, child labor, civil rights, worker’s rights and more. To their shame, the conservative Church has earned the reputation of standing against human rights, always with Bible verses at the ready. Christians have murdered millions of aboriginal peoples over the past thousand years, or stood by, condoning this behavior, feeling supported by the Bible. German (and other European) Christians used scripture to justify harsh treatment toward Jews – and millions of Jews were eventually exterminated, often with the tacit blessing of churches. Southern Christians used Paul’s epistles to fight the abolitionists. In too many cases the conservative wing of the church has opted to maintain the status quo, Truth-book in hand, fighting against progress, instead of getting out in front and becoming a model of powerful and compassionate social change.

It is true, of course, that heroic Christians and Christian communities have also been very involved in abolishing these social evils, but they usually had to fight against the majority of the people in their own religion to do it.

The Bible-worshipers have tended to come down on the wrong side of science, as well. Need I go into the persecution faced by the thinkers of this world who discovered real facts about the universe that didn’t line up with Biblical “truths?” The list is consistent and depressing.

Sadly, the church is repeating these patterns today in the areas of human rights (sexual minorities) and science (climate change; human origins). In 300 years Christians will look back on today’s Church, scratch their heads, and say, “WTF?” Hopefully, they will also be able to celebrate the remnant of the Church that got out ahead on these issues and led the way. (And, I’ve got to say, I’ve been humbled and thrilled lately as I’m discovering that there are a LOT of you out there- many more of you than I originally thought. PLEASE don’t hide. Come out, come out, wherever you are.)

4. We miss out on the joy

I travel a lot for work. Air travel used to cause me some stress, to be honest. I’d locate my seat and anxiously wait to find out who my next victim was going to be. I know that sounds harsh…and I’m probably exaggerating a bit here. But seriously. I would sit there trying to get my head around the fact that my job, my calling, was to share my faith with whomever God placed next to me, lest that person end up burning in hell. It was a lot of pressure! But after my conversion to apostate-ism, things were suddenly very different. I remember a trip, just a few months after “emptying the hoarder’s room” (see “Sunday thoughts #3: In which I come clean about my faith”), in which I was seated next to a middle-aged guy from Alaska. We started talking, and I have to tell you, it was probably the best “single serving friendship” (Fight Club allusion) I’ve ever had.

This interaction wasn’t a one-way transaction – it wasn’t about me manipulating the conversation toward my beliefs and his future eternity. Instead it became two people sharing stories, experiences and perspectives. He had much to offer – he’d had a rich life marked by an interesting spiritual journey, and he was curious about mine. And ironically I probably did more to enrich his life during those four hours than I would have had I treated him like a project or a target or an obligation. This was a trip that could have been a bit stressful for me and pretty annoying for him, but instead it became a joyful experience that added some depth and texture to both our lives.

Being a fundamentalist, for me, was a mixed bag. On the one hand, things were pretty simple. There were easy answers for life’s hardballs and curveballs; I knew who was right and who was wrong; I could alleviate anxiety by figuring out the rules. But I was dying inside. I preached grace, but experienced guilt. I taught love, but felt forced to judge people based on their ability and/or willingness to wear my straight jacket of Truth. I don’t think I was an asshole – in fact, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t. But inside I lacked joy.

And now? Joy comes often.

I experience joy when I welcome people into my life, temporarily or longer term. I have found that when I cease to see people as either “right or wrong,” when there are no proscribed conversations, when I’m open to the different ways people have of “being” in the world, people tend to show up with a surprising amount of light.

I experience joy when I walk through my day with fewer obligations and rules to follow, fewer people to please. Way less guilt, way more gratitude. I give myself a break, am gentler with myself, and consequently end up being gentler toward others.

I experience joy in the holiness and truth of nature.

I experience joy when I am curious, humble, open to ideas and alternate views, willing to explore and seek and question and live with the tension that mystery requires.

And I experience joy when I am faced with the reality that god, whoever she/he/it is, is way bigger than I imaged.