Some light from behind the clouds . . . ?
In what I'm sure is a complete coincidence, soon after writing the previous post, I ran across a book titled Letters From a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity. After reading the summary and reviews, I pounced on this book immediately.
It's a pretty easy read. I sailed through it in about 4 hours. The structure of the book is an ongoing dialogue addressing questions that many people, believer and agnostic alike, have about God and Christianity. In a series of letters written between an unbelieving dad and his believing son, many hard questions are asked and answered, then turned over and debated some more. This is not a book of pat answers or easy questions.
What I came away from this book with was the realization that it is not the Gospel that I wrestle with. What I have issues with is the fundamentalist propaganda with which I was indoctrinated after becoming a Christian.
I know that being a Christian is more than just claiming a set of beliefs or gathering knowledge about Jesus and the Bible, but I've felt guilty for years just asking questions or having doubts. The tradition from which I came was very anti-intellectual, "This is the truth and there are no other valid interpretations or shades of grey," my-way-or-the-highway you-must-behave-thus-and-so-because-I-said-so fundamentalist Christianity. They were so serious about the submissive wife thing that my pastor once told me that it was impossible for me to be friends with the woman I married(!), because it would be more difficult for her to "submit to my authority!"
I'm not out of the woods yet on this. That fundie voice is always blathering away in the back of my mind, "you're going to hell!," "That's just a demon," "Don't bother working toward a future, Jesus is coming soon," etc. . . .
But at least there is a light. I would highly recommend this book to recovering fundamentalists, as well as agnostics or anyone who desires to know more about why they believe what they believe. It is possible to be a Christian, even if you don't think the Earth is a mere 6,000 years old, or if you think that the Left Behind series is utter drivel.
The essence of Christianity is embodied in the Apostle's Creed. Yes, there are other important things, but as Augustine said, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity."
