Leaving Fundamentalism

Description

In a time when religious conservatives have placed their faith and values at the forefront of the so-called “culture wars,” this book is extremely relevant. The stories in Leaving Fundamentalism provide a personal and intimate look behind sermons, religious services, and church life, and promote an understanding of those who have been deeply involved in the conservative Christian church. These autobiographies come from within the congregations and homes of religious fundamentalists, where their highly idealized faith, in all its complexities and problems, meets the reality of everyday life. Told from the perspective of distance gained by leaving fundamentalism, each story gives the reader a snapshot of what it is like to go through the experiences, thoughts, feelings, passions, and pains that, for many of the writers, are still raw. Explaining how their lives might continue after fundamentalism, these writers offer a spiritual lifeline for others who may be questioning their faith.

Foreword by Thomas Moore

Sujets

• Religión
• Life writing
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 30 juillet 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781554586653
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Leaving Fundamentalism
Leaving Fundamentalism
Personal Stories
Foreword by Thomas Moore Edited by G. Elijah Dann
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Leaving fundamentalism: personal stories / G. Elijah Dann, editor; foreword by Thomas Moore.
(Life writing series)
ISBN 978-1-55458-026-2
1. Fundamentalism. 2. Christian biography. 3. Ex-church members-Biography.
I. Dann, G. Elijah II. Series.
BT82.2.L43 2008 277.3 082 C2008-900382-9
Cover design by Blakeley. Text design by Catharine Bonas-Taylor.
2008 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca

This book is printed on Ancient Forest Friendly paper (100% post-consumer recycled).
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Contents
Foreword Thomas Moore
Acknowledgements
An Introduction to Christian Fundamentalism G. Elijah Dann
Rapture, Community, and Individualist Hope Joseph Simons
From There to Here L.A. Livingston
Fantastic Voyage: Surviving Charismatic Fundamentalism David L. Rattigan
My Mother, My Church Margaret Steel Farrell
The Ministry Revisited Keith Dixon
Looking Back at Sodom: My Evangelical and Lesbian Testimonies Julie Rak
The Slippery Slope of Theology Jeffrey W. Robbins
Life Stages Jacob Shelley
More Catholic Than Thou : One Man s Journey Through Roman Catholic Fundamentalism Andrea Lorenzo Molinari
Inching Along Beverley Bryant
From Fear to Faith: My Journey into Evangelical Humanism Glenn A. Robitaille
The Jesus Lizard James Fieser
Are You a Real Christian? Leia Minaker
The Naked Empress, Queen of Fundamentalism Anonymous
Confessions of an Ex-Fundamentalist G. Elijah Dann
Contributors
THOMAS MOORE Foreword
In the matter of religion and spirituality, I feel that I live on a small island between two continents: modernism and fundamentalism. I don t live in the modern world because I don t want science to have the last word on what is real and valuable, but neither do I want to whisk away all religious and spiritual ideas into the pastel realm of metaphor. On the other hand, I m happy to live in a time when the many spiritual traditions of the world are easily accessible and I can shape my spiritual life with responsibility and creative pleasure. I have a poetic mind. I value insight over fact, and the deep resonance of a story or image over a factual claim of truth.
I wish this word truth could be expunged from the language overnight. It creates divisions and gives illusions. The spiritual life lies in a realm of mysteries, not facts. We live in a world that we don t fully understand. We don t know for a fact what the afterlife might be like or that it even exists. Here, the most sincere and intelligent spiritual people differ in their ideas and expectations. We are not certain about the origins of this universe, but we can relate to life itself as a source beyond comprehension.
The certainty with which fundamentalists speak of their truth is so aggressive and self-defined that it seems anxious and unsteady. Fundamentalism s display of certitude protests too much and looks more like doubt and uncertainty whistling in the dark. As it is used today, the word truth is not nearly subtle enough to convey the mystery that is God or how to live in a complex world.
The word used in the Gospels and translated as truth is aletheia , from a-lethe , not forgetting. In earlier times the word was used of the great poets who remembered the profound origins of life and the immeasurably deep patterns that shape our destinies. These issues can and should be reflected on for a lifetime, shifting in nuance as you grow older and wiser.
I sit on my little island reading William Blake, the poet who railed against both religious and scientific fundamentalism. For Blake, religion is about the way we imagine human life to be and work. Like most soulful poets after the Renaissance, he continued the humanizing efforts of Marsilio Ficino and his friend Pico della Mirandola, who wrote an unfinished book called Poetic Theology. That is my ideal, a theology and spirituality that takes the imagination seriously and that understands religion as the artful effort to remember the deepest realities that shape our world.
It is fitting to have a book of stories about the experience of fundamentalism. We are all fundamentalists at one time or another and in one sphere or another. We could all write stories about our leaving certain fundamentalisms behind. My own list of them is very long. The way to deal with them is to tell the stories of how they appeared, what they did, and how they departed. Storytelling is one of the chief instruments of the imagination, and if there is one ingredient that spirituality needs in this day of facticity, it is imagination.
It is also useful to have in this volume a remarkably intelligent and open-minded introduction to the stories, a historical story about the nature and progress of Christian fundamentalism. There, we can trace the back-and-forth movement between a tendency toward tradition and a prizing of the individual. If there is a solution to this tendency to split into factions, it would be to take the gist of fundamentalism and the core of modernist materialism into a tension where the outcome is neither extreme nor some centre of balance. There is something in our fundamentalisms worthy of our attention and much in our skepticism worth keeping.
In depth psychology we approach a neurotic or symptomatic pattern by going deeper in reflection into the symptom . We try not to compensate by turning in an opposite direction. In the same way, it is not wise to respond to fundamentalism by trying to banish it or out-reason it. Better to reflect on it with an open mind until something of its core value appears. To me, the obvious core value in fundamentalism is the open receiving of a spiritual idea without twisting it to fit any comfortable agenda. For example, rather than dismiss Jesus miracles as an extravagance of hagiography, I would rather tone down the sensationalism and literalism of them and see whether there is indeed anything miraculous, awe-inspiring, and unexpectedly potent in his message. It would certainly be a miracle if everyone on earth became a peacemaker. As a psychotherapist I have seen people find miraculous healing-astonishingly unexpected and spontaneous but not against the laws of nature.
Another example: For many years I have written favourably about angels. I m not talking about science fiction plasma beings that pass through doors and walls, nor about metaphors and symbols. I m talking about inspiring presences like a muse or a sensation of warning. These angels are real, but they are not invisible bodies.
So I do not want to leave my fundamentalisms without taking their riches with me. I want to remain on my island of poetics, neither a materialist skeptic nor a naive believer. But I want to keep up a good trading relationship with my continental neighbours. They have much to offer me.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my appreciation to those who made this book a reality. First, I m grateful to one of the contributors, Jacob Shelley, who, after one of our long discussions about Christian fundamentalism, suggested putting together a book of this nature. Later, as the volume editor, it was a pleasure to read the chapters in their various stages of gestation and through to their eventual birth. The contributors, in their own ways, showed faith in this project, and even helped to find the right publisher, Wilfrid Laurier University Press. On that note, I am indebted to the Press s former acquisitions editor, Jacqueline Larson (who has now moved on to the Monk Institute), for her enthusiasm for this project. I would also like to thank Lisa Quinn, who took Jacqueline s place as acquisitions editor, for her own enthusiasm- even excitement-for the initial proposal, and ensuring the book s timely publication. My thanks to Matthew Kudelka for his care as copy editor and to Lynnette Torok for her own careful copy editing. For his thoughtful preface, I would like to thank Thomas Moore, who took time out of his busy writing and speaking schedules.
G. Elijah Dann
Victoria, British Columbia
G. ELIJAH DANN
An Introduction to Christian Fundamentalism
The title of this book will have some readers asking what kind of fundamentalism this book is about. Understanding our particular meaning of the word has been made all the more confusing because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Before that infamous date-though some nuances were already shifting among various Christian groups-fundamentalism referred almost exclusively to conservative Protestant churches in the United States and Canada. The events of 9/11 have changed many things. For example, the public s attention is now riveted on the notion o