Flight from Fundamentalism

A fan letter to Andrew Sullivan about his book, The Conservative Soul, reminds me of what it felt like going to a fundamentalist college and my journey out of what felt like a prison to me, too.

I, a 55 year old raised Catholic, turned Christian woman had my world rocked by your book. I had been wondering for some time about my political whereabouts. I thought I was a Republican and was comfortable with it. I thought I was a Christian and felt somewhat comfortable with it. Then George Bush came along with his faith, which I thought was a good thing at first, until I began to see the party as hypocritical, or as I call them Pharasitical. After experiencing a Bible Study that I increasingly felt uncomfortable with I decided to stop attending.

Unknowingly then, I had put myself in a fundamentalist prison. Subject by subject you helped shake me out of that box. But now what to do with what I had lived and what I have just learned. I savored each page and slowly unpeeled myself from the fundamentalist box I was in.

A thought came to my mind about the administration's fundamentalists’ thoughts on homosexuality. If Jesus were to come upon a homosexual in the streets I believe from the scriptures that He would embrace him as He did us all. If the scriptures reflect Jesus’ loving attitude, then how can the fundamentalists judge and treat them they way they do? Don’t they realize they are grieving the Father?

The beautiful message I got from your book was align myself with the work Jesus did for us and continues to do through us if we let Him. And we can’t let Him if we are judging others.

I like your chapters on life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. So much that I am now reading the essays from Thomas Jefferson. You opened my eyes to several philosophers that I would like to read more on. The message I got there was: enjoy God in your life and don’t push God on others - just live it.