Don't fall for black/white thinking...

[oldlady]

I've seen a lot of threads about "the fundamentalists" lately. I understand the frustration, I'm as puzzled as anyone & I've read "What's the Matter with Kansas".

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about the evangelical Christian I talked with tonight. He is one of the most generous and selfless persons I've known in my life. He lived in West Germany before the wall fell. My husband and I ran into him in the parking lot of our apartment complex tonight & fell into talking about the election. We shared some of our silly/personal experiences since the "disaster": such as the fact that our brains have turned to pudding and we want to eat macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes, just like after 9/11. He said--"yeah, it's a sad and perplexing thing, but you know it wouldn't have been that much different"-- NOW WAIT A MINUTE-- put aside the "why I oughta kick that guy in the teeth" response & think about what he's really saying-- Kerry/Edwards wasn't left enough for this evangelical Christian. (sure, he's an anomaly in the context of the media debate and Republican base-- but, he does exist and he is living among them DAILY).

We asked him if he was concerned that the public dialogue was going to polarize this national experience on religion. He agreed that it would---but, felt that was a good thing. He feels the church needs this scrutiny to overcome its self-righteous blindness. He said/means this lovingly -- he's a central part of a church here that has grown from 40 people to 4000 in the last four years.

I suggested that evangelicals may have voted so strongly on abortion and homosexual concerns because they honestly and sincerely believe that God will visit a retribution on US (even me) if they don't step up and stop what they perceive to be an abomination. He said that I was wrong, because they don't believe God would strike them, they don't recognize they are part of the problem, so it's simple homophobia that drove much of the vote (even here in Wisconsin)-- and it makes him sad. He said that the problem in the churches, or with the church-going is that they don't realize that it's going on among them as well--they aren't really different from the main society, they just hide it and deny it.

I asked if there was just a double-standard of forgiveness--Swaggart remains in the pulpit, because he's "one of them", but non-churched (or other-churched) get hunted down and destroyed. He said, "no, there's not real forgiveness in the church for either those inside or outside of it".

In the end, we agreed that this is just another form of nationalism --

my point is this-- this humble man, this evangelical Christian reminded me (without saying it to my face) that WE need to be careful not to fall into the black/white thinking that creates nationalism, bigotry, and Bush-- because they are one enemy I don't want to become. The world is sooooo gray.

Anyway, for what it's worth-- one evangelical I know is also the most progressive person I know.

peace

[glitch]

1. You are absolutely right. Thanks for the reminder, nt