I have walked a long and varied path when it comes to my spirituality and I have been on both sides of the fence when it comes to Christian fundamentalism and a spirituality that is not dependent on a set of doctrines to guide my every move throughout life. I know there are others out there just like me who use their intellects and can still call themselves a spiritual person who believes in a deity or deities, a God and/or a Goddess. I respect that some people are not able to reconcile themselves to a spiritual, unseen dimension to their lives and would prefer to believe in only those things that the senses and science can prove and to me that is just another choice or option that people can choose when deciding how to live their lives.
I was not always as I am now though. There was a time when I was just as inflexible as the next fundamentalist would be in refusing to be moved from what I thought was absolute truth in a world gone mad. There is a comfort in knowing that you are right and that whether anyone else acknowledges it or not you possess the truth. It gives you a feeling of security in a world that strips certainty away from you with the reading of each day’s news. You know that regardless of what happens that day or the next or the next you will still be in possession of the truth which allows you to exist in the maelstrom of the 21st century world.
I was not destined to stay on that path of absolute truth because I started to evolve past it and at some point I was able to see that the world is not so black and white when it comes to how we deal with what comes our way but a lot more composed of shades of gray. The wall of beliefs doesn’t just collapse and suddenly you are able to recognize the error of your path but rather it starts with little cracks in the wall. The first crack for me was allowing myself to even consider that another viewpoint other than my fundamentalist view might be valid. I know. That doesn’t sound like a lot but when it comes to the absolutes that make up the fundamentalist’s life there are no little concessions.
There was/is an argument that is posed to those who are undecided about who Jesus was and the argument goes that either Jesus was/is the Son of God or a madman or worse. Those are the only two choices. Black and white. For the fundamentalist there is no shade of gray in that statement and there is no other choice. So if a fundamentalist, in this case me, starts to entertain the idea that there are other ways to reach or commune with deity you have demolished your foundation and are in danger of being lost. So a crack in the wall of a fundamentalist’s beliefs is tantamount to having a wrecking ball demolish the entire thing and letting everything pour in.
I am putting these insights out here to help you understand what you are dealing with in regards to the absolute refusal on the part of fundamentalist Christians to compromise or bend on issues that they feel are settled once and for all. (i.e. homosexuality, same sex marriage, abortion, evangelism) I don’t seek to convert people to my spiritual viewpoint anymore because it is my spiritual viewpoint and has nothing to do with your experiences or non-experiences with deity in your life. This is not to excuse their actions because I personally believe that deity or God or Goddess is much more than what our finite minds can comprehend and that our concepts of justice, love, punishment, life and retribution are not the same as an infinite deity’s concepts of those same ideas. This is just to show you that the only way they will ever accept your point of view as valid will be if they have an internal revelation that there is more than they think to life and spirituality.
My spiritual beliefs now contain concepts gathered from many paths and I have room in my worldview to accept anyone’s path as a legitimate way to deity regardless of whether they agree with a single thing that I believe in or not. Breaking down the wall has freed me to understand a lot more about this world that I live in and that its diversity of spiritual cultures all over the world are a testament to the absolute infinite deity/deities that lie beyond our understanding. Cracks in the wall of beliefs are the worst nightmare of those who are locked into a fundamentalist mindset because it is like being surrounded by the enemy pounding at your gates and trying to breach your walls. In this scenario they will fight to the last person standing and use whatever tactics necessary to defend themselves against no less than the total annihilation of everything they believe in. This is why reason and logic will never sway a fundamentalist and in fact may be seen as nothing less than the tools of Satan trying to put a chink in the armor. Maybe this will help explain why oftentimes there doesn’t seem to be a rational reason for the way they act. To them there is.
Thanks Michael.