Rhetoric Race and Religion
What follows is a collection of some of the stuff I was taught to believe. If you were raised in a similar fundamentalist Christian environment, you will readily recognize the worldview. If you were not, well, perhaps this will help inform you or confirm what you knew already. Not by any means is it an exhaustive list. Instead, it’s more like a sampling of a few of the more common beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity.
In the second part of this two-part series, I’ll outline a few of the perspectives I hold today. I no longer call the things I believe “beliefs” because the word connotes too much rigidity and inflexibility to me. “Perspectives” feels a little softer, more pliable, as if there might actually be openness in me to a new way of understanding something. If either part of this two-part series is helpful to even one reader, for what more could I ask?
It is not my intention to stir a reaction, to debate with anyone, or to cast stones at a belief system or at those who may embrace it as I did once with much passion. I wish only to help those who have become disillusioned by a faith tradition or a belief system that no longer works for them. I wish only to help those who want to walk with God beyond the narrow path of understanding that they may have followed in their childhood and youth. My only desire is to show those who are open to it how they might embrace a faith, know God and themselves in a spiritually healthy fashion, as well as make room for those who hold to a different belief system or who may not believe in God at all. It is my hope to build bridges between people, religions and cultures. The Dalai Lama is right. “Until there is peace among the religions, there can be no peace in the world.
Both parts of this two-part series are taken from my book The Enoch Factor: The Sacred Art of Knowing God. I will add only a little commentary on a few of the beliefs listed below. My commentary is wrapped in parenthesis.
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