A Christian I Can Admire

[donco6]

I could get to admire Christians if I knew more like Madeleine L'Engle

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4926262/

<snip>
What are you working on at the moment?
A book about aging: enjoy it, you might as well. And it’s not all bad. I can say what I want, and I don’t get punished for it.

Such as?
Such as I sometimes think God is a s--t—and he wouldn’t be worth it otherwise. He’s much more interesting when he’s a s--t.

So to you, faith is not a comfort?
Good heavens, no. It’s a challenge: I dare you to believe in God. I dare you to think wasn’t an accident.

<me>

Whoa. "I dare you to believe in God." That's pretty profound, IMO. I LIKE her.

[checks-n-balances]

1. She wrote "A Wrinkle in Time", if you've heard of that

Definitely an intellect with a heart, a sense of humor, and great honesty.

She reminds me a lot of Anne LaMott, another honest Christian that I admire.

[regnaD kciN]

3. Yes, and this interview was because of the TV-movie version...

...showing on ABC this Monday.

The interview may not be what ABC was hoping for, as one of the interview questions about the movie went something like

Interviewer: Did it live up to your expectations?

L'Engle: Oh, yes. I expected it to be bad, and it was.

:-)

[checks-n-balances]

2. BTW, there used to be a lot of sensible public persons of the

Christian persuasion like Niebuhr, who is long dead. That's what's happened to a lot of them - gone from a past generation and not replaced. And Clarence Jordan of Americus, GA, who originated the "Fund for Humanity" which later became "Habitat for Humanity." Then there are people like William Sloane Coffin who won't be around much longer. They aren't being replaced because there's been such an influx of conservative and RW schools and seminaries training younger people these days.

That's damn depressing and really a loss to our society.

Anyway, thanks much for posting the article about Madeleine L'Engle!

[regnaD kciN]

5. Actually, there still are a lot...

...but the fundies make for such colorful (irony intended) media coverage...

[regnaD kciN]

4. She's quite special...

I've read many of her books (both her kid and adult fiction, and her non-fiction religious works), and saw her lecture in Seattle about a decade ago.

Of course, she's an Episcopalian. :thumbsup:

[Merlin]

6. Too bad she won't be honest about the bible.

She deceitfully says the bible is just stories, but then says it's "truth." By so doing she perpetuates the dangerous, damaging fallacy that the bible is "the Word of God." Yet she claims to be opposed to the fundies and their literal interpretation.

She says Jonah is merely a myth. True enough. But then she talks as if the story of Eve is true. Which it isn't. This is the kind of duplicity by so many otherwise intelligent religious people that I despise. She complains about creationists, but does nothing but fan the flames of it with her straddle on the genuineness of biblical revelation.

Basic honesty and a decent respect for the effect people like her have on public opinion demand that they expose the bible for what it is: folklore, tribal history, legend and poetry. Instead, nearly all Christians are taught to believe it was either written by God or dictated by God. That is utterly false. If the God of creation chose to either write or dictate a book, it would not be riddled with error, hypocricy, racism, blood lust, and all manner of utter nonsense. To claim that the bible is "The Word of God" is a blasphemy against the true Force behind the universe.