Once, a pastor was fired from his church, for one of the laity went by his office and heard him crying, praying fervently, “O Lord, help me! Give me a faith that can doubt.”
A priest went to serve as a missionary among the Eskimos. An Eskimo asked the missionary, “Sir, you say that I can go to heaven or hell. Sir, tell me, If I didn’t know about God and sin, would I go to hell?” The priest replied, “No, not if you didn’t know.” “Then,” asked the Eskimo, “why did you tell me?”
Much that goes under the name truth not only does not transcend human understanding, it does not even measure up to human understanding. If an unexamined life is not worth living, then a refusal to allow faith to undergo the examination of reason is a sad thing.
I sat beside a dear lady speaking of how times have changed in recent years. She noted that it used to be that persons just believed. Now, they go off to school and some religion professors teach the young kids to question their beliefs. I resisted the temptation to say, kindly, “Ma’am, I sitting beside you here, are one of those professors.” I could have, also, said, “And, I encourage my church members to examine, honestly, their faith, also.”
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Of course, I do not just come out and say, “Okay, examine your faith. Get ready, go!” I never offer an “Examine Faith” class. No, there are many subtle ways to model this way of integrity, as well as gently and lovingly encouraging a faith both reasonable and able to transcend reason. I have learned that there is little to fear in hurting someone’s faith when encouraging such examination, for persons will not subject their faith to such scrutiny until they are ready. When persons are already having some questions, then, when they are ready, that process will evolve and at a pace they can handle.
A trait of fundamentalism is its resistance to such examination of faith. Fundamentalist, as well as most conservatives, will explore their faith; however, they do so with a presupposition of proving it or knowing more about what they claim to already know, not as a process to test it.
There are two types of fundamentalism. First, unconscious fundamentalism is that group of persons who know no other options to fundamentalism, for they have not been introduced adequately to other possibilities. Second, there is a conscious fundamentalism. These are those who have had opportunities to know otherwise. You can see, I am sure, that fundamentalism is basically the same mentality, whether it is in religion or politics. This is one reason that fundamentalist religion and fundamentalist politics often make a happy wedding couple. Likewise, fundamentalist, and much conservative, politics knows how to use such religion to serve its political agenda.
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