Fundamentalists Display Their Own Limitations Letter Of The Week From Aug. 12, 1997
So Spokane’s Christian fundamentalists are dismayed with the Subud conference taking place in our city. Why am I not surprised? “If it ain’t scripture, it ain’t Godly.”
Christianity, one would assume, has something to do with the teachings of Christ, but nowhere can I find evidence that Christ taught exclusivity, fear and arrogance.
Throughout history, people clinging to the known have allowed their fear of what they don’t know to persecute those who see beyond the cradle of convention. Columbus, Galileo and Jesus saw a reality that stretched the known perimeters of geography, science and spirituality; they were all ridiculed and/or persecuted for their efforts. Jesus didn’t fit the established mold in his day and Subud, which isn’t even a religion, doesn’t fit the mold today. So if Subud doesn’t fit the scriptural mold, what is it? It must be bad. It must be MORE than bad; it must be (thunder clap) diabolical!
Well, Christian fundamentalists probably won’t participate at the Subud conference. And neither will Islamic, Jewish and any other religious fundamentalists who blanch at the prospect that God is not running an exclusive country club for a certain type of clientele.
A bunch of people coming together to reach out to and receive God in the language of their own religious cultures is it all that scary? Need we be on guard for our spiritual lives? Should we all be wearing garlic and crucifixes around our necks? I don’t think so. Lita S. Oppegard Deer Park xxxx