Just to keep the record straight, I belong to a Lutheran church in my neighborhood, so I am, at least outwardly, a Christian. But as far as my actual religio-philosophical beliefs are concerned, I am still working that out, and I don't intend to go into it here.

I can definitely see Carol's point. The arrogance of some fundamentalist Christians seems to know no bounds. The following is anecdotal, but within my experience (more than just the following incident), typical:—

Some years ago I was working at Boeing as a production illustrator. My work day was frequently interrupted by a fellow named Ivan who belonged to a hard-charging, socially (politically) active fundamentalist church. Sometimes for hours a day, Ivan would stand beside my drawing table and try to engage me in religious discussions. His motivation was obvious. He was hell-bent on saving my soul (whatever that means).

I was not the only one he hit on, but he seemed to find me particularly fascinating (a challenge, perhaps) because I was able to argue Bible verse for Bible verse with him. I must admit that I took a measure of delight in the many times I was able to call him on verses that he quoted out of context and point out to him that he was misinterpreting them, and then tell him what—in context—they really referred to. He assumed I was an avid Bible scholar (and if so, how come I didn't believe as he did?). I told him (perhaps a mistake) that when I was at the University of Washington, I had taken a course called "The Bible as Literature." This course was taught by Dr. David C. Fowler, the same professor who taught "The Popular Ballad," covering many of the Child ballads.

Now Dr. Fowler made it abundantly clear that we would be reading the Bible as literature—as short stories, novellas, essays (e.g., Paul's Epistles), poetry, etc.. Our religious beliefs were our own, and there would be no class discussion of personal beliefs or interpretations. And he enforced this quite strictly. Whenever a student would wander off into a religious interpretation, as a few frequently tried to do, he firmly steered the discussion back to the literary aspects of what we were discussing. The result was that we were not reading the Bible verse by separate verse, but in long sections, straight through, like a short story or a novel, as written, the whole picture as the authors wanted their stories, essays, and poetry presented.

So when Ivan (or anyone else) starts quoting disconnected verses, I can usually recognize them and recall the context—which, more often than not, yanks the rug out from under the Bible-thumper who's trying to sell me a bill-of-goods.

Okay, how is this an example of fundamentalist Christian arrogance? It was shortly after Ivan learned about the existence of the U. of W.'s "Bible as Literature" course (I should have kept my mouth shut!) that his church, and a coalition of other fundamentalist churches in his area, filed suit against the University of Washington and Dr. Fowler, to have the course removed from the catalog on the basis that a state-funded university was allowing one of their professors to "teach religion."

Of course, if they'd had their druthers, they (one of the same outfits that tries to get selected books yanked from school and public libraries) would have been teaching their particular brand of religion in every grade school, high school, and university in the state. But their primary bitch (unstated, of course) with the university and Dr. Fowler was that those who took the course knew the Bible too well, and their proselytizers such as Ivan were stumped by people who could blow them out of the water by quoting the Bible right back at them!

But it doesn't end there. Eventually Boeing fired Ivan. He wasn't doing his own work, and he was forever interrupting his co-workers and not allowing them to do theirs either. When reprimanded, he replied haughtily that he had "more important work to do. God's work!" They put up with it for months, and then finally canned him.

Then he sued Boeing for firing him because of religious discrimination in the work place.

Don Firth