Wednesday, August 03, 2005

David James Duncan on evangelism and fundamentalism

Check out this article, from Orion online July/August 2005:
What fundamentalists need for their salvation: in defense of truth, stewardship, and neighborly love
Quote:
The God of politically-organized fundamentalism, as advertised daily by a vast array of media, is a Supramundane Caucasian Male as furious with humanity's failure to live by a few lines from Leviticus as He is oblivious to the "Christian" right's failure to live the compassion of the gospels and earth-stewardship of both testaments. As surely as I feel love and need for food and water, I feel love and need for God. But these feelings have nothing to do with Supramundane Males planning torments for those who don't abide by neocon "moral values." I hold the evangelical truth of our situation to be that contemporary politicized fundamentalists, including first and foremost those aimed at Empire and Armageddon, need us non-fundamentalists, mystics, ecosystem activists, unprogrammable artists, agnostic humanitarians, incorrigible writers, truth-telling musicians, incorruptible scientists, organic gardeners, slow food farmers, gay restaurateurs, wilderness visionaries, pagan preachers of sustainability, compassion-driven entrepreneurs, heartbroken Muslims, grief-stricken children, loving believers, loving disbelievers, peace-marching millions, and the One who loves us all in such a huge way that it is not going too far to say: they need us for their salvation.
Yes! Yes! Yes!

4 comments:

dharma bum said...

cool! "the river why" was probably the best book i've read this year. even my wife, not a fisher, really seemed to enjoy it. he's a great writer.

i read through this paragraph a few times and like it a lot, but i've printed off the whole article for the web and will read it at home to understand how he gets to where he gets...

thanks!

(i also ordered a free copy of orion)

Deb said...

I'm a big fan of Duncan's writing as well, and I'm not much of a fisher either. You'll enjoy Orion; it features some excellent writing, photos and artwork, kind of along the same lines of the blogs that we mutually enjoy.

TroutGrrrl said...

Wow! Now that's a prayer that I wouldn't mind committing to memory...

Anonymous said...

I haven't read Duncan in a while, but it appears that I should return.