Read the Bible--It Will Scare the Hell Out of You

In a small town it is a gossip inducing sight: In a pew sits a mother with her two children alone.</P><P>Is that lady divorced?</P><P>The father is that blond guy who worked at the grocery store.</P><P>I can't believe it! He seemed like such a nice guy. Why isn't he in church with his family?</P><P>He said he is no longer a Christian.</P><P><I>No longer</I> a Christian? Got into drugs?</P><P>I don't know. Didn't seem like a drunk. He said something about problems with the Bible but DUH! Maybe there's another woman.</P><P>Well he's sure not a good role-model for his kids.</P><P>The author hasn't heard that conversation and actually probably never would in his lovely kindhearted small town. But he feels it. And he has had to deal with the question Why aren't you in church with your family? When verbal explanations failed he began this written defense that even Joe Sixpack can understand. The implications of the evangelical fundamentalist worldview initiated his skepticism but it was the Bible that finally drove him from his born-again roots. They don't put these scriptures in sermons and being born-again may turn out to be something completely different.</P>