Publisher's Synopsis
Beyond Spiritual Bigotry is the work of former fundamentalist Sunday school teacher Randy Landis. His unfulfilling three year immersion into modern right-wing pop culture Christianity during the mid-1990s left the author with more questions than answers. The subsequent events of September 11, 2001 led him to the conclusion that people fly planes into buildings because they are convinced that others worship the wrong God- a trait common to all fundamentalists regardless of the Islamic, Christian, Jewish or other truths they claim to selflessly promote.
The book is divided into seven chapters and ends with a question and answer section. The first chapter is a look at the historical outlook promoted by modern American Christian fundamentalists and patiently shows why their view is based on one falsehood after another. The author shows this to be the first component of what he calls the Overstory. Each of the chapters which follow discuss a separate component of this fundamentalist faux-reality.
The second chapter is a look at the person of Jesus of Nazareth as a real human being. Using the Bible as well as secular historians this chapter shares some compelling observations and conclusions.
The third chapter looks at the concept of God and how it has evolved in Western culture. It shows how fundamentalists undertake the business of limiting God and ridiculing others rather than embracing an infinite spirituality and honoring humanity.
Chapter four looks at the Bible- what was included and what was nearly included- and how these books came to be viewed as the inerrant word of God when they were finally listed in 367 CE. Three new non-Overstory theologies are creatively offered, each making as much sense as what millions of people hear each Sunday morning.
The fifth chapter is a look at how Middle Eastern and European mythology, all of it older that Christianity and some of it older than Judaism, provided Christianity with images ranging from demons and hell to virgin births and godmen rising from the dead.
Chapter six pieces together the flimsy biblical foundation of the "Armageddon insanity" which, Landis points out, threatens the very future of the planet we all must share. The irony of the situation is underscored by his observation that the same fundamentalists who teach that the simple language of Genesis is scientifically accurate also insist that the future can be viewed through the patching together of random pieces of hazy and symbolic Old and New Testament prose.
The final chapter has the author returning to his former church and others like it to review what is being offered a decade after his leaving the fold. The author's observations are, of course, filtered through what he had learned in researching chapters one through six.
The book ends with a succinct question and answer section where the author summarizes the purpose of the book as follows: "To have people slow down, take a deep breath and think things over before diving over the cliff of Aramageddon...I am only intolerant of intolerance. I don't oppose the Ku Klux Klan because I am against white people but because of the bigotry the Klan promotes. The same applies to Overstory fundamentalists. I don't oppose their spirituality. I oppose the fact that they sneer at the spirituality of everyone who thinks differently than they do. All spiritual outlooks are entitled to equal respect- provided they extend the same respect to others."
Beyond Spiritual Bigotry is a compelling and thought-provoking piece by piece look at the underpinngs of what has become a powerful social and political force-that being modern fundamentalist pop-culture Christianity.
