D Letters

Religious Paths and Pasts



I pastor a small Southern Baptist church in Milford. Texas. My family and I have lived here for two and a half years. I am 29, a tail-end baby boomer.

A young man in church handed me a copy of the December issue of D. I confess that by the subtitle I thought Glenna Whitley’s article (“A Pilgrim’s Progress.” December) would be a Southern Baptist bashing. I am sure that some people might be defensive and threatened by the article. I was not. I found the expression of her pilgrimage refreshing.

I grew up the son of a deacon in a Southern Baptist church. Our house sat a half block from the church we attended in Oklahoma City. I grew up in the late ’60s and ’70s. Most Baptist preachers gave more attention to the book of Revelation and little attention to readying us for facing the everyday struggles of life.

What bothered me and continues to bother me seems to be what Whitley experienced. There was little attempt to do more than give a set of rules to live by. There was not much “why” except the dangers of eternal punishment for the unrepentant. Not much of a threat to young “invincibles.” I set out on my own pilgrimage. My discovery was Whitley’s conclusion. People long for spiritual truth. However, they want a reason and they want to know it works.

I attended Oklahoma Baptist University. I knew young men who came to college ready to win the world. Today, of the 300 plus freshmen who came to OBU, 1 only know a few who did not become disillusioned. Why?

I believe Whitley touched on the key. When the chips were down and things were difficult, all they could look to was a set of rules with little “why” and hardly an inkling about how to make an application to all of life. If believers will raise our children and Bible study teachers will teach our young people the way Whitley describes, I think we could save many pilgrims from the “slough of despond.”

TODD LITTLETON

MILFORD

As a lifelong Easterner. I am a newcomer to Dallas. (I am the first pastor of Park Cities Presbyterian Church and have only been here for seven months.)

Dallas has been for us something of a culture shock. Living in such a strong Christian culture is very new. What I find in my own thinking is the need to lean hard against a conservative, bland, cultural form of Christianity that really has very little reality in it. It is ironic that we have changed the command of Scripture so much that now Christians are very much of the world (share the same values the world has) but are not in it (have separated themselves out into Christian ghettos complete with our own Christian recreation centers, bowling leagues and aerobic groups.)

I “connected” with so much of your spiritual story because I think we need to stand apart from both an insipid fundamentalism and a dominant but powerless cultural Christianity.

JOSEPH F. (SKIP) RYAN

PARK CITIES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

DALLAS



I was disappointed to find how much of Whitley’s article seems to constitute a consumer’s guide to the churches for the post-baby boomer generation. Whitley refers to some things that made life difficult without religion, but she gives us very few of the positive reasons that caused her to embrace Christianity.

PAUL CRABTREE

MESQUITE



Thank you for the amazing article on Glenna Whitley’s spiritual pilgrimage. I am a church planter and was given the article by an older single woman in our little church family. I am fascinated by the ways that the Lord brings people to himself. As a church planter, I also need to be acutely in touch with the goings-on in the hearts of people. I find Whitley’s story to be exceedingly revealing and helpful.

I see die article as a strong and effective “apologetic” for the faith, in a most sensible, honest and sensitive way. It is a gentle call to genuine faith, in a culture of veneer religion.

MICHAEL SHARRETT

FORT WORTH



Ms. Whitley’s sometimes tongue-in-cheek candor was refreshing, and I grinned as she nailed some of the prevalent contradictions of Christianity to the cross of those who wonder (translate: wander), alternating between faith and guilt and sheer unbelief.

In my opinion, Christianity is riddled with those pastors and leaders who, contrary to Scripture, want to “lords” over their flock. And while leadership is necessary, there is clearly a difference in leadership and lordship. Personally. I think the difference can be expressed in a word: idolatry.

VOYLE A. GLOVER

SCHERERVILLE, IN



My childhood was also spent in deep-rooted Baptist beliefs and I, like Whitley, have spent the past 15 years in search of “real” Christianity.

The best I’ve been able to do is to find a place like Whitley has where I and my family can worship God, be spiritually fed and share in the pilgrimage with a group of sincere, “not perfect” people.

DAVID BISHOP

GRAND PRAIRIE

I read Glenna Whitley’s article to the end wondering why the man in the lead paragraphs killed himself and his family. OK, so 1 began by suspecting that he was forced to go to church once too often. As the product of a Baptist upbringing myself, I could certainly relate to that, and I wanted to find out where I had zigged while he had zagged. But instead of following this intriguing family down their dead-end spiritual street, 1 found myself accompanying Whitley as she wandered through a veritable shopping mall of the sacred. Leave it to D to make a religious pilgrimage sound like a shopping trip.

The author was born to browse the bargain basement of fundamentalism, but she lifted herself up to rummage the “Answers’” bin at the head shop of rock V roll, window-shopped the import store (Buddhism is kinda cute, doncha thing?), then a hop, skip and a jog to a suburban boutique that tastefully answers those questions one doesn’t want to think about. At last, Nirvana, Neiman Marcus style.

Sometimes I think I was the only Baptist in Texas who recognized hypocrisy before puberty recognized me.

I cheerfully admit that I shop religions with an eye to suiting my own tastes. Unlike Whitley, or so it seems, I’ve always actually enjoyed thinking about the questions some people never want to think about-the ones all religions ask and few, like hers, venture to answer.

More than anything in all my life’s religious activities, I take pleasure in yearly displaying a crèche made with toy dinosaurs, Masters of the Universe figures, plastic frogs with wings and one tiny, baby Smurf. The angel on my tree is held aloft by King Kong. It’s my way of renewing the peace I’ve made with my past. I’ve learned lessons about truth, morality, vengeance, mortality and ultimate justice from comic books, movies and other places, as well as from the Bible.

That’s why I’m sorry that Glenna Whitley, for all of her having found peace and contentment, seems to have found little to enjoy in religious belief. Perhaps it is because in her search for a religious outfit that fits her to a T, she completely overlooked the one shopping stop in the metaphysical mall that makes the imagination come alive: the religious experience equivalent to a toy store. It makes shopping for religion more fun, like shopping should be.

JOHN TRIMBLE

DALLAS



A Literary Fiasco

Re: “A Readable Feast” (December): It is embarrassing to see so many capable Dallas literati in such a piece of fluff.

But as a Dallas bookseller for over 20 years, I can tell you: They can use the publicity and a free meal.

JOEL M. DUMVILLE

DALLAS

Correction: Our January Best & Worst issue should have stated that The Dallas Morning News raised advertising rates 15 percent following the closing of the Dallas Times Herald.

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