Cameron (Walking the Labyrinth) promised a post this morning and has completed it and at the risk of looking like we’re patting each other on the back too vigorously I wanted to post a link for it here. It’s called Moderation in All Things.
I’ve always likened people making the shift (a term which does the process no justice at all) from conservative Christianity to polytheism to trying to leave a tiny little closet-like room by cramming themselves into a tiny little window which defines their mandated tiny little worldview. But once they manage to squeeze through that window, they find themselves on an endless plain with almost endless possibilities.
I think conservative Christians might agree with this analogy in that they see choice as an evil. If you’re stuck in your tiny little room you can’t make any choices. You can only do what you’re told to do. But once you’re out the window (and it’s size is meant to show how difficult it is to break free of that narrow world view), you find yourself free, and limitless spaces denote limitless choices. So what’s wonderful for the escapee is to an equal degree horrible for those still inmates of the tiny little room syndrome.
“Egads! She’s going to make a choice! Nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!”
Yeah, she’s going to make a choice.
And even if she makes a bad choice, at least it will be her choice, and she will have the option of making sure it’s an informed choice because she’ll finally be free to think about questions with an open mind and won’t be forced to respond with the mandated answer.
It’s hard to make freedom out to be a bad thing. I know they’ll keep trying, but I think Cameron h as shown that they’re wrong.
