by Mark Sandlin and the Admin Team of "The God Article."


“Being a slave to your own truth,” might be one reasonable way to define extreme fundamentalism.

On September 22nd two years ago, CNN ran an investigative report titled “Ungodly Discipline.” It takes a look at a history of biblically “justified” abuse in one specific school. It would be easy to walk away from the report and think it's nothing more than a he-said/she-said piece on spanking in schools. It is so much more than that.

It points to the dangers of fundamentalism. These children were not just spanked, they were abused. People who presumably loved them, hurt them. They justified it using the Bible. Fundamentalism frequently requires a devotion which is so blind that its adherents find they are nothing more than pawns in a game whose only purpose is to keep the game going. They are slaves to their own truths.

My heart goes out to each child who has grown up in this church and school. I have little doubt that some of them have escaped it relatively unscathed, but I know without any doubt that many have been wounded deeply.

The school is Fairhaven Baptist Academy which is associated with Fairhaven Independent Baptist Church and Fairhaven Baptist College in Indiana. Their founder is Pastor Roger Voegtlin. His two adpoted children are among those who were abused and they are speaking out about it.

Pastor Voegtlin's adopted son, Frank Voegtlin, contributed the following introduction to the CNN video for this article. In part, it explains why I believe it is still important to continue to tell their story.

by Randy Walker

Arrogance is a two-edged sword. While it can make people feel superior and confident when stating their beliefs or points in an argument, the people receiving the message are often offended by the arrogance and feelings of superiority emanating from the messenger. In other words, the message may be valid, insightful, and credible, but these qualities are tainted and spoiled by the arrogant way it is delivered. There are a sundry of contexts where this happens, but I want to focus on one particular, controversial topic, and that is worldviews. Narrowing the subject even more, I will focus on fundamentalist Christians and hardcore atheists, who are science fundamentalists.

These two viewpoints provoke venomous responses from both sides of the argument. It is obvious that resentment easily morphs into disdain and outright hatred for the opposing point-of-view. When this happens, any hope of conversion or convincing others to see things from either viewpoint is overshadowed by the venomous nature of the argument. Stated another way, the message is tainted beyond recognition by the arrogant attitudes of the messengers.

Christian fundamentalists use faith rooted in the Bible, which is proclaimed as the infallible, literal “Word of God.” Most of the time, they view atheists as evil opponents who desecrate the Christian faith if only through a lack of belief in a higher power. I have heard more than one Christian say they hate atheists. They also see atheists as a threat to their evangelical pursuits. It is not difficult to see that Christian fundamentalists dismiss atheists as spiritually ignorant because they do not believe in God. I have watched more than one Christian cringe and become angry when the word “atheist” is spoken aloud.  

by Timothy W. Hooker

I’m probably not going to say everything in this essay just right. But, a realization is slowly dawning on me and I think it’s worth sharing.

A quiet little revolution has been going on in my life. I stumbled across a podcast called “5 Minute Dharma,” by Jay N. Forrest. From what I’ve gathered, Mr. Forrest used to be a Christian minister and has since then become a Buddhist teacher. And, instead of droning on and on like lots of dharma talks do, his podcasts cut to the chase. Five minutes, in and out. I highly recommend them.

Anyway, one of the things he recommended was getting a meditation timer and, in particular, he recommended an app called Insight Timer from (you guessed it) http://insighttimer.com. Well, it has proven to be fabulous. Before Insight Timer, I wasn’t the best Buddhist sitter in the world. A gazillion things would get between me and time in meditation. But, this little $1.99 app has done the trick for me. I can pick which sounds I want to start and stop with, how long I want a session to be. And, it even has an online community and a system of stars to reward me for consistency.

Yes, I am Pavlovian enough to respond to rewards.

So, today was Day 26 of consistent everyday meditation. And, it has revealed a few things. The most interesting one, however, has been my bass-ackwards entry into understanding compassion.

How My Views of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Evolved Over Time

by Randy Walker


Dr. King's name evokes images of a leader who became a martyr for his cause. He stood against social and racial injustice during the tumultuous sixties of the twentieth century when such words and actions provoked violent retaliation from narrow, bigoted people who feared change. The fact that he insisted that protests be conducted using non-violent social disobedience seems ironic in light of his violent and untimely death on April 4, 1968, from an assassin's bullet. When he proclaimed: “…I've been to the mountaintop and I've seen the Promised Land. And I might not get there with you,” during his “Mountain Top Speech,” the people gathered in that Memphis, Tennessee, church were left with an eerie feeling the next day. That was the day he was shot dead on a Memphis hotel balcony. His words are timeless and relevant for today, and his spirit lives on in those who seek justice in the face of nasty attacks and potential violence. I admire his legacy and what he stood for, but it has not always been that way.

I was a child in the sixties, as opposed to, “a child of the sixty's.” As such, I was surrounded by the blatant racism so prevalent, especially in the South, during that time. My children are appalled when I tell them of seeing “Whites Only” signs outside public restrooms and some restaurants, but they were there in all their shameful glory of the era. When I started school, it was the first year racial integration was implemented in the school system I entered. I recall my parents WARNING me about the colored kids who might be in my class. They told me to avoid them because they were different. As a child, I remember thinking: “Are they dirty? Do they carry germs? I can see they are a different color, but why should I avoid them?”

Now, let me stop and explain that I, in NO way, blame my parents for teaching me such atrocious things. They—obviously—are older than me, and they, too, are victims of the paradigms of their time. They have also evolved beyond the narrow bigotry of the era.

by Mark Sandlin

“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice,” proclaimed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It may bend towards justice, but it does not bend gently. It bends behind sweat of the brow, creativity of the mind, and love from the soul of those who believe that every living soul not only desires justice and equality, but has a right to it. You see, justice is not a passive pursuit. The moral arc will not bend without encouragement.

Dr. King was a living example of the kind of person who encourages the moral arc of history to bend toward justice. He is also an example of the only effective way to bend that arc: non-violently. We cannot hope to bring about justice by unjust means. Might, physical confrontation and other forms of domination will ultimately only result in nurturing an understanding that domination is an ineffective way to resolve issues of justice – and domination is the exact opposite of justice. As King says, “Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.”

King was a Christian minister and I see his bias toward the least of these, the bullied and the marginalized; his preoccupation with justice; and his insistence on non-violent ways to bringing about justice as results of his attempt to live out a life guided by the teachings of Jesus. For certain, that is not the only impetus for doing the hard work of bending the moral arc of the universe, but I believe it is the only sincere way to be a follower of the teachings of Jesus.

Author and theologian Walter Wink also understood this moral imperative for those of us struggling to devoutly follow the teachings of Jesus. He helped us to see that not only is the idea of violence being redemptive a myth (violence, as Dr. King pointed out, begets violence), but there is a better way. He called it “Jesus' Third Way,” which is also the name of a small publication he wrote in the 1980s to show Christians a way to non-violently resistance apartheid. In it Wink points out: