PUTTTING THEIR FAITH IN EASY ANSWERS
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                                                    By Tom Harpur
 
 

A question that often comes up when people get around to discussing
religion, especialiy at this particular time: Since institutional religion in
general has been losing members for decades, how does one explain the rap-
id rate of growth in ultra-conservative denominations and groups?
 

          For example, the phenomenon of big, bulging "superchurches" in the
suburbs, filled with, bright-faced, conservative evangelicals and their
offspring, provides a real puzzler.
 
By contrast, to watch the average "mainline" congregation each Sun-
day trickle in to St. Anthony's-in-the-Mud is to be reminded of that an-
dent line: "And the sea gave up its dead."
 
Fundamentalists of all sorts usually make better use of all the various
new means of communication than their "liberal" counterparts.
 
They always have done so. They work on the principle of William
Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, who was asked about his use of
the best secular songs for his hymns.
 
He declared: "Why should the devil have all the best tunes?"
 

          But that alone doesn't account for their paradoxical successes.
 

          When you step back and reflect on the fact that the faiths that pay least
attention to the first commandment of Christ - to "love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with ALL YOUR
MIND" -  seem to be doing so well, several reasons appear.
 
 
 

          Many in society, especially in this era of relentless change and anxiety
over everything from personal and public morality to the employ-
ment market; from providing for a longer old age than one's parents
faced to the stability of basic relationships - simply can't cope with it
all.
 
They hate and fear ambiguity. How much easier it is by far just to
relax and accept the simple, black-white, straight-from-God-and-history
book answers that fundamentalists of all faiths serve up on demand?
 

          There's instant security, a cessation of doubts and the inevitable high
that comes with belonging at last to the elect.
 

          It's a bit like those writers and philosoers of another period who spent most of
their lives denying God and then, just before death, threw themselves on the bosom of
the Church - usually in its Roman Catholic form.
 
History, however, provides far too many examples of the eagerness of
large masses to follow charismatic leadership that holds out promises
not just of certitude and happiness in this life, but also of a glorious place
on the winning team forever.
 

In these confused, confusing times, an evolutionary shift in overall
human consciousness is taking place.
 

It's as great a move, in truth, as our ancestors' shift ages ago from simple
animal-like consciousness to our present self-reflective consciousness.
 

          But it can be an overwhelming temptation at such a stressful moments
for some to follow the dictates of any authoritative-style ideology professing
to have a total corner on "Truth."
 

The conservative evangelicals of the style of faith Canadians have
come to know better through the election campaign of Stockwell Day
and his Alliance party, have a measure of "success" just now because
they hold up an appealing vision of an idealistic past - which never re-
ally existed.
 
They ignore at the same time the knowledge, gained by humankind in
the past, most notably in science and in psychology.
 
Day's views on the age of the cosmos (about 6,000 years!) and his literalist
understanding of the Genesis story of Adam and Eve are but a small part of this.
 

          Such believers rarely have use for scholarship in any field - particularly
in their own field of religion itself.
 
For example, they still act as though the Bible research of the past two
centuries never happened.
 

          It's because of this that their future, in reality, is even bleaker than
that of the churches they now seem to surpass. The intellectual foundation
"the loving of God with ALL YOUR MIND" is not there and so, sooner or
later, their house will collapse.
 

Conservative extremes in any faith always find great solace in the herd
warmth of being with the those who encourage their own divisive and
ultimately coercive ways.
 

          As I learned as a youth raised in such circles, there is often a mentality
that is bent upon shaping everyone else - the whole of society. if possible
- to one particular grasp or view of right and wrong.
 
Not content to be opposed to abortion, homosexual rights, the compassionate
treatment of criminals or whatever, such folk aggressively try to force their
values on the majority.
 

The conservative religious right in Canada is much milder so far than its
American counterpart (thank God!), but there can be no doubt about its
ultimate aims.
 
Summing up, the apparent bloom of success on the cheek of old-time
evangelicalism is not a sign of health. It's like the sudden, mysterious
glow seen in certain types of illnesses just before the end. A final flowering.
 

From the Pen of Tom Harpur
Toronto Star   Sunday Nov. 26, 2000