And that prof is … Bart Ehrman, professor of religious studes at UNC-Chapel Hill. He’s in the news in connection with the publication of his most recent book, Jesus, Interrupted. As reported at CNN, Prof. Ehrman’s family won’t talk to him about religion anymore.
Ironic, isn’t it? Like good advice, etc. Here’s what the article says about the family thing.
His family, however, feels no obligation to talk to Ehrman about his ideas on the Bible, Ehrman says. His mother, brother and sister remain conservative Christians.He once tried to talk to his mother about his new beliefs, but the discussion proved fruitless.
“My mom is a strong evangelical,” Ehrman says. “We talk basketball. We don’t talk religion.”
Still, Ehrman says he still sends his mother and siblings copies of his latest books. They’ve never responded, he says.
Somehow the idea of all those books just lying around, unread, in the corner of his mother’s basement bothers me. Good books deserve a better fate.
posted May 30, 2009 at 5:26 pm
My evangelical friends (I guess I could hardly count ‘em on one hand) and family members would receive books from me… get a few pages into ‘em… and then hand ‘em back saying, “I just can’t accept this!”
To which I’d reply,”But you didn’t even get past the Introduction!”
The irony is that these folks are decent at their core. Heck, Ehrman and I both came out of Evangelical families and we didn’t turn out like Dick Cheney or the AIG executives.
What happened to testing the spirits? Yeah there’s a lot of false prophets out there; but are we supposed to be intellectual prudes?
By the way David, I’m a quarter through the Book of Mormon. Boy oh boy, according to your tradition, Nephi sure had to deal with a dysfunctional family. I guess there’s nothing in there about him trying to give ‘em books.
posted May 30, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Ben WItherington’s lengthy multi-post review on his blog of JI kind of dimmed my enthusiasm for reading it, though I remain in a long hold line at the library for it.
Perhaps it is painful for a strong evanglical family to accept their beloved family member subscribing to agnostic beliefs, which depending on the denomination, would affect that child’s salvation.
posted May 31, 2009 at 11:59 am
Hardcore fundagelicals, or anyone in a dogmatic “we’ve got the true and absolute faith” religion for that matter, are extremely afraid of having their hardcore beliefs challenged and thus become very insecure in their “true-faith” belief system when confronted with truths that challenge what they believe and therefore will not read, see, hear or learn anything outside of their comfort zone and doesn’t have the imprimatur of their religious leaders. I know for I joined and then exited, thank God, some 30 years later the Misery (Missouri) Synod. I was never fully indoctrinated, fortunately, and continued to think for myself and read outside my comfort zone.
What I’d like to know, Dave, is do you read books by former Mormons and scholars that show the problems with Mormonism, such as in the areas of archeology and the inauthenticity of the Book of Mormon?
posted May 31, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Maybe his mother doesn’t like being condescended to.
posted June 9, 2009 at 6:56 pm
One wonders what the family is so scared of. Is it a “sin” to read different things that might not agree with the reader’s ideas? Apparently. That’s sad.