A matter of faith July 2, 1985

 

Dear Mary Ann:

Well, we seem to be making progress. The latest issue of Scrap Paper was recently read on syndicated radio in four states and five cities: Washington DC, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

The response was amazing – although some members of the local religious community claim we went too far, whole those on the radical left claim we did not go far enough.

The most interesting response came from a preacher in West Virginia who thanked us for not being “too cruel.”

“It’s refreshing,” he wrote, “to see someone look at the Bible with a critical eye. Something all Christians should do.”

He went on to say, “for there is nothing in our faith which states that the Bible is infallible. Any good scholar would dispute that, and the better Christian ones often do. Too many Christians today use the Bible as a drug to cure themselves of reality, hiding under it as if a blanket, denying that beyond the fabric there is another darker world. Too many lean upon its words as a crutch, believing only as long as those words hold up. Faith is made of better stuff. It is independent of such trickeries.”

The preacher pointed out the Job leaned upon no such book but stood with faith in hand as God tested him again and again.”

“Faith untested is not faith; it is a delusion,” he said. ‘Faith is believing without evidence, facing the limitations of the world and something made thereof…”

Finally, he said after about a dozen more lines of such, “The Bible, s you have somewhat bluntly pointed out in your pamphlet, is assuredly flawed: how can it not be since it is touched by the hand of man! All that man touches is flawed, even when divinely inspired.”

I’m not sure I agree with his assessment, but I thought you might like to see it.

So much hell going on in our lives; too many issues to be concerned with.

The only issues I’m truly concerned with are issues of Scrap Paper with the next issue due in a couple of months on Alice in Wonderland.

I wanted one of your marvelous short stories for the current issue, but I assume you were too busy with work and family. Anytime you want to send something in the future, we’ll make room.

Meanwhile, the struggle goes on. A group of peace activists got busted by the feds in Haledon for distributing anti-draft materials. Michael is following up on that now and we should have story about it in our next issue.

The car you gave me is doing fine. The gas mileage is fantastic, and it came just in time as my old machine sputtered into the shop for yet another series of repairs. It is good to know that I won’t be paying the bills on it as the new owner will.

Take care, friend, and keep faithful to yourself and the basic values that have made you into the kind of person you are: tender, loving, joyful and understand.

Keep safe, but more importantly, keep in touch.

 

Yours always

Al Sullivan

 

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