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

 

 1985 menu


email to Al Sullivan

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An old nemesis December 11, 1985

Image
    Surisky hated me from early on in grammar school, although “hate” may be too strong a word to describe his reaction to me. I was simply available to him for abuse, Third grade was pivotal for both of us. Prior to that, we were simply feeling our way through Catholic School routine, emerging eventually as whole personalities from the muck of early childhood. He came across as a thug, trying to convey the image of a tough guy. He wore a leather jacket and spiked boots, and snuck into see James Dean movies. Third grade was tough on everybody, including the teachers, who considered us the worst class in the history of the school – even in the safe grades of Kindergarten, First and Second. Two of the three nuns retired after passing us on. But it was in the third grade that we began to work our magic, driving even the stout-hearted nuns crazy. Later, the nuns tried to break our spirit. But we fully represented our age and had the full impact of the 1960s behind us. So,
Read more

Pauly leaves Passaic for the final time July 24, 1985

Image
    Pauly is leaving Passaic again. This comes after two years of us rubbing shoulders after he had been cast out of paradise in Towaco, after his goddess, Jane, went and married that man Pauly calls “a bum.” This has been a tough two years, filled with Pauly’s typical manipulation, his usual shaping of reality to his own needs often at other people’s (mine) expense. When Pauly first came I had Fran’s cultist brother as a temporary guest and Pauly spent most of his time trying to push me into getting that guest out. A few months later – in November – Fran got the ax from her ex and changed her mind about moving in with me after I had committed the spare room to Pauly. He assumed she meant more to me than he did and was already packing when I told Fran no. She had no place to go except for her father’s house, a father she had a love/hate relationship with, and she held it against me, even though we continued to see each other romantically. Pauly being Pauly drove me out of
Read more

The clock is ticking July 18, 1985

Image
  We’re talking love here – silly fictional love with all the connotations of disaster. I seem to be on the meat chopping block with Safire looking for qualities in me that are lacking in her husband. The fact that there is a husband in the first place greatly disturbs me. All this said, I’m uncertain as to why I haven’t ended this already, except to know she is too much like my ex-wife to pass up without a closer examination. Even the way she thinks: slow, methodical, going from point A to point B. It has only been a week since she blurted out drunk that she wanted me in bed. It seems like much longer. And she hints of something more permanent, suggesting that I might fill in for her husband for a much longer duration. The night before last she suggested I come see her in her trailer, as if she is legally separated from her husband, when in fact she is supposed to be biding time until he finds them both a place to live in Baltimore. This is the same kind of smoke and mir
Read more