Just got back from going with The Brother to feed his various hounds and beasts he keeps in an obscure location. . . .
In any case, the primary reason(s) I went with him were 1. to speak with him about spiritual matters and 2. to explain my true motivations for attending his church. Regarding one’s spirit life, I attempted to ply him for information regarding periods of doubt and uncertainty he might have experienced, since for all the time I have known him he has been quite dogmatic about his beliefs — unyielding on any minor point. He seems to have grown out of that to a degree, and basically stated that so long as someone accepted the veracity of Christ’s resurrection, any other doctrinal or theological point was irrelevant to their acceptance as a Christian. This is far more lenient than I remember him being, and I appreciated the point. He said that, “There is no way Jesus can just be ‘a good person.’ He is either Lord, a lunatic (doesn’t even realize what he is claiming) or a liar (realizes what he says, but does so anyway).”
I myself am completely up in the air on the matter, since I have witnessed faith transforming lives to a degree I would have thought impossible. I said, “Quite frankly, the only words in the Bible I put any stock in are the words in red.” He countered, “Then that is where you should begin. Read all the words in red, and what’s more, read the verses of the Old Testament that are referenced by the words in red.” I may do it and see if anything useful comes of the study.
Secondly, I told him I was attending his church as a means of showing my support for him; that I felt he had been “run out of” his old church and school to a degree. However, he assured me this was not the case, and in fact he felt that working at the school would distract him from increasing his church membership. He also countered my criticism by revealing that his old church donated significant sums to get him set up with his own building, thus it was not an entirely selfish move on their part. He was not resentful in any way, and in fact admitted how he might be a burden to a school trying to maximize efficiency in order compete with an expanding private Christian school market. (The Brother has a terrible short term memory, possible ADHD, and almost no organizational skills.)
I also made it quite clear that my lack of attendence at his church was due solely to the fact that all my life I have never attended more than one service a week, as that is all I can stand. He thumped his knee, laughed, and said, “Well, you got to start somewhere!” Oh brother.
And, as usual, he rambled on about so many various subjects he had obviously studied quite extensively that I found it difficult to keep up. We ran the gamut from how speakers produce audible signals, to various effective but fairly priced computer speakers, to how to dilute industrial strength cattle wormer compound for use with dogs, the quality of Angus vs. Magyu beef, Japanese automobiles, Sean Hannity and other “bespectacled idiots,” to The Brother’s desire never to buy a product that is advertised (“I want to pay for product, not advertising!” he says). At many times I wondered why he considers himself a Republican.