The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Every few months or so a rather government-ish looking letter fueled with urgency arrives in the mailbox. The wording and appearance of this and similar letters mimics something more insidious, something filled with apparent officiousness but totally lacking in substance. It is quite simple. The goal is to separate you from your pocket book while manipulating your good will and common sense.

How to convince you to believe something from nothing without bumping into legal prohibitions? Use language that infers a critical responsibility to respond; due dates and declarations such as “final notice” or printed vouchers that look suspiciously like legal checks. The fine print might ease a legal obligation to inform, but be aware that “To The Order Of…” is not the same as “Pay To The Order Of…” And the authenticating signature you are warned must be included? It is nothing more than a printed signature of a fictitious person, at best.

Why the subterfuge and misleading statements? It appears that flim-flam artists are everywhere including businesses, churches, government, and social movements of every stripe. What is real and what is not? Time will be the judge even though it is hard to be patient.

Similarities run high regarding impacts on faith. As participation in mainline protestant denominations declines, no small amount of fear is generated over concerns regarding the survivability of the church as we know it. Whether we admit it or not, most of us prefer a big picture view that is unshakable and resilient, even when fractures and rifts occur daily around us.

In the recent past, fears were frequently assuaged by traditional religious worship participation and pseudo religious routines that have kept vigil over us most of our lives. We were taught well by our parents and grandparents and family members who stuck with the church through thick and thin because they knew of no other alternatives. In this sameness was realized a balm of sorts, one that eased existential concerns that inevitably found ways to creep to the forefront of daily life. Regrettably, the more queries we voice, the more fissures we seem to induce across the religious plain. Hard questions have a way of doing that.

In faith traditions there is a tendency to avoid hard questions by falling back on devices that include literalism and the narrowest interpretations of scripture possible. Surrounding these devices is the fine print of religion, an amalgam of hearsay, gap-filling, conjecture, and unfounded supposition. If we do not like its tenor, we construct new fonts in order to lay claim to our own branded reality. If the only thing we focus on is the fine print, then we are left wanting, more easily distracted, and discouraged.

The study of end times (eschatology) is rife with fine print and amazing, largely unbelievable, conjecture and interpretation. It is humankind’s attempt amid the fears of mortal existence to find its place in the cosmos, and for that there is no blame. It has been the bread and butter of more than a few Christian publishing houses over the years. May they prosper and flourish well into the future (sans fine print).