In Favor of Ol’ Time Religion

There is a celebratory parade going on in certain camps exalting the virtues of grace over the Bible Belt religion. The strategy is to find ways to ridicule the training of many of us who grew up under mom and dad’s religious education in the South. They argue that we have been strangled by the legalism of local independent baptist/evangelical churches and therefore, we have suffered much for it. Of course, the political point is that such a generation created the evangelical Trumpers, and for many, that was and will always be a bad, bad, boy moment. But among these tribes growing up in the Scofield Bible generation, some made the great escape, and they can now tell the story of how grace transformed them from those religious meanies.

Russell Moore goes so far as to refer to this kind of religious upbringing as “toxic” and that those who remain Christians are examples of “survivors.” Now, a few footnotes:

First, many of us can sit down and share some stories that are cringe-worthy of our upbringing in independent churches and many of us probably have a share of stories that ruined our appetite for certain things. That is true.

Second, since I am in the Reformed persuasion side of things, I have plenty of humorous stories about eschatology charts and walking down the aisle for the 4th time in a week-long revival extravaganza and of being terrified–ahem, 1999!–that the rapture was coming.

Finally, I can also share how many of my friends were driven away from the church later in life as a reaction to what they perceived as rigorous and often graceless training. Much of their assessment is true.

Much could be added to this list and I have shared them on numerous occasions on various platforms. I join the frustration with what is considered and defended as “Fundamentalism” in my part of the world. In fact, my own father was a graduate of Bob Jones University and even had a subscription to “The Sword of the Lord.” When I was in college, I eagerly ran to my box to find the latest edition to read the latest sermon. I hope this proves that I was a teenage-mutant-dispy.

Now, here is where “Amazing Grace” meets “I Come to the Garden Alone:” the critique of Southern religion or Bible-Belt Religion fails because it assumes ideas of grace are somehow immune to abuses. It assumes that some alternative to fundamentalist religion was pure and provided the gravitas to carry us through our lives. It assumes that the only kind of fruitful training is the one that limits the boundaries of duties and increases the garden of grace.

While it would have been lovely to grow up in a richer theological environment, with festive sounds of Psalm-singing all around, I would not trade my history. My Bible-Belt upbringing made me cherish this phase of life and, in many ways, prepared me to embrace life with firmer conviction. You see, one of the things that folks like Moore fail to grasp is that the myriads of Bible verses we memorized were being used to form a backbone and a hunger for more; that Bible-Belt training prepared us to embrace healthier habits only because we knew our Bibles well. At one time, I had over 400 verses memorized and that sits within me like a balm for my soul, though I can’t remember all the commas and “thous” any longer.

While so much of the formation of the fundamentalist world is flawed, it shaped many of us to see the Bible as the authoritative revelation of God’s world, good ol’ hymn-singin’ as good medicine for the soul, and responsibility and duty as vital to formation. And, of course, we could add more, but you didn’t come from that world without grasping those three elements.

To speak of it as “toxic religion” is a simple way of dismissing it and treating it with utter contempt while showing how grace is better than all of that stuff. But “grace” has been used during this COVIDsteria season as a baseball bat to religious liberties and as a way of conveying “Love Thy Neighbor” in the most egregiously legalistic way possible. Moore and his tribe have joined the “grace” forces to ensure that such regulations and jabbery were instrumental in the re-shaping of society.

I am all about grace for breakfast, lunch, and supper, but when it is divorced from clear mandates and when it does not come shaped by a bold Christendom, I want none of it. And while some may claim they survived “that toxic religion” and now found this “grace-free religion,” I can guarantee you that the latter comes with a cost. What you claim as “survival” probably will produce a generation of teenagers who won’t survive leftism, but will feel the bern and certainly won’t be cheering for Brandon.

Ultimately, what we have here, is an example of ingratitude. Gratitude looks at the past and, despite all the flaws, can still see how God was shaping our humanity and providentially caring for our souls through Fanny Crosbie and AWANA. It’s really how we should look at our Bible-Belt past–with gratitude for that ol’ time religion.