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• Tuesday, September 12, 2006 07:50 PM

  Building Fences

  Some years ago, I helped some friends, who I don't see very often, but do consider closer than family, build a strong post fence. Yet I can't say I know for sure what god or goddess they believe in, or that it rightly matters to the bonds between us. There's not a single person I care about, even if I've only known him or her a day, that I would not lend a hand to, and so often have I likewise been the recipient of such warmth that I cannot help but think that the exclusion Ms. Sandler felt because of a difference of belief was manufactured and false. In yet another stirring example of fundamentalist hypocrisy, Mars Hill members claim to follow Christ's example, although no one Jesus reached out to was ever quizzed on his or her faith as a prerequisite.

  It is perhaps true that people of our generation are searching for meaning, for direction, for community. But if we allow ourselves to think that any particular religion is the sole basis for building community, then we've decided that our very real human relationships are less valuable. All Mars Hill proves is that structure and discipline make a successful organization out of even the biggest freaks. Their belief in a Christian God is incidental.

  Were Ms. Sandler and I, say, to start a similar cooperative-type organization, based on faith in humanity instead--provided it met the same needs for meaning and community--it could easily be just as popular with the pagans and atheists and non-fundamentalists.

  I would even build her a fence.

  —Alexandria Dobkowski Read Alexandria Dobkowski's other letters
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