A Super-Sized God

The problem with fundamentalism: the size of its God.

When I was a fundamentalist, I believed in a God — specifically, a God I could understand completely. My God was restricted by my understanding of the rules and regulations. The idea of God doing anything other than what I believed God could do was ridiculous. Looking back, I worshipped a very small God indeed … a God I could fit into boxes defined by my own knowledge and understanding.

In short: I confused my ideas about God with the reality of God.

Today, I see members of my family straining against the same limitations. Mother’s questions about my faith are always legalistic: what rules do you follow? Surely you know those rules conflict with or break others. For her, God is still in the rules, and can be no bigger than the rules allow.

I prefer now an approach that says, “I don’t know enough to know everything … so how dare I bind what I understand or believe on others?” Why is that so threatening?