What follows is an excerpt from a blog post written by a Fundamentalist Christian woman named Sue Botchie. Botchie has no interest in intellectual pursuit outside of reading the inspired, inerrant, infallible King James Bible. Botchie takes great pride in her ignorance about the text and historicity of the Bible. I remember thinking this way back in my Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) days. I considered the Bible to be a flawless, perfect book. Anything that didn’t square with my peculiar interpretation of the Bible was wrong. Of course, when people challenged my assumptions and assertions, I responded, hey your argument is with God, not me. I later learned that the God and me in this story were one and the same.
Here’s Botchie words in all their wondrous kindergarten glory:
Well, help yerself! And yeah, i know you [Bart Ehrman] went to big-time colleges, and published numerous thick books…i get that! Still, i also get the fact that, throughout the ages, smart men (men, smarter than you, who wrote volumes with quill pen AND by candle-light…) [a common false assumption that the men who translated the King James Version of the Bible were more educated and smarter than scholars today. This is patently untrue.] stayed the faith. Ya’ know, they didn’t have so much as a manual typewriter.
And yeah, reading the Scriptures does often leave a person with more questions than answers. Oh, but could it be, because the Lord is ultimate smart, and we’re all wetards! I.e., His ways, as compared to our ways…yeah, that’s one bitter horse-pill to swallow! Anyway, to go on claiming that the Lord’s Book is erroneous, is [factual, according to the information at hand, a rational conclusion reached by using critical thinking skills] to defame His character. Not smart! [How does Botchie knows Ehrman has defamed the character of her version of the Christian God? Did he tell her? Send her a text or an email?]
Call me a typical fundie moron [self reflection is good]. Have at it, fella. Frankly, i don’t give a flying royal rip what you think. In conclusion, i have ZERO respect for high-end professors who intellectually-bully 20 year-olds. My age talking, but 20 year-olds are kids.
–– Sue Botchie, NoWonderPeopleWalk, Hey Bart! So ya’ think the Bible is one big error-factory, June 22, 2018
A lot of fundies like to use the verse about God’s ways being higher than our ways as an out for questions they can’t answer, or in Botchie’s case a way to excuse willful ignorance. But is it possible that the verse was originally intended to provide comfort to ancient people for whom so much about the world remained unanswered? Now that humans knowledge about our world us expanding so much through findings of science, that “comfort” is less and less important.
Still, I shake my head over here regarding how someone can be so proud of themselves for choosing to remain ignorant.
“Intellectually bully”
That’s a new one, lol
Just read through a number of posts on her blog – Oh holy word salad Batman! I cannot parse most of it.
Sadly they do this to Christians, it happened to me where they tell them not to trust your own mind and intellectual understanding. I hate what they did to my own mind, like locking it in a box. Having the freedom of being able to use one’s intellect without shame is far better. The IFB always had this distrust of college graduates or higher institutes of learning that weren’t a bible college. What’s funny is I encounter Sue Botchie elsewhere, her style of writing is different, and I’ve talked to her about deconverting. Her blog is interesting, because she sounds like me prior to deconversion, all frustrated with the churches and bossy preachers. I mean she did name the blog “No Wonder People Walk”. LOL maybe it’s in the back of her mind.
Dear Cheezits99, anyone who is for real, is very aware of having all sorts of pathetic thoughts (like walking away from the Lord) rambling around in the back of his or her mind. Ya know, like the old saying (when seeing a druggie, a worn out hooker, or just a garden-variety dead-beat) “oh, but for the grace of God, go i!”
It’s the self-righteous, secular or otherwise, who go about thinking, oh, that would never happen to Me, I’m too intellIgent/motivated/cool/attractIve… Yeah, whatever.