Recently, a Christian sent me the following question:
Do you think your mother-in-law was ridiculously stupid for loving Jesus? Or brainwashed and just really dumb?
I have written a handful of posts over the years about my late mother-in-law. While I deeply loved Polly’s parents, I had a strained, acrimonious relationship with Mom. There are many reasons for this, but they are not the subject of this post today. Mom was a lifelong Fundamentalist Christian, both as a member of the Church of the Nazarene and several Independent Fundamentalist Baptist congregations. Mom attended the Newark Baptist Temple, pastored by her brother-in-law James Dennis (The Family Patriarch is Dead: My Life With James Dennis), from 1976 to her death in 2023. Mom and Dad left the Baptist Temple for eight years to start a new IFB church in Buckeye Lake. Actually, Dad and I started the church, but Mom was there in “spirit.” She never wanted to leave the Baptist Temple, but felt her duty was to support her husband. The church eventually closed its doors and Mom and Dad returned to the Baptist Temple.
Mom was a devoted follower of Jesus. She daily read her Bible and prayed, sang in the choir, and faithfully attended church on Sundays and Wednesdays. That said, the sum of her understanding of the Bible and Christian theology came from whatever her pastor said from the pulpit. Dad, a pastor, was not much better. I don’t fault them for their lack of knowledge. I pastored countless Moms and Dads over the years; good people who loved Jesus, but lacked a comprehensive understanding of Christianity. They believed whatever their pastor believed. He would never steer them wrong, right?
I never use the word brainwashed when describing Fundamentalist Christians. Indoctrinated? Conditioned? Sure, but not brainwashed. Merriam-Webster defines brainwashing this way:
a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas.
Brainwashed people lack the will and power to believe differently from their church and pastor. Mom willingly believed what she did, even though indoctrination and conditioning played a significant part in her beliefs. Outside of hearing me preach from time to time, Mom never heard anything from the pulpit that challenged her beliefs. As far as I know, Mom never changed her beliefs, going to the grave believing the same things she did as a young adult.
So, was Mom stupid or dumb? No. She was a product of her religious/social environment. She was, however, ignorant about the history and nature of the Bible, Christianity, and science. As far as I know, outside of devotionally reading the Bible, the only other books Mom read were Christian romance and historical novels. She had little to no interest in the complexities of the world, choosing instead to fix her mind on Jesus and church. Politically, Mom was a right-wing Republican. She voted for Donald Trump twice, as did almost everyone in her church. Yet, when asked about specific Trump policy positions, she was largely ignorant and indifferent.
I could have, over the years, eviscerated Mom’s beliefs, but to what end? Nothing I could say would move her from her rigid Fundamentalist Christian beliefs. And so I didn’t try. She went to her grave believing she was going to Heaven and would see her dead Christian relatives again. Sadly, we will never see her again since there is no life after death.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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The wording of the question is one that can only come from someone immersed in the Christian religion. On the rare occasion I discuss religion with friends, or anyone else in an informal setting, not a single one would ask about Jesus, rather they’d just refer to belief in God. If I point out that Jesus supposedly is God they’d mostly just hesitate, as though they’d never considered this, then either respond ‘oh yes’, or else attempt to move away from Jesus and back to God. In short, outside of religious circles the proposition that Jesus IS God just isn’t taken on board. I was brought up thinking that Jesus was the son of God only, and it wasn’t until I was a lot older that I started to understand what Christians really meant.
I looked at her blog. I think she’s an Evangelical Christian.
A lot of people raised in a religion really don’t question it a lot. They take certain things fir granted, like the existence of the deity/deities, the validity of sacred texts, and they often pick and choose parts of it they choose to follow. Those of us who question and leave are a different breed. Personally, I don’t think it’s a question of intelligence as I know plenty of intelligent religious people.