The Day I Got Religion
From James Donahue’s Diary
My episode with the Christian church began with a pursuit for an off-the-wall news story. Someone told me that the American Baptist minister in South Haven was predicting the end of the world. That was too tempting a carrot for me to pass up and I called the man.
The pastor laughed when I fired my question. He said that he wasn’t exactly predicting the end of the world, but rather he was teaching a class in which he said he believed the restoration of Israel as a nation was a Bible prophecy that came true, and that this event was an important precursor to yet a second great prophetic event. That was the Second Coming of Jesus and his thousand-year reign on the Earth.
I started asking him more about this prophecy and he invited me to attend his classes, which I think were taught on Wednesday evenings in the church. I showed up and joined the study group. There I learned about a number of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments that came to pass, the strange oddity that kept the Jewish people uniquely separated for nearly two thousand years before they returned to the land God allegedly “gave” them according to Hebrew writings in the Old Testament, and the importance of studying prophecy in understanding what was going to occur in the future.
This pastor (I cannot remember his name) said it was his opinion that there was only one final prophecy yet to occur before Christians could expect to be “raptured” off into the clouds to join Jesus. That was the reconstruction of the great temple that once existed in Jerusalem. He said he thought it was possible that none of us in that class would experience death, but would be suddenly lifted into Heaven.
This was my first introduction to the strange fundamental Christian belief system that I think has been the cause of so much religious insanity. While I grew up in the United Methodist Church and attended Sunday school regularly, I had never heard such a story. But in that class, which involved a study of Bible verses, I was convinced that the Book really predicted all of this. I had to admit that I was intrigued.
The pastor suggested further reading and study by purchasing a book by Billy Graham that was readily available in a local bookstore. One day I stopped at that store, bought Graham’s book along with my monthly copy of Playboy Magazine.
Doris and I had a habit of reading ourselves to sleep in the evening. We were both avid readers and it was something we enjoyed. I remember that night first ogling at the pictures in the Playboy, then throwing the magazine on the floor and cracking open Billy Graham’s book. It may not have been that night, but as I made my way through the book, I came upon a challenging chapter in which Graham convinced me of the very existence of God. He asked how it could be that all of creation was in motion. The planets circle the Sun. The moons circle the planets. The solar system was in constant motion within a galaxy of suns and planets like our own. Even the galaxies are in motion, circling other galaxies in the universe for as far as human telescopes allow us to see. Graham asked where all of this energy came from if not God?
I think that was the moment I had my epiphany. I remember quietly shutting my eyes and submitting to the God of Christianity. I was at that moment convinced that such proofs could not be ignored. There had to be a God and if all the Bible prophecies were coming true, the Jesus story also had to be true. I bought the whole package, hook-line-and-sinker.
I told Doris all about it. Of course, she was very happy since she already was a devout born-again Christian. She later told me she had been in contact with a fundamental Bible church elsewhere in town and had the whole congregation praying for my “salvation.” She thought it was an answer to prayer.
I even gave up drinking at about that time. One day I decided that alcohol would no longer be part of my life. I think that most of a six-pack of beer remained in our refrigerator for about a week before we threw it in the trash. As much alcohol as I had consumed in those younger years, I find it somewhat amazing that I quit cold turkey. But that is what I did.
I refused to join that fundamental church group at first. Rather I told the minister of the American Baptist Church about my conversion and started bringing the family to church there. It was not long, however, before I started noticing a few things about that church that did not appear to be what I had expected. Eventually we moved into the other church, joined it, and thought this was the beginning of our new and wonderful life in Christian fellowship.
In truth, it was the beginning of my education in religiosity and my first steps toward the spiritual path I was to discover many years later.
From James Donahue’s Diary
My episode with the Christian church began with a pursuit for an off-the-wall news story. Someone told me that the American Baptist minister in South Haven was predicting the end of the world. That was too tempting a carrot for me to pass up and I called the man.
The pastor laughed when I fired my question. He said that he wasn’t exactly predicting the end of the world, but rather he was teaching a class in which he said he believed the restoration of Israel as a nation was a Bible prophecy that came true, and that this event was an important precursor to yet a second great prophetic event. That was the Second Coming of Jesus and his thousand-year reign on the Earth.
I started asking him more about this prophecy and he invited me to attend his classes, which I think were taught on Wednesday evenings in the church. I showed up and joined the study group. There I learned about a number of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments that came to pass, the strange oddity that kept the Jewish people uniquely separated for nearly two thousand years before they returned to the land God allegedly “gave” them according to Hebrew writings in the Old Testament, and the importance of studying prophecy in understanding what was going to occur in the future.
This pastor (I cannot remember his name) said it was his opinion that there was only one final prophecy yet to occur before Christians could expect to be “raptured” off into the clouds to join Jesus. That was the reconstruction of the great temple that once existed in Jerusalem. He said he thought it was possible that none of us in that class would experience death, but would be suddenly lifted into Heaven.
This was my first introduction to the strange fundamental Christian belief system that I think has been the cause of so much religious insanity. While I grew up in the United Methodist Church and attended Sunday school regularly, I had never heard such a story. But in that class, which involved a study of Bible verses, I was convinced that the Book really predicted all of this. I had to admit that I was intrigued.
The pastor suggested further reading and study by purchasing a book by Billy Graham that was readily available in a local bookstore. One day I stopped at that store, bought Graham’s book along with my monthly copy of Playboy Magazine.
Doris and I had a habit of reading ourselves to sleep in the evening. We were both avid readers and it was something we enjoyed. I remember that night first ogling at the pictures in the Playboy, then throwing the magazine on the floor and cracking open Billy Graham’s book. It may not have been that night, but as I made my way through the book, I came upon a challenging chapter in which Graham convinced me of the very existence of God. He asked how it could be that all of creation was in motion. The planets circle the Sun. The moons circle the planets. The solar system was in constant motion within a galaxy of suns and planets like our own. Even the galaxies are in motion, circling other galaxies in the universe for as far as human telescopes allow us to see. Graham asked where all of this energy came from if not God?
I think that was the moment I had my epiphany. I remember quietly shutting my eyes and submitting to the God of Christianity. I was at that moment convinced that such proofs could not be ignored. There had to be a God and if all the Bible prophecies were coming true, the Jesus story also had to be true. I bought the whole package, hook-line-and-sinker.
I told Doris all about it. Of course, she was very happy since she already was a devout born-again Christian. She later told me she had been in contact with a fundamental Bible church elsewhere in town and had the whole congregation praying for my “salvation.” She thought it was an answer to prayer.
I even gave up drinking at about that time. One day I decided that alcohol would no longer be part of my life. I think that most of a six-pack of beer remained in our refrigerator for about a week before we threw it in the trash. As much alcohol as I had consumed in those younger years, I find it somewhat amazing that I quit cold turkey. But that is what I did.
I refused to join that fundamental church group at first. Rather I told the minister of the American Baptist Church about my conversion and started bringing the family to church there. It was not long, however, before I started noticing a few things about that church that did not appear to be what I had expected. Eventually we moved into the other church, joined it, and thought this was the beginning of our new and wonderful life in Christian fellowship.
In truth, it was the beginning of my education in religiosity and my first steps toward the spiritual path I was to discover many years later.