Leaving the Fold

Leaving the Fold: Testimonies

of Former Fundamentalists

by Edward T. Babinski

It’s testimony time—but not the kind often woven into a church service. Leaving the Fold is a book of testimonies from those who have left fundamentalism. Some have stayed within a Christian context. Others have left to join the ranks of agnostics, atheists, or to embrace alternative expressions of spirituality.

Babinski includes a chapter on “Fundamentalism’s Grotesque Past” which reminds the reader that Scripture has been used to support slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, and even the murder of other Christians. Then Babinski steps aside and allows others to share their experiences until time for his own testimony in the agnostic section.

Leaving the Fold includes, among others, the stories of well-known, former fundamentalists such as Robert M. Price, Charles Templeton, Farrell Till, Robert G. Ingersoll, and Dan Barker. Much of their writing has been evaluated at www.tektonics.org for those readers interested in tit for tat.

As is often the case with ex-fundamentalist critiques, the claims to personal enlightenment become reversals back to modernistic appraisals based in fundamentalist thinking. Refutations of Scripture often fail to take in figurative language and anachronistic cultural divides. This is justified by referencing and ridiculing their own former fundamentalist positions which engaged in the same blunders but with differing outcomes. How is this progress?

Babinski is so busy discounting figurative language in the Bible that he assigns stupidity to the authors. He assumes such verses as Matthew 4:8, “The devil took him [Jesus] to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,” supports the view of a flat earth, as if the writer thought that from on top of a mountain the entirety of a flat earth could be viewed.

That’s not to say that fundamentalists should not take notice of Leaving the Fold. Rather ask: is this what the church is producing? Why? A close look at the objections to fundamentalism coming from the pens of those who have “been there, done that” is disquieting. Many of the contributors have read fundamentalism’s apologists. Certainly all the contributors have sat under the teachings of fundamentalist ministers who spoke with such certainty in their brand of absolute truth that walking away took courage and not just a little mental and emotional energy.

Babinski’s own favorite catch phrase “”If it wasn’t for agnosticism, I wouldn’t know what to believe!” describes where many people find themselves after they leave the fold. They aren’t as certain as they used to be, except for the certitude that they don’t want to go back. Why? The value of this book lies in the answer to that question.

by Rachel Ramer