Heaven, no, we won't go!

Yesterday the auther Anne Lamott was speaking on the local public radio station. I've never read any of her fiction, but I absolutely loved two of her nonfiction works, Bird by Bird (ostensibly about writing, but really about life) and Travelling Mercies, a series of essays about her journey to religious faith. I've also heard rave reviews about Operating Instructions, a book about the first year of her son's life.

Yesterday she got a couple of calls from fundamentalist Christians taking issue with her statement that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality or abortion or, really, sex at all. "The Bible does say that God condemns homosexuality!" scolded one caller, but Lamott knew her Bible and held her ground. "In the Old Testament, yes, there are a few statements about homosexuality" she replied, "but Jesus never says anything about it at all. He just talks about love." The Bible was written by men, exclusively men, she pointed out, who lived in a primitive time. The myriad rules layed out in the Old Testament reflect their way of life, the importance of cohesive community for survival, and the many, many things they feared.

Anyway, she told a story that made me laugh, about how when her son was young, he heard from somewhere that Jews could not go to heaven. "Well," Lamott said, "I doubt that's true, but if it is, we won't go either. Or better yet - we'll organize, to open it up for everyone. Mommy's really good at organizing. So don't worry about it."