These thoughts are contained in an email I sent to some Davidson College alums who formed a group called DAVF to discuss non-religious and political current issues, explaining why I resigned.
Morning, Charlie, et als (I’m not very computer savy. I’m hoping this goes to all on the DAVFers but it looks on my computer like it’s only going to you, Charlie, and if that’s the case, would you please pass it on).
I’m one of those atheists Charlie referred to. Actually, I guess I’m more of an agnostic. I was raised Southern Baptist (I learned to say all the books of the Bible in Sunbeams, went to SS [my dad was superintendent of the SS for over 30 yrs], “preaching”, youth choir practice, Baptist Training Union and Sunday nite “preaching” every Sunday, Royal Ambassadors and, when a teenager, adult choir practice [when we were all home, my mom &dad and my 2 bros and I all sang in the choir] on Wednesdays, revivals at least 1 week a year, sometimes twice, and study courses (intensive Bible study for all ages) once or twice a year. As an adult, I was the college-age SS teacher and a choir member at Carrboro Bap when I was in law school at Chapel Hill, a SS teacher, choir member, deacon and deacon chair, trustee and trustee chair, missions committee chair, Boy Scout master, pastor search committee chair, music minister search committee chair, and church moderator at 1st Baptist, Monroe,NC until I resigned my membership about 15 years ago and became, in the words of Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, a member of the church alumni association. My oldest son, 52, a UNC grad, has a degree from the Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville and is in his 18th yr as one of three chaplains at the federal medical prison facility in Lexington,KY. My youngest, 48, DC ’95, is a hi school ass’t principal just outside Louisville and also a very committed Christian. My brother-in-law, a national merit scholar at Duke and Law Review at Vanderbilt law school, gave up his practice with the largest law firm in NE Tenn about 20 yrs ago and is a charismatic, evangelical minister in Kingsport.
