Joe,
I was raised by a dedicated southern Baptist mother but managed to escape both them and the Mormons, amongst whom I live now. All of my family is from Texas save for me; I was born in New Mexico (oilfield trash) and am proud NOT to hail from Texas. My mother dragged me to every Baptist revival and Bible school and prayer meeting she could. I well remember going to revival meetings as a kid and, as the preacher thundered about the hellfire and damnation and agonies that awaited us all, thinking, "What did I do? I'm just a kid!"
When my mother would drag me to church every Sunday, I would see my father sitting there drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes and reading the paper, and yell "I wanna stay home with daddy." Smack! She went to her grave shaking in fear of the Devil she was sure she was going to meet because she had failed to make me into a Baptist preacher. Now, among the Saints, the pressures are more genteel but still there, especially for my kids, of whom I'm proud to say are both complete cynics when it comes to religion.
I read Deer Hunting with Jesus in one day. Excellent book. In addition to your views on religion, I loved the other parts too, about the gun culture. I've owned guns all my life, although I rarely ever hunted. My wife, who is European, shakes her head and says "Men and their guns!" whenever she sees me looking at one. As a modern effete liberal academic now, I'd like to think I'm not guilty of looking down on the working class, but I probably am, even though I spent enough years as a roughneck on oil rigs to know better (and I'm secretly proud of my ability to curse eloquently and at length, and in several languages).
My two sisters, older than I, remember growing up in harsdcrabble West Texas a lot poorer than I recall, but they never gave in to being right-wingers like some of the people you describe. My sisters still worship Franklin D. Roosevelt for what he did for the working man, as do I, and they hate Bush with intensity.
Thanks again for your great book, I'm giving it to all my family -- especially my right-wing brother, the Bush-lover, Rush-listener, retired USAF officer who should know better.
Roy
Salt Lake City, Utah
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Roy,
Well brother, we seem to be two peas in the same pod -- people never destined to be fundamentalists. Interviewers often ask me how I "escaped a fundamentalist childhood." Frankly, I'd never thought about it much. I've come to the conclusion that, by dint of genetics, fate or whatever. I never really lived there, not in my heart of hearts. I suspect it is the same with you.
In art and labor,
Joe
