Christopher is having fundy trouble again. My oldest son works in the division of the UT Athletic Department that's responsible for taping games for highlights purposes, as well as producing the coach's shows and miscellaneous other work. He loves it, and we're all so grateful that he's involved in something for which he has such a passion. A couple of the guys he works with are fundamentalist Christians - very good people who've taken good care of my son as he's transitioned from home to college, and I'm appreciative.

They've always teased and questioned him about being Catholic, good-naturedly, I've believed, but it's starting to get to Christopher. Tonight he called and we had a long talk about such matters, which, over the past week, have revolved around the interpretation of Revelation 13:18 - the number 666. All my kid was trying to point out to them was that the number could stand for Nero (the numerical value of the letters in his name adding up to 666), and they jumped all over him, saying that of course he was wrong, of course he didn't know what he was talking about, of course it was simply Satan's "number", and somehow, in the end, devaluing Christopher's faith.

He just didn't understand why it was such a big deal, and frankly, neither do I. I asked him if, in these conversations about literal interpretation of Scripture, he ever brought up Jesus' words of institution at the Last Supper. "Yes!" he almost shouted, "I do! They just say that it's not important, and that Jesus meant something else!"

Ah. Christopher, allow me to introduce you to Mr. Fundamentalist. His first name is Inconsistent.It's pretty bizarre how literal interpreters of Scripture will spend so much time and energy defending the "literal truth" of certain passages and completely ignore others - lots of others. It just goes to show that "truth" is not the issue, but verse-slinging in defense of already-determined assumptions is.

Oh yes. Say a prayer for my son, will you? Gracias.