The space we give ourselves to think and believe is determined in part by our nurture at home and then our desire to educate ourselves either through formal or informal study. At the heart of free-thinking is a desire to know; a desire to remain unencumbered by the presuppositions of others; and a proper attitude – by this I mean both the desire and ability to separate fact from fiction and truth from belief. I have found that in academia as in the church, when we dress belief and authority in the gowns and robes of dominance the majority of people snap to and fall in line. But for the free-thinker, these are only the costumes of authority and do not represent truth or fact at all. Even though I knew all of this, I loved to wear my costume for it gave me a certain “I’ve got it and you want it, but you’ve got to get through me to get it” demeanor.
For most, understanding the qualities and implications of being a free thinker takes time. Many dabble in it, but usually stand on the periphery of real commitment. Things like standing in the community, at work, and pure guts separate those who would rather “seem than be.” Of course, if you work for those who think of themselves as “the anointed,” then your free-thinking will keep you in a lot of trouble. Experience taught me that the anointed love their power over others and prefer those who “seem” rather than those that full of action and promise. Free thinking around these people will soon put you in a hole so deep that digging out is impossible and it’s much easier to move on and make the life of another anointed one miserable.
People don’t like free thinkers – free thinkers ask questions and question decisions based on faulty reasoning. My lot was caste when I was in high school; I just needed the education to back up what I was thinking and to wash away the last remnants of myth and illusion that had been provided by life in a small southern town and Baptist Church. Some think I went to seminary to become a minister. The joke was on them. I went to seminary to learn the truth of what I had been taught from a youth. What I discovered there were only two or three teachers that really uncovered the reality of faith and cast aside the myths and fairytales of youth. It took another trip into the throws of academia to find myself and provide for me the ability to think and reason independent of any person or any institutional authority. The results were dramatic. I still had to work in the real world of lies, deceit, and mythmakers, but now I knew and could turn away in idle hours and have a good laugh.
