A book and The Book

A very close friend has recently found religion. Not in a "we go to church every Sunday and live by the ten commandments" way, but in a way that I cannot understand and consider extreme. His new fundamentalist beliefs have consumed his life so profoundly, that he pulled out of being my son's godfather because the Bible doesn't specifically support infant baptism - it was invented by the Catholic church, and as such, he cannot be associated with such an event.

I'm not bitching. He has been (and still is) one of my closest friends for years. Plus, who was the really smart dude who said "condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven"? Isn't that a line from Caddyshack?

Anyway, my point: Last time I saw him we were talking about books and I brought up George Orwell's 1984. He mentioned that he never read it, which amazed me because he is a very intelligent and well-read person. I don't do a whole lot of reading (the only reason I read it was because it was assigned reading in high school), but I loved it. Absolutely the best book I ever read and it's widely considered a literary classic. For my birthday he sent me a book (about religion, but that's beside the point) so today I picked up 1984 for his birthday, which is Friday.

After I purchased it I opened to a random page. The page detailed an interaction between Winston and his lover Julia, in which Julia "pushed her bosoms against Winston." In 1984, Winston and Julia engage in an illegal relationship (under the highly oppressive Big Brother), and under fundamentalist Christian ideology one would be considered immoral. Though a literary masterpiece (and completely fictional), the book does not explicitly support the teachings in scripture. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if he will even open it.

As I mentioned, I simply don't understand the mindset behind Christian fundamentalists. I've read the bible cover to cover, but my interpretation is very different than those who restructure their entire lives according to it. And it is because of this lack of understanding that I'm contemplating returning the book to the store and taking him out for pizza instead.