Holy Fried Green Tomatoes

I just finished reading The Case for God by Karen Armstrong and particularly appreciated this first paragraph from the Epilogue:

We have become used to thinking that religion should provide us with information. Is there a God? How did the world come into being? But this is a modern preoccupation. Religion was never supposed to provide answers to questions that lay within the reach of human reason. That was the role of logos. Religion’s task, closely allied to that of art, was to help us to live creatively, peacefully , and even joyously with realities for which there were no easy explanations and problems that we could not solve: mortality, pain, grief, despair, and outrage at the injustice and cruelty of life. Over the centuries people in all cultures discovered that by pushing their reasoning powers to the limit, stretching language to the end of its tether, and living as selflessly and compassionately as possible, they experienced a transcendence that enabled them to affirm their suffering with serenity and courage. Scientific rationality can tell us why we have cancer; it can even cure us of our disease. But it cannot assuage the terror, disappointment, and sorrow that come with the diagnosis nor can it help us to die well. That is not within its competence. Religion will not work automatically, however; it requires a great deal of effort and cannot succeed if it is facile, false, idolatrous, or self-indulgent.

My mother dredged green tomatoes in a mix of flour and cornmeal for fried green tomatoes. My Aunt Daisy was emphatic (I can’t say “swears by” because Aunt Daisy doesn’t swear) that cornmeal alone be used. Once my partner told her I dipped mine in batter. I couldn’t correct him fast enough to assure Aunt Daisy that I would never—NEVER—use anything but pure, unadulterated cornmeal.


These words from Karen Armstrong remind me of fried green tomatoes. Sometimes we expect of religion what it is not meant to do, like providing questions to scientific questions. And flour will not give you the superior crust that cornmeal will.


But when we face questions science isn’t equipped to answer, religious faith will answer. When we face situations seen chapter after chapter in the Psalms, faith will sustain and answer. When we feel an army is encamped around us scientific fact is useless but the Holy can sustain and encourage.


A point to remember with the Psalms is that “army” may be from without or within. We can feel bombarded by our own inner demons of greed, arrogance, ego, stubbornness, etc. When our own faults cause us anguish our grasp of the Holy is the only path to salvation from ourselves. This is the time to look to the hill from where our strength comes from


Faith is not any more limited than science but they are not meant to answer the same questions. And save the flour for biscuits. Use only cornmeal for fried green tomatoes.