The Road between Us: The Elder and the Atheist (Two Spiritual Journeys)

By Tom Saunders

Tom and Jason met over twenty years ago under circumstances that should have severed any chance they would develop any kind of a personal relationship, let alone a close friendship.

Yet their paths continued to cross, and over time, the answer to why this happened would be made very clear to both of them and hopefully become a lesson for many others as well.

Jason believed in science. He thought scholarship and the human capacity for learning and reason could provide every answer about life and the human condition; however, there was a tiny ember of belief he dismissed many years earlier that always remained…

Tom believed in God, to what extent he wasn’t even sure.

Jason grew up in a very religious family.

Tom hardly went to church at all but believes Jesus is God’s Son and died to make salvation available to all that would receive the gift He offers, but he always struggled with the orthodoxy taught by religion and tradition…

Jason became a business owner and the founder and president of the Mid-Michigan Atheist and Humanist Group.

Tom became a chaplain and an elder (pastor) after more than twenty-two years of military service.

This book is about the unlikely friendship that changed the course of their lives and the worldviews of both Jason and Tom, a story of two people with completely different trajectories for their lives that converge to teach all of us that we don’t have to be of like minds, come from the same backgrounds, or even share the same values to not just get along but to be close friends.

This book illustrates the value of thoughtful listening and mutual respect and how, when put into practice, these attributes make it possible to learn something about ourselves, what we believe, and why we believe it.

Share this journey with Jason and Tom with an open heart and mind, and chances are, you will discover something about yourself along the way…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638149095

Book preview

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The Road between Us

The Elder and the Atheist

(Two Spiritual Journeys)

Tom Saunders and Jason Galvas

ISBN 978-1-63814-908-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63814-909-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 2021 Tom Saunders and Jason Galvas

All rights reserved

First Edition

Cover Art by Kori Saunders

Website: korisaunders.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

We are living in a world of skepticism, unquestioned biases, and deception.

Exploring truth cannot only be difficult but dangerous. Opposing opinions, instead of being discussed intelligently and respectfully, now often serve as unconditional division points among people. After all, being open to the fact that what you believe may not be entirely accurate feels risky and shakes us at our core.

This book, a very personal and realistic look at this subject, is a great example of how those situations can be handled productively as we all continue in our journey to discover the truth by building bridges between people who believe differently than we do instead of walls.

This is a much needed, educational, and intelligent approach to bridging the gap between people who believe differently than we do. This book provides us the privilege of watching a beautiful transformation of God’s greatest creation, humanity, unfold.

—Brian Fleming

Author, Combat-Wounded Veteran, International Speaker

Founder of MarriageBattlePlan.com

Jason’s questions made Tom search; Tom’s Christlike attitude made Jason search. Both were heading down a road toward an intimate relationship with God and away from religion and traditions. As a former lead jail chaplain for thirty-three years, I found The Road between Us (The Elder and the Atheist) to be so revealing when handling contrasting views. Attempting to understand what others believe will only work if one’s attitude resembles Christ. I believe this book also reminds us of the importance of reading our Bibles word-for-word while not forgetting that words have meanings, and traditions can be questioned.

—Al Novak

Retired Jail Chaplain

The teaching of your word gives light, so even the simple can understand. (Ps. 119:130 NLT)

Suffering for doing good

Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So, don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong! (1 Pet. 3:13–17 NLT)

Foreword by Paul Lee

Blind Faith, the Struggle to Believe

Blind faith—it is a simple term but wholly unsupported in my brain. That’s how I feel many Christians practice what they believe…blind faith. They follow what they are told by others, and the scripture they profess to know is, many times, inaccurate at best and not even in the Bible at worst. In my experience, it is these very people that attack me when I question what they believe and why they believe it.

When Tom asked me to do this foreword, I was baffled. Who am I? I am not famous, and I don’t write for a living, but I am that person that challenges Tom the most and caused him the most grief on the subject he is writing about.

My background is someone raised in the Mormon Church. I was even a counselor and high-level leader in my local church. I left after thirty-five years of dissatisfaction and even had a short time in the Methodist Church after finding Mormonism wasn’t for me. As a believer in a higher power, I have been on my knees crying to whoever would listen up there to guide me. I’ve talked to God for days asking why I am so incapable of finding spirituality when it seems to come so easy to others in the world. Like some, I’ve even tried drugs to bring me to spirituality. Nothing made sense…until I quit looking through organized religion.

Look, I’m not against religion per se; I am against hypocrisy and intolerance. I am against people stating what God wants from us when some of what they state isn’t even in the Bible or is some twisted version of the text. So when someone tells me something is the Word of God and can’t document any proof, I call them on it. Sorry, it is just my nature.

Tom and Jason embrace those challenges. They look at challenges to what they believe as a way to sharpen their understanding of what the Bible says.

One thing I really appreciate about their perspective on biblical texts is that they base what they believe on Scripture after a thorough review of the subject matter, especially the subjects that even many scholars disagree about. They look at culture, customs, context, history, target audience, even language idioms when necessary. Through our discussions, the Bible makes more sense to me than how religion explains it. Even when we disagree, there is no judgment or hateful attitudes… That is what encouraged me to reevaluate my faith and who God and His Son are…

I never once felt Jesus was being judgmental during His ministry. Some may argue that point, but the way I see it, Jesus was always loving and caring, and He is our example of how we should treat others, even if we disagree! He was constantly saying how God was the only one who would judge us. Walk into a church on Sunday with overalls and boots and see how you are received. That, my friends, is judgment.

And if I said I disagree with what you say and believe, I am deemed unworthy of His love. For example, never once did Jesus state He was God, yet over and over, religion says He was and is. In fact, He stated several times that He would be at the right hand of God. How can He be God and at the right hand of God? Why would you talk to God if you were God (as He was on the cross dying)?

See, I have trust issues from way back. That includes governments, parents, and the organized religion. I was raised in a strict household and was told how I was to feel about God and all the mysteries of religion and spirituality. So when I read one thing in the Bible and taught something different or told the words don’t mean what they say, I have a hard time trusting. That incongruency between what I was taught and what I read crippled my ability to believe the Bible and in God as religion teaches.

Tom and I continue to discuss issues like this with each other as we have for over the last ten-plus years of our friendship. Like all good pastors should, he continues to encourage me to trust Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and all it has gotten him are more questions from me. But no matter what I express about my beliefs and why I feel the way I do, he respects my position even when he disagrees. Jason always treated me the same way.

If you’ve been made to be a heretic every time you question something in the Bible or from the mouth of your church leaders, then this is the book for you. It’s not about theology or religion; it’s about respecting others and what they believe and about treating them with kindness and dignity when you disagree. Jesus was able to draw others to Him through love.

When I think of blind faith, I think of Jim Jones, David Koresh, or every major religion that believes they are the true church of Christ, that their way of believing is what leads to salvation. I think of the Crusades; the Muslims, Christians, and Jews all believe they are the rightful owners of the Holy Land. If everybody is saying they are the true church, then who are we to believe? It’s my understanding that Jesus came to kill religion, not create thousands in His name that do nothing to honor God and everything to push people away from Him or, in the case of Jim Jones, something much worse!

To me, blind faith is not using the brain God gave us. To question something is human. Tom has made it normal for me to question what I believe again without feeling like a heretic. Religion, not the Bible, tells us God knows everything. If God knows everything, why would He give us free choice if He knew damn well we’d screw it up? These are just some of the issues that I, along with many others, struggle with when it comes to faith… We don’t need ridicule; we need to be able to ask questions. We need encouragement. We need compassion. That is what Tom and Jason share in this book.

Many churches and religions teach blind obedience. That should concern every believer! I, for one, think the church wants blind or unthinking followers so they can act as the go-between for us and God. However, the Bible makes it clear that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man.

Jesus taught that we didn’t need religion or religious leaders, that we could go straight to God for help. My take is, we live in a figurative box created by religion based on the history of the Jewish people and a handful of other pagan religions, Greek philosophy,