A husband looks deeply into the big blue eyes of his wife of many years. He sees the accumulating wrinkles, the sprinkling of gray, the passage of time...still he boldly and truthfully proclaims, "You are the most beautiful woman in all the world."

It is the truth.

Now it may not be factually verifiable. She might not actually win the Miss America contest that year. But there is no question in his mind that what he is saying is the truth. What he is doing is offering up a hyperbole of the heart. He is sharing what really matters to him. He is confessing his love.

We do this all the time.

"The mountains take my breath away!"

No they don't but we all know what you mean.

"I'd do anything for her."

No you wouldn't but we understand.

It is a kind of hyperbole of the heart.

Now, fundamentalism refuses such artistry. Fundamentalism says it is either factually accurate or it is false. When the gospel of John sings that God so loved the world that he gave his own son as a sign, fundamentalists turn such an evocative and beautiful thought into a rigid rule of salvation.

Christians have often fallen into the fundamentalist trap when it comes to our traditional creeds. There is no question in my mind that the formulation of these proclamations of faith were attempts in a very different world than ours to witness to what they believed God had done and was continuing to do. Images of miraculous birth or ascending bodies had less to do with descriptions of historical events and far more to do with evocations of wonder and mystery. Yet we have too often turned such poetry into a prison for the mind.

Over and over again, I am asked by those just starting their pilgrimage of faith whether they must believe as scientific fact everything that is said or sung in worship. Some are even brave enough to confess to their pastor that they simply cannot. Some are surprised to hear that neither can their pastor.