Jane Fonda on Christianity–Not a Pretty Picture

Jane Fonda’s autobiography, My Life So Far, has hit the bookstores and–no surprise–Jane has hit the talk shows. In the [largely fawning] interviews, Jane is often identified as a Christian, with some reference to an experience that started her on this new path. Yet, given much of what she believes and the causes she champions [feminism, condoms for teenagers, etc.], many wonder what Jane believes Christianity is all about. Now, in an interview published at Beliefnet, Ms. Fonda provides considerable insight. She wants nothing to do with a “patriarchal” religion. “Come on! When we talk about — depending on how you talk about it — God, the Almighty, Sophia, a greater power, whatever — can’t you understand that this is beyond gender? This is beyond anything that we can imagine. I mean, we can’t even describe it. I understand why people latch on to gender things, but this is not a man. But because people have taken it so literally, it becomes gender and hence, hierarchal. And it just made my teeth grate. The more I studied, in the very kind of linear, fundamentalist way, the more I felt reverence leaking away from me.”

As interesting as the idea of leaking reverence is, we hasten to this further clarification of Jane’s theology and her belief in a New Age, Gnostic concept of Christ: “And I read Elaine Pagels. I had read The Gnostic Gospels years before and it had really impressed me. In fact, I read it when I was first feeling God. And then I read Beyond Belief, which is a book she came out with recently, and it had a lot of references to early Christians and Gnostic Gospels, and so I read the originals. In fact, I got the whole Nag Hammadi library and through that reading, I began to realize that I am on the right path. That Christianity is my spiritual home. This is where I’m meant to be. And that I have to discover for myself what that means. And this is very new and so you know, it’s hard for me to go into it in great detail because I’m only a few years into this journey. But I am riveted, I am fascinated with religious history, with biblical history, with the early Gospels, with Robert Graves, King Jesus, I’m just, I can’t get enough. This is a very real journey for me.” Jane Fonda’s very real and very riveting spiritual journey is not based upon biblical Christianity, but upon the heretical foundation of Gnostic speculation. Let’s pray that her journey doesn’t stop here, but comes home to biblical Christianity.

FURTHER READING: See my article, “In Condoms We Trust: Jane Fonda Rides to the Rescue.”