The Compleat Heretic's Autobiography

This page was last modified on 22 March 2009.

Introduction

I'm James Matthew Wallace. My family and friends call me "Matt." My old Army buddies call me "Wally" (and they alone are allowed to call me this having earned the right!). My enemies refer to me with a variety of epithets. I'm a forty-eight-year-old professional student. I hold a B.S. in Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where I'm working on a second undergraduate degree, a B.A. in English. I also play Working Class Hero at United Parcel Service's Greensboro hub. I'm one of the few conservative, Republican, traditionalist, Secular Humanist atheists in existence, hence "The Compleat Heretic." That's "Compleat" as in "highly proficient," and "Heretic" as in "one who dissents from an accepted belief or doctrine." I'm still trying to figure how I got to where I am now, but one thing's for sure: "What a long, strange trip it's been." You're welcome to come along.

I reckon I'm still trying to figure out who I am and what I want to be when I grow up, but then, I always have and always will. As Bob Dylan said, "He not busy being born is busy dying." Over the course of my adult life, at times and often more than once for some aspects, I've been a scholar, a seeker, a worker, an intellectual bum, a soldier, and a partisan political activist. Along the way, I've become a conservative, Republican, traditionalist, Secular Humanist atheist! I'm a free-market capitalist and a moral traditionalist and a "godless heathen"! Yes, it seems contradictory, but I make it work; all it takes is a truly open mind. Anyway, atheists are individualistic creatures if nothing else. If it causes you consternation, well you have something in common with the religious conservatives who are baffled by my seemingly anomalous atheism or the atheists who can't understand why I adhere to "Christian" morality. Makes your skin crawl, doesn't it!?

This autobiography serves a dual purpose. First, it provides some insight into who and what I am for those who do not know me. Second, it is an exercise in self-examination so that I might gain a deeper appreciation for who and what I am and the process by which this occurred. Please note: This is hardly a thorough autobiography and is more topical and episodic than chronological. Accordingly, this autobiography is broken into segments to provide something of a coherent framework and to allow ready future expansion. Current segments include The Atheist, The Soldier, and The Republican. "The Atheist" covers my (ir)religious life. "The Soldier" covers my military service. "The Republican" covers my political life. Hopefully, each of us will gain something from this.

• Vital Statistics
  Just the facts please

The Atheist

• Introduction and Contents
  • Introduction
  • Contents
• Seeing the Light; or, How I Became a Godless Heathen
  • In the Beginning
    Early religious training
  • A Pilgrim Wanders into Apostasy
    Losing my faith...assuming I ever had any
  • Taking a Wrong Turn on the Road to Damascus
    I "saw the light," and I became an atheist!
• Nobody Expects the Redneck Inquisition!; or, I Was a Teenage Heretic
  • Nobody Expects the Redneck Inquisition!
    Fun with the faithful in the Bible Belt
  • Enter the Grand Inquisitor
    Every red-blooded teenage infidel's greatest desire: my very own personal Grand Inquisitor!
• Meeting Satan Herself
  • Meeting Satan Herself
    An evening with Madalyn Murray O'Hair: 14 September 1977

The Soldier

• Introduction and Contents
  • Introduction
  • Contents
• Being All I Could Be; or, Descent into Madness
  How I came to volunteer for the Army
• Becoming a Soldier; or, Learning How to Not Think
  Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training: January-April 1986
• Going Home a Soldier
  Leave prior to shipping out to Germany: April 1986
• Two Years as a Dead Man on the Cold War's Frontline
  Service in Aschaffenburg-am-Main, Germany: May 1986-April 1988
• Wally's Most Excellent PCS Adventure
  My all-expenses-paid, cross-country trip courtesy of Uncle Sam: May-June 1988
  • Concord, Massachusetts
  • Niagara Falls
  • South Dakota Badlands and the Black Hills
  • Yellowstone National Park
• At Least I'm Not a Californicator
  Service at Fort Lewis, Washington: June 1988-December 1989
• Weaning Myself from the Big Green Tit
  Transfer to the Reserves and retraining at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana: January-March 1990
• Well, This Is Another Fine Mess I've Gotten Myself Into
  Service as an activated Reservist during the Persian Gulf War: August 1990-May 1991
• I Was a Soldier, and I Did a Soldier's Duty
  Why I served
• Military Awards of James Matthew Wallace, Sergeant, U.S. Army, Honorably Discharged
  Eight years of my life as bits of colored cloth

The Republican

• Introduction and Contents
  • Introduction
  • Contents
• Becoming a Republican; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About the Religious Right and Find a Political Home
  • Becoming a Republican
    Becoming a Republican

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