The Prophetic Voice of the Late Senator Barry Goldwater

A Blessed Christmas to All Who Read This Blog!

When Little Men Cast Tall Shadows the Sun is Setting

Last Month, MSNBC Reported:

"MIAMI. August 26, 2010 — The government turned up the pressure Tuesday on the head of a small Florida church who plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, warning him that doing so could endanger U.S. troops and Americans everywhere.

But the Rev. Terry Jones insisted he would go ahead with his plans, despite criticism from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, the White House and the State Department, as well as a host of religious leaders.

Jones, who is known for posting signs proclaiming that Islam is the devil's religion, says the Constitution gives him the right to publicly set fire to the book that Muslims consider the word of God.

Gen. David Petraeus warned Tuesday in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence." It was a rare example of a military commander taking a position on a domestic political matter.

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Jones responded that he is also concerned but is "wondering, 'When do we stop?'" He refused to cancel the protest set for Saturday at his Dove World Outreach Center, a church that espouses an anti-Islam philosophy.

"How much do we back down? How many times do we back down?" Jones told the AP. "Instead of us backing down, maybe it's to time to stand up. Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behavior."

Still, Jones said he will pray about his decision."

Even though Terry Jones later backed down from the planned book burning, should Christian Fundamentalists have this affect on religion, politics, public policy and international diplomacy? For whom do they really speak on the world stage? To what higher authority or review do Fundamentalists submit when their "messages from God" are so uncertain and contradictory? What inflammatory responsibility must the American press bear in this incident? Was it really news? Which Fundamentalist will vie next for his 15 minutes of "fame?"

"When little men cast tall shadows, the sun is well nigh setting on that nation." (Quoting 1970s chapel message memories from Bob Jones Jr., University Chancellor of the Fundamentalist Bob Jones University, not related to Terry Jones)

Christian Fundamentalist Response to Gay Teenagers

Islamic Fundamentalist Response to Gay Teenagers

The Results of Fundamentalist Preoccupation with Eschatology

A series of sixteen Christian fiction books (as of this writing), often called “The Left Behind Series” were written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, who have espoused an eschatological  belief that was unfamiliar to Christianity until the mid 1800s. With this mix of Biblical truth and fiction there has arisen a great amount of focus and confusion about truly biblical eschatology. The books are dangerous because people see the fiction as theology and not as fiction

Thus, this fiction theology has replaced the historically accepted eschatology which predicts the singular coming of Christ (the “perousia”), to judge the living and the dead, with two comings of Christ, first in a secret “calling up” of Christian believers into heaven, and then a second coming a thousand years later to judge the living and the dead and to cast Satan into hell. I Thessalonians 4:15-17 is seen to be a description of the preliminary or “rapture” event (the word Is nowhere in the Bible) compared to the secondary perousia return described in Matthew 24:29-31. Both texts describe a return of Jesus in clouds of glory with angelic activity, trumpets, heavenly signs, and a gathering of the saints, but Fundamentalists and many Evangelicals believe these to be two separate events.

The thousand year period is called “the millennium,” which before the mid-1800’s metaphorically only represented an indeterminant but significant amount of time, but has now been literally interpreted as exactly 1000 years. It is supposedly a time when Satan, posing as the antichrist (antithesis of Jesus Christ), rules the world as a one-world ruler who brings peace, and eventually degrades into an evil world dictator.

Fundamentalists often hold to these cunningly devised tales with such vehemence that if one does not agree with them, they are often shunned or branded as “probably not Christian.”  Whereas, historically the church has held the tenets of the Apostles Creed as the central or basic “list” of unifying beliefs, Fundamentalists, and many Evangelicals, often do not ascribe to the Creed, and often hold beliefs about eschatology, modes of baptism, speaking in “tongues” and other tenets as important as belief unto salvation in order to be truly Christian.  Such beliefs divide and do not unify the Church. Many Fundamentalist and Evangelicals deny their inherent exclusivism in their theology, but not in their practice

Along with this relatively new eschatology that can border on heresy comes a strong defense of the nation of modern Israel. This belief is based on the Bibilcal promise to Abraham by God when He said. “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” in the book of Genesis. Rather than recognizing modern day Israel as a totally secular society, very different from the Old Testament Israel, Fundamentalists see the nation as still having the blessing of God more than any other nation in that region or the world, and thus justify America’s strong support of that nation’s politics and policies toward its neighbors and those people with whom it shares common geography.  This justification and support of Israel is clearly blind to the atrocities, apartheid and ethnic cleansing by that democracy against minorities within its borders.

Antefundamentalism Defined

I suppose I may have created my own word, "antefundamentalism," to describe what it may have been like before Fundamentalism became such an integral part of our American experience and culture. Fundamentalism in America is often the unacknowledged step-sister of the evangelical church. It is definitely a reaction to much of what is considered creeping liberalism in theology in America. My word, "antefundamentalist,"  plays on the double entendre of "ante" versus "anti"  when it comes to thinking about fundamentalism in America. I suppose in exploring the "before" of the movement, I might also be exploring the "after" of the movement, because I do not see American fundamentalism continuing as a viable movement, as more and more people come to understand it's true affects on themselves, their families, their culture and their country.

I actually attended a fundamentalist church  for most of my life, pastored a church for 13 years, and graduated from a very fundamentalist college, so I have hands-on experience, or "insider experience," as it were, on the subject. I feel compelled to do this analysis because as Americans, we are now seeing an upsurge of Fundamentalism in both the Christian and Muslim worlds. Much of the Christian upsurge is in South America and Africa, while most of the Muslim upsurge is in the Middle East and Europe. That upsurge has become a thing of great and not marginal concern to me as a Christian and as a world citizen because it is leading to so much physical and spiritual death, destruction, and polarization  throughout  the world.

American Christian fundamentalism is actually a relatively new phenomenon, probably no more than 100 to 150 years old. Christians in other parts of the world look at this strange form of American Christianity and marvel that it exists at all in an educated, industrialized nation like the United States. Muslim fundamentalism, of the present day hybrid militaristic variety, is not even that old.  There are so many similarities between the two types of fundamentalism that it becomes frightening.

Experience is driving me to believe that fundamentalism of either variety is dangerous to the well-being of many in our American society as well as the world at large. Fundamentalism has led to so much misunderstanding around the world about what the average American believes about life, religion, and political issues in the Middle East. I hope you will explore these many topics with me as my blog evolves. Thank you for reading. Please send me feedback and suggestions for other discussions.