Unfundamentalist

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Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism Tells You Food Is Good While Taking Away Your Ability to Taste

by in Fundamentalism

Fundamentalists claim that unless we submit to the Bible as the Word of God, we cannot have objective morality. Our sense of right and wrong would be subject to personal taste or popular opinion.

I think this essentially becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Those who grow up in fundamentalism rely on the external authority of other people’s interpretation of the Bible and morality. We are taught to DISREGARD our personal ideas, and we lose the ability to discern which opinions are worth our attention.

It is an insidious vicious cycle to keep people from functioning out of their own moral agency and stay under the control of religious gatekeepers. This is the reason for the arrested development of many fundamentalist adults, that they continue to rely on external authorities to dictate their everyday choices.

Breaking free from it takes time and incremental steps for a lot of us. It took me years to reclaim a strong sense of agency over my own spirit, mind, and body–to trust, once again, that I can discern for myself which ideas are compelling, what activities are worth engaging in, and who gets to be an influence in my life.

Contrary to popular fundamentalist opinion, gaining self-agency doesn’t mean we become free-for-all selfish beings who float around in hedonistic airs without purpose or moral grounding. It means putting back together a robust integrity of personhood that was broken by abusive religious teachings. And it means we can participate in the… [Read more…] about Fundamentalism Tells You Food Is Good While Taking Away Your Ability to Taste

The Authoritarian and the Finisher of My Faith

by Alex Camire in Fundamentalism

I have a love/hate relationship with institutionalized religion. I love the church, and I miss being part of a local church, but I can hardly abide what the church has become, particularly the modern American church.

There are times when I find myself pointing out all the bad and others when I’m defending any good. I’ve seen the church help a lot of people, yet I’ve seen a lot of harm done as well. And it’s not always clear to me who’s to blame in a system that’s built on an unseen, unheard authority figure.

We were taught in church to give “double honor” to those who held authority. We read First Timothy 5:17 to demonstrate that this was a biblical principle, followed by verse 19 where it loosely says, “don’t accuse your leaders of anything wrong, unless you have a lot of people willing to back you up.” Not that it was ever stated this directly, but, essentially, the message was fall into submission to the leaders over you and don’t question them or their directions.

Obedience was revered as a quality of a morally upright person. It was akin to righteousness, and disobedience or disobedient persons were always made the example of what not to do or how not to act. To be disobedient was to be rebellious and this was always demonized as the worst sort of behavior at the root of all other sins.

There is a study conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1961, aptly referred to as The Milgram Experiment. The purpose of the study was to examine obedience to authority.… [Read more…] about The Authoritarian and the Finisher of My Faith

When Fear Is Your Faith

by Laura Grace in Fundamentalism

Independent Fundamental Baptist. If people would ask me, an adult woman, “what is the first thought that comes to mind when you hear those three words?” my answer would be these three words: Fear. Fear. Fear.

Fear? Yes. Plain out of your mind, “I’m gonna’ die” kind of fear. The form of fear that grips your heart and your eternal soul. Fear that doesn’t allow you to think rationally—after all, it is an out of this world sort of fear, the kind that means eternal damnation. A fear of forever being lost—although you have already been found. A fear that terrifies you that maybe you were never found, so you will forever be lost. It does not have boundaries and limits, because it does not know boundaries and limits. It is the fear of missing Heaven Celestial forever with Jesus, the fear of eternal torment in Hell with Satan and his demons.

A fear that controls. A fear that confines. A fear that steals you from yourself. But most of all, I am talking about a man-made fear.

The fear within fundamentalism.

I was born and raised in IFB. It was my identity. It was my life. I also had another identity within it—I was marked—I belonged to the crowd that was not always labeled, but they were whispered about. I was one of the Doubters.

One of those who just couldn’t “know that you know, that you know.” Whom some have referred to as a “Doubting Thomas” (taken from John 20). My salvation just wasn’t as secure as some of the others. I wasn’t as sure as others.

As a… [Read more…] about When Fear Is Your Faith

The Terrible Tragedy of Christian Fundamentalist Legalism

by Randal Rauser in Fundamentalism

Christian fundamentalists have distinguished themselves as ferocious defenders of doctrines like biblical inerrancy, a literal 6-day creation, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, and a pre-tribulation secret rapture.

Historically, that commitment to doctrine has been complemented by an equally doctrinaire commitment to a range of ethical “don’ts.” For example, don’t drink alcohol, don’t watch restricted movies, don’t dance socially (remember the movie Footloose?), and don’t use playing cards.

Fortunately, fundamentalists had a couple innocuous substitutes for the standard deck of sinful French playing cards: Rook and Uno. And so, on Christmas vacation and at summer camp I played countless games of Rook and Uno.

How widespread was this stigma of French playing cards? Consider the results of my recent Twitter survey on Christian attitudes toward playing cards:

Frankly, those are stunning results. Almost half the people who responded were raised in a Christian church that stigmatized a deck of cards as sinful. I know what that’s like because I grew up in precisely that context. Here is an excerpt from my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? (p. 68) in which I recount one particular incident from my youth more than thirty years ago:
•REAL CHRISTIANS DON’T PLAY WITH CARDS SIDEBAR•

Yes, even playing cards. After an emotional time around the campfire
at Green Bay Bible Camp, our counselor Gord pressured us to throw
our playing… [Read more…] about The Terrible Tragedy of Christian Fundamentalist Legalism

The Prophecy of Prejudice

by Lydia Joy in Fundamentalism

For many years, I had anticipated with anxiety last Friday’s presidential announcement that Jerusalem would finally be recognized as the capital of Israel, of God’s Chosen People. I felt fear and panic whenever I saw something that I had been told meant a prophecy was being fulfilled, and was leading our world closer to its cleansing and its end: the final Judgment of all judgments, ringing in the Rapture where God’s saints would be fetched up with a single trumpet signaling we were “going home” to heaven.

Being part of God’s Kingdom meant many things to me as a child. For one, it meant I wouldn’t burn in a literal hell for eternity. Also, it meant I would be reunited with any loved one who had believed and accepted Christ as their personal Savior, granting them a place to worship at His throne forever. So, two major things that concluded in a positive way of thinking, right?

Wrong.

I say this because I know the other teachings Christian Fundamentalism includes. Forgiveness of sins is only part of the salvation they preached. As a Christian, you’ve also reserved a place to point out those that have not experienced such forgiveness, deeming others of your fellow human race damned by the guidelines you were given to separate the “Goats from the Sheep.”

As a child, I have strong memories of scanning crowds of strangers, searching for other believers, because I knew if they didn’t resemble me, chances were they were going to hell, and this brought terrifying images… [Read more…] about The Prophecy of Prejudice

Me Too: Finding My Voice Outside of Fundamentalism

by Lydia Joy in Fundamentalism

Trigger warning: childhood sexual abuse.

Me, too.

With two little words, I joined a campaign. Signed up and shouted, “No more silence! No more with the lack of accountability! No more with the victim shaming!” It’s a campaign that has been long overdue for many of us out there. Our experiences and our accounts fell on deaf ears for many years, regardless if the actual abuse had since ended, all because our stories were too uncomfortable for others to hear.

My story is typical of many other former Christian Fundamentalists: for at least seven years as a child, I was sexually and physically abused by two male family members. One perpetrator is serving twenty-seven years in prison for crimes he committed against me and other victims, the other has never spent one day locked away due to a “lack of convincing details” about that summer when I was twelve.

To my knowledge, the pastor of my Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church knew about my abuse and decided not to intervene. No law enforcement involvement was ever sought out. No professional counseling was offered. The victim shaming, however, thrived within that environment.

For many years, it was like a roller-coaster of events and emotions. A series of ups and downs regarding my story were whispered within my childhood church and by others closely connected with it. To this day, twelve years later, the memories of the shaming remain. Sometimes, I wanted to become invisible, to shrink into… [Read more…] about Me Too: Finding My Voice Outside of Fundamentalism

Anti-Fundamentalism: Divisive, Not Exclusionary

by Alex Camire in Fundamentalism

I hear people throw the word, “divisive,” around a lot these days.

This person is divisive.

That person is divisive.

Stop being so divisive.

It sounds bad, doesn’t it? It sounds like a bad word that produces discord. In the Christian realm, I often hear a paraphrase of Mark 3:25, “a house divided cannot stand.” The implication being that if you create discord, swim against the current, ruffle too many feathers, etc., you’ll produce some evil in the form of disunity.

When did we decide that division was an intrinsically bad thing and, conversely, that unity was intrinsically good? Sure, the words carry bad and good connotations, but I don’t believe this should be the case.

In the world of partisanship, in-group/out-group social structures, and either/or, all or nothing thinking, it’s difficult to stay centered and very easy to fall into the pit of restrictive dichotomies.

As I continue to reevaluate my faith, I sometimes find that my core values as a Christian are more defined by the things I don’t believe in, rather than by the things I do. I can even look at Christianity itself and, instead of seeing what it can be, I notice the things it shouldn’t.

And so, on the surface, I feel like a contrarian when it comes fundamentalism. I tend to lean the opposite of the conservative evangelical worldview I grew up with. In order to be a part of that group, you had to speak and act a particular way:

You voted Republican, held a firm pro-life… [Read more…] about Anti-Fundamentalism: Divisive, Not Exclusionary

Fundamentalism Is about Policing the Borders

by Darrell Lackey in Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism, as a description, is used in different ways depending upon the context and point a writer is trying to make. I am using the word in its general dictionary meaning, such as given in the Cambridge Dictionary: “the belief that the traditional principles of a religion or set of beliefs should be maintained.” I am also referring to its historical context, as found in a set of essays published from 1910 to 1915 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) called “The Fundamentals.” In that series of essays, the writers called the church and the culture back to the so-called “fundamentals” of Christianity.

For an in-depth study of fundamentalism, I recommend George Marsden’s acclaimed book, Fundamentalism and American Culture. But in this post, what we might gather from the general dictionary meaning and the reference to the early essays, is that fundamentalism is about policing the borders or boundaries. We might think about Christian theology or doctrine as castles (Truth) of great importance. There they stand in the distance, big and beautiful. We must protect them. So, we begin to build walls around these castles; we build them thick and high. Once built, we then proceed to police them. Like guards, we walk along the border, the boundaries of the wall, to make sure no one scales the wall and attacks the castle.

It is easy to think we are very noble for doing this. Look at us: here we are on the very boundary, the border, diligent, making sure… [Read more…] about Fundamentalism Is about Policing the Borders

The "Alternative Facts" of Fundamentalist Religion

by Chuck Queen in Current Events, Fundamentalism

I see a clear parallel between fundamentalist religion and Kellyanne Conway’s defense of an obvious falsehood about the crowd size at the presidential inauguration. White House press secretary Sean Spicer, in a five-minute statement where he refused to take questions, argued that the number that had gathered to witness the inauguration this year “was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.”

Anyone with half-a-brain knows that is not true. The crowds at President Trump’s inauguration paled in comparison to the huge swell of people at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Nevertheless, Conway defended Spicer, calling his words to the press a statement of “alternative facts.”

It is remarkable how gullible this administration considers the electorate to be. I find it interesting because of the way this approach resembles and reflects fundamentalist religion. Fundamentalist religion, Christian or otherwise, feeds and grows on the gullibility of people to believe what they want to believe. It thrives on the propagation of beliefs that defy logic, reason, science, and common sense, but somehow appeal to our lower instincts and passions.

For example, consider how many Christians believe that the biblical account of the ark (we have got a big one here in Kentucky supported by tax dollars) and Noah’s flood is actually a historical, factual account. The actual logistics of this is impossible (it denies science) and the… [Read more…] about The "Alternative Facts" of Fundamentalist Religion

I've Decided to Leave Church

by Alex Camire in Fundamentalism

I don’t know how else to tell everyone this, so I’ll just come out and say it: I’ve decided to leave church.

I should probably preface this by telling you a few things about me. For starters, I’m nearly twenty-eight-years-old and I’ve gone to the same church my entire life. I grew up in church–my parents met, married, and I, in turn, was born and raised going to church. Church, Christianity, the faith that I’ve learned since I was old enough to go to Sunday School–these are the things that have been central to me my whole life. They’re what everything else revolved around.

Church has been many things to me. It grounded me in a faith that will always be an essential part of who I am. It was a community of like-minded individuals who were like family to me. Many, in fact, are my actual family. It was the place I was socialized. I developed my closest friendships with other church people. It was also where I met and married my wife. And in between everything else, church was a haven, a home, and a place where, for a long time, I felt secure.

So why leave? There are several reasons, but, to put it plainly, my church is a fundamentalist church. Some might say that it’s your average conservative evangelical church, some prefer the term legalistic, and I’ve even heard the word cult or “cultish” thrown out by a few who chose to leave in past years. In laymen’s terms, what this means is that I grew up in a very conservative form of Christianity. It relied on strict codes of… [Read more…] about I've Decided to Leave Church