The Seduction of Fundamentalism
"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good... Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We do not want equal time. We don't want pluralism." - Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue. Quoted in The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana. 8-16-93
"I want to say to all you Scribes, Pharisees, heresy hunters, all of you that are going around pickin' little bits of doctrinal error out of everybody's eyes and dividin' the Body of Christ... get out of God's way, stop blockin' God's bridges, or God's goin' to shoot you if I don't... let Him sort out all this doctrinal doodoo!... I refuse to argue any longer with any of you out there! Do not even call me if you want to argue... Get out of my life! I do not want to talk to you... I don't want to see your ugly face!" - Paul Crouch, President, Trinity Broadcasting Network
"In winning a nation to the gospel, the sword as well as the pen must be used."; "Democracy is a heresy against God!" - R.J. Rushdooney, Director of the Rutherford Institute, which was the principal founder of Monica Lewinsky's legal defence, and architect of "Christian Reconstructionism."
Fundamentalism defined
I believe a fundamentalist can be described as someone who has lost all reason. Someone who believe in something so strongly that even contradicting facts, ideas and common sense are dismissed, ignored and discarded, completely, without the slightest notion of thought. Someone who will always choose conformity to doctrine above love, forgiveness, compassion and common sense. The fundamentalist believes that he is right. Period.
He believes he knows the will of God. We've all seen that bumper sticker that says, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it." Of course the fallacy is that there's no proof, or even reliable evidence, that God ever said anything. When someone takes such a doctrinaire approach to religion, without being willing to accept that he may be wrong, it becomes very easy to believe that he knows what's right for everyone else as well.
When he believes that he knows what is best for everyone else, it is a very short leap to the feeling that he has the right, if not the responsibility to impose on others the point of view he is so sure is not only correct, but even infallible. After all it is for their own good, is it not?
Where does it start?
Many members of fundamentalist religions were first seduced into it because it appeared to them to be a comforting religion. It promised to the person, who felt lost in a society that is not perfect that, yes there are simple answers to complex problems.
Many people find it hard to cope. They see that the universe is not only complex but also as dangerous. There are diseases and death, floods and hurricanes, earthquakes and catastrophes. The poor frightened human, able to understand the danger but neither able to accept it nor do anything about it, finds that the presence of the Supreme [Father] God is extremely desirable, especially if the Father can be manipulated by magical signs and incantations.
However, it will ultimately occur to the fundamentalist that anyone or anything, which denies the existence of the Father, threatens the safety, even the very survival, of the believer. The infidel must be brought into the fold, or at least prevented from acting contrary to the values of the fundamentalist.
It is at this time that the fundamentalist is in the greatest danger of gradually becoming part of a religion of violence (emotional & physical). The first promise of fundamentalism has disappeared. It has become a religion that turns its members into irrational followers, whose hatred for much of this world is now the most basic part of their personality. Little did these converts realize that they were in danger of becoming believers who religiously violate the basic standards of the religion.
Day by day, the scripture has become the fundamentalist's only source of knowledge because it is the very word of the Father. By definition, the bible must be literally true. "The Father said it, I believe it, that settles it."
The Father must be understandable, so the believers create a being that looks like them and talks like them. The Father even has many of the same limitations that they have. Then they define the Father as omnipotent, which also brings the dream of their own omnipotence a step closer.
The world of the scripture is not without its hazards, though. It is filled with demons, witches and evil spirits. The fundamentalists feel that they are in direct contact with these magical beings, possibly even under attack by them. These evil creatures are more real to them than, say; the existence of an old dinosaur fossil is to us. However, the Father will protect them.
Because it often contradicts scripture, secular knowledge is rejected as unreliable false and even evil. Therefore, anything or anybody who denies the literal truth of the scripture is working for the devil. In fundamentalism, there is a three-track road to knowledge: (1) faith (2) the scripture and (3) direct communication with the Father. Fundamentalists do not have opinions, rather they have revelations. Anything which conflicts with the revelation, since it did not come from the Father must, therefore, have come from Satan.
Finally, even thinking about one's own values becomes blasphemy because thinking requires questioning of a personal revelation from the Father. Reality has disappeared. The Father protects the fundamentalist but, at the same time, the fundamentalist protects the Father. Anything which threatens the Father's universe must be destroyed.
When the believer has reached this level, logic is Satanic because it is not based on scripture and knowledge is evil because it leads to questioning. Now, everyone must think and act as the fundamentalist does because that's the way the Father wants it to be. Now you understand why these people can turn their backs on family and friends. Why they can emotionally and physically assault people and even kill in the name of the Father.
Ignorance & Evil
Fundamentalism almost invariably has a problem with science. Science is the process of starting with the evidence and proceeding to the conclusion that best fits the evidence, regardless of what that conclusion may be. Fundamentalism, on the other hand, starts with a conclusion and searches for evidence to support that conclusion.
Anyone who has ever been wrong knows that the latter is no way to find the truth, because it presumes the searcher has the truth to begin with, which of course may or may not be the case.
But this doesn't stop the fundamentalist; the very premise of fundamentalism presumes to start with the truth, and all the fundamentalist lacks is evidence. This false science has even become an industry in such organizations as the Institute for Creation Science, the Family Research Council, etc. There are many other examples, and from many religions besides just Christianity.
This can most clearly be seen in the Christian fundamentalist's hard-core, bedrock belief in the inerrancy of the Bible. While there are numerous contradictions, obvious errors and serious problems with doctrine in the Bible, the Christian fundamentalist simply ignores them at worst, and applies tortured, twisted logic in an effort to explain them at best. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, the Bible speaks for itself, and anyone who takes the time to seriously study it will be impressed at how many irreconcilable problems there are with the Bible.
How can the fundamentalist read the Bible and ignore the irreconcilable contradictions? It is done by compartmentalized thinking, a thought technique that allows two or more contradictory facts to inhabit the mind at the same time in peace and without conflict. Yet when the contradiction is directly pointed out to the fundamentalist, the reaction is to claim that such an argument is "one of Satan's traps." It really is not, of course, it is just truth coming to call. However, the notion that such nagging thoughts are the devil’s tools is the way the inerrantist maintains peace in his mind.
Fundamentalism is evil. It distracts otherwise sincere people from honest self-examination and the spiritual growth it makes possible, and by obstructing honest scientific inquiry and intellectual debate, fundamentalism derails the progress that society would achieve by honest, competent religious practice.
But more than that, fundamentalism all too often justifies in its adherents' minds the prejudices, the zealotry, the intolerance and the hatemongering that are all the most base of human instincts. To gain and keep adherents, these religions can do great violence to human freedom and dignity, and often are the source of much economic and social stagnation and even ruin. Much human misery owes its origins to fundamentalist religion and the spiritual corruption it fosters.
Human progress is essentially a search for truth. To the extent that fundamentalism blocks or impedes that search for the truth, it blocks or impedes human progress. True religion is a relentless search for and acceptance of truth about yourself and the universe in which you find yourself regardless of the discomfort that truth may cause.
