why i am not now or would ever want to be identified as a fundamentalist.

i remember being in high school when i first heard the term fundamentalist. at that point it described a person that believed in the scriptures and held them up as a personal standard……….at least that is what i thought it meant.


now i realize that the term is not a complementary one.

fundamentalism at its core is a rebellion. it is a rebellion against the modern world and a defense mechanism used because some fear “loosing our faith.” now some people would say that the answer to fundamentalism is secularism. i for one have never understood why things are looked at as so black or white, for or against, with me or against me.

most fundamental christians would say “but i am just going by the bible. “ the key here is how we look at or interpret that bible. remember, there are many different people that have used the Bible as their basis for their view and or actions. there are three different examples that come to mind dr martin luther king, mother theresa and the kkk.

I think the opposite of fundamentalism is not secularism, but better faith. i for one think that if you confess a faith in Jesus Christ you need to understand that we do not live in fear (2 Tim 1:6-7), but in triumph( 1 John 4:4). what is there to fear? ( Rom 8:35).

i find it very interesting that we as modern day christians seem to fear the possible loss or percussion of our faith. we fear that we as americans will live in a country that will no longer care about the laws of God, we feel that we will be judged if we don’t hold up the country to the law. well, I don’t mean to be a defeatist but guess what, if God is going to judge this country for turning away from His laws then it will happen because of what has already happened.

am i saying that we should not speak out regarding issues of morality??? no, what i am saying is that it is time we need to look at our recent past. by recent, i mean the last hundred years or so and see what people of faith use to champion. . people that would have identified themselves as fundamentalist have been aligned more with what we would now have called “the left”. they were part of leading the cause against slavery, child labor laws and women’s right to vote. now if you would ask non christians what a christian stands for, it would be against gay marriage and abortion. i am not saying these are not worthy causes, what i am saying is what has changed us from fighting for peoples rights and major concerns to against peoples rights.

i for one stand in the line of people that consider them selves pro life, but are we so adamant against abortion that instead of trying to get more lives saved we go for the
“all or nothing” stance. i know i may be an idealist, but i wonder how many babies we could have saved over the years if we came to a middle of the road stance of saying that abortion should only be performed in the case of rape/incest. i want to save every life that i can, but are we loosing the battle to save babies until we can have the total victory?

now i know i may loose some of you here but i have to be honest. what will we really loose if gay people are allowed to marry? if we are concerned that the definition of family would be altered for life, then i have to say yes, it already has. most christians that I talk to do not go so hard line that they would not want to allow gay people some kind of formal union. Sso again, do we loose the battle to show our strong family values by standing so strong against this issues that we neglect the broader spectrum.

do we know that the stats on divorce for the first time are higher in the church than without? what are we doing to make that a fact of the past? i would think that strong marriages would be a great testimony to our family values.

i am not saying that you should not stand for either of these causes, what I am saying is could it possibly be time to be seen as people of reconciliation.

i heard an interesting stat from donald miller, a christian author and emerging church leader. he said that currently the three most feared people in the u.s. are first serial killers, second child molesters and third evangelical christians. could it be because all of the above are seen as forcing their wants and desires upon people no matter what? i can hear so many people saying “are you actually comparing serial killers and child molesters to christians?? well yes and no. i am only speaking of how we are viewed by the rest of the world. now i know, we are not looking for the acceptance of the world, but i also don’t see that we are called to be the finger of God.

last time i checked we were not given the responsibly of convicting the word of their sin, but we were called to give a glass of water to the thirsty, help the widows and orphans and bring the good news of Christ’s reconciling power..

in this country we have the right to stand for what ever we want ; all people in the country do. what i would love to see is us using our political clout to help those that can not help them selves.

read the new testament and you will see that every time Jesus went to a new place he dealt with the heart felt need of the people . He did that before he even started to preach.

could that be our call ? to deal with the real needs of people before anything else?

i am sorry if I have asked to may questions in this email/blog , but these are questions that are dear to my heart.


i leave you with a quote from one of my favorite books of scripture


james 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows ( the poorest of the poor in biblical times) in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.