How is Fundamentalist Protestant Christianity an Outlier?

[Sunstone]

Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but the thought occurs to me that I quite often on this board see good and decent people talking about "religion" as if all religion was fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. Sound familiar? Or did the limb just now break beneath me?

To be forthcoming, I am fairly sure some know better but do not care, while others do not know better at all (and possibly do not care to know better). However, this thread is not directed to either of those groups.

Their members are welcome to join in, of course, but the thread itself is rather meant for those other good and decent people who do care that their usage of the word "religion" bears some greater resemblance to reality than does its usage as a virtual synonym for "fundamentalist Protestant Christianity".

With that in mind, I would ask posters to focus on responding to this question...

In what specific ways is fundamentalist Protestant Christianity NOT representative of Christianity as a whole -- and/or of religion as a whole?

 

[BSM1]

I was starting to think about your question until I watched the video you posted. Now the only thing that comes to mind is, "is that a paying gig?".

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but the thought occurs to me that I quite often on this board see good and decent people talking about "religion" as if all religion was fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. Sound familiar? Or did the limb just now break beneath me?

It doesn't sound familiar to me, actually.

The only conversations I can think of where things tend to focus on fundamentalist Protestant Christianity are ones about church-state separation in the US, and to a lesser extent Canada. But this is because those conversations are about church-state violations, not religion as a whole, and the worst offenders for this tend to be Protestant fundamentalists.

 

[PureX]

I think the primary difference is the religious fundamentalist's presumption that God wrote every word of the Bible by controlling the hands and minds of the actual human authors, and that as such, every word is absolutely true to the mind and will of God. And secondly, that their (these religious fundamentalists) interpretation of these words is likewise being given to them by God, and is therefor absolutely correct and unquestionable.

Most Christians do not believe God wrote the Bible, but that men wrote it under the inspiration of God's divine spirit within them. The important difference being that the words these men wrote will still contain the errors and the limitations of the men that wrote them. Because 'inspired' men are not 'inerrant' men. And likewise, inspired readers and interpreters of those words are not 'inerrant' readers and interpreters, such that one must always be skeptical of their own understanding of these things

Skepticism, in the world of the religious fundamentalist, is a sin against God. Because for them, faith is an unquestioned allegiance to the dictum of their religion. The Bible IS God. The religion based on that Bible IS God's religion. To doubt or to question either of these is to doubt and question God Himself. And that is the sin of sins.

For most Christians, Christ is not a religious dictum. It's a spirit of love, of forgiveness, of kindness and of generosity that we are being challenged to embody.

 

[PureX]

I was starting to think about your question until I watched the video you posted. Now the only thing that comes to mind is, "is that a paying gig?".

My thought was I can't believe those idiots are romanticizing primitive culture like it was some sort of glorification of hedonism.

 

[Kenny]

In what specific ways is fundamentalist Protestant Christianity NOT representative of Christianity as a whole -- and/or of religion as a whole?

]

We don't judge, we love a whole lot and we want to make this world better including helping people know the love of God towards this world.

 

[Samael_Khan]

Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but the thought occurs to me that I quite often on this board see good and decent people talking about "religion" as if all religion was fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. Sound familiar? Or did the limb just now break beneath me?

To be forthcoming, I am fairly sure some know better but do not care, while others do not know better at all (and possibly do not care to know better). However, this thread is not directed to either of those groups.

Their members are welcome to join in, of course, but the thread itself is rather meant for those other good and decent people who do care that their usage of the word "religion" bears some greater resemblance to reality than does its usage as a virtual synonym for "fundamentalist Protestant Christianity".

With that in mind, I would ask posters to focus on responding to this question...

In what specific ways is fundamentalist Protestant Christianity NOT representative of Christianity as a whole -- and/or of religion as a whole?

My understanding is that fundamentalists aren't representative of Christians as a whole because fundamentalists go back to the fundamentals of their religion, so they would believe that the Bible is literally the word of God, that the historical stories did occur, they believe that prophecies are being fulfilled and often they are doomsday preachers. They also don't necessarily believe in innovation in their religion or accept critical scholarship which discredits the book. Also they often believe in sola scriptura.

Catholics on the otherhand do not believe in sola scriptura, follow the Pope as their head and have a more nuanced view of scripture and update the Bibles teachings with their traditions and philosophy. The same is true of Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Many other Christian groups also have a very secular view of the Bible in my view, as they update their viewpoint based on modern science, traditions and philosophy, they take critical scholarship into account, think that many stories are just stories and in general are very loose when it comes to their religion.

I hope I am not creating a false dichotomy.

 

[Polymath257]

Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but the thought occurs to me that I quite often on this board see good and decent people talking about "religion" as if all religion was fundamentalist Protestant Christianity. Sound familiar? Or did the limb just now break beneath me?

To be forthcoming, I am fairly sure some know better but do not care, while others do not know better at all (and possibly do not care to know better). However, this thread is not directed to either of those groups.

Their members are welcome to join in, of course, but the thread itself is rather meant for those other good and decent people who do care that their usage of the word "religion" bears some greater resemblance to reality than does its usage as a virtual synonym for "fundamentalist Protestant Christianity".

With that in mind, I would ask posters to focus on responding to this question...

In what specific ways is fundamentalist Protestant Christianity NOT representative of Christianity as a whole -- and/or of religion as a whole?

I was going to answer, but can now only think about pagan dancing girls.

 

[Sunstone]

I was going to answer, but can now only think about pagan dancing girls.

Welcome to my religion, Pagan branch.

 

[Polymath257]

Welcome to my religion, Pagan branch.

Let us pray....

 

[ChristineM]

My thought was I can't believe those idiots are romanticizing primitive culture like it was some sort of glorification of hedonism.

We thought was i saw a couple of years ago and it seems they don't care what you believe

 

[Windwalker]

We don't judge, we love a whole lot and we want to make this world better including helping people know the love of God towards this world.

Is it Christian love that declared this current War on Culture?

 

[Windwalker]

In what specific ways is fundamentalist Protestant Christianity NOT representative of Christianity as a whole -- and/or of religion as a whole?

Fundamentalism is a type of religious disease. It is a dysfunction of the body, and it can exist in any religion. Specifically, it is about intolerance of other beliefs. It is judgemental of all other religions, including their own who are not legalistic enough. It is separatist. It is literalist, rigid, and black and white in thought and attitude, while hypocritically "doing the right thing" for the wrong reasons. It is fear based. It is narcissistic. All of the above are symptoms of spiritual and psychological unwellness.

To make an important distinction, while the terms fundamentalist and evangelical tend to be used synonymously, there are important distinctions to be had. This is a brief but good explaination of that found here: Evangelicals - Evangelicals V. Fundamentalists | The Jesus Factor | FRONTLINE | PBS

 

[metis]

I generally have problems with fundamentalism in any religion because it all too often tends to lead towards a "my way or the highway" approach, and sometimes even towards other things that can even be far worse, such as prejudice, stereotyping, and even the persecution of others.

Thus, I tend to more take a "to each his/her own" approach minus the judgmentalism.

 

[Augustus]

To be forthcoming, I am fairly sure some know better but do not care, while others do not know better at all (and possibly do not care to know better).

For this reason they also have a habit of considering fundamentalism and rank literalism to be the 'true' form of the religion, and non-fundamentalists to be those who have abandoned the 'true' form.

In what specific ways is fundamentalist Protestant Christianity NOT representative of Christianity as a whole

One reason is that fundies see each religious tenet as akin to a scientific hypothesis that must be literally true to have any value.

Many anti-theists also share this view, which is why they tend to be so partial to the fundies, and leads to the false religion/science dichotomy that many are so enamoured with.

 

[Kenny]

Is it Christian love that declared this current War on Culture?

We are always at war with the world's culture Just like Jesus. But we do it through love!

 

[sun rise]

In what specific ways is fundamentalist Protestant Christianity NOT representative of Christianity as a whole -- and/or of religion as a whole?

But before I drift off into the luminiferous aether, I wanted to touch the definition: strict, literal interpretation of scripture in a religion.

Religion as a whole? There are people who we label Islamic fundamentalists based on their interpretation of the Quran. I don't think that's true of Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

How people approach religion varies due to all the usual reasons: childhood exposure, psychological predisposition and so forth.

Stretching the definition beyond religion, I originally assumed @Revoltingest was a "fundamentalist" libertarian until I saw him advocating things that are not strictly libertarian.

So my answer is that fundamentalism is not representative of anything as a whole.

 

[metis]

We are always at war with the world's culture

"Culture"? I think I may have heard of that word before.

Reminds me of Gandhi's response when asked what he thought of "British culture", and his response was that they should try it.

But we do it through love!

Amen, Bro.

 

[Windwalker]

We are always at war with the world's culture Just like Jesus. But we do it through love!

Did Jesus declare war on others of different beliefs and values, who were not the religious hypocrites whom he did target? Did he go though the streets saying, "Drive out the gays. Stop that liberal agenda machine. Let's get someone who represents my values elected to public office so he can use his power to influence my religion being promoted in the culture to protect it from other belief systems and moral values." Did Jesus say or do any of that?

No, I'm afraid a war, is violence. It is force. It is the use of force to subdue others and deny them their liberties. It is violence, and it is obscene. And there is nothing about Jesus or what Christianity is about, that is reflected in those who call themselves Christian who do this. It is not through love at all. Love works no ill. War is an ill.

 

[Skwim]

We are always at war with the world's culture Just like Jesus. But we do it through love!

Boy, I don't know. I've always considered The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) to be fundamentalist/evangelical, and they certainly don't show any love in their demonstrations.

"A WBC member and child
protesting homosexuality"
(source: Wikipedia)​

And "The American Family Association (AFA), a Christian fundamentalist 501(c)(3) organization based in the United States, opposes LGBT rights and expression, pornography, and abortion. "

Moreover, "The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a 2005 report, stated that the AFA, along with other groups, engaged in hate speech to "help drive the religious right's anti-gay crusade.

In November 2010, the SPLC changed their listing of AFA from a group that used hate speech to the more serious one of being designated a hate group."
source:Wikipdeia
​

So while I'm sure there are a lot of fine fundamentalists out there who don't wish anyone any ill will, fundamentalism does have its share of mean-spirited haters.

.​