Christian Fundamentalism....

[pat]

I think this is an appropriate thing to post on a Sabbath....

And many thanks to sinboy for the link.

Comments

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Thank you for posting that. That was...enlightening.

*walks away to redecorate interior of head*

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you read that, Grif. I know you've had some incredibly bad experiences with "Christians", and I hope that this will give you a glimpse of those of us who view our faith as something other than a tool to hit folks with.

[kayre]

Thank you for sharing this.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it. I haven't commented in your journal in a while, but I really enjoy what you post about your church. (I thought the Youth Service sounded really neat!)

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Because of people like that, I've stopped calling myself born again, and I've stopped being a Baptist.

But I'll be da - Well, no, I don't quite literally believe that - Anyway, I'm still going to call myself Christian. So there.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Because of people like that, I've stopped calling myself born again, and I've stopped being a Baptist.

(nods) exactly the same... now I'm in a reasonably-diverse, poly-tolerant (to some extent) Episcopalian (Anglican) church. With very few angry people... thankfully.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

One of my missions in life is to reclaim the word "Christian" from the fundamentalists. I really try to be out about my faith, even though occasionally people are a tad suspicious. I am trying to provide an alternative experience of interacting with Christians than that which is seen on the eleven o'clock news.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Pat. That is an excellent essay on the subject, and makes the distinction quite clear. Talking with redhawke on this topic I've concluded that the Episcopalians are just a lot more reasonable than even the American Baptist church I was a member of for years as a child. I never thought of American Baptists as particularly fundamentalist (as opposed to the Southern Baptist Church we were part of in NJ, or the Church of the Nazarene that I went on tour with in late HS), but it's clear that their roots are there. It's equally clear that most of the things that bother me most about "Christianity" are really things about fundamentalist Christianity. I still don't agree with a fair amount of the "church doctrine" that I was taught (e.g., the usual interpretations of Paul's injunctions on sex and the role of women), but it's equally clear that I'd be happier in an Episcopal Church than in any of the ones that I spent much time in (Baptist, Methodist, Nazarene, Presbyterian).

Thanks.