The New Wave of Fundamentalism
Rev. Christina M. Neilson
January 14th, 2007
Religion
has always been a giant in my life. A
large presence, an over-arching theme that is my constant thread. From my early fundamentalist, evangelical
roots to my service as a Unitarian Universalist minister, I’ve been filled with
a love for life and humanity that has blessed me.
But the
same evangelical church that taught me love of life, appreciation of nature,
and the indispensability of community, made me clutch my throat as I grew
older. I challenged the rigid and
literal doctrines of the church. I
challenged the racist tone of its preaching, and the idea that protestant
Christianity was the one, the only “True” religion.
Christianity
saw a birth of evangelical thought during the period of the great awakening in
the 1700’s. Its charismatic hellfire and
brimstone preaching converted many a believer in its day. Many people fell to their knees to accept Jesus
as their savior. And somewhat as a
rebuttal, but also as a faith of its own, the Unitarian and Universalist church
flourished to counter its negative preaching.
We became the alternative to a rigid fundamentalism.
But all growing churches,
including evangelical churches, were deeply involved with the issues of the
day- women’s suffrage, the end of slavery, starting a public school system and
public health. We were split on
theology, but not on matters of justice for all people. Religious freedom, separation of church and
state was an ideal that all the churches fought for. All denominations had experienced religious
persecution. They did not want to
experience a state church in our new country.
The
great awakening died down as more mainline churches adopted the Universalist
messages of love for God and neighbor, rather the wrath of god and threat of
eternal torment. The Unitarian church
kept its unique identity as it adopted a more humanist theology.
At this
point, let me be clear what I mean by fundamentalists and evangelicals. The term
"fundamentalism" came into existence at the Niagara Falls Bible
Conference, which was convened in an effort to define those things that were
fundamental to belief. The term was also used to describe "The Fundamentals,"
a collection of twelve books on five subjects published in 1910.
The authors were concerned
with the moral and spiritual decline they believed was infecting Protestantism,
and sought to restore the historic faith with a call to arms that dealt with
five subjects that latter became known as the five fundamentals of the
faith. These twelve volumes were sent to
"every pastor, evangelist, missionary, theological student, Sunday School
Superintendent, YMCA and YWCA secretary." In all, some 3 million copies
were mailed out. The five main
fundamentals of the faith are:[1]
1. The infallibility and inspiration of Scripture. Bible is sole authority.
2. The virgin birth of Christ and the Deity of Christ.
3. The
substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for sinners and the blood atonement.
4.
The bodily resurrection of Christ and His visible return to
earth.
5. A judgment
of the saved and lost followed by a literal heaven and a literal hell.
An Evangelical
has three main points of agreement.[2]
1. A literal
interpretation of the bible
2. Conversion
as central criterion for salvation, being “born again” (Reflective of the “Great Commission” in Mathew-
go unto all nations and baptize them in the name of the father, son and holy
ghost.)
3. An
imperative to spread the good news and to convert people to the faith.
Fundamentalism
and evangelicals experienced a revival in this country in the 1970’s. The myth is that the abortion crisis started
the revival, and the coalition of churches working together for political
gain. But the churches began their
coalition years before abortion was legal.
What was the galvanizing point? A
racist ideology.
Bob
Jones University, a fundamentalist school, wanted to continue its anti-racist
policies in admitting students.
Basically they did not want to admit students of color, because they did
not want black and white students to date or especially to marry. They were threatened by civil rights for
people of color, and the growing trend for integration of all people.
The government took away the
funding from the school because of their refusal to admit students of
color. The conservative churches
provided funding for the school, so that they could ignore the discrimination
policies the government tried to impose.
This incident is what prompted the revival of the new wave of
fundamentalism.[3]
We saw
the rise of fundamentalist faith as a cultural and political force. An uncompromising faith seemed to be the
answer to their prayers in response to a culture they perceived as decaying
morally. Later when the abortion issue arose, many more churches, including the
Catholic Church, joined the political conservative movement to oppose
government funding and approval of abortion.
From their, their political
agenda included the rise of the prison industrial complex, the war on drugs,
moral values, promotion of big business, and the elimination of government
interference in their lives. They
co-opted the Republican Party with their agenda. As issues rose to be divisive, they would
adapt their agenda to keep the voting in line with their priorities. Most recently they have adopted the war on
gays, in particular gay marriage.
They keep adjusting as
needed to keep their position of power. If they stuck to the bible, they would
pick issues that were clear in the bible like adultery, divorce, killing
another human, and taking their property.
But they focus on the ambiguous scriptures like homosexuality and
abortion so they don’t alienate their own members. These “sins” are things other people do. It sets up their group as right and others as
wrong because of their sins. To focus on
divorce and adultery would put all sinners on equal standing, especially after
so many public religious figures were being outed on TV. But are these religious monoliths beginning
to break down?
In 2006, there was an
unmistakable pause, a moment of self-examination, even the hint of a great
humbling. The most absolutist visionaries found a limit to their certitude.
Benedict XVI went in a matter of months from proclaiming an irreducible gulf
between Christianity and Islam to visiting a mosque in Turkey with white
slippers on his feet. He publicly called for Turkey, a secular state but a
Muslim country, to be integrated into the European Union.
In the U.S., the religious
right saw its most enthusiastic representative in the Senate, Rick Santorum, go
down to defeat by a crushing 18 points. For the first time, a state
constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage failed in Arizona. State
initiatives for embryonic-stem-cell research became a wedge issue for
Democrats. For the first time since the
evangelical revival began, too much rigidity began to cost politicians votes
rather than win them more.
Evangelicalism also saw the
beginnings of a political divide. A new head of the Christian Coalition was
forced to resign after he wanted to expand the group's mission from abortion,
gay marriage and stem cells to include poverty and the environment. David Kuo,
a former Bush Administration insider who helped run the faith-based social
program, wrote a book decrying the cynical use of Evangelicals for political
gain and regretting his enmeshment with the religious right.
For all these reasons, I
have hope that the power and influence of the religious right is turning, but
this December something even more remarkable happened. The orthodox Evangelical
Rick Warren, author of “Purpose Driven Life” and senior minister at the largest
church in the US, Saddleback Church, invited Democratic Senator Barack Obama to
address a conference on AIDS. Laura Bush was also present at the AIDS day
rally.[4]
In addition, they are
embracing issues such as poverty and the environment. What was once a seemingly rigid and
entrenched group was actually more diverse, nuanced and open to debate than
once seemed possible. Once you open the
door to nuance and interpretation, critical thinking rather than following a
packaged agenda is not far behind.
I have
hope because even Islam was revealed to have no single answer as Shi’ite and
Sunni factions pitted Islam against itself after the bombing of the Samarra
mosque, a site sacred to Shi’ite Muslims.
No one faith has the one simple answer to every question human beings
ask.
We see that even the most
certain theological worldview has to grapple with the difference of others, and
the complexity of the issues. We need to
co-exist, not obliterate each other.
Certainty can be comforting in the abstract, but in the real world,
certainty has to be accompanied by toleration if we are to live in any
peace.
Certainty itself may be an
obstacle to real faith rather than its achievement. Doubt is as much a part of
our faith as human imperfection is a part of life. It is certainly a cherished
part of our faith. Our country has
learned that the hard way- in our politics and in war.
We have a deeper obligation
to find humility in our faith and our God. Fundamentalists need to expand their
view of what constitutes a legitimate faith.
And we need to enlarge our vision and see the possibilities that are
open to us as we begin to work with all faith communities. We can work to eliminate poverty, preserve
our environment, cure AIDS, and maybe those beginnings will open other
doors.
We need to embrace our
commonalities and enlarge our understanding, so that we can work together for a
better world, even as we did during the original great awakening. Our work is just starting, and we need the
efforts of all to overcome international disasters. We nee the efforts of our faith, the
evangelicals, the fundamentalists and the unchurched.
Faith extends beyond the
church community. I have an uncle who is
well known in our family that he should have been a preacher. The problem is, that he never goes to
church. At least, not to what we think
of as church. But no one can say that he
is not religious. He has a fantastic
memory and has memorized more of the bible than most people. He carries that
knowledge with him into the world, into each activity he engages in.
He is a great farmer. No one can prepare the soil, plant the seed,
week the garden and nourish a plant to maturity without experiencing the wonder
of God. God is present in the miracle of
growth and abundance.
My
uncle likes to fish. He spends hours on
the lake, winter or summer, even though he is ninety years old. It not just about the thrill of the catch or
furnishing food for your family. There
are long meditative moments, opportunities for deep thought when you are on the
lake. Moments undisturbed, that we may
desperately try to achieve while doing a sitting meditation. Fishing brings us face to face with God in
the sitting, in the communion with nature, in the presence of something larger
that yourself.
I share
being a baseball fan with my uncle, actually with most of my family. I may have to forgive him for being a Yankee
fan, but he spends many long hours watching the sport. And you’ve heard me preach before that God is
present at the baseball park. In the
communion of the fans during a really great sporting effort- maybe a home run,
a double play, or a really great diving catch, the crowd is greater than
oneself as the game moves you.
Even
the fundamentalist or evangelical church strives to recreate that crowd dynamic
during their revivals. They want to
revel in the glory of God, to create a transcendent experience beyond that of
mundane life. But I say that the glory
of god is imbedded in our daily lives.
That the imminence of god is right there with fishing, baseball and
gardening. You can’t get any more daily
than that, or more transcendent. Any
experience can give us the feeling of transcendence. The exhilaration of a born again experience
or an evangelical revival can transcend as well, but God is present in more
than just those moments. God is in all
aspects of life where we experience a blessing to be alive. I feel blessed every day that I get out of
bed. Just grateful to have another
day. I don’t need bells and whistles. Just the privilege of breathing.
We
don’t need a great awakening. Or another
fundamentalist revival. We need a great
humility. A time of quiet assurance of
faith, a humble reflection on our daily lives, and gratitude for all the gifts
we’ve been given. We need to feel a
sense of grace, not a sense of inadequacy in the presence of God. All people of faith count, and I am thankful
that I am a Unitarian Universalist. May
we all be so lucky?
Blessed be.