The Ugly Face of Fundamentalism: After Thoughts

The whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is culturally conditioned. It is all written in the language of particular times, and evokes the cultures in which it came to birth.” “… We come to them (referring to other letters in the Bible) as we have come to the whole Bible, looking for particular answers to particular questions. And we have thereby made the Bible into something which it basically is not… into a set of abstract truths and rules- abstract devotional doctrinal, or evangelistic snippets here and there.”¹

What does it mean to “take the Bible literally?” You know, this approach: “the word says it so I believe it.” For some strange reason beyond me, I don’t understand why individuals don’t seem to comprehend the importance of Exegetical and Historical context of a single verse, passage or book.

• Isolated verses grouped together don’t prove your points, views or doctrines
• Context determines meaning, not individual words. Thus, the danger of word studies.

There’s a narrative running behind the text found in the bible which often goes unnoticed. We need to learn how to read the bible for all its worth. Or as one author titled his book, taking the bible seriously but not literally.

Fundamentalists don’t wanna hear this, they only want to convert people to their way of thinking and believing; as well as adopting their methods of interpretation. I won’t play that game and refuse to speak directly about a verse or concept without first acknowledging the need context: learning the aims, intent, audience and situation behind the writings.

What kind of trouble can one get into if they only take what they consider to be complete meaning of a text or book, while ignoring how it might or might not fit into the broader teaching of the text?

Think about it… know of anyone like this?

Acting and believing exactly like they do is necessary or else! The funny thing is, they act and talk like they know everything possible about a text because the Spirit led them into “truth” and of course because they continue to provide proof-texts, which they believe seems like a solid proof approach, to either prove you wrong or as if you speak without biblical support. They demand, “Show me the evidence!”

Problem: The methods used to construct arguments are faulty, so whatever your conclusion might be… yeah, it’s not looking good (more on this later).

These Christian Fundamentalists wouldn’t know what evidence (biblical support) is if it hit em in the face! For people like this, they demand that I response using the same methods they used to formulate their contrived perspectives and beliefs regarding doctrines that completely hang on proof texts and entirely miss the point. I won’t waste my time because enough has already been written of the topic.

“The Bible, rather obviously, not only offers some fairly substantial individual stories about God, the world and humankind, but in its canonical form, from Genesis to Revelation, tells a single overarching story which appears to be precisely the kind of thing people today have learned to resist.”²

But don’t get excited because for radicals like this, they shun education; for too long Christians of various backgrounds don’t encourage actually thinking through ones beliefs. In my experiences, these churches frown upon intellect. And view education and scholarship as a threat.

Since people like this carry this bias or let’s call it what it really is, prejudge. Expecting them to listen is really a long shot, and if they refuse to listen, then what’s the point of dialogue? We communicate because we wish to be understood and at the very least, to be heard.

Individuals of this kind aren’t really interested in dialogue. They only want to tell you why you’re wrong and endanger of damnation.

It’s easy to make the Bible say whatever you want. For years, many have done so: from Hitler (including much of German scholarship) to the Reformers and now, televangelists. You know what’s notable about this? a common feature runs through them all:

• No regard for actual meaning of a text. A text can’t mean what it’s never meant before.
• The author’s intended meaning and aim is critical for properly interpreting the meaning of any text, document, letter and so forth!

Also, the views they fight hard to defend as biblical are grossly detached from a first century Jewish/Christian backdrop (more on this later).

What’s difficult about this? It is laziness?  If we really knew the meaning or framework from which the authors were writing, a lot of changes would need to be in store. Fundamentalist teachings are out of control. They’re used to both control the masses and manipulate people.

In our Western culture,  we just have to know everything, it must all fit into the little boxes we call our world. Why? Fear, security, authority, control… maybe all of the above.

Since I won’t play by these faulty rules (using proof-texts or isolated verses) because:

1. It doesn’t work that way, which I’ve already shown.
2. It doesn’t do justice to the text
3. There’s no need for it because my beliefs/views don’t hinge upon a semantic theology (or in this case, it doesn’t deserve to be called that!) because it is just a throwing together of verses and logic that just seems to fit.

I had a disturbing confrontation yesterday with a Christian literalistic fundamentalist. I’m planning on sharing more reflections. It’s difficult to convey experiences and knowledge when someone discounts both because of their values, ignorance and presuppositions. I tried my best to be understanding, attentive and respectful; unfortunately, I didn’t feel the gesture was returned.

Do we not realize that the Bible is more than simply a collection of moral examples and dogmatic teaching? (more on this later)

What’s Next?

I’ll discuss the role and history of “Allegorically” as one method of Biblical interpretation. Getting a grasp on this is central to understanding the text in various places. Stay tuned.

1. quoted in “The Living Word of God” by Ben Witherington III; N.T Wright “How Can the Bible be Authoritative?” [↩]
2. -N.T Wright “The Last Word: Beyond the Bible Wars to a New Understanding of the Authority of Scripture” [↩]

Tagged as: Christianity, religion