"Mark T" <> wrote in message .

An example of the dumbing down of Christianity in the current Fundamentalist Dark Age!

"Frank" wrote:

This is what the LORD says-- Israel's King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6 NIV)

Because Jesus is referred to as "Lord" then Frank wrongly assumses that the "Lord" spoken about by Isaiah is Jesus. Both references to "Lord" in this verse are the Hebrew "YHWH" not Jesus!!!!!' The NIV even puts it as "LORD" to emphasise that fact!

Frank will NEVER find out about this in his fundamentalist church ... NEVER!!!!

Frank is on a restricted diet of what he is allowed to read / discuss.

Who will help Frank grow ????? He won't hear this in any of his fundamentalist church sermons! He won't learn it in any bible study (aka sharing of ignorance)! He won't find anything on it is his dumbed down fundamentalist bookstore!

Is it ok for Frank to preach this idiocy for the rest of his life because Frank is afraid of complexity / a concrete thinker /"young in the Lord" / a baby Christian (despite his advanced years!)???????

Frank is a product of anti-intellectual dumb Christians in the current Fundamentalist Dark Age.

Most Christians just want to pat Frank on the head and tell him what a good boy he is for loving the "Lord" ... though WHICH Lord is VERY confusing!!!!!

My response:

Point taken

Let me use another paradigm (from a lecture to post-grad students I gave this week):

Humans can be spread across a spectrum from radical (on the left, would you believe) through liberal, progressive, conservative, fundamentalist, to traditionalist (on the right).

Radicals will sometimes listen to progressives, rarely to conservatives, never to traditionalists (and vice versa from right to left)

A leader of a diverse group will therefore know that to change the minds of conservatives (for examples) you communicate to them via the group on their immediate right or left. Too far away means no communication.

So... whaddaya do with a fundamentalist mind-set? You get 'em to read people a little more progressive - like some intelligent conservatives. And for the liberals? Depends in what direction their ideology is moving, of course, whether to their left or right.

Another generalization using this paradigm: fundamentalists confuse the ideas of progressives (like many of my theological ideas) with liberals (like yours). And of course vice versa from the radical end. (I once talked to a staff-member of the World Council of Churches in Indonesia who had no idea that there was any difference between 'evangelicals' and 'fundamentalists'...)

And so on...

--

Shalom! Rowland Croucher