Matt McNulty: Christian fundamentalism and its fundamental flaws

.... What I learned was a relatively new religious phenomenon -- fundamentalist Christianity -- was spreading throughout America and the Third World like wildfire. And anyone who supports pluralism, religious tolerance or science education should be concerned about this development. Christian fundamentalism, like its Islamic counterpart, is the blatant refusal to compromise with the modern world. Fundamentalists take a literal interpretation of the Bible, and reject any scholarship or theory that does not conform to the Bible, for they believe that scripture is the "inerrant" word of God and should not be questioned. This explains their opposition to the teaching of evolution in the school system. If they did not think the creation account in Genesis literally happened, no objection would be raised against evolution. Fundamentalism differs from mainstream Christianity in other ways. In Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity, Bruce Bawer asserts that fundamentalism -- which he terms "legalism" -- diverges from "modernist" or mainline Protestantism in almost every aspect. Bawer argues that legalism emphasizes adherence to doctrine over love of one's neighbor; with modernism it is the opposite. While modernists regard Satan as a metaphor for the potential for human evil, legalists believe Satan is a supernatural being that exists out in the world, ready to deceive and tempt people who are not "saved" by the "true" Christianity.

This is the reason many legalists believe that people who profess other faiths can become instruments of Satan, and therefore deem other religions "demonic." Televangelist Pat Robertson was quoted as saying that Islam is a "Christian heresy" and that Hinduism "has as its origin, demonic power." The Evangelical preacher Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, declared that Islam is "a very evil and wicked religion."

Of course, if you decide beforehand that someone else's religion is "evil" just because it is different from your faith, you will not be very inclined to engage in a religious dialogue with adherents of other faiths. This is the danger posed by a rigid, doctrinaire fundamentalism that stresses that there is only one path to salvation.

Another pitfall of Christian fundamentalism is the disconcerting tendency to regard the intellect as suspect, a potential tool for Satan. In Holy Terror, Flo Conway and Jim Seigelman report that some people who join fundamentalist Christian groups are told to get rid of every book in the house except the Bible. Perhaps that is why fundamentalism has spread so rapidly in places like Latin America and Africa, where education is substandard and superstition runs rampant.

Hopefully, there will be more of a dialogue between the major religions in the future and fundamentalism of every variety -- Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu -- will wither away under the lens of reason, and the power of love.

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