Fundamentalist religion doesn't have to be politically awful or hateful

[madison2000]

I guess I used to be a fundamentalist- when I was in college- but I evolved away from it slowly as I became more educated and gained more life experience. I am still a Christian but belong to a liberal denomination which embraces what I now believe- it is compatible with liberal political beliefs but in no way are the two synonymous.

The thing is- 25 years ago being a conservative religious person did not dictate to me about who I would vote for or what my attitude was toward homosexuality or even abortion. I honestly cannot imagine a leader of any group that I belonged to back then saying the hateful things that I am hearing from people like Dobson today. I cannot imagine the leaders I looked up to attacking politicians or identifying religion and politics so closely. I think that those conservative/evangelical churches have been hijacked, and the people in them have gone along out of fear- a politics of fear and a religion of fear go together.

There are probably still a lot of decent people out there who have been swept along by some of the crazies in this movement who long for a theocracy.

[Wapsie B]

1. That's right.

I was brought up in a conservative protestant church and we didn't spew the hate that is so prevalent today. Absolutism was there, no question about that. But what I still see is a refusal by many to admit the crazies have taken over the nut house. So many I talk to still believe the gop of Eisenhower still exists. They're oblivious to the political realities of today. When I mention Dobson or Falwell I get a laugh as if they are irrelevant in the party.

[mike_c]

2. you know, I've had lots of christian friends and lovers over the years...

...who've all said more-or-less the same thing, i.e. that "their christianity" taught them to be tolerant, to love others, to be charitable, and so on. I was raised in a fundamentalist household, although I never believed, so my gut response to that has always been that christians who stress the positive side of christianity are ignoring the negative side. They have countered that the intolerance, bigotry, and hateful side of christianity is a reflection of human failings, not religious teachings. I suspect that the truth is somewhere in the middle, because while people might choose to let their personal anger and bitterness color their interpretation of christian teachings, the nuggets they build into foundations of religious hatred are nonetheless gleaned initially from christian philosophy.

It's always the fire-and-brimstone pastors of hate and bigotry that represent the public face of fundamentalism, and really of christianity itself. Why do we so rarely hear of "good christian" ministries for ending intolerance and violence? Why are the values my christian friends tell me are the real values of christianity not the "values" that I hear associated with christian morality in the media-- most often when spoken of by christians themselves?

[madison2000]

3. I think the more liberal churches have not used the media

or maybe not gotten their message out at all. Lately I have heard of a few (Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo) who have been out there for a long time doing interviews with the mainstream media- but they just aren't the type to pontificate the way the conservative counterparts do.

I think the way people interpret Christianity and the Bible can have a lot to do with personality- some really need an authority figure and are so used to the guilt and fear that they couldn't live without it. Or, if they do decide to live without it, they abandon belief altogether. There are some churches out there where amazing things go on but they don't blow their own horn.