Thursday, August 19, 2010

Christian Fundamentalism

The following is from the book The End of Religion by Bruxy Cavey.  I love what he says.

Because the holy texts of nearly all religions hold the seed of violence, fundamentalists of every stripe tend to become increasingly violent, in their attitudes if not in their actions. William Temple, former Archbishop of Canterbury, insisted that if our concept of God is wrong, the more religious we get, the more dangerous we are to ourselves and others. But here is the strange thing about the Jesus faith (and I am not talking about the religion in general, but those who follow the teachings and example of Jesus specifically): The more precisely someone commits to following his teachings as modeled by his example – in other words, the more of a fundamentalist someone becomes about the teachings of Jesus – the more loving, forgiving, and gracious that person should become.


The problem with many Christian fundamentalists is that they are not fundamentalist enough when it comes to Jesus. Please understand, whenever the Christian church has become violent or intolerant or just plain uncharitable, it is not because of a fundamentalist adherence to the teachings of Jesus, but precisely the opposite. It is because Christ’s teachings have been patently ignored. Many Christian fundamentalists do not follow Christ, but have replaced his teachings with the prevailing conservative ethos of the day masquerading as religious dogma.

Other Christian fundamentalists replace following Jesus with following the Bible. These kinds of fundamentalist are often good-hearted people who are completely sincere, but sincerely wrong. I am thinking of those Christians who love God and are very dedicated to following the Bible, but fail to realize how the Bible is meant to be read. According to Jesus, the Bible is a developmental narrative that points toward and calls us to follow the gospel – the good news message of Jesus. The Old Testament and New Testament work together to form a kind of before-and-after picture (an idea developed further by the apostle Paul in the book of Galatians, and one that we will return to later). Jesus claimed that just following the Bible is not enough. He said that we must use the Bible to point us to him, and then follow his teaching and example. This was his complaint against the Pharisees, the main Bible-thumping fundamentalist group of his day. Today’s Christian fundamentalists (or, more accurately, Bible fundamentalists) need to hear afresh these words of Jesus (to the Pharisees): “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.” John 5:39-40

1 comment:

  1. Yes, idolaters of The Book use it as a place to hide from the person of Jesus, who calls us out of self-righteousness into a relationship of love with God and other persons, especially those on the margins of our communities, such as the criminal, the government official, the prostitute. Jesus said "believe in me" and "follow me." He did not say "believe in my teachings." The teachings, the parables, like the example of his life all point to his person. At least this is what I believe.

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