You Know You are a Fundamentalist if...

As you read each statement, ponder whether or not this is a conviction of yours.

You know you are a Fundamentalist Christian if you agree with these…

1. The Bible is the inerrant word of God.
2. It is possible to read the Bible objectively and the Spirit will make its meaning self-evident. People read it wrongly when they read it through their own sinful filters [lifestyles, beliefs, etc].
3. Because the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is completely, literally and historically accurate about everything it reports.
4. Absolute Truth is known through an accurate reading of the Bible.
5. Christians have a duty to stand up for the Truth.
6. ‘Politics’ is mostly a waste of time.
7. When you do spend time and resources on politics, Christian morality issues like abortion and gay marriage are the most important issues.
8. The goal of Bible reading is to find the one correct meaning for each passage and then apply it to your life.
9. The Old Testament is about the Jews trying to work their way to God and earn their salvation [and fail]…the New Testament is about God giving grace through Jesus Christ to those [Christians] who admit they’ll never be perfect.
10. Salvation is about going to heaven when you die.
11. You can only go to heaven if you have made a personal decision for Jesus Christ [as Lord and Savior].
12. The world is divided into spiritual things [or souls] that will live forever and material things [the rest of life] that will pass away forever.
13. Life is made up of a series of decisions: either for God or against him. We can’t blame anyone or anything for our plight.
14. Sin is ‘missing the mark’ of what God wants for human life.
15. God is angry with sin, but wants all humanity to be saved through Jesus.
16. Satan is a real being and does everything in his power to keep you from worshipping and serving God.
17. God has designated the man as the spiritual leader in the family and the church.
18. God created the world in a literal 6 days.
19. God will end the world with the rapture, saving His people and destroying the wicked.
20. Homosexuality is a sin. The Bible and nature prove that it perverts God’s original intent for sexuality.
21. At least one of these guys is your ‘pastor-hero’ [depending on your style]:
a. Francis Chan
b. John Piper
c. Mark Driscoll
d. Pat Robertson
e. Rick Warren
f. Franklin Graham
g. John MacArthur
h. Andy Stanley
i. James Dobson
j. Chuck Smith

These 21 Questions are my attempt to describe the distinct tribe of Christians who called themselves 'fundamentalists' back in the early 20th century [they published more than 100 pamphlets titled The Fundamentals and distributed them to churches all over North America]. This movement fought hard against the onslaught of theological liberalism and issues like evolution that were 'invading' Christian culture. They continue to have a lot of influence in our culture today. In fact, one of their own took up residence in the White House for the first 8 years of the 21st century. These 21 statements are not meant to be sarcastic or rude. They are meant to spark conversation and identify theological concepts that are contested: each of these convictions are not shared by other Christian traditions. I'd love to hear additions, questions, comments and concerns.

For more on this from academics, check out George Marsden & Mark Noll [histoically and sociologically] and Nancey Murphy's legendary Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism [philosophically]. Marcus Borg helpfully adds that there are 'hard' fundamentalists and 'soft' fundamentalists [theologically]. One of my professors at Fuller, John Goldingay, once told us in class that Evangelicals in North America have the unique contextual challenge of emerging out of fundamentalism...this takes time [Goldingay is British and observes a much stronger attraction towards fundamentalism in the States].

I write because I yearn for a Christian movement that transcends the fundamentalist/liberal packages. I would argue that the 21 statements above are not necessarily 'wrong,' but they are framing questions and focusing on certain concepts in harmful or skewed ways. I am humbly claiming that American fundamentalists misrepresent authentic Christian faith. Through my research, I am compelled that they are asking questions that Jesus and his original disciples would have never asked. For instance, the original followers of Jesus would have never understand Scripture as 'error-free' or historically accurate in the modern sense. They would not have understood salvation as 'going to heaven when you die' either. If I were to add a #22, it would be that fundamentalists live with the assumption that there is only one form of Christian faith: theirs [they struggle to recognize the contested nature of theological concepts & biblical interpretations within the various Christian traditions/denominations]. More to come in the next post.