Thinking About Fundamentalism

In these terse times, the bedrock of Christianity is being assaulted from all sides. The truth is being called all sorts of unappetizing things: outmoded, dogmatic, preposterous - anything to avoid that frightful adjective convicting.

In a sense, Christianity contains all of these characteristics. It is outmoded, like sanity. It is dogmatic, like El Capitan. It is preposterous, like purple. And, of course, it is convicting - tearing you apart to toughen you up, like a blister turning to a callous.

So as the world whines about exclusivity, mysticism, and prudery, we would do well to steady our grasp on the core of the faith, so as not to be blown about like a balloon by the blustery criticism of modern society. Christianity is peculiar because it stands for something.

It seems to me we are in danger of subconsciously "softening" Christianity in order to distance ourselves from the fanatical fundamentalism of Islam. While it is only natural to recoil from the gross excesses of radical Islam, it is a mistake to react. It is the responsibility of every Christian to keep his eyes pointed straight ahead, fixed on Jesus, heedless of the world's mud-slinging and hand-wringing.

Secular society is capitalizing on Muslim extremism, attempting thereby to brand morality as medieval. Virtue is not vogue. (At present, neither is violence; but this may well change with the next phase of the moon.)

We must be wary of being swept along in this tolerance-minded criticism of absolutism - not because it is evil, but because it has a substantial element of truth in it; and the greatest enemy of the truth is not falsehood, but almost-truth. If our faith is indeed founded on the rock, as it should be, it weathers the crashing whims and waves of society with impunity.

The faith is also being dismantled from the inside. The post-modern, ecumenical influence of our emergent friends is a welcome reprieve from the bully-rhetoric of the Religious Right, but it seems to be thinning the broth. It is a shame to have to choose between delusion and dilution, and the Lord pleads with us to settle for neither, as Christianity promptly evaporates at these lukewarm temperatures.

Christianity is about decisive devotion to Jesus Christ. On those terms, I'm a declared fundamentalist. Let us at the least be clear about this: the Church will not overcome by chasing after new things, "reinventing itself," or being "relevant;" the Church will overcome by insisting on old things and building on the foundation that is already there.

"For the orthodox there can always be a revolution;
for a revolution is a restoration."

- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Image courtesy of emanuelnb.org