Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

I am a bit confounded that you would state:

[The essence of fundamentalism] is the assertion that every single aspect in the bewilderingly expansive and contradictory and over-determined texts we call the Bible are literally true in every particular and every injunction should be applied today as literally as possible.

You then go on to demonstrate in the very same post the inaccuracy of that statement with regard to divorce. In other venues you have remarked on the failure of fundamentalist to provide the Biblically prescribed punishments for breaking these strictures.

Clearly, the actual literal acceptance of the scriptures is not a tenet of fundamentalist Christian ideology. On the other hand, the claim that that is the basis of their moral code is such a tenant. Furthermore, fundamentalists accept on faith that they are adhering to the Bible literally — no facts nor examples need be applied. Indeed, proof of any particular fundamentalist’s actions contrary to Biblical injunction is proof not of that person’s sins, but of the lack of faith of the critic.

The activities and thoughts actually recognized as sins by such fundamentalists are as you have pointed out not biblically determined. Instead the determination of what is a sin is handled by a more personal filter, which is however based in the Levitical tradition of dividing people into ‘us’ and ‘them’ and proscribing ‘them’ activities while prescribing ‘us’ activities.

As such, fundamentalism is not a theological practice, rather it is a cultural one.

On the other hand, there is a theological aspect of fundamentalism, which is as Larison stated, that everyone is fallen, and furthermore, that people prefer their fallen state (or as he would put it, people have a predisposition to act contrary to our true nature). In this case, the *true*nature* of people is not heterosexual per se, rather it is to exist in a state of grace. The argument against homosexual activity being that it interferes with a person’s attraction to the divine.

This is the theological doctrine of fundamentalism, as the fundamentalist view of Christ is that He is Saviour. In order to be saved, one must be in peril. To have a continuous relationship with a saviour, one must be continuously in peril.