Subject: Re: Rowland Croucher's Integrity
Date: 3 Jun 1999 11:17:40 GMT
From:  (Andrew Bromage)
Newsgroups: aus.religion.christian

G'day all.

Able wrote:

>>>   I for instance know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem..Nigel would
>>> argue the toss about this. Does this make me a fundamentalist?

On Thu, 03 Jun 1999 16:46:37 -1000, Rowland Croucher
<> wrote:

>>Not on its own...

 (Able) writes:

>Tell us what a Fundamentalist is then please.

If I can butt in here...

Roughly speaking:

An "evangelical", to me, is someone who follows the theological
tradition of the evangelical revivalists, e.g. Luther, Calvin and
Wesley.

Fundamentalism is not a set of beliefs, but an attitude towards ones
beliefs.  (This implies that it's possible to be a fundamentalist
conservative, a fundamentalist liberal and a fundamentalist atheist.)

The sort of features I'd be looking for are:


- Insensitivity to the concerns and fears of people.

- Emphasis on black-and-white rules and lack of concern for

  context.

- Emphasis on the importance of being certain that you are

  right.

- Inability or lack of desire to see the world from someone

  else's point of view.

- Inability or lack of desire to consider why you believe

  what you believe.

- Strong tribal relationships with people who believe similar

  things, to the point of exclusion of others.  This can be

  manifested by attempting to "clean up" those who believe

  differently.

- Use of belief system to justify other things that you

  believe or do, whether they is related to your belief

  system or not.

Cheers,
Andrew Bromage