The Twin Traps of "Fundamentalism"

First, I should address what is meant by Christian fundamentalism, since there are two prevailing definitions. 1) A group, who call themselves Christians, who emphasize everything but the fundamentals of the faith (clothing, music, Bible version, etc). 2) True Christians, who are united in their belief that the only way to the Kingdom of God is through Jesus Christ.

Defintion #2 is the one used by the mainstream press. Definiton #1 is what I am discussing today.

The first trap of fundamentalism is the obvious one - arrogance in its superior legalistic structure. As fundamentalists have many more rules than a non-fundamentalist church, it is easy to feel that one is better because they are obeying these rules, whereas others who do not have them, and hence, do not obey them, are lesser than ourselves. Indeed, part of the appeal of fundamentalism to some personalities is that the extra rules make it easier to make decisions. For example, what Bible should we use? Instead of doing the work and prayer necessary to discern it, one can simply adopt the version (even down to the specific commentary in the book) that is 'approved'. Easy! Now, once we have our Bible, we can look at others who do not use it as wrong, and somehow less mature than us. However, did we learn that this was the Bible to use through maturity, or did someone tell us to use it? Bingo.

Thus, the legalism of fundamentalism leads to arrogance toward others, believers and non-believers alike. The rules themselves are not the flaw - after all, if a group of people agree that they should give up alcohol, then they should! It is the natural progression of having the extra rules that makes legalism dangerous, especially when it leads to an attitude beyond simply "I am better" to "I am saved, and you are not, because you don't follow these rules."

The second trap of fundamentalism is perhaps worse. The first trap is apparent to those who are without - but it is fundamentalism's impact upon those without that conceals this trap. For this trap is one which catches those who elude the first trap. Confident in our ability to evade fundamentalism's snare, we smile as we walk into the next one.

The second trap is arrogance. It is an arrogance born of a "freedom" from fundamentalism. While any non-fundamentalist can fall into it, it is especially prevalent in those who wereonce snared by fundamentalism, and have decisively left it. It is the arrogance of feeling that we are better than our fundamentalist peers because we don't follow their rules and are not bound by them. Thus, we not only look down our noses at them in arrogance, we reject all of their ideas out of arrogance. We consider that because some have used poor arguments to present a position, that the position is therefore invalid. Beyond that, we tend to assume that not only are the specific positions invalid, but any position held by them must be similarly so.

Consider Christ's words:

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else: 10 “Two men went up to the temple complex to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee took his stand and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I’m not like other people —greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his chest and saying, ‘O God, turn Your wrath from me —a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:9-14 (HCSB)

The traps of fundamentalism are the same - arrogance. One says, "Thank God I am not like those watered-down Bible, rock-music listening, skirt-wearing people over there." The other is little different. "Thank God I am not like those backward, tradition-bound, legalistic fundamentalists over there/in my old church."

The first trap keeps many souls away. The second leads our souls to corruption through abuse of our 'freedom'. In both cases, we go down to our house unjustified, because exalt we ourselves when we should exalt Christ.