At a Glance
- The world is moving towards unity. Certain world leaders are pulling to the front, for leadership of this promised utopia (especially the Pope, among others).
- Standing in the way to a world synthesis of religion is Fundamental beliefs (particulars of faith), and those who adhere to them (especially within Christianity).
- Pope Francis and other leaders have demonized and condemned Fundamentalist movements and beliefs as being “sickness,” “illness,” dangerous, and violent, in an effort to paint them as a problem for the world to hunt down and eliminate, or to shrug off and avoid. [Major statements and video documentation are listed below – incredible comments with deleterious effects – See for yourself]
- An appeal for awareness and justice of understanding is made in concluding paragraphs.
What is fundamentalism all about – especially in a Christian context?
Fundamentalism (noun) – A word defined by dictionary.com as “a form of a religion, especially Islam or Protestant Christianity, that upholds belief in the strict, literal interpretation of scripture. Strict adherence to the basic principles of any subject or discipline (i.e. free-market fundamentalism).”
The American Protestant fundamentalist movement arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in reaction to the challenge of modernism. Essentially, conservative Christian scholars who wanted to take the Bible seriously and literally for what it said, began banding together and expressing the clear need to do so – calling this a movement to hold onto the fundamental teachings of scripture. This was in reaction to the liberalizing trends of modern scholars who wanted to move away from a literal understanding of the Bible – in other words, who wanted to stop taking the Bible for what its words literally meant, and to begin interpreting it with some esoteric kinds of meaning that departed from the literal meaning of the text, but which suited their own agenda more. Such liberal interpretations allowed them to pretty much believe whatever they wanted to, while not taking the words of the Bible seriously in reference to their literal, clear, and explicit meanings.
Fundamentalist Christians simply want to get back to the pure and simple meaning or reading of the Bible. Taking it for what it says, they choose to believe it in faith. In so doing, they also want to keep the Christian faith doctrinally pure – adhering to the actual teaching of Scripture, rather than some kind of fanciful interpretation which does not align with the text, but merely with someone’s own personal ideas. To put it another way, the idea is to let the Bible teaching change our thinking and that of society, instead of letting our own thinking and that which is popular in the world today re-interpret the words of the Bible in a manner that would better suit our own personal pet ideas.
As the word suggests, it means getting back to the basics of truth. It means believing that there is such a thing as absolute truth (which is truth beyond our own opinions) – truth which is true because it just is true, whether we know it or not, and always will be true. It is not subjective and it is not based upon our opinions merely. It is true, and it stands alone as such. Therefore, we should make every effort to know what that absolute truth is, so that we can align with the true reality. To the fundamentalist Christian, this truth is found in the Bible, and can be understood when read to discover the text’s apparent, literal (or figurative, only if the text implies), intended meaning.
Issues – One-World Agenda and People under attack for their Beliefs
One would have to be living under a rock today if they were not aware of or noticing the movements of the world towards a “global village.” The world is fast becoming a smaller place through superior communication and travel lines. Along with this great blessing to our social relationships and understanding, comes the added challenge of government in a totally linked and connected world community. Beyond that, there is the clash of various societal ideals and also the push of various world leaders to establish a global system for world leadership and a power or whit struggle for world-wide dominance by the most ambitious of organizations and world leaders. The Bible highlights through prophecy, in particular, the movements and interplay of the European nations, the USA (yes, prophecy speaks of these powers), the Roman church-state power, and apostate Protestantism making a great cooperative effort to seize world dominance, and the Roman Church pulling to the forefront in much of this power struggle.
In a global world society where harmony of action and surrender to the dominant powers, leaders, and the majority trumps personal preference and belief, the choice to hold onto beliefs which are contrary to the popular majority begins to bring people of minority groups under attack. For example, if you hold the belief that homosexuality is a sin, because the Bible says so, but the entire world says it is perfectly okay and just a normal sport of preference for whoever wants to live that way, then you become an enemy for holding a view that is abrasive (and in their view, “divisive”) to the globalizing majority trend of thought. If you challenge the power or belief of the majority, then you will be considered “dangerous” by some or by many.
In the Catholic church, and in much of the world today, there is a shift farther and farther away from the plain teaching of God’s word. There is instead, a desire for harmonizing the Catholic church, along with many so-called Protestant churches, along with the state, and also with the popular worldview insomuch as they find it beneficial to themselves and their agenda for world prestige and power. In steering away from the specifics, and from key biblical teachings, they point people to focus on wide generalities and to pull together to accomplish mutual agendas which in the end serve the greater agenda of the most shrewd leaders for world dominance – especially that of the Catholic Church.
The specifics of truth, and the biblical fundamentalists who hold onto them, therefore become roadblocks to the success of their agenda. After all, if someone is ideologically opposed to their efforts and speaking out against their shrewd, underhand, and unbiblical teachings and movements, then they have an enemy to their progress. Hence, it behooves them to demonize anyone that would hold to fundamentalist biblical thoughts or teachings which stress purity of teaching, thought, and practice instead of compromise or surrender of truth to win out in a world-wide struggle for power, popularity, and prestige – a unity message which sacrifices truth and particulars for the sake of numeric power and a general white-washed belief or artificial unity based on extremely non-particulars.
The demonizing influence towards fundamentalists – Enemies of the State?
It is very clear from the Catholic church, the press, and even some scholastic literature that “fundamentalists” are to be labeled as an enemy to fear, berate, ridicule, demonize, and ultimately annihilate if possible. Do you suppose that statement to be a stretch? If so, consider the abundant evidence and think again. This is, in fact, the fact of the matter!
The book, “Islam, A Short History,” by Karen Armstrong states the following in regard to “Fundamentalism,” under that sub-heading within a chapter called, “The Way Forward.” She starts here by suggesting that Fundamentalism can lead to “Terrorism,” based upon the “frame of mind” which Fundamentalists “All” (according to her) can find themselves facing. After seeming to qualify her statements, that “the vast majority” don’t resort to “acts of violence,” she then suggests that their thinking distorts things and leads them into that avenue. On page 124 of her book, in this section, she also points out that Fundamentalism occurs within Judaism, Christianity (which started in recent times in America), and other faiths besides just Islam. So, make no mistake, the following statements carry a published warning against Fundamentalist Bible-believing Christians. This is an academic-based literary attack upon Christian Fundamentalism.
“All fundamentalists feel that they are fighting for survival, and because their backs are to the wall, they can believe that they have to fight their way out of the impasse. In this frame of mind, on rare occasions, some resort to terrorism. The vast majority, however, do not commit acts of violence, but simply try to revive their faith in a more conventional, lawful way.” (p.196-7)
“…a frequently desperate attempt to make spiritual values prevail in the modern world. But the desperation and fear that fuel fundamentalists also tend to distort the religious tradition, and accentuate its more aggressive aspects at the expense of those that preach toleration and reconciliation.” (p.197).
Coming from the Roman Catholic Church, we also have clear statements of attack against Fundamentalist Christians (and others), pointing them out as a danger to society. Pope Francis has made statements such as the following:
- “We have to combat it,” he said. “Religious fundamentalism is not religious, because it lacks God. It is idolatry, like the idolatry of money.” (See Lifesitenews.com, Nov. 30, 2015). The Catholic Reporter shares the same with additional context, “In the Catholic church we have some — many — who believe they possess the absolute truth and they go on sullying others through slander and defamation and this is wrong. Religious fundamentalism must be combated. It is not religious, God is lacking, it is idolatrous.” (National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 3, 2015). [We can be sure he’d say the same about any Fundamentalist group who highlighted the moral and theological ills of Catholicism, based on biblical grounds]
- Pope Francis is also quoted as saying, “Fundamentalism is a sickness that we find in all religions” (See Lifesitenews.com, June 15 2016, quoting media footage from Nov. 30, 2015 of the Pope’s statements). [Make no mistake about this, the agenda of the Papal system for world synthesis and dominance, requires that they attack Fundamentalism, and demonize it (even in their own church) for the sake of leading people to depart from Fundamental/basic/Essential Bible truths, so that more can get on board with the Papal system and a one-world movement for power that will set them over multitudes of people]. He remarks similarly, that it is a “disease of all religions,” “a sickness.”
- Huffington Post, June 14, 2014, quotes Pope Francis as saying the following: “A fundamentalist group, although it may not kill anyone, although it may not strike anyone, is violent. The mental structure of fundamentalists is violence in the name of God.” [Very clearly, the man is out to demonize all Fundamentalists to be “violent” and merely ticking time-bombs that should be attacked first by he and other powers of the world]
Others have picked up on these issues as well, and have clearly documented some of the attacks on Fundamentalism and the ramifications of such an outlook:
- A video by Forerunner Chronicles, entitled, “Pope Declares War,” brought out these very issues, even showing a BBC forum panel discussion between various religionists, where a Seventh-day Adventist Christian shared his faith in the literal coming of Jesus, as the Bible says, and then was verbally attacked/challenged by a priest, who was present, as presenting dangerous, uncouth, “Fundamentalism” (said to the cheers of the group), which, according to their view, is not proper interpretation of the Bible (in other words, to take the Bible literally, is an error, and we must figuratively re-interpret everything according to the modern day fancy of man’s popular opinion). See Pope Declares War (17 minutes in total. 6:15 to 9:55 shows the BBC interview).
- Another example, highlighting these issues, is an episode of World View by Kim Kjaer at Blue Mountain Television, a Christian station based from Washington state. He produced and ran a 30-minute program called “Surveillance and Fundamentalism.” In the second half of his program, he discussed this growing issue (about 17:23 into the program he begins the subject of the recent attacks on Fundamentalism, and the ramifications for biblical Christians). View here on Palmoni Media Site. About 19:50 into the film he shows where Pope Francis spoke on the Dangers of Fundamentalism to the US Joint Session of Congress (Sept. 2015). There’s a whole slew of important articles and issues presented beyond that. Recommend watching the clip)
What to do? A word in defense of Fundamentalists, and especially, Fundamentalist Christians
Having strong beliefs in something understood to be the truth is not wrong. It is not a crime, a sin, or even a threat by itself. It only depends on what your motives and agenda are. For example, many liberals, Catholics, and others hold strong beliefs about various things – even Evolutionists hold strong beliefs about their viewpoints. There is nothing wrong with that. And if your belief puts you out of harmony with the majority or even at opposition with the majority, there is nothing wrong with that either. If you choose to be vocal about your difference in belief, that is also NOT wrong. This has to do with the freedom of belief and the freedom of speech to be able to express your view. Onlooking people should be able to look at both viewpoints, weigh the evidence, and then decide for themselves what they will choose to believe, based on the evidence.
Demonizing as evil or even dangerous (when they are in fact not), your ideological opponents is neither kind nor safe. It puts our freedoms at risk – the freedom to stand up and speak for what you believe – and the freedom to believe what you wish to believe by the conclusion of your own mind. As someone who believes in a fundamental approach to biblical truth, I for one can speak, that holding carefully researched, biblically-specific teachings is not a danger to anyone else. It is rather a help, since the Bible teaches us to love, even our enemies, and to always “speak the truth in love” (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27; Ephesians 4:14-15).
All must be free to believe as they choose, based on the evidence presented them. Being a careful Bible student, and living by its teachings does not ever make one violent or dangerous in any sort. People with unbalanced minds and evil wills are dangerous no matter what they believe. But, following the Bible, and being in tune with God, will only serve to make one a channel of light, love, and blessing to their fellow men.
May God help the souls of those who stand in opposition to His people, the word of truth, and liberty of conscience, that many of them might be converted, seeing the light of truth, before they must inevitably face Him who Judges the Universe.
