The Rise of Fundamentalism
3 12 2006
I have been pretty busy last week, so not much blogging. Lots of thoughts going round my head, but not sure where to start! So perhaps, I will start something that I have been wondering about for the last few weeks … the rise of fundamentalism in our society.
The term “fundamentalism” was originally coined by evangelical Christians, in response to growing liberal wing of the church to assert the “fundamentals” of the faith. However, throughout the mid 20th Century, the movement became increasingly separatist and dogmatic. Recently we have also seen the rise of Islamic Fundamentalist (which many moderate Muslim’s would be as embarrassed about, as many Christians are, of our version of Fundamentalism).
Recently, however, we are beginning to see another group of fundamentalist entering the arena … the secular fundamentalists. Rather than just being atheists, not believing in God, or seeing the need to believe in God … a new breed of atheists are emerging who believe that all religion is evil, wrong, and to be stopped at all costs.
I have noticed in the last few weeks, the rise of this , with the controversy of Christian Unions in Exeter, Birmingham and Edinburgh (I’ll blog something about this later in the week); the refusal of BA to allow an employee to wear a small cross, and just recently the proposed introduction of “sexual orientation regulations” being fast tracked in Northern Ireland. Peter Hain, on last weeks Question Time (30th Nov), was extolling the virtues of this law, that would allow a same sex couple the right to a bed in a guesthouse; he argued that it would be wrong for guesthouses to have a sign outside saying “no gays allowed” in the same way that it would be wrong for a sign to be outside saying “no blacks allowed”. What he didn’t talk about was the concerns of Christian groups that people could be prosecuted for promoting heterosexual relationships, or refusing to “bless” a same-sex partnership.
My point here is not to argue about gay rights, but to appeal for a level playing field of dialogue. Increasingly the secular fundamentalists seem as bigoted at the religious versions they so despise, and seem determined to silence all religious voices. Perhaps it is time for us to put an end to all fundamentalism … but there again, maybe I am just being prejudice against fundamentalism?
Secular fundamentalism isn’t anything new, there was this thing called Communism that was quite popular last century but kind of died out a bit.
Rather than worrying about the secularism of our powerful media elite, our government is engaging and siding with it. The overall culture is secular and making laws to fit is the obvious next step.
We can welcome the rise of all forms of fundamentalisms as a way to have meaningful dialogue. The danger of the secular fundamentalists is that in their defense of everyone having a legitimate point of view, they often state that there are absolutely no absolutes.
This is postmodern society shooting itself in the foot. Perhaps we should be moving towards a pluralistic fundamentalism - where we all defend each-other’s right to speech and belief [or non-belief] without anger or hatred.
“Faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love.”
Hey Dan.
Good point about Communism … nothing new eh?
I guess, I am probably defining fundamentalism as a people / group who not only believe they are right, but also believe that they are only ones who have a right to exist, whether that is Christian, Muslim, Secular or any other form of fundamentalism. This seems in oppposition to pluralism: the right of many different faiths and voices to exist.
I think this is exactly what we need to argue for … the right for all faiths, and none, to express their beliefs and opinions, as you say.
It seems to me that the rise of what I am calling secular fundamentalism is actually trying to stiffle other voices they don’t agree with.
So where does the current PC (politically correct) movement fit into this? There appears to be a synergy between secular fundamentalism and the PC brigade. Personally I believe “PC” is the new religion of Britain. You can have whatever “faith” you want, as long as you are “PC”. ‘Jesus is the way’, that’s not PC anymore. I’m surprised the name of Jesus itself hasn’t been banned yet, no doubt it is considered offensive by some Jew or Hindu (or even a Muslim!). The two-handed sword of PC and secular fundamentalism is going to be a big problem for the church this decade, IMHO.
You may be right alastair, but I think we need to get smarter about the way we talk about our faith. I think the main thing that is going to be increasingly difficult in the future is dogmatic presentations: we are right, you are wrong, we are good, you are bad. So I think we need to find ways of talking about Jesus that presents Him to others, but we don’t need to criticise what others believe to do that. When people meet Jesus, old believes will change anyway …