From: John Burgeson (hoss_radbourne@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Oct 15 2002 - 11:25:11 EDT
>>I'm not sure I understand the purpose of this list, but as a Christian
>>with
a fundamental theology I'll give you the requested feedback. Assuming I am
not missing out on some sarcasm, I'll give you my response - although I
can't take some of these points seriously >>
Thanks for the reply. The purpose of my list was not to see who agreed with
what points, but to propose the rather modest claim that if one is a
fundamentalist Christian living in the USA today that it is likely that he
or she will hold each of these positions with at least a 75% probability. I
would add the claim that if one is a fundamentalist leader, such as Jerry
Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, James Kennedy, Henry Morris, Franklin
Graham (not his dad), Phyllis Schafley, and I could name others of course,
that the probability of holding each of these positions is more likely 90%
or more.
The claim might also be made that this tendency began about 20 years ago --
and is growing. Terry, Robert and perhaps others say that treating
religious, ethical and political positions is a "conflation," meaning that
it is something not real. A key part of my claim is that such a conflation
is all too real.
Ruth Brown's FOR A CHRISTIAN AMERICA is one recent scholarly study that
investigates this phenomenon. There are others. Terry asked if those
positions which associated fundamentalism with a political party was made
"tongue in cheek." I assured him that it was not such.
I see fundamentalism Xtianity, as described by the leaders I mentioned
above, as a terrible threat to the American structure, to Civil Rights, to
First Amendment rights, to any minority group within our country that takes
a different view of the world than the fundamentalist leaders. I also see it
as a growing presence in our country, and certainly as growing in political
influence.
Burgy
www.burgy.50megs.com
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