Why I am No Longer a Fundamentalist Part 4
First of all let me apologize for the long absence. I have not written in over a week simply because I have been extremely busy. I have a plan to post some notes, book reviews, and other things that I have already written if I cannot write something myself. Hopefully some of you will find this of some value.
More reasons why I am not a fundamentalist:
4. Fundamentalists often preach the authority of the Scripture but practice the authority of the Pastor.
How often I heard in my youth many, many people speak about the truth of the Scripture, the fact that our only hope was placed in the Scripture, and that our beliefs were nothing if they were not “out of the Bible.�
The problem came when I grew old enough to ask about the Scriptural justification of certain rules that we practiced in the church. For example, the rule against dancing was because John the Baptist had lost his head because of a dance. Even as a junior high student, I could see the serious problems with this line of reasoning.
What I came to realize is that in many, fundamentalist churches the real voice of authority is the pastor, often speaking for the entire church on some issue or other. It was the pastor who decided what version or versions of the Bible were “acceptable� for the congregation to read. If the pastor believed in reading only the King James, then the church needed no argument from the Scriptures about the weight of the evidence or the nature of textual criticism, it was enough that the pastor, often without any training whatsoever, had made the decision.
What has happened in many of these churches is that they have become those whom they most reacted against (always a danger). Each church has its own pope who speaks, and the church listens and obeys. If a verse can be found to somehow support the idea, that is fine, but it is not at all necessary.
5. Most Fundamentalists believe in theological cloning rather than theological learning.
Having attended the mother of all fundamentalist colleges, I know how honest questions about beliefs were treated. I know how foolish I felt when I began to realize the un-biblical and unreasonable things that I had been asked to believe without any evidence whatsoever.
There are different kinds of education. One kind stamps you with the same knowledge, opinions, values and ideas that the instructor or school has. The other kind stretches you into thinking, asking questions, thinking about new ideas, and ultimately letting go some of what might have been held as cherished truth.
Any education that does not hurt, that is make you think in ways that are uncomfortable for you is not worth much. An education should be painful in that way like the light is painful to the eyes of a person walking out of a movie theater. The answer to that pain is not to walk around with your eyes closed all the time or worse, to go back inside the movie theater and watch movies instead of dealing with real life. The answer is to endure the small amount of pain because of the incredible value that comes from getting out of the theater.