Should liberals reach out to Christian fundamentalists? [View All]

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=8524

<edit>

What is a Christian fundamentalist? It is easy to think of Christian fundamentalists in terms of stereotypes. They are often portrayed as being anti-scientific, extremely patriotic, extremely Republican, blind supporters of Israel, and opinionated. But are the stereotypes accurate?

A fundamentalist is one who believes in the basics of the faith. These basics of the Christian faith include: the literal 1st and 2nd coming of Christ, his virgin birth, his literal crucifixion and physical resurrection from the dead, the belief that salvation comes only through faith in Christ, and the Bible as being the inerrant Word of God. This last proposition is often misunderstood because it is often confused with believing that one must always interpret the Bible literally. This is not the case.

As ridiculous or repugnant these beliefs are to the liberal, none of the beliefs imply any set of political convictions that promote injustice. What we do see are subsets of fundamentalists whose thinking do support oppression and work against equality. One such subset of thinking involves some who see the United States and Israel as God's nations and thus anyone who criticizes either nation, criticizes God. But one can be a fundamentalist without having such views.

It is not difficult to see that the stereotypes do not always hold true. Though many Christian fundamentalists voted for President Bush in the last election, my conversations with fellow fundamentalists tell me that a significant number of fundamentalists looked to the Democratic Party to provide a legitimate alternative--I myself voted for Nader. During the summer, I visited a fellow fundamentalist friend of mine who was teaching at the Au Sable Institute in Michigan where Christian fundamentalist college students can study environmentalism. A fellow fundamentalist friend from England tells me that conservative Christians there tend to be politically liberal. I have fellow fundamentalist friends who are uncomfortable with or oppose the war in Iraq. There are a number of my fellow fundamentalists who oppose the current marginalization of the Palestinians practiced by Israel. My own church allowed their high school students to study a book containing the writings of Martin Luther King Jr.

So why am I bringing this up here? I do so because I want people to know that the basic tenets of Christian fundamentalism do not imply any set of political convictions that promote oppression. Thus, Christian fundamentalism itself should not be seen as an enemy to social justice. Rather than asking fundamentalists to leave their faith, we only need to challenge them to examine their faith more closely. This will not solve all disputes between fundamentalists and liberals, but it may mean we can work together on far more issues than we do now.

more...