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Appearance and Reality (1893).
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~ FUNDAMENTALISM ~Rev. Father Maximiadis
The Fundamentalist movement was formed as the 'World's Christian Fundamentals Association' shortly after World War I (1914-18). In the following decade it created denominational conflict across the United States through its vigorous militant campaigns. This had the effect of dividing the Protestant Churches into two distinct groups: the Fundamentalists and the Modernists. REJECTION OF HISTORICAL FACTORS. Through this division arose a retrogression by Fundamentalists, and political Right activists, from the liberal theology of the Modernists to oversimplistic, arbitrary interpretation of the Bible. The Fundamentalists preclude the Bible from: literal allegorical scenarios of 'Truth', and the ancient socio-religious institutions of Palestine. They also exclude the Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomic and Priestly Traditions, and the effects of the Pax Romana (27BC - 180AD) upon the Mediterranean world. And the inseparableness of the sacred Scripture and Tradition of the ancient Church which nurtured, canonized; and with Apostolic authority, interpreted the Scriptures. CONSTANTINOPLE AND ROME. The Fundamentalists reject the continual spiritual authority of the traditional Church, from the Apostles through the, historically demonstrable, Apostolic Succession of the 267 (q.v.) Patriarchs in the east (Constantinople 38AD-) and the 302 (q.v.) Popes in the west (Rome 64AD-). They engage in intrusively aggressive proselytizing activities in the traditional long-established ecclesiastical jurisdictions stressing a literal and individualized interpretation (based upon the principal of private judgement) of the Bible verging on bibliolatry and rejection of the Apostolic teachings, and the tradi tional sacred Liturgies. RIGHT-WING ACTIVISM. They openly engaged in right-wing politics, v.g., they support vigorous anti-socialist foreign policy, free-enterprise capitalism and ideological fanaticism. They supported Ronald Reagan's presidential bids in 1980 and 1984, endorsed huge United States' military defense budgets, and support Neo-imperialism to boot. The influencial Fundamentalist right-wing activist organization 'Moral Majority', founded in 1980 by the high profile Reverend Jerry Falwell, influences political Right outcomes through its massive fund raising activities among its Fundamentalist satellites. MASS SUICIDE. Fundamentalists are insular, intolerant, overzealous, sternly judgemental, and unfriendly to the spirit of pluralism. They demand compliance of its membership, to tithing and authoritarian control over freedom of thought and sometimes over life and death itself, e.g., the mass suicide of 913 (q.v.) people at the behest of 47-year-old Reverend James Warren (or 'Jim') Jones at Guyana South America (1978), and the death of 80 (q.v.) in 1993, at the side-shoot cult of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) near Waco Texas, led by 34-year-old 'David Koresh'; born Vernon Howell. DENIAL OF DARWINIAN THEORY. Fundamentalists are anti-scientific, e.g., they reject the Darwinian theory of evolution [n 1925 J. T. Scopes, a Tennessee school teacher, was convicted for teaching Darwinian theory.] whilst favouring scientific technologies (viz., television and radio.) that serve its fundraising and proselytizing activities. BLUSTERING PATRIOTISM. Both Christian Fundamentalists, and Islamic militant Fundamentalists (Shī‘ites) are interconnected, not by doctrinal parallels, but by superfluous patriotic attitudes. Islamic theocracies perceive Western secular pluralism impacting upon their economy, energy resources, religious and traditional family life. This appears to have been the thesis of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden's speech: "They rip us of our wealth and of our resources and of our oil. Our religion is under attack. They kill and murder our brothers. They compromise our honour and our dignity and dare we utter a single word of protest against the injustice, we are called terrorists". ('Frontline', May 1998 ). Both Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists promote a peremptory stance in international relations. The division of mankind by feigned obstacles, excessive sentiments of patriotism, or exploitation by economic self-centredness is iniquitous. An ethos of intolerance towards differing religio-politico-economic ideologies is not conducive to international peace, autonomy, and justice. 'Fundamentalism' is an unrestricted and usurped authority without involving analysis of deeper layers of literary, textual and historical factors. I believe, that unguarded - or blind - acceptance of any religious or philosophical beliefs is tantamount to excluding the faculty of reason of rational thought. Neurophysiological inertness or the absence of metaphysical covert cognition, without which, first principles cannot be sought beyond tangible and mechanical analyses, is a ludicrous path of spiritlessness to nowhere. Fundamentalists need to think beyond their own confines and acknowledge that Christian love is unprejudiced towards the antagonist, strange, and objectionable. Any infraction of this love contravene Jesus' injunction: "ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν καὶ προσεύχεσθε ὑπὲρ τῶν διωκόντων ὑμᾶς."
~ Finis ~
COPYRIGHT © 2001 BY GEORGE G. AMAD.
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