Fear of Fundamentalism Should Start at Home

 One of the main points I keep hearing from reporters, political pundits and government officials is a fear of Egypt turning into a country run by Muslim Fundamentalists.  This is one possible outcome of the events in Egypt. I believe it has a very low probability because the people have been living under a dictatorship for decades.  My question today is why don’t Americans worry about becoming a country run by Christian fundamentalists?

Christian fundamentalist extremists are a minority in the United States, at about 50-100 million people. However this is a large and vocal minority.  The version of Christianity they profess is violent, regressive and destructive. Christ is not a man of peace; he is a vengeful warrior who will return with a sword and kill everyone who does not believe the correct way in a gruesome and violent way. They scorn modernity, helping others and believe that we do not have to do anything to protect the earth because God will restore the earth after his return.  But most importantly, they want the United States to be a theocracy and those who do not accept their beliefs would be second class citizens. They claim that Christian men with specific theological beliefs are ordained by God to run society. They believe woman should be subservient to men and their primary reason for existence is child rearing. They home school their children so they don’t get any secular information about science and learn an alternate version of history tailored to their distorted world view. 

I recently saw the film “Waiting for Armageddon” and it left me extremely scared. We have an ever growing death cult in our midst and they are taking over the government. They are not just another Christian sect. They are not merely super religious. They believe Christ is going to return with a sword and an army and slay all the wrong doers. They believe god will renew the earth. But before all that happens, there will be a ”rapture” and that they will be swept up to heaven just before all the mayhem occurs. The books, movies and violent video games from the “Left Behind” series reinforce this world view and seek to spread this doctrine of death to non-believers through the use of popular culture. I recently watched the first “left behind” movie which starred Kirk Cameron, who is a fundamentalist and quite frankly crazy. Cameron, who starred in the popular television series Growing Pains, writes in a blog post titled “Sex Ed” about how sex is not the cause of pregnancy. Babies are placed in the womb by God as whole beings with arms, legs, etc. I am paraphrasing his post, so in order to get the full sense of his beliefs I would suggest you read the blog yourself. I would not recommend watching the “Left Behind” movie because not only was the plot bad, the acting really sucked.

If you listen to these people, they are not talking about normal Christianity. If Odin or Zeus was substituted for Jesus, most people would not take them serious. But because they worship, the common “God” most people assume they are just like rest of us. However, they are not just like the rest of us, they are crazed and driven to the destruction of the earth and the death of all non-believers; non-believers are anyone who does not believe they way they do. The book of revelation defines their belief.  There are many Fundamentalist in local, state and federal government.  An example of fundamentalist in Federal government and their wacky beliefs is Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL). He read a bible verse in a climate change hearing and stated his belief that god promised not to destroy the earth again and that he believes in the inerrant word of god.  No one ever claimed that climate change would destroy the earth; it will make it really hard for humans to live on the earth. To watch the video of this nonsense and an interview with the congressman, click here.

So while we worry about other countries being taken over by Muslim extremists, the United States is being taken over by Christian extremists. These extremists philosophy is anti-democratic and anti-modern. They are using democracy to serve their agenda. Most of these believers vote, while a majority of people who do not share their beliefs do not vote. More than a third of the electorate sits at home, doesn’t vote and then complains when we get a lot of wacky, crack pots in office.  Many average Christians don’t reject fundamentalism because they are either afraid to do so or don’t want to say anything due to so called religious tolerance.  Christian Fundamentalists do not have tolerance, they believe theirs is the only way and the rest of us will die torturous deaths for our false beliefs.

Other films to watch on this subject are “Jesus Camp” and “What’s the Matter with Kansas”.

If we continue to ignore our own fundamentalist problem, we do so at our own peril.

Ciao for now,

Fobbsie

P.S. I welcome your comments on this or any other post.