The Short History of Christian Fundamentalism, Doubting Thy Doubt, and My Aching Quadriceps

A person I know, like, let’s say by the name of Polly, was recently told by someone in the blogosphere that she was leading herself and others astray from the true Christian faith.  Why?  Because she had serious doubts about some of the aspects of Christian fundamentalism. 

I’ve mulled over this here and there, while watering flowers at the greenhouse business, while doing the dishes, even a little while getting my skinny butt ran into the gym floor by a bunch of vicious back-from-college volleyball studs.  Segue: It’s been somewhere between 10-15 years since I played volleyball, a sport I once won a college scholarship for (though I decided to drive across the country instead), and I admit to being a little nervous about attending the open gym at the high school last night.  I held my own half-decently—well, at least didn’t totally embarrass myself—but OHMYGOSH my legs are killing me today and my arms are now covered in broken blood vessels and blue/green bruises from receiving the hits that those brutes reigned down.  The up-side is that some of them thought I was a high-schooler.  You know, there are some things that make any amount of pain worthwhile…

But BACK to the subject at hand (down, vanity, down!).  In mulling, I decided that I want to make something very clear, something I certainly didn’t know growing up in a fundamentalist church.  Growing up, I pictured true Christians (that would be us) worshipping in barns and other hide-outs, while the evil fake Christians (that would be the Catholics) ran the so-called church for about 1500 years or so until Luther came out of the closet and set us all free.  I pictured that because that’s essentially what I was taught.    

But while it is true that there were many different views on what Christianity should look like through the centuries, meaning we weren’t entirely wrong when we thought there were believers who weren’t entirely satisfied with the way things were ran from Rome, it doesn’t appear that any of the early disatisfied closely resembled the Christian fundamentalist church as we know it today.  Which is the point.  Christian fundamentalism is a new kid on the block. 

Being new doesn’t make it automatically wrong any more than it makes it automatically right.  But at a pint or so bigger than a century, it’s kind-of on the short side compared to the two-thousand year old tree of Church history.  Which would mean that questioning Christian fundamentalism in no way means one is questioning the fundamentals of the Christian faith.  If anything, Christian fundamentalism’s departure from what most of Church history has considered “fundamentals” should give one pause for concern—or at least a respectful nod given to those who would request the freedom to doubt.

Speaking of doubt, doubt is not always a bad thing.  Does the Bible tell us to trust ourselves or our fellow humans as infallible beings?  Okay, I agree—doubting God may not be such a great idea (though, don’t worry— He’s big enough to handle it, and He won’t stop loving you even as you wrestle through your questions).  Some people get it all screwed up, though.  They think that if you doubt their little theological camp (and this applies across the board, and is something we’re all susceptible to, no matter what camp we find ourselves in), you are doubting God, and that’s where they get it messed up.  They are so confident in the infallibility of their camp that to doubt it is to doubt  God. 

If you’re setting up something that isn’t God and calling it God, there’s a term for it.  It’s called idolatry.  A really tricky thing for those of us who live in human flesh and bones.  We love idols.  Sometimes I wonder if my default position is kneeling in front of one.  I truly saw all my views as God’s—that’s why I held them so strongly.  And when someone questioned them?  They weren’t questioning my interpretation of  [insert pet issue here], for goodness sake, they were questioning THE AUTHORITY OF GOD HIMSELF! 

There’s a reason the “my interpretation is God’s interpretation” folks often have their undies in a wad.  There’s a lot of reasons to get them in a wad, that’s why!  They’re in a battle, and every time a poor innocent person disagrees with their interpretation of things, God just got disagreed with.  It can get a little exhausting, always having to protect God from all those doubters…  Thankfully, there is some really good news: 

1. Doubting a theological camp is not the same thing as doubting God. 

2. Doubting someone’s interpretation of Scripture is not the same thing as doubting God. 

3. Doubting the wisdom of an appointed spiritual leader(s) is not the same thing as doubting God. 

Before someone let’s me have it in the comments box, let me add that, no, it’s not a good idea to be rebellious, as in a general personality trait.  It’s not a good idea to be a big hairy know-it-all about everything.  It’s not a good idea to have to buck the system every single time you find a system, and to never be able to actually help someone else out, to never be able to receive correction from any source. 

So if you find yourself at odds with everybody most of the time, you probably have a bit more rebellion floating around in your bones than you need.  Part of being a Christian means that we submit to each other, that we are humble, that we don’t think we’re the big know-it-alls in the group, we don’t always have to lead the charge, we don’t always have to be “right.”  

But there’s a flip side to that.  When your group tells you that it’s the one that Is Right, and when questioning your group or their paradigm/interpretation is tantamount to sin, something is seriously wrong.  The Christian faith is big and wide and deep and, well, a little crazy, in a holy sort of way.  So, keeping in mind the big thick mix of it all, one little sub-group’s version of the Christian faith is exactly that: one little sub-group’s version.  You might end up finding it to be just what you think is right, or you might find it to be whacked.  Either way, it’s okay to ask probing questions.  Please, do.  

Their version of the story is okay to doubt.  Their interpretation of the  Scriptures is okay to question.  You’ll find no Scripture passage promising you that their version is infallible.  There is One who is infallible (without error) and it’s Yahweh Himself.  No little human group is going to get to wear that kind of label unless they pin it on themselves, which is another way of saying that self-proclaimed infallibility is, um, worth doubting. 

Paul, the great apostle, didn’t get offended and tell the Beareans that they were going to be cursed of God for daring to question his teaching.  No, actually, he commended them, publically lauded them as noble, for not believing him because he was persuasive sounding but going to the Scriptures and searching them carefully, discussing them amongst themselves.  I guess I’d just like to see at least that level of humility be something not just allowed, but expected in leaders, groups, and movements, and I sure respect it when I see it.  Not on the volleyball court, though.  Just say I look a lot younger than I am and all will be forgiven.