about fundamentalism
Fundamentalists scare me, to be honest. I grew up in a fairly religious Christian home, not overtly fundamentalist by any stretch of the imagination (whew!). Yet one conversation with my mother opened my eyes to the reality of the true believer in his or her own faith. Her understanding of the world is built on her fundamental belief that Jesus Christ is her saviour, and that she will be saved on Judgement Day because she believes that - and because she has tried to help others gain that same belief and salvation. Her world view is that there will be a Judgement Day and it will not be pretty, and it is her duty to help as many other people as possible to come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins, and that He will come again - and we better be ready. She believes the whole ball of wax. (I think you can tell that I don't exactly buy it. I argued against anthropomorphizing God at age 11...not a popular view in confirmation class.) My father is a Lutheran minister and together they decided to be missionaries in Japan back around 1960 - to help save people. And it is their faith that prompted them to do that - to get other people to buy into their world view. It is sort of beyond their ken that other people would be OK if they didn't believe in Jesus. How could they be OK, when the only right way to believe and think and act is to be a Christian?
It has taken me so long to wrap my brain around this reality, because I see religion as rigid authoritarianism, structured to demand and get compliance, and to answer any questions within its own framework and worldview. Spirituality is quite another thing - something that is personal, individual, internal, always evolving - more like the Gnostic or Buddhist or 12-Step "traditions." And I see most, if not all, the major religions as containing similar kernels of spiritual belief. Who said "one truth, many paths" or something like that? It's the antithesis of fundamentalism, almost pantheistic or even agnostic, for it admits to questions and doubts and constant evolution and change in belief. And my spirituality is quite opposite to religion as it is so individual and inner-directed and focused.
Sometimes I think it would be great if everyone felt like I do. There's room for everyone, every belief, every spirit in this pool. Then I bump into cold hard reality, which is that there are fundamentalist groups all over the planet convinced that their path and beliefs are the only true and right beliefs and path. To my parents, their beliefs obligate them to proselytize and convert people, thereby swelling the ranks of the saved. To other fundamentalists, their beliefs obligate them to rid the planet of the disbelievers, or to punish and isolate the non-believers. And that is their world view. It is as fundamental to their sense of themselves as my spiritual beliefs are to me (well, probably more so for them, since I know my beliefs can and probably will continue shifting since I have no real dogma that I accept and obey). That's what scares me: the absolute certainty the fundamentalist has that a) his/her beliefs are the correct beliefs; and, b) s/he is doing me a favor by putting me out of my "misery" by either converting or eliminating me.
If this is the reality of fundamentalism, is it then possible for fundamentalists to see beyond their own beliefs? My parents have had to expand their views to a certain extent because their children have challenged that belief system in various ways. They've become more accepting of homosexuality, of women's rights, of choice. I think they see that some of this is - if not OK, then not bad and not to be condemned. They don't get it, they wouldn't do it, but it's not anti-Christ. So socially and politically, they've mellowed. But they have absolutely not mellowed on the fact that for them, the only way anyone is saved on Judgement Day is by sharing their belief in Christ, and they pity the poor non-believers. Pity actually is OK - at least it's not condemning non-believers to misery on earth, just in the after-life. They can't step outside their world-view because it is part of who they are. And so much of what we've talked about asks that we step outside of our own perspective to inquire about and explore the views of someone else, in order to "see" their side of it. Can fundamentalists do that? Or maybe the question is, will fundamentalists do that? Or even, under what circumstances might they?
Perhaps the answer lies in exposure to other realities, just as it has for my parents. There's a reason authoritarian, fundamentalist regimes prohibit free press and internet access.
It has taken me so long to wrap my brain around this reality, because I see religion as rigid authoritarianism, structured to demand and get compliance, and to answer any questions within its own framework and worldview. Spirituality is quite another thing - something that is personal, individual, internal, always evolving - more like the Gnostic or Buddhist or 12-Step "traditions." And I see most, if not all, the major religions as containing similar kernels of spiritual belief. Who said "one truth, many paths" or something like that? It's the antithesis of fundamentalism, almost pantheistic or even agnostic, for it admits to questions and doubts and constant evolution and change in belief. And my spirituality is quite opposite to religion as it is so individual and inner-directed and focused.
Sometimes I think it would be great if everyone felt like I do. There's room for everyone, every belief, every spirit in this pool. Then I bump into cold hard reality, which is that there are fundamentalist groups all over the planet convinced that their path and beliefs are the only true and right beliefs and path. To my parents, their beliefs obligate them to proselytize and convert people, thereby swelling the ranks of the saved. To other fundamentalists, their beliefs obligate them to rid the planet of the disbelievers, or to punish and isolate the non-believers. And that is their world view. It is as fundamental to their sense of themselves as my spiritual beliefs are to me (well, probably more so for them, since I know my beliefs can and probably will continue shifting since I have no real dogma that I accept and obey). That's what scares me: the absolute certainty the fundamentalist has that a) his/her beliefs are the correct beliefs; and, b) s/he is doing me a favor by putting me out of my "misery" by either converting or eliminating me.
If this is the reality of fundamentalism, is it then possible for fundamentalists to see beyond their own beliefs? My parents have had to expand their views to a certain extent because their children have challenged that belief system in various ways. They've become more accepting of homosexuality, of women's rights, of choice. I think they see that some of this is - if not OK, then not bad and not to be condemned. They don't get it, they wouldn't do it, but it's not anti-Christ. So socially and politically, they've mellowed. But they have absolutely not mellowed on the fact that for them, the only way anyone is saved on Judgement Day is by sharing their belief in Christ, and they pity the poor non-believers. Pity actually is OK - at least it's not condemning non-believers to misery on earth, just in the after-life. They can't step outside their world-view because it is part of who they are. And so much of what we've talked about asks that we step outside of our own perspective to inquire about and explore the views of someone else, in order to "see" their side of it. Can fundamentalists do that? Or maybe the question is, will fundamentalists do that? Or even, under what circumstances might they?
Perhaps the answer lies in exposure to other realities, just as it has for my parents. There's a reason authoritarian, fundamentalist regimes prohibit free press and internet access.
posted by julieannerickson at 12:18 PM
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