2.01.2013

On Labels: The problem with prefixes and adjectives

The problem with prefixes and adjectives & "fundamentalism"
Off the top of my head there are these labels:

  • Hyper-Fundamentalism (comment: but there is no "Sub-Fundamentalism" of which I am aware!)
  • Young Fundamentalism (or 'ist') (I can't recollect seeing this one, but if there is a "young-fundamentalism" I suppose there must be an "old-F". Complicating this is that you have young men fresh out of HAC who are "Old Time" Religioners and old gray-headed bald guys who are "young at heart" (or so they claim!))
  • Old-Time Fundamentalism (guess there is an "old")
  • Authentic Fundamentalism 
  • Historic Fundamentalism
  • Balanced Fundamentalism - see image below
  • Moderate Fundamentalism (generally means they compromise!)
  • Militant Fundamentalism - key verse is Jude 3
  • Pseudo-Fundamentalism (The opposite of the "Authentic")
  • Baptist-Fundamentalism
  • Nondenominational Fundamentalism
  • FINO = Fundamentalism in Name Only
  • KJV-Fundamentalism
  • Hard-shelled Fundamentlism (probably aways used in a disparaging / derisive way - who wants to call oneself "hard-shelled"?!
  • imperial Fundamentalism (the guy who has the mega-church with the CDS, the college and the seminary)
In my view, the term "Fundamentalism" (which is a really great idea and has served its purposes!), which has in the last decade become associated with suicide bombers and other crazies, has ceased to mean anything at all. At least anything valuable in the market place of ideas.

It seems that every Fundamentalist looks at the other kinds and says in essence "You are not a true Fundamentalist"

----- My coming out (I've done this before ... and this is not an Anderson Cooper coming out!) ----------

It's not that I:


  • Reject the term Fundamentalist
  • Reject the idea (already said that it's a good idea!)
  • It's just that where I live (and I don't mean Plymouth), I would never use the term of myself. Others can say of me: "Peet is not a Fundamentalist".
  • I'm OK with that
  • Want to know what I believe ... see my doctrinal statement ... know where I worship and serve ... and know how I live (which is far from perfect!)
  • Rejecting the label and the label makers
By the way ... still happy with these labels: Calvinist, Baptist, Republican
Comment: Reaction to something I read posted on Sharper Iron

If I were to tell my co-workers that I was a Fundamentalist this would be the image in their minds:



Proof that Calvinistic Baptist is not an oxymoron as some would say:




Above: Balanced Fundamentalism

Fundamentalists fight over who is the real "historic Fundamentalist"


Updated on 8/10/2017: See my point

11 comments:

  1. There's also a "New" Fundamentalism

    And here's a preacher who admits that the term fundamentalism has lost its meaning:

    The term Fundamentalist has no real objective meaning any longer. ..... It has always been ambiguous anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Then there's also (a new one for me ... ): Cultural Fundamentalism

    I think this means that you don't dance or chew or go with girls who do!

    There are more "fundamentalisms" then there are Linux distros

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's another term: post-fundamentalism

    (I'm not embracing this term!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another one: Neo-fundamentalism.

    Honestly ... if you put "neo-" in front of anything it looks suspect.

    I'm kind of linked into this one because of this phrase: "a book promoted by the managers of the Sharper Iron website"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ha! I see you noted that my blog is entitled "The Eccentric Fundamentalist." I actually titled it that because I believe in the Christian historic fundamentalist (another label!) philosophy to ministry, but I really don't fit the standard "Baptist fundamentalist" mold too well. I'm strange; hence . . . eccentric.

    ReplyDelete

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