Wednesday, October 19, 2011

We Are All Fundamentalists

We just differ on the fundamentals.

Joe Carter:
Evangelicals who take an interest in the life of the mind inevitably encounter two types of fundamentalists. Although the two types are similar, they are easy to distinguish. Both types believe that their views of the scripture, creation, and/or history are the only legitimate interpretations and condemn anyone who disagrees with them and their preferred “experts.” But the first type filters their beliefs through the KJV while the second type filters their beliefs through the NYT.

Karl W. Giberson and Randall J. Stephens are the second type of fundamentalists. Yesterday, they published an embarrassingly simple-minded op-ed in the New York Times decrying the “simplistic theology, cultural isolationism and stubborn anti-intellectualism” of evangelicals who hold beliefs that differ from their own. It was the type of sophomoric, bias-confirming piece that no reputable publication would touch. Naturally, it was a hit with Times readers.
Read the rest.

(HT:  Tony Jones)

3 comments:

M&M in Japan said...

"Both types believe that their views of the scripture,... are the only legitimate interpretations"

I hope all Christians would stand on this statement. There is only one intended interpretation/meaning for any given text. No?

AndrewF said...

"We Are All Fundamentalists
We just differ on the fundamentals."

I love that quote (I do believe I first read it in Ian Cron's wonderful pseudo-memoir 'Jesus, my father, the CIA and me').

M&M in Japan said...

Andrew & Zach,
I like that title/quote too. It seems that Joe seems to be saying something different though like "Watch out for the 2 kinds of fundamentalists, (cause we Evangelicals are not fundamentalists)." Am I misreading him?