"Fundamentalism and Modernity" - a talk by Jim Struthers
Delivered to the Unitarian Fellowship of Regina, May 15, 2005
I am influenced to talk about religious fundamentalism by its irrationalism, the outrageous events it can generate, and the threats it poses to civilized society.
There is also a book, titled The Battle for God, by British religious scholar Karen Armstrong, which deals with fundamentalism in four of the world's hot spots: Iran, Israel, Egypt and the United States.
Published in 2000, before 9/11 and the spate of other suicide terrorist acts, her book notes that fundamentalist acts are sometimes shocking. "But," she adds (and I quote), "even the most peaceful and law abiding are perplexing, because they seem so adamantly opposed to many of the most positive values of modern society. Fundamentalists have no time for democracy, pluralism, religious toleration, peacekeeping, free speech, or the separation of church and state. Christian fundamentalists," she notes, ". . . insist that the Book of Genesis is scientifically sound in every detail."
Like many other observers, Armstrong sees fundamentalism as the product of a clash between religious belief and the "modernity" of our society. The clash is based on fear – fear that the secularized nature of society will lead to the destruction of their religion and seduce them and their loved ones to the path leading to Hell . . . and leave them bereft of meaning and hope in this life.
I am no expert on the roads leading to Hell (being but a simple sojourner on that path myself), but the threat of modernism to religious belief is historically accurate, so the fears of fundamentalists in that regard is well founded.
So what are the elements of modernism which are considered by fundamentalists to be so corrosive of their religion?
One is education and free thought, which is based in almost universal literacy, which in turn is founded on the invention of efficient printing by Johannes Gutenberg around 1450. Printing contributed greatly to the Renaissance of the following century, when classical learning, much of it preserved and enhanced by Islamic scholars, was rescued from centuries of suppression by the Christian church.
The Renaissance saw the gradual rise of a secular spirit; that is, increasing interest in the matters of this life at this time, in contrast to the medieval religious outlook of a timeless march to a supernatural eternity.
Science spurred this secularity, and the first major theory of the Renaissance was a bombshell. The traditional Ptolemaic astronomy placed our world at the centre of the universe, and therefore the focus of God's attention. In 1512 Nicolaus Copernicus published his view that the earth was but a satellite circling the sun; and the earth revolved to provide the illusion that the sun and other inhabitants of the sky circled our planetary home. The Church managed to suppress wide knowledge of this inconvenient fact, until nearly the time of Isaac Newton.
However, success of scientific methodology and its handmaiden of technology gave increasing velocity to the rate of discovery of the material facts of the material world. Many of these undermined the ancient mythical explanations of religion. The second great blow came in the 19th century, with the revelation in 1830 by geologist (and active Unitarian) Charles Lyell that the earth was of an immense age. This new knowledge was of great influence on his friend, Charles Darwin, in framing his theory of the evolution of all life forms. And evolution was seen by fundamentalists then, as it is now, as the greatest threat to their cherished beliefs.
A more subtle threat to religion is found in the technology which forms the very fabric of everyday life in the industrialized world. There is a basic rationalism about the mechanical, electrical, chemical and biological products which surround us. No magical, enchanted, supernatural or spiritual forces are involved. Instead our everyday tools constantly proclaim the rational basis of our secularized society and of the world. Technology also underlines the constantly changing nature of society, of human life and, indeed, of every portion of the entire universe.
So those are major elements of modernity, of the zeitgeist, or spirit of the times, to which fundamentalism reacts in fear and loathing. Now let us examine major elements of fundamentalism.
Karen Armstrong in her book notes the many common features of fundamentalism, whether Islamic, Judaic or Christian. There is intensity of belief; feelings of exclusion from the rewards and honours of society; a naïve and literalist belief in sacred texts, or parts of them; and a fear and hatred of science and scholarship that casts doubt on their beliefs. The compassionate and inclusive side of religion gets submerged by the fearing, hating and exclusionist quality, which has always been part of religion.
I am going to deal only with Christian fundamentalism in the United States, which is, I think, most destructive and threatening. Iran, Egypt and Israel are special cases, which we do not have time to examine today. One aspect of U.S fundamentalism may be termed premillennialism. It is described by George Monbiot in an article in the Guardian newspaper as follows:
In the United States, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion. In the 19th century, two immigrant preachers cobbled together a series of unrelated passages from the Bible to create what appears to be a consistent narrative: Jesus will return to earth when certain preconditions have been met. The first of these was the establishment of a state of Israel. The next involves Israel's occupation of the rest of its "Biblical lands" (most of the Middle East), and the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques. The legions of the Antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. The Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity, and the Messiah will return to earth.
What makes the story so appealing to Christian fundamentalists is that before the big battle begins, all "true believers" (ie those who believe what THEY believe) will be lifted out of their clothes and wafted up to heaven during an event called the Rapture. Not only do the worthy get to sit at the right hand of God, but they will be able to watch, from the best seats, their political and religious opponents being devoured by boils, sores, locusts and frogs, during the seven years of Tribulation which follow.
The true believers are now seeking to bring all this about. This means staging confrontations at the old temple site (in 2000 three US Christians were deported for trying to blow up the mosques there), sponsoring Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, demanding ever more US support for Israel, and seeking to provoke a final battle with the Muslim world/Axis of Evil/United Nations/European Union/France or whoever the legions of the Antichrist turn out to be.
The believers are convinced that they will soon be rewarded for their efforts. The Antichrist is apparently walking among us, in the guise of Kofi Annan, Yasser Arafat or Silvio Berlusconi. The Walmart corporation is also a candidate (in my view a very good one), because it wants to radio-tag its stock, thereby exposing humankind to the Mark of the Beast. On the website raptureready.com, you can discover how close you might be to flying out of your pyjamas. The infidels among us should take note that the Rapture Index currently stands at 144, just one point below the critical threshold, beyond which the sky will be filled with floating nudists.
We can laugh at these people, but we should not dismiss them. That their beliefs are bonkers does not mean they are marginal. American pollsters believe that between 15 and 18% of US voters belong to churches or movements which subscribe to these teachings. A survey in 1999 suggested that this figure included 33% of Republicans. The best-selling contemporary books in the United States are the 12 volumes of the Left Behind series, which provide what is usually described as a "fictionalised" account of the Rapture, with plenty of dripping details about what will happen to the rest of us. The people who believe all this don't believe it just a little; for them it is a matter of life eternal and death.
This reminds me of the aphorism by Bob Edwards of the famous Calgary Eye Opener, when he said: "Knowing things that are not so is the worst kind of ignorance."
A second widespread fundamentalist belief is termed Christian Reconstructionism. It is described by historian Joe Bageant, who was born into a Southern Pentecostal/Baptist family of many generations. He says:
Evangelical born-again Christians of one stripe or another are 40% of the electorate, and they support Bush 3 to 1. And as long as their clergy and their worst instincts tell them to, they will keep on voting for him or someone like him, regardless of what we view as his arrogant folly and sub-intelligence. Forget about changing their minds. These Christians do not read the same books we do, they do not get their information from anything resembling reasonably balanced sources, and, in fact consider even CBS and NBC super-liberal networks of porn and the devil's lies.
"Knowing things that are not so is the worst kind of ignorance."
Given how fundamentalists see the modern world, says Bageant, they may as well be living in Iraq or Syria, with whom they share approximately the same Bronze Age religious tenets. They believe in God, Rumsfeld's Holy War and their absolute duty as God's chosen nation to kick Muslim ass up one side and down the other. Just because millions of Christians appear to be dangerously nuts does not mean they are marginal.
Bageant points out the aim of Christian Reconstruction is to establish Biblical theocratic republics throughout the world, as well as in the United States, pending the coming of Christ. Biblical laws would eliminate labor unions, civil rights laws and public schools. Capital punishment is central to the Reconstructionist ideal, calling for the death penalty for a great range of faults, such as loss of faith, blasphemy, heresy, adultery and homosexuality. Biblical correct methods of execution would favor stoning, hanging, burning and the sword.
Bageant concludes: If we are lucky as a nation, this period in American history will be remembered as just another very dark time we managed to get through. Otherwise one shudders to think of the logical outcome. Our best thinkers on the left ask us to consider our perpetual U.S. imperial war as a fascist, military/corporate war, and indeed it is that too. But tens of millions of hard working, earnest American Christians see it as far more than that. They see a war against all that is un-Biblical, the goal of which is complete world conquest. . . . what is truly happening in this country, the thing that has been building for a long, long time – a holy war, a covert Christian jehad for control of America and the entire world. Millions of Americans are under the spell of a dangerous mass psychosis, Bageant concludes.
So what do we make of all this?
Karen Armstrong ends her book with a question. She says: "So far, efforts to deal with fundamentalism have not been very successful; what lessons can we learn from the past that will help us to deal more creatively in the future with the fears that fundamentalism enshrines?"
Let me make a few suggestions that could be focal points for discussion.
The major difference between fundamentalists and harmless mainline Christians is that fundamentalists believe strongly, and mainline Christians do not. Armstrong quotes lines in the poem "Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats:
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
Official mainline Christian beliefs are just as irrational and kooky as those of fundamentalists, but most mainliners shrug and take them with a grain of salt. Let us accept mainliners' piety and encourage their skepticism.
Let us encourage the secular outlook in every way we can, and particularly by better understanding it ourselves. Religious supernaturalism is undermined by genuine knowledge. For example, the concept of "intelligent design" is a fraudulent religious idea with no logical or scientific standing whatsoever. We should know that.
Within our own denomination, let us reduce the adulation of our Judeo-Christian roots, as represented for example in our hymn book, and take a realistic, critical view of the actual crime-ridden history of Christianity.
And by all means let us fight to keep our nation as far away from integration into the brutal American Empire as possible.
Thank you for listening.