JustThinking | Fundamentalists

Danielle Strickland | putting the fun back in fundamental

I‘m in love with an evangelical fundamentalist. Awkward, I know. I was reading a biography of William Wilberforce not long ago, and the author suggests that had Wilberforce been alive today we would have dismissed him as a raving evangelical fundamentalist. They say that he was absorbed by judgment. He was deeply concerned about the account he’d have to give at the end of his life.

Apparently that’s a trait of fundamentalists… all that talk of hell. He’s not alone. Brad Jersak (in a book called Fear No Evil) interviewed Tony Campolo and asked him what he’s afraid of. You’ll never guess - he’s afraid of judgment. He’s afraid of the account he’ll have to give at the end of his life. I’ve read recently some of William Booth’s classic addresses. One of his best was about God’s call. He suggested that if you couldn’t hear the call of God on your life you could simply put your ear to the world and hear the cries of the orphans and widows and then tell them you wouldn’t go and if that wasn’t enough then consider the judgment. You know - the place where you’d give an account for how you’ve lived.

All this talk of judgment, and all these people who committed their lives for justice and God’s Kingdom who were motivated to obey not out of love but out of fear. These crazy conservatives who could have stuck the bumper sticker saying “Jesus is coming! Quick - look busy!” on their wagons as they rolled them over the devil! What were they thinking? Oh yeah… they were thinking about judgment.

Now that we’ve become more progressive, we don’t think much about judgment anymore. That’s for simple folks, I guess. But (I suppose this is a confession) I think of it. I think of the righteous rejoicing at the judgments of the Lord (Psalm 97) and I wonder if that will be me. I’ve not often been on the right side of judgment in life… between pre-salvation and a lead foot this side of the cross I’ve paid some hefty fines. But apparently the righteous will approach judgment with some joy. And the only people I know who have joy at judgment are the oppressed.

I’m scared of judgment when I’m on the wrong side of it. So, I’m putting the fun back in fundamental and I’m joining the world changers who considered godly fear a deep shade of love and I’m going to be ready for judgment.

Love does crazy things.

Writer: Capt. Danielle Strickland is currently the Social Justice Director of the Southern Australia Territory. She digs traveling, reading, running, speaking, basketball and movies. Her passion is grace, mercy and justice… and all the stuff in between. Her favourite question is ‘how hard can it be?’ and most of her days are spent answering it.

1 Comment to JustThinking | Fundamentalists

1. Hey Danielle, I think you’re right to link fundamentalism with judgement. The difficulty I have is the relationship between a ‘pure’ black and white view of the world that is characteristic of fundamentalism and the kind of judgementalism that can accompany it. It’s one thing to be concerned about one’s own impending judgement but it’s another to put oneself in the place of the Judge. I’m not naive enough to pretend that we don’t all (myself included) place judgements on other people all the time. But even I’m hesitant to proclaim eternal judgement on other people’s destinies. There’s a badly remembered quote that I’m sure someone can correct me on that goes something like “I’m not a universalist, but God may well be…”

   I don’t mention this to open that dangerous can of worms, but simply to illustrate the perils of placing ourselves in God’s position. Of course I’m not claiming that all fundamentalists do this, but I do see it as one of the key dangers of fundamentalism backed by the authority of a particular interpretation of God’s word.

   Regards, JDK
Jason Davies-Kildea on February 11th, 2009

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