Fundamentalists Flop-flipping<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Steven Waldman, editor of Beliefnet, recently sat down with Rick Warren for an interview, and in the midst of that interview Rick Warren said a negative\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fundamentalists Flop-flipping\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Steven Waldman, editor of Beliefnet, recently sat down with Rick Warren for an interview, and in the midst of that interview Rick Warren said a negative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-17T05:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1557254001\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/\",\"name\":\"Fundamentalists Flop-flipping\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-17T05:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-12-17T05:30:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Steven Waldman, editor of Beliefnet, recently sat down with Rick Warren for an interview, and in the midst of that interview Rick Warren said a negative\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fundamentalists Flop-flipping\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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{"id":255,"date":"2008-12-17T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-17T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/"},"modified":"2008-12-17T00:30:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T05:30:00","slug":"fundamentalists-flop-flipping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2008\/12\/17\/fundamentalists-flop-flipping\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundamentalists Flop-flipping"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Steven Waldman<\/a>, editor of Beliefnet, recently sat down with Rick Warren for an interview, and in the midst of that interview Rick Warren said a negative thing or two about the social gospel. Waldman\u2019s had several posts about the interview.\u00a0 Paul Rauschenbush<\/a>, grandson of Walter Rauschenbusch, the architect of the social gospel, came out swinging and I thought Paul was unfair to Warren and needlessly trashed him. So I pushed back on his blog \u2026 and was I surprised by the response of the so-called liberals. They sounded worse than fundamentalists, which gives me a chance to speak about an issue I\u2019ve observed: fundamentalist flip-flopping.<\/p>\n

One the best things about growing up fundamentalist is that we absolutely knew we were on God\u2019s side or perhaps it is better to say that God was on our side. Knowing God is on your side breeds confidence as well as other things \u2026 and I want to have a conversation today about those other things.\u00a0 I\u2019m not concerned today about what a fundamentalist believes<\/i>. Facts clearly show that fundamentalists and evangelicals and Catholics and orthodox Christians believe many of the same things. What I\u2019ve tried a number of times to do is to think my way into why it is that many get upset with fundamentalists. What is it?<\/p>\n

\nZeal, too much of it. Relentless zeal. Imposing zeal. Absolute confidence in everything they think is important.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I have observed: my experience shows that former and anti-fundamentalists can be just as fundamentalistic \u2014 zealous and absolute \u2014 about their anti-fundamentalism and new-found beliefs. In other words, they absolutely confident liberalism is another form of fundamentalism.<\/p>\n

These anti-fundamentalists (and anti-evangelicals) can be just as confident and cocky that they\u2019ve got it all figured out. That they stand high above the rest in their perceptions of truth. They can be just as zealous for their new convictions, some of them petty. Once they saw all non-fundamentalists in danger of perdition, now they find everyone who doesn\u2019t fight for the cause they believe in as hopeless or apathetic or non-Christian. I call this fundamentalist flop-flipping, from being a pro-fundamentalist fundamentalist to being an anti-fundamentalist fundamentalist. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s some good news here. I don\u2019t believe we need to say \u201conce a fundamentalist always a fundamentalist.\u201d No, God mercifully grants us grace to find a different way, a third way, the way of grace and love that can hold firmly to one\u2019s viewpoint and yet treat the other with respect and dignity.<\/p>\n

At the bottom of the problem many of us have with fundamentalists is the lack of grace or mercy or \u2014 and I\u2019d prefer this term the best \u2014 love. Jesus taught his followers something that can reshape anyone from zeal-spirited fundamentalism, whether on the rebound or not. He taught them that the whole law hung from two basic commands:<\/p>\n

Love God with your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.<\/p>\n

I call this The Jesus Creed<\/a> $\"\"$
\n<\/strong><\/em> and the discovery of the importance of this Creed to Jesus can reshape more how we live and relate to others than what we believe. Love has the power to reshape fundamentalists from the inside out. I\u2019ve met plenty of them.<\/p>\n

Fundamentalist or not, this is what Jesus wants of us: to love God and to love others. No one who loves God and loves others lives in that angry spiritedness, flop-flipper or not.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"