{"id":3597,"date":"2008-07-16T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-16T11:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical\/"},"modified":"2008-07-16T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-16T11:17:00","slug":"fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html","title":{"rendered":"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pillaroftruthministries.com\/pics\/open_bible.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><\/a>The title of this post says it all: <u><em>Fundamentalism<\/em> is fundamentally <em>unbiblical<\/em><\/u>.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_BtqUSG7RCA0\/SH4cLZ3WRII\/AAAAAAAAALo\/yXTIYogKXVE\/s1600-h\/bible.bmp\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_BtqUSG7RCA0\/SH4cLZ3WRII\/AAAAAAAAALo\/yXTIYogKXVE\/s200\/bible.bmp\" border=\"0\"><\/a>Now, before you ask, I obviously don\u2019t mean that Christian fundamentalists do not quote the Bible in support of their views, beliefs and practices. They do. Of course, they consistently condemn others for \u201cpicking and choosing\u201d and yet that is what they themselves are doing, but that\u2019s not the subject of today\u2019s post. Just about anyone who wishes to can be \u201cbiblical\u201d in the sense of finding verses that support their views, and hoping no one notices the ones they <em>aren\u2019t <\/em>quoting. (In fact, fundamentalists have found a solution to this problem. They call it \u201cinterpreting Scripture by Scripture. It means that if the Bible says something you agree with, you can dismiss any places that seem to disagree with those verses you like, since they can\u2019t possibly mean what they seem to mean, since Scripture cannot contradict Scripture. Oh, my\u2026)<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>I\u2019m not even accusing them of being unbiblical in the sense that they are at odds with parts of the Bible. They are. But parts of the Bible itself are at odds with parts of the Bible, and some of what I think certainly is too, and it would be hypocritical to criticize them for being unbiblical in this sense.<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/75\/176752324_d48765743b.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/75\/176752324_d48765743b.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/a>So in what way is Christian fundamentalism fundamentally unbiblical? In short, <em>they deny that the Bible is what it is<\/em>. To claim that the Bible is simple when it is complex, to claim that it is clear when it is not, to claim that it is uniform when it is diverse, to claim that it is monolithic when it is pluriform, to claim that it is flawless when it is characterized throughout by the limitations and failings of its human authors \u2013 <em>what could possibly be more unbiblical than this? <\/em><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Elsewhere around the blogosphere, <a href=\"http:\/\/faithfulprogressive.blogspot.com\/2008\/07\/theologian-terri-murray-myth-busting.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Faithful Progressive points out the irony<\/a> that right-wing \u201cChristians\u201d show through their attitudes that they accept scientifically-dubious social and economic Darwinism, while fighting against the scientifically sound theory of evolution. <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/worldsfair\/2008\/07\/darwin_and_creationism_podcast.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The World\u2019s Fair<\/a> shares links to <a href=\"http:\/\/missinglinkpodcast.wordpress.com\/2008\/04\/30\/episode-10-people-of-the-book\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">podcasts<\/a> about Darwin and creationism. <a href=\"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/evolvingthoughts\/2008\/07\/getting_rid_of_darwinism.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">John Wilkins<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/judson.blogs.nytimes.com\/2008\/07\/15\/lets-get-rid-of-darwinism\/?ref=opinion\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Olivia Judson<\/a> agree on getting rid of Darwinism. Iyov highlights the <a href=\"http:\/\/voiceofiyov.blogspot.com\/2008\/07\/green-bible.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Green Bible<\/a>. And there are a couple of interesting new blogs worth noting: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crowdedhandbasket.com\/?p=212\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Crowded Handbasket<\/a> is for those of us who are officially unorthodox, while <a href=\"http:\/\/theologicalscribbles.blogspot.com\/2008\/07\/1-enoch-and-christian-theology-sticking.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Theological Scribbles<\/a> addresses everything from hamburgers to 1 Enoch from a Charismatic perspective.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-6780304785640185482?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The title of this post says it all: Fundamentalism is fundamentally unbiblical. Now, before you ask, I obviously don\u2019t mean that Christian fundamentalists do not quote the Bible in support of their views, beliefs and practices. They do. Of course, they consistently condemn others for \u201cpicking and choosing\u201d and yet that is what they themselves [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The title of this post says it all: Fundamentalism is fundamentally unbiblical.Now, before you ask, I obviously don&#039;t mean that Christian fundamentalists\" \/>\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\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The title of this post says it all: Fundamentalism is fundamentally unbiblical.Now, before you ask, I obviously don&#039;t mean that Christian fundamentalists\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-16T11:17:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_BtqUSG7RCA0\/SH4cLZ3WRII\/AAAAAAAAALo\/yXTIYogKXVE\/s200\/bible.bmp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html\",\"name\":\"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-07-16T11:17:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-07-16T11:17:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"The title of this post says it all: Fundamentalism is fundamentally unbiblical.Now, before you ask, I obviously don't mean that Christian fundamentalists\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical","description":"The title of this post says it all: Fundamentalism is fundamentally unbiblical.Now, before you ask, I obviously don't mean that Christian fundamentalists","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical","og_description":"The title of this post says it all: Fundamentalism is fundamentally unbiblical.Now, before you ask, I obviously don't mean that Christian fundamentalists","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2008-07-16T11:17:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_BtqUSG7RCA0\/SH4cLZ3WRII\/AAAAAAAAALo\/yXTIYogKXVE\/s200\/bible.bmp"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html","name":"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-07-16T11:17:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-07-16T11:17:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"The title of this post says it all: Fundamentalism is fundamentally unbiblical.Now, before you ask, I obviously don't mean that Christian fundamentalists","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/07\/fundamentalism-fundamentally-unbiblical.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fundamentalism: Fundamentally Unbiblical"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}