As tricky as it is to be a Biblical fundamentalist when it comes to your wardrobe<\/a>, things get even trickier when you start talking about where we all came from.<\/p>\nNo, I\u2019m not talking about the birds and the bees. Even fundamentalists agree on that point. I think. I hope. I\u2019ve honestly never had a sex talk with a fundie and don\u2019t plan on doing so anytime soon.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking about creation, specifically those two pesky chapters at the beginning of Genesis.<\/p>\n
I say pesky because no matter how many awesome people riding dinosaurs dioramas the Creation Museum wants to build in an effort to \u201cprove\u201d the world was made in six literal days (God rested on the seventh), it\u2019s those days that leave him in a bit of pickle.<\/p>\n
If you remember your Sunday School lessons, you will recall that on the first day God said \u201cLet there be light.\u201d Beautiful beginning to a beautiful story. There\u2019s just one catch. Light requires a source, say a light bulb, your iPhone, or in the case of the universe \u2013 stars; one of which we call the sun.<\/p>\n
No matter how you old you want to believe the earth is, there\u2019s no debating that it is the sun that gives the earth its source of light. Moreover, it\u2019s the sun that separates day from night. But this is where things get a bit tricky for the Creation Museum and the rest of the fundies out there in fundie land.<\/p>\n
Do you remember when God created the \u201clights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night?\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll help you out. That would be day 4.<\/p>\n
Which means if you\u2019re a fundamentalist you\u2019ve got a pretty serious problem on your hands. If it\u2019s the sun that separates day from night, but the sun wasn\u2019t created until day 4, how exactly do you have days 1, 2, and 3 without the thing responsible for making days?<\/p>\n
You see, if we have to take Genesis literally, as the fundies insist, then it would seem that the Creation Museum and their friends are short a few days.<\/p>\n
This is one of the core problems with Biblical fundamentalism. It refuses to make space for allegory and metaphor. Instead, it tries force those round pegs into the square holes of their own anti-intellectualism and fear of science.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter how great the consensus in the scientific community might be or how overwhelmingly the Christian (and Jewish) tradition has affirmed a metaphorical or allegorical interpretation of passages like Genesis, the Biblical fundamentalists, like any other jihadist, will reinterpret these critiques as \u201cpersecution\u201d of the \u201cfaithful remnant\u201d and will carry on fighting their holy war until the end of time believing every critique lobbed their way merely adds another jewel in their heavenly crown.<\/p>\n
They will carry on this fight because at its heart, fundamentalism is not being right about what the Bible says. It\u2019s about pride and control. It\u2019s about the pride of not being able to humble one\u2019s self enough to admit you\u2019re wrong. And it\u2019s about the need to control others through dogma, fear, and intimidation and the world through self-delusion, denial, and condemnation.<\/p>\n
Fundamentalism isn\u2019t about the \u201ctruth.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about lording that \u201ctruth\u201d over everyone else.<\/p>\n
This need for lordship is, of course, the root of all sin. It\u2019s what drove Adam and Eve to try to snatch divinity away from God. It\u2019s what keeps the poor oppressed, the marginalized ignored, and the weak in bondage. It\u2019s the same thing that empowers tyrants to exploit their people and pastors to manipulate their flocks into people defined by fear, hatred, and condemnation.<\/p>\n
Which means fundamentalism isn\u2019t just an embarrassing sideshow attraction in the life of the church or a quirky aberration at the periphery of the faith that we can simply ignore until it goes away. It\u2019s a virus that latches itself onto the Body of Christ infecting every one of its members, slowly but steadily twisting the Body\u2019s until it destroys itself.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a shadow hanging over the light of the Gospel.<\/p>\n
An obstacle that stands in the way of Christ\u2019s love.<\/p>\n
The ultimate barrier to grace.<\/p>\n
And until we name it as such we stand no chance of defeating the disease and providing the Body with the healing it so desperately needs.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be continued\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As tricky as it is to be a Biblical fundamentalist when it comes to your wardrobe, things get even trickier when you start talking about where we all came from. No, I\u2019m not talking about the birds and the bees. Even fundamentalists agree on that point. I think. I hope. I\u2019ve honestly never had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":9146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n