(Neuman #4) Musings on Fundamentalism Continued...

Fundamentalism Continued:

In the 8th grade, a classmate said Catholics can't be Christians because we call ourselves "Catholics" first and not "Christian." In college, I met a sweet student on the girl's floor above me that believed with conviction the world is 6,000 years old and God only made dinosaur bones to give people something to wonder about. She also prayed publicly and very genuinely with gratitude thanking God for everything. I thought her ideas were absurd, but I couldn't dislike her either and admired her prayer life.

At a younger age (I'm now 45), I didn't think fundamentalists were bright enough, or even now self-aware enough, to compile a list of how they see themselves.  This list was presented to us on the last day of class.

But first, our professor said "fundamentalism and ecumenism are born in the same moment. They are both orientations toward the modern world."

I'm still undecided on whether I agree. Can someone be a fundamentalist from the beginning, without reacting against believers he thinks got it wrong? ("We're all a little fundamentalist" to our own beliefs, even if our beliefs are nuanced and relative in nature.) But fundamentalism isn't the same as certitude. It's understanding a philosophy or religion literally and strictly by its most plainly stated texts.

That list of how fundamentalists see themselves (compiled between 1910-1915 by 64 different authors of "every" protestant denomination) include the following;

1. a sense of crisis (in a breach between what is and what should be)

2. embrace dualism - people are saved or not saved, clean or not clean

3. religious identity is ontological and ultimate - it IS or it ISN'T. Certainty about what one believes is necessary.

4. have political investment; have a desire to RULE, not satisfied with merely being mainstream.

5. embrace a charismatic/authoritarian leader because strength is needed to do good and resist evil. (plurality or shared leadership is antithetical) 

6. have a sense of promised or protected land (e.g. manifest destiny)

7. have a prophetic mission directed towards others from their OWN religious traditions who failed to uphold religious traditions.

I was surprised this list are things self-described fundamentalists said about themselves. This is all interesting because my home country of the United States is more divided than ever, at a sort of crossroads, and the MAGA movement (or the core of either political party) are something of fundamentalists that I can't pray away.

Our professor offered a solution, for those of us who don't identify as fundamentalist, which is VIRTUE ETHICS (what would a virtuous person do? What Would Jesus Do?) Fundamentalists don't want to engage in dialogue, our professor said. I can "be the example/change." I think this method is why many on social media talk about walking away from the trauma of their religious upbringing - sometimes this is healthy, other times this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater in a secularizing society. In some ways, secularism is better than fundamentalist and traumatizing branches of Christianity, however, the secular extreme can offer its own fundamentalism.

 Capitalism without the religious guidelines that say relax one day a week, treat every employee like your family with a livable wage, etc. are, I think, why our economy is so competitive and expensive today.

To sound like a broken record to my friends, the Catholic Church challenges the left and the right in different ways. We have always and maybe always will "live in the tension."

The answer to fundamentalism is, yes, to be the change, and to engage in ecumenical works. The answer to fundamentalism is the religious teacher who conveys to every one of her students she cares about them regardless of their religious identity - and by practicing the corporal works of mercy, etc.  A refrain from class I will frequently remind myself as a Jesuit is we don't convert people, only God-the-Holy-Spirit converts. I will simply do my best to "be the example" in my prayer life and living out my Jesuit vocation. I will trust God to produce fruit from my labor and love everyone in the meantime.

(Giotto painted in 1300 in the modest-sized Scrovegni chapel in Padua the story of Mary's parents up to Jesus appearing to the disciples in the upper room. In the many images, Peter in the final image of the upper room is the only person who looks directly at the viewer as if to ask "what will you choose to do with this information? Will you choose good or evil?" This is the last scene before the large image of people going to heaven and hell.  - similarly I'm asking myself how (I can be the change to combat fundamentalism) and how I will incorporate the insights on ecumenism from the past three weeks into my life and ministry as a Jesuit.