| I was brought up in the First Christian Church, Columbus Indiana. This
church was affiliated with the North American Christian Convention. Its
theology was generally *very* similar to what Southern Baptists believe.
My parents are theologically conservative, but I would not consider them
fundamentalists.
Nevertheless, I was definitely caught up in fundamentalist, "born again"
Christianity during my teenage years. When I was a sophomore in high
school, I attended morning services with my family, and also went to
evening services. On Wednesday nights I attended a coffee house for
teens, called "His Place", that was sponsored by a local Baptist Church.
I also attended morning prayer meetings that several students had
organized at the high school. I was as straight laced as they come; I
didn't swear or drink, and I was taught that all sex outside of
heterosexual marriage was wrong.
I read a lot of fundamentalist literature at that time. I was into Hal
Lindsey's apocalyptic claims of a coming end of the world, and read
his books "The Late Great Planet Earth" and "Satan is Alive and Well on
Planet Earth". I read the Bible regularly, and listened to radio
evangelists in my bedroom while I studied at night. I was baptized when
I was in the sixth grade. When I told the minister that I had accepted
"Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior", I so excited and moved by
the experience that I was shaking visibly enough for a classmate sitting
several rows behind me to notice.
In some ways, though, I defied the stereotype of the fundamentalist
Christian even then. For one thing, I was anything but politically
conservative. Having read the Sermon on the Mount, at a time when my
government was fighting a war in Vietnam that I considered immoral, I
was awe struck with the vision of pacifism and love for enemies that
Jesus expressed, as well as his message of simplicity and identification
for the poor. In many ways, without realizing it, I was in agreement
with what I now know to be Quaker values.
In any case, as I got older, I found it more and more difficult for me
to accept the doctrines that I was taught. I had a great deal of
interest in science, for example, and I found that I could not agree
with the fundamentalist stance towards science (particularly biological
evolution), or towards biblical criticism. I also had several moral
disagreements with various teachings, such as the doctrine of hell, and
the fundamentalist view of sexual morality. I found that I could not
accept all of the Bible as being literally true, and considered much of
it fanciful and unscientific. Most importantly, I felt myself
constrained by my faith, told what to think, with no room for
independent thought on my own.
Unfortunately, having come from a background that condemned religious
liberalism, and that could not accept the validity of a Christianity
that did not take everything in the Bible at face value, the only
alternative that I perceived to be open to me was to reject the faith
altogether. I simply went to the other extreme, viewing all of
Christianity with disdain as being morally and intellectually bankrupt.
I became something of a logical positivist as a result. For years
after this I carried a lot of negative baggage about Christianity. And
to be sure, leaving behind the rigidly dogmatic religion of my past
*was* a breath of fresh air. I felt free at last, to think for myself,
instead of blindly accepting all the doctrines that were taught me
simply because "the Bible tells me so."
Having moved beyond what I perceived to be the rigidity of my previous
dogma, the next step was for me to rediscover religion. That began to
take place a few years ago. I found that I missed much of what the
religion of my youth had offered me, even though I could obviously not
accept those old doctrines. I began attending a few Unitarian services,
and as I did so I found that my interest in religion and spirituality
returned as well. It was not a return to the fundamentalist religion of
my past, certainly; but it was a re-kindling of interest with a *new*
outlook on things.
I came to realize that fundamentalism was not the be-all and end-all of
Christianity. I read the Bible, and a great deal of literature about
the Bible. I also studied other religions, including the Eastern ones;
but I found that my greatest religious interest naturally rested with
Christianity, because that was where my spirituality was molded in my
youth. I did have a lot of negative baggage to overcome, and it took me
a long time to do so, to overcome my prior hostility to religion and to
Christianity in particular. In some ways I had to start from scratch;
but gradually I did formulate my theological and spiritual values,
unfettered by past dogma.
I eventually gravitated from Unitarian Universalism over to Quakerism,
which is my current spiritual home. I once read in a Catholic magazine
that someone came to the conclusion that a lot of men seem to undergo a
spiritual re-awakening at around age 30. For me, that has more or less
proved to be the case (it started for me at age 28, and I am 30 now.)
I expect that my spirituality will continue to develop over time--but
(I hope) forward, not backwards. I can only imagine where it will take
me.
-- Mike
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Well,
I wouldn't necessarily say that I have come out of Fundamentalism, but
have been in it enough to know why I stayed out. As Beth mentioned,
there is a lot of appeal to emotionalism. *Sometimes* I have seen this
uses as a substitute for the movement of the Spirit of God.
Fundamentalism, and to some degreee, Christianity as a whole, has
abdicated the intellectual aspect to humanism, and is only now
beginning to encourage widespread thinking again.
Jamey
Sorry Paul, I don't fit the fundamentalist box ;)
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| I left fundamentalism, "born again" christianity behind, to become more
or less outside of 'christianity'. I don't attend any kind of church or
congregation. I call myself christian influenced, which is probably a
good description of where I am.
At University (I'm in England), I became part of the student
Navigator's group, through friendship with one of it's members. At the
time, everything seemed to make a lot of sense to me, but much later,
after I was 'diagnosed' as being possessed, I came to distrust the
people around me.
The hardest part was walking away from that group. On two occaisions
they came to talk to me, and there were dire warnings. One quoted to me
the passage in the Bible concerning evil spirits leaving a man, then
returning to find the house swept clean but empty.
The Navigator group itself tended to be conservative christians; my
friends with whom I had most contact were part of the 'charismatic
movement' as they called it. It was one of this group who decided I was
possessed - because he'd done this kind of thing before and was
'experienced'.
To say the least, my experience of BAC/Fundamentalism has been
unpleasant, so I can be a little hostile to them (ask Irena!).
Pete.
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