I have received some feedback which suggets that I might be too harsh on fundamentalists. In thinking on this, I realized that I am not being as clear as possible. My real beef, about which I here blog, is with extreme versions of independent Baptist fundamentalism. While I do not agree 100% with non-extreme independent Baptist fundamentalists, there is much about which we do agree. (You will notice that I link to some fundamentalist blogs and journals, for instance) So in an effort to make myself clear, I have added the following clarification to my “About this Blog” post.
Clarification: I was involved in an extreme version of independent Baptist fundamentalism (in my opinion). It was more controlling than some other forms of fundamentalism, and it held to more beliefs that were not mandated by the Bible (such as KJV-onlyism, and no pants on women). I have reworked this post and some others to try to reflect the fact that I am not against fundamentalism per se. I find much good in the movement. In fact it was not easy to decide to leave fundamentalism totally. But upon consideration of the movement as a whole, I felt it best to leave. To clarify my views on the subject, let me add here excerpts from a comment I made in response to someone asking me to be more gracious to fundamentalists:
Let me clarify, somewhat. I do tend to overstate things, and I fear my criticisms of fundamentalism might be more harsh than I intended. In making my point I tend to overstate it, I fear.
There are many positive things about fundamentalists. I will always be thankful for the seriousness which was imparted to me at Fairhaven [Baptist College]. There is an honest effort to please God among many fundamentalists. And there is a sincere faith in the Bible. These are certainly praiseworthy attributes. My criticisms are more directed toward certain misemphases or missing elements in fundamentalism which have great potential to obscure (in my opinion) certain great and important truths of Christianity.
I feel that certain structures established by fundamentalism lend themselves to creating environments which foster a performance based value system. The way we relate to God is on how well we have performed. The way we relate to others in our camp is by how well we have performed. The way we view our self-worth is by how well we have performed. While it is important to obey and conform to God’s standards of holiness, such obedience and conformity does not constitute our acceptance with Him. Jesus’ blood and righteousness do.
This then leads to an emphasis on conforming and being faithful to a set of do’s and don’t’s–which become taboos and rules of community, which by the way are unquestionable. Success is measured by faithfulness to this man-made list of rules and not to how much one has loved others and loved Christ and been changed by His Word.The large emphasis fundamentalism puts on authority does much to enforce the list and to squelch any independent questioning/research into the validity of the list. This is a big factor in why so much of fundamentalism is defined by personalities, rather than doctrines. No creeds or confessions join fundamentalists, rather personalities and allegiances do. I have found many exceptions to the rule, but by and large the movement is what it has been.
It is these types of things which I feel obscure the vision of Christ that I want to focus my life on. I grant that there are many problems in other Evangelical circles, but one group’s problems does not negate the other’s. I have found that there are many conservative evangelicals who decry the problems of evangelicalism almost as much as fundamentalists do. And they have as deep a respect for God’s Word and desire for holiness. They also have a great passion for a close relationship with Christ (as many fundamentalists do). They may draw their lines of ecclesiastical separation differently than fundamentalists do, but that does not mean they spurn ecclesiastical separation.
Once again, let me be clear, non-extreme Biblically motivated independent Baptist fundamentalists are not my enemies, they are friends (althought I do not agree with them 100%).
∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 • Rom. 15:5-7
Does this mean that extreme Biblically motivated independent Baptist fundamentalists are your enemies??
Extreme fundamentalists, who would claim to be Biblically motivated, still have less in common with me than non-extreme fundamentalists. They are not enemies, however. There is much we share in common (high view of Scripture, fundamentals of the faith, love for the Lord). Yet many of the views and practices of extreme fundamentalists have a more damaging effect in my opinion.
They practice separation over beliefs which are definitely not explicitly taught in scripture (such as pants-on-women being morally wrong, and the KJV-only position being Biblically mandated). I believe there is more Biblical support, for instance, for believing that modern music should be considered inherently immoral or for believing that one is required to separate from people who do not share the exact same view of separation as you do (ie. secondary separation). I still do not hold to those beliefs, but I am more sympathetic to them, than more extreme beliefs.
So they are not enemies, but I cannot consider them close friends either. They need to be challenged about their unBiblical beliefs. Ultimately, we all must be open to challenge from Scripture over our beliefs. And that is what this blog is for, in part. Extreme fundamentalists who hold to their beliefs from more exegetically sound reasons have more respect in my mind than many who twist Scripture to support their views. But still I deem their positions faulty and potentially hazardous (to themselves and others).
If you believe that there is Biblical support that modern music is inherently immoral, then why do you listen to it and support a church which has little else besides it? The CCM at your church is modern music not different from what this wicked world sways and dances to. Yes, you can argue that the words are holy, but words are not what makes a person’s body move. It is the beat and the sound. Are these not what makes music immoral?
P.S. I am not an extreme fundamentalist, but rather someone seeking for something solid and sure to stand on.
“Anonymous”,
In reply to your questions, let me say first that while I empathize with someone finding Scriptural support for a prohibition of modern music, I do not find that support. Someone may conclude rock music is inherently sensual and worldly, and thus to be avoided. However such a conclusion is not demanded from Scripture. That some rock music is that is obvious. But then so is the message of the song that accompanies it.
Scripture nowhere intimates that beat in music is sensual or evil. Rather we see percussion instruments and clapping commended in the Psalms. We are given a positive example of worship before God in the story of David’s dancing before the ark of the tabernacle.
As for the body moving, what makes it move during a march? Or what about any of a number of cultural styles of music which are inherently non sensual (like Western music, for instance). In fact, where is it mentioned or intimated in Scripture that one’s body moving to music is somehow immoral? My body happens to like vanilla ice cream too. Does this mean that my natural like is immoral since it stems from my “flesh”?
[...] Before leaving this point, I must turn to the common argumentation for these stands. I believe that I can turn the two most commonly raised objections to attending movie theaters on their head. First, it is said that no one will know what you watched when you are seen coming out of a theater (of course if they look at the sign which lists a fairly new release of a popular kids movie rated G and you are seen holding your children’s hands, they must be blind not to put two and two together…) and so this is a potentially damaging testimony issue. Of course no one will know which movies you rented when seen leaving the local Blockbuster either. And no one will know whether you drank beer when you come out of a Pizza Hut or Apple Bees either! And no one will know if you bought a dirty R rated movie at Wal-mart when you are seen leaving that store, too. Ad infitum. Second, it is said that one must “avoid all appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22). Beside the fact that that is a misinterpretation of the verse (based on the misunderstanding of the KJV’s 400 year old english, the Greek word means “form” and the verse is not addressing what things look like on the outside, but is saying avoid every kind or every form of evil, that you could happen to be involved with), there is as much “appearance of evil” coming out of a video store as a movie theater. The fact is there are many wholesome films which can be watched by discerning believers today. Yes, discernment is often necessary, but that is how God made this earth. To make everything really nice and easy, we could just go and join the Amish, now, couldn’t we? [UPDATE: I posted this before my clarification. I do not intend by this argumentation to despise someone who concludes that it is best to protect their family from the wrong influence of Hollywood by avoiding the theater and using videos/DVDs with discernment. In fact, I feel that we as Christians have so much more to do than waste all our time on often mediocre (at best) entertainment! I am merely trying to point out that in this issue we cannot be dogmatic and insist that if anyone goes to a theater they are sinning or are not being careful with regards to sin. It is the fact that so many IFBs (and especially IFBxs {see clarification}) preach their position on theaters as Bible, ie. absolute truth, that deeply offends me. It seems the movement prefers to tout a list of authoritative regulations rather than encourage the independent and Biblically-informed use of discernment when it comes to dealing with the complexities of our increasingly immoral culture.] [...]