In my last post, I discussed former President Jimmy Carter's views and attacks on fundamental Christianity. Since I consider myself to be a fundamentalist Christian, I thought it might be useful to give my definition of what a fundamentalist Christian is.
A fundamental Christian can be and is, male or female, young or old. Fundamentalists are not tied to any certain Christian denomination or sect. They may be Catholic, Baptist, Full Gospel, Word of Faith or any of many other varieties of denominations.
Fundamentalist Christians may be leaders of a congregation or may just be the members themselves.
Fundamentalists tend to believe there are certain absolutes as put forth in the scriptures. One, for example, is that Jesus Christ is the only way to reach God the Father. In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me." We take this to mean that unless a person believes in Jesus Christ, they will not be able to reach God. Because of this we believe that Muslims, Jews, Buddists, etc. are spiritually lost. We do not think less of them or treat them any differently. We do believe that it is the mandate of Christ that we reach those people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I would never try to shove Christianity down anyone's throat but am certainly willing to talk to anyone about my beliefs. Fundamentalist Christians do not consider unbelievers or followers of other faiths to be "infidels" in the respect that Muslims do.
Politically, the majority of Christian fundamentalists are conservative. The liberals in this country do not stand for the moral arguments that the fundamentalists do stand for. For this reason, Christian fundamentalists have unknowingly, become among the liberal's greatest enemies thus the beginning of this great attack that Mr. Carter is leading.
Fundamentalist do not "subjugate" women as Mr. Carter would have the world believe. We do however, believe that God made the man to be the spiritual head of the house. In this respect, men are to love, cherish, honor and protect the women in their lives. There is some division among fundamentalists pertaining to women being leaders in a church such as a pastor or a deacon. My own personal belief is that women are just as inspired of God to preach from a pulpit as men are. I do not believe that God calls women to pastor for the reason that a pastor is a "type and shadow" of God the Father. The pastor is a father figure to the members of his congregation.
There is an old saying, "In the essentials, unity; in the non-essentials, liberty." This is saying that there will be things we, as fellow fundamentalists, will disagree on but there are certain things that we must agree on, such as Christ's virgin birth, his death, burial and ressurection. Mr. Carter's statement,
"they (the fundamentalists) don't believe that it's right to negotiate or to compromise with people who disagree with them because any deviation from their absolute beliefs is a derogation of their own faith." is absolute lunacy.
Jimmy Carter has taken on the role that General William Sherman had toward the end of the civil war. Any country that believed in civil rights would have charged Sherman with war crimes due to his inhumanity to the citizens of the South. Mr. Carter puts on a good facade but he has taken on the leading role to try to discredit and harm the public's perception of Christian fundamentalists. The Bible tells us that there will be a persecution of true believers such as the world has never seen in the last days. I do believe that this is the start of that persecution. Just as Bill Clinton and his administration were able to destroy or defame the credibility of true patriots through their evil efforts at Waco and Ruby Ridge, I am fairly certain that Jimmy Carter and the liberal mindset he adheres to will be able to do the same thing to Christian fundamentalists.
Jay Mc