.
"Lol, uhhhhh, no! His emails are flooded daily with solicitations from all sorts of colleges and lenders, MacArthurs Seminary included and that’s fundy enough for me. But we’re having a hard enough time dealing with him moving 2 hours away, let alone all the way to the Left Coast! I’m really sure that’s not Gods will for him 
"
I truly don't understand you - or the others here. On the one hand, you seem to have a disdain for "fundamentalists" and yet when you speak (post) you and the others
sound just like them. You don't seem any different from any man I came across when I was in a fundamentalist church. When you recently told me what was going to happen in the future, that is
exactly what I grew up hearing.
??
Gringo, if you want the short version then skip to the end of this post, otherwise buckle in for a bit of a ride.
I never grew up in a Christian home, though my mother was a Christian. There were no typical trappings you’d see in a fundamentalist or Christian upbringing….never Bible reading, no prayer, church was only an afterthought and I don’t remember ever attending except for a couple times with neighborhood kids. We didn’t talk about God or Christ.
So when I trusted Christ as a young 19 year old kid I never had any concept of the strains and variations in Christianity. The Community church I was saved in was evangelical/fundamental in doctrine and practice, but I dropped out after a couple years of attending, and had grown very little spiritually.
It was 10 years later that I was talked into getting back into church by my boss at work. I still count him as my spiritual mentor to this day as he had profound impact on my spiritual journey into adulthood. That church had deep roots in fundamentalism through J Frank Norris, as the founding pastor was educated at his college (Arlington Baptist of Texas). I heard preaching on all the fundamental doctrines (Virgin birth, Scripture as only rule of faith and practice, Christ is God the Son and eternally existed, etc).
It was a short year or so after I began attending that a young Hyles Anderson grad was called as pastor. I still was only an occasional attendee and not a member so I didn’t have a vote. The fiery and zealous preaching, coupled with charisma and charm in his personality was used of God to lead me to be baptized (10 years after trusting Christ) and becoming a member. It was at that point that I began pursuing the type of Christianity known as fundamentalism.
Many of the earmarks of the Hyles style of fundamentalism appealed to me. The firm convictions which produced confidence, the notion of standing for something worthwhile, dogged determination to draw closer to the God that saved me, an emphasis on knowing my beliefs and practice were rooted in explicitly Biblical commands and authority all made me grab hold of this version of Christianity.
Those were some of the positives that I adopted, but as I grew into my walk with the Lord I began noticing cracks in the foundation. For all of the bluster about all these rules and “fences” helping to keep me from spiritually falling and failing I became keenly aware of my own inability to find the strength to live day to day by such rule-keeping. In addition I also started to objectively see that many of the leaders in this mighty movement actually not only failed but did so in the same kinds of depraved and scandalous ways as “liberals” and the lost world they were decrying. The rates of failure seemed practically the same as in other religious or non-religious group.
At the same time I began realizing that the leadership in these fundamentalist bastions held to an insular worldview and seemed to expect unquestioning fidelity to their dogma. Couple that with an anti-intellectualism that didn’t sit well with my collegiate and professional training in the sciences and I began to scrutinize their claims a bit more rigorously. What I came to realize was that the movement was often built more around a cult of personality figure more than the Christ and balanced teachings of Scriptures. It became clear to me that often times their doctrines were more of tradition than faithful exegesis of the word. Their inconsistencies regarding rules (no Hellywood movie theaters but rented videos are ok, no pants on women but covering for philanderers and pedophiles, no contemporary music but southern gospel is fine, etc) helped me see the hypocritical practices that Christ railed against the harshest! Their incessant penchant to major on the minors all the while having significant theological shallowness (calling people “deeper lifers” for wanting to know answers to complex theological issues) drove me away from their understanding or version of Christianity.
All of that to say I still consider myself a fundamentalist, just not the “militant” kind typified by many of the colleges (and associated churches) listed here, just a kinder and gentler educated one who isn’t quick to separate from people just because they believe a little differently than I do about faith and practice. I think the college Baptist Renegade linked to is one of the better versions of that brand of fundamentalism, but all things considered it’s just a bit too much risk for me to hitch my wagon to that post any longer, particularly given the alternatives. More power to those persuaded otherwise.
