Day 1. I’m a Bible-Believing, KJV Only, Skirts on Women, No Drums In Church, 100% Against Compromising Fundamentalist. Any abuse or corruption in the movement are either lies of Satan against God’s men or else rare and isolated incidents. I’m keeping on until the Rapture! Glory!
Day 529. I’m a Fundamentalist but there seem to be more problems than I first counted on. Scandals, hypocrisy, and the way the preacher seems mad about everything is getting old. Most of the sermons I hear anymore just don’t make any logical sense and it’s hard for me to even take it seriously. Still…I’m doing some good here teaching my Sunday School class and working the bus ministry so I’d better stay and help those who I can. All my friends are here anyway. At least I think they’re my friends. You can never really be sure anymore.
Day 2,378 I’m becoming more and more uneasy with Fundamentalism. Whenever I tell someone I’m a Fundamentalist I follow by giving them a fifteen minute explanation to let them know I’m not one of “those” people. I listen Michael Card music on the sly. I also tried reading an NIV the other day and it made a lot more sense than I thought it would. I’m just really, really tired of trying to keep up with all the rules but where would I go if I left? I have to believe there’s someplace where I can be at peace.
Day 3,109 I don’t know what I am anymore. I’m so angry at myself for letting cruel and arrogant people manipulate and control me for so long. I spend a lot of time these days talking about the errors fundamentalism with anybody who will listen. Name me any fundy camp and I’ll by happy to list you their major scandals and cover-ups for the last fifteen years. Maybe I’ll start a blog…
Day 5,176 I haven’t thought of myself as a fundamentalist in a long time. It’s just as well. A good fundamentalist has to be able to get angry a lot and I just don’t have the stamina to do that anymore. I’m still not sure where I’m going to from here but I’m starting to meet a lot of former fundies who are now Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and even a few Catholics. It seems like there may be a place for me out there. I have to hope that’s true…
Day 10,439 Independent Baptist Fundamentalism? Boy, that takes me back to some memories I haven’t thought about in years. Well, kids, you just bring me that glass of sweet tea and sit down here at grandpa’s knee and he’ll tell you some stories that will make your hair curl. You see it all started back in 1963…
Thanks for this, and thank God that my journey was compressed into a *scant* 2 or 3 years. Two things combined to lift me out of the pit – first, I started reading the Bible for myself in a serious fashion (and found out that it had nothing to do with what was coming from the pulpit). Second, I came to grips with “by their fruit you shall know them” and realized that who I knew as Christians hadn’t got any of the fruit. Love? Joy? Peace? Patience? Kindness? Gentleness? Self control? Ha ha. I can’t describe the joy in my life since I started believing and following the actual Jesus in the Bible. Thanks for this site, too. This needs doing.
All these comments are like a great big IFB Annonymous group, except we still can’t even say “Hi, my name is..” Uh never mind that, don’t want anyone to report me, but anyway, “I’m an ex fundie.
Wow, I think I just moved out of day 3109 but it won’t take me as long to arrive at day 5176.