In our travels in, through, and out of fundyland almost all of us have encountered at least one or two people there who make us wish that more fundamentalists were like them.
Today’s challenge is to recall a fundy or two who encouraged, helped, or showed kindness to you even in the midst of an otherwise terrible time.
This one happens to be for an evangelist named Jason Kendrick
I’d like to issue a challenge to those of you in my audience who still attend fundamentalist churches. (The rest of you can try this too as a control group). The quest is a simple one: next Sunday try to find Jesus in your pastor’s sermon.
In a Christian church one wouldn’t imagine that it would be too hard to find Christ. Yet, as I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time last month listening to sermons from some who are proclaimed to be the premier fundamentalist speakers in America, it has struck me that Jesus is strangely absent most of the time. It’s profoundly disturbing.
I’ve heard sermons about dad’s teaching their kids, and how to deal with life’s struggles (pray more and be more thankful!) and all kinds of guilt trips and pressure to conform…but there’s no Jesus. Nothing is more awful to behold than Christians who have forgotten who Christ is or the centrality of The Gospel in our message. It’s tragic. It breaks my heart.
Without Christ there’s no redemption for our broken condition, just condemnation of our struggles. Without Christ there is no power to vanquish sin and death just the weakened arm of flesh trying desperately for a perfection it can never attain. Without Christ there’s no joy but rather a dreadful commandment to rejoice without really knowing why. Without Christ we are of all men most miserable.
Oh, and if you really want to get weirded out, try this too: count the number of time the preacher references himself and his own stories and then compare them to the mentions of the works and ministry of Christ. You’ll likely be surprised.
Fundamentalists are obsessed with the question of who is in charge of whom. Authority, authority, who’s got the authority? To define the source of ALL human authority, most fundies agree with Bill Gothard who states the following:
The cool thing about making “the powers that be” into “all human authority” is that it casts a much wider net than the usual home+church+state trifecta. It extends a Divine mandate to schools, lunchrooms, and whatever para-church organization or self-proclaimed managawd happens to be telling you to obey. Fundy U presidents are especially big fans of this.
So what exactly is the consequence of not following every jot and tittle of the law as laid down by these authority figures? Oh, just the removal of God’s protection from your life. God will take away his big umbrella and immediately you’ll begin to suffer all of the trials of Job. (Not to mention that now the demons will getcha.)
He’re a helpful picture to illustrate this:
So evidently, Satan has a little umbrella that somehow creates its own rain of destruction even though God’s bigger umbrella is above it? I’ve tried reading this chart in every possible direction and I’m still more than a little confused.
Either way, the real takeaway here is that whenever someone gives you an order just follow it. Chances are pretty good that if you don’t someone’t going to hit you with an umbrella.