Another Canadian Reader Speaks Out I have several very consistent Canadian readers. This has surprised me, but then, August has come, so it's probably winter up in Canada. I suppose they get a lot of reading done while there is snow on the ground (August through June). Here are excerpts of a letter from another Canadian reader:

I'm really glad you're blogging now....But hearing about your experience of Fundamentalism as a movement, and the whole Hyles scandal and all that's involved... it just makes my eyes bug out of my head, because I sincerely had *no idea* that this kind of thing was so entrenched or widespread in ostensibly "conservative" and "evangelical" churches.

I always thought of myself as a Fundamentalist, meaning simply that I believe the Bible is inspired, reliable, and the only source of authority for church doctrine and practice. I used to get upset when non-Christians spoke of Fundamentalism as though it were some sort of oppressive regime and Fundamentalist Christians as ignorant bigots, because to me that just showed that people had a totally wrong impression of the Bible and indeed of the Lord Himself....Now I realize, however, that my understanding and experience of Fundamentalism -- whatever the word may have originally meant, or whatever I understood it to mean -- is a far cry from the kind of thing that's going on in the US Bible Belt (and perhaps even in some areas of Canada, I don't know).