Blog on the Lillypad
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
 | A Quick Guide to Fundamentalism for New Comers Over on Benediction Blogs on, a comment has been made that outsiders to Fundamentalism have difficulty understanding how it all meshes together. Here are some basics. |
Fundamentalism at its best
Christian Fundamentalism at one time was interdenominational. At its best, it was a religious movement that stipulated that the Bible is the sole authority of the Christian faith, so even though people might disagree on some points of interpretation, every issue must be taken to the Scripture. Therefore, diligent study of the Bible and ongoing research to comprehend the ancient languages and their context was the purpose of all theology and Christian practice.
At its worst
At its worst, Christian Fundamentalism has always been a refuge for those who gather up odds and ends of overlooked verses and minor texts and spring ridiculous notions on unsuspecting people. But because of the overall emphasis on thorough study, the kooks were kept in check in the first few decades of the movement, if not eliminated.
Over time, as the authority of Scripture has been more pervasively challenged and as mainstream denominations have tried to encompass more conservative members rather than lose them, Christian Fundamentalism has become almost entirely Pentecostal or Independent Baptist. And these two groups of Fundamentalists are miles, even light years, apart. I don't know much about Pentecostal/Assembly of God fundamentalists. I write about Independent Fundamental Baptists
Another reason for the polarization in Fundamentalism is that the Fundamental Baptists themselves have insisted upon a severe and rigid doctrine of separation from anybody who has fellowship with those who are viewed as "compromisers". Thus the Baptist Fundamentalists pushed out those of similar sentiment because they would not leave their denominations. Methodists and Presbyterians were harried by arguments of separation and so they left Fundamentalism (for the most part; a few rare people remain). The Pentecostals stuck around in the movement a little longer, but the extremes of certain subsets of Pentecostalism (the Oral Roberts visions, etc) got to be too kooky, so all Pentecostals were eventually pushed out into their own distinct subset.
| Eventually, the emphasis on separation led to an emphasis on independence among the Baptist Fundamentalists. Independent Baptists view the autonomy of the local church as the Scriptural method of church government (in spite of the fact that Paul acknowledges himself as being an authority over many churches). And this has led to a dangerous isolationism as well as an incredible authoritarianism that makes the Independent Baptist pastor a pope in his own church. There are some Fundamental Baptist churches that are ruled by a plurality of elders, but such churches are rare. |  |
About 25 years ago, just as the "Baptist-Bride" nonsense was dying down (the belief that the Bride of Christ is made up of Baptists), a notion that the King James version of the Bible is a perfect, inspired translation moved in to fill the stupidity vacuum. The idea caught on slowly at first, for a generation of educated men had to be pushed out by a new generation of dunderheads.
| At the same time, the Jack Hyles style of church practice was catching on. Jack Hyles headed up a movement that teaches that making a church grow in numbers is the primary work and duty of the Christian. He also taught a strict and rigid legalism colored by gross misogyny. The combination of strict legalism, church growth, and the minimizing of Scripture as a convenient tool designed for English speaking people (no longer requiring diligent and regular study) has created the IFB-KJVO movement. It stands for "Independent Fundamental Baptist - King James Version Only". |  |
The IFB-KJVO movement hosts a plethora of corruption that remains un-addressed by its leadership. And when I say corruption, I mean the real thing: sodomizing of little boys, molestation of little girls, child abuse, wife abuse, rampant adultery, pornography, and violence. Not every church is guilty of these things, but the occurrence is far higher than even I had supposed until I started to research it. Reception to my writing about these abuses has been attacks upon my character, baseless accusations, and a silly defensiveness that points out the sins of other denominations (which, as you recall, were pushed away by Fundamentalists years ago). When I present Scripture to the IFB-KJVO preachers to rebut their foolishness, they resort to namecalling and mockery. So far they have failed to produce any Scripture to justify the rampant IFB-KJVO disobedience to the Scriptural demand for purity in the pulpit and purity in church leadership. Read this blog to get the details. Check the list of links to the right.
 | Currently, the watering hole for IFB and former IFB (and recovering from IFB) people is the Fighting Fundamentalist Forums web site, or FFF for short. Over there, people of all shades of Fundamentalism argue, and you can get a good snapshot of the gross ignorance of Scripture in those who most loudly declare the Bible to be the rule for faith and practice. I recommend that you check out the Hyles-Anderson forum to view the IFB-KJVO people in the greatest numbers. If you want to see more detail about the most vociferous posters, you can check out my Cast of Characters |
The Bob Jones University Brand of Fundamentalism
OK, now we have to step outside the arrangement of Fundamentalism to explain how Bob Jones University fits in. BJU is one of the oldest edifices of Fundamentalism in the nation. The founder of the school was in almost on the ground floor of American Christian Fundamentalism. So Bob Jones University was founded before Fundamentalism solidified into two main prongs of Pentecostal or IFB. Historically and in its charter, BJU is interdenominational. Now, the school was at least 90% IFB when I was there in the late 70's and early 80's. The Joneses were Independent Baptist. But we did have other denominations. I entered the school as IFB but exited as a Presbyterian.
BJU had its problems. The inter-racial dating rule was in effect during my time there, and it was a source of grief to a lot of us who knew full well that there was no command against inter-racial dating in Scripture. My pastor back home and my Assistant Pastor were BJU grads who told us kids that we'd get the best Bible teaching in the world at BJU, so it was a great place to go, and when we got home we could forget the rule. (And my home church admitted inter-racially married couples.) Among the majority of the students during my time, the rule was an unspoken embarrassment. After I graduated, when I saw how persons of color automatically took me as a racist because I'd gone to BJU, I felt the embarrassment more acutely and very appropriately. It reflected badly on my Saviour.
But even with that blemish on its faithfulness to the authority of the Scripture, BJU was a place where the administration had good character, and the faculty had good educational standards. The gross ignorance that I see in IFB preachers who come from Hyles-Anderson and other church-sponsored colleges did not occur at BJU. We did get a solid education. While Jack Hyles was making fun of people who "searched the deeeeeeeep, deeeeeeep secrets of Scripture," men like Dr. Terry Rude and Ward Anderson were making us study the deep deep secrets of Scripture if we wanted to pass our courses.
We did not have the gross sexual scandals at BJU that several IFB schools suffered. That is not to say that we didn't have instances of sexual sin. We did. And the offenders were expelled. If they were faculty, they were fired on the spot. It was rare, but it did happen. In fact, one administration member rented an R rated Swarzenegger movie, thought better of it, and returned it without watching it. He was fired for renting it, as renting R rated movies was expressly against the rules. Another faculty member with whom he had discussed the situation was also fired for simply telling him to return the tape and not coming forward (or telling him not to come forward) about it. These were both senior staff members. And readers may blanche at the incredible strictness, but there was certainly no favoritism. If a first year teacher would get fired for a certain infraction, so would somebody on the executive staff.
There was a code of honor at BJU. And there were also rules of treating people with dignity and not berating them. Faculty were not to humiliate students. That also happened at times, but it was dealt with.
It's hard to fit BJU into the slots available. It has been a place that would go its own way in Fundamentalism (often under the mistaken impression that it was setting the rules for Fundamentalism). But in true Independent fashion, it has done little to confront or correct what other Fundamentalist churches do. Bob Jones University and the churches that are friendly to it (which tend to be Independent Baptist but not KJVO) are their own sub-group. But no, the abusiveness that I document is not a part of the BJU culture. I believe that they have failed to confront it and cry out against it sufficiently, but they have not participated in it.
