As I stated in my previous blog, fundamentalist Christianity (or Islam or Mormonism or any other religion described this way) is very hard to define.  But it's fairly easy to identify when it started.  In the post-"Origin of Species" 1890's, some churches and denominations took the idea of Scripture being metaphoric to places it had not been for quite some time.  Was Jesus really born of a virgin?  Was there really a resurrection?  Does sin exist?  None of these ideas were new, they date back to the Gospels themselves, but for the first time they were being considered by large numbers of church leaders.  Those holding to a more strict understanding of inerrancy were concerned by this trend, and groups like the Conference of Conservative Protestants  were formed.

At first this fundamentalist movement was fairly true to the etymology of the label.  Their energy was put into defending the 'fundamentals' of the Christian faith.  In other words, it was a theological movement.  Of course, by then, there were already conservative protestant groups who were Calvinist and others Armenian; Some who baptized babies and others who baptized only professing believers, so the 'fundamentals' were never fully agreed upon.

Then enter the post World War One era, and a move toward the carefree and humanistically-driven era that would become the Roaring Twenties.  For the first time, fundamentalist Christians (Remember: hard to define, but everyone knew who they were) began exerting political pressure, primarily on the issues of prohibition of alcohol and the teaching of  biblical creationism only in schools.  With the embarrassing defeat of having the 18th amendment repealed by the 21st amendment, and the public humiliation of the Scopes 'monkey trial' (even though Scopes was found guilty), the blend of fundamentalist religion and socially  conservative politics seemed to be a failed experiment.  Little was heard of this movement through the Depression and World War Two, and fundamentalists returned again to focusing on theology.  

Then came the Cold War.  With Marxism spreading throughout Europe, fundamentalist politics reappeared to stop the spread of the 'godless Communists'.  I will be the first to say that any society that tries to restrict or ban the reasonable practice of religion is, in fact, oppressive; no doubt.  But the Red Scare of this time was overkill to say the least.  Even Lucille Ball was accused of being a commie, to which her husband, Dezi, gave the classic reply, "The only thing red about Lucy is her hair, and even that is from a bottle."  

Before moving further through recent history, I must make two more points about the Cold War.  First, the churches in the Eastern Block and China were some of the strongest in the world during this time. Of course, they didn't have the numbers of people they did prior to the Communist take-overs of their nations, but the Christians were united across denominational lines and uncompromising in their beliefs.  As a pastor friend once said, "There is no doubt the church can survive persecution; the question is, can it survive prosperity." 

 Second, I believe the fall of Communism was an act of God: arguably the most powerful 'empire' on the planet was brought down-  for the most part-  without any shots being fired.  Yes, the Romanian people killed their dictator on Christmas Day, 1989 (Ah, Christmas in Romania, where Ceausescu was hung by the chimney with care) but that was virtually all the violence it took for the geopolitical world to change forever in a very short time.  In hindsight, it seems like God was on His throne all the time, and the fundamentalists could have trusted God more, politicized less,and the end result would have been the same.

In the 1970's, at the height of the Cold War, and the escalation of terrorism in the name of Islam, Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, and Christian fundamentalism quickly became a political force to be reckoned with... and often mocked.  The primary social issue the Moral Majority put forth to the public was abortion. So powerful was Falwell that when Ronald Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Conner for consideration for the Supreme Court, he personally phoned Falwell - who opposed this appointment - and told him, "You'll have to trust me on this one."  Yet for all of Jerry's bluster and influence, the 1980's saw the highest abortion rate ever in the United States.  "Why?" one might ask.

Perhaps because, while abortion and Communism were the primary issues presented publicly as Falwell's major  concern, his bigger concerns were more veiled.  Tax exempt status and other religious freedom concerns were the driving force of the Religious Right from the start.  They were active in defending Bob Jones University's ban on interracial dating, for example.  More alarming was Falwell's willingness to get into bed with anyone who advanced his agenda. Take the odd relationship he had with cult leader Sun Myung Moon.  Moon claimed to be the messiah sent from God to finish the work Jesus failed to do 2000 years ago.  In spite of this assertion, which biblically matches the definition of an antichrist (there is not one person call the Antichrist, according to Scripture, but many antichrists) Rev. Falwell was more than happy to appear along side of him and allow him in the pulpit at Liberty University.  Moon may have been a false prophet, but, praise God, he believed in good old fashioned, unbridled  Capitalism.  That was good enough for the Moral Majority.

This type of  schmoozing compromise made it harder, not easier, to define what fundamentalism is.  And it hasn't gotten any easier in the last three and a half decades.

Reverends Moon and Falwell enjoy an embrace as they paused their fight of Communism.

TO BE CONTINUED