> > From: Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (I think)
> > And you have given me the perfect opening for
> offering up this link:
> >
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-4om/Duncan.html
> >
> > (It's 2 pages, link to second page at the bottom
> of the first page.)
"...Though it may shock those who equate
fundamentalism and Christianity, ninety years ago the
term "fundamentalist" did not exist. The term was
coined by an American Protestant splinter-group which,
in 1920, proclaimed that adhering to "the literal
inerrancy of the Bible" was the true Christian faith.
The current size of this group does not change the
aberrance of its stance: deification of the mere words
of the Bible, in light of every scripture-based wisdom
tradition including Christianity's
two-thousand-year-old own, is not just naiveté: it is
idolatry...
...There is, for most humans born on earth, just one
mother tongue, and a given tongue at a given time
consists of only so many words. These words can absorb
only so many abuses before they cease to mean.
America's spiritual vocabularywith its huge defining
terms such as "God," "soul," "sacrifice," "mysticism,"
"faith,"
"salvation," "grace," "redemption"has been enduring a
series of abuses so constricting that the damage may
last for centuries. Too many of us have tried to
sidestep this damage by simply rejecting the
terminology. But the defamation of a religious
vocabulary cannot be undone by turning away: the harm
is undone when we work to reopen each word's true
history, nuance and depth. Holy words need stewardship
as surely as do gardens, orchards or ecosystems. When
lovingly tended, such words surround us with
spaciousness and mystery the way a sacred grove
surrounds us with peace and oxygenated air. But when
we abandon our holy words and fail to replace them, we
end up living in a spiritual clearcut...
...The God of politically-organized fundamentalism, as
advertised daily by a vast array of media, is a
Supramundane Caucasian Male as furious with humanity's
failure to live by a few lines from Leviticus as He is
oblivious to the "Christian" right's failure to live
the compassion of the gospels and earth-stewardship of
both testaments. As surely as I feel love and need for
food and water, I feel love and need for God. But
these feelings have nothing to do with Supramundane
Males planning torments for those who don't abide by
neocon "moral values." I hold the evangelical truth of
our situation to be that contemporary politicized
fundamentalists, including first and foremost those
aimed at Empire and Armageddon, need us
non-fundamentalists, mystics, ecosystem activists,
unprogrammable artists, agnostic humanitarians,
incorrigible writers, truth-telling musicians,
incorruptible scientists, organic gardeners, slow food
farmers, gay restaurateurs, wilderness visionaries,
pagan preachers of sustainability, compassion-driven
entrepreneurs, heartbroken Muslims, grief-stricken
children, loving believers, loving disbelievers,
peace-marching millions, and the One who loves us all
in such a huge way that it is not going too far to
say: they need us for their salvation.
As Mark Twain pointed out over a century ago, the only
truly prominent community that fundamentalists have so
far established in any world, real or imaginary, is
hell."
Well, I haven't got much to add to this article except
for an 'amen!' (Hmm, although if the term
'fundamentalist' is so new, how did MT comment on it a
hundred years ago?)
Thanks for posting it.
Debbi
Carbon-Based Life Form Indeed Maru ;)
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