Reply #14: Fundamentalism? [View All]

[megatherium]

Some of these doctrines are shared by non-fundamentalists. Catholics and many mainline Protestants (Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc) believe in the divinity of Jesus (the Resurrection), but do not believe in inerrancy of the scriptures. Nor do they interpret scripture in a simple-minded, literal way. They also accept evolution (although they might believe that God directed the process in some subtle fashion).

There are also evangelicals who believe in evolution, who believe that the Bible is inspired and infallible. They just don't insist on a literal reading of Genesis 1 - 3, taking "days" to mean "ages".

To make things still murkier, it should be mentioned that political divisions cut across doctrinal lines in an often confusing manner. There are left-wing evangelicals (Jim Wallis is a good example, there are others). Certainly, there are liberals in the mainline denominations. But the fundamentalist megachurches are as a rule strongly right-wing. We have one in the Louisville area, which locals refer to as Six Flags Over Jesus. 18,000 members. By the way, they're having a conference in May about how homosexuals can become straight. (They had a three-sermon series in October about marriage, right before the election, when there was a anti-gay-marriage ballot measure in Kentucky; they also put billboards up all over town about marriage being for one man, one woman. How nice.)