August 6, 2012

  • It's fundamental......

    Some things I think I should think more about.....

    Fundamentalists.

    These folks are absolutely sure that they and they alone know the right way to act/profess faith/live in a religious sense.  Most religions have them and they seem to share the same traits.  For example, they adhere (like superglue) to the exact writings of the holy writings of their religion.  To the letter, in fact, to each jot and tittle (dot and cross) of the lettering.  Fundamentalists are also very adamant that if one does not follow their brand of said religion, then the individual is not a follower but either fallen/heretic/corrupted.  Often fundamentalists believe in segregating their people and enforcing strict rules on women, children, dress and education.

    I suppose, being a woman, I tend to look at fundamentalism as a "not for me" simply because I cannot live within the constrictions of being a what amounts to a non-person.  Believing that God created me in His image, I find it hard to believe that human men can define that image for me.  Man's problems with keeping his attention from wandering to lust is not, in my opinion, reason for me to swaddle up.  I will admit that I do not flaunt it.  (Frankly, I don't have it to flaunt.)  Due to some mobility issues, I prefer slacks to dresses, for example.  My hair is unruly so I wear it short most of the time. (A brief time of letting it grow from spring into summer reminded me just why it was that I kept it short.)  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not only opinionated, I am pretty free with expressing those opinions.  Standing in the background keeping silent is not my style.  God has led me to use my education and my ability to speak in front of groups to occasionally deliver sermons when asked. Most of these things about me tend to annoy fundamentalists of the Christian faith. I'm pretty sure they would also annoy fundamentalists of other faiths as well.

    It's becoming apparent that history is pushing fundamentalists of various types into conflict with one another.  This past week's Time Magazine included an article on the ultra-conservative Jews who are, in the words of the article, taking over Jerusalem one neighborhood at a time.  These individuals are buying out/driving out more moderate Jews and establishing neighborhood enclaves of very strict religious lives.  Their influence is extending to advertising in the city, where women are no longer appearing on billboard and flyers and where women must ride in the back of the bus. They have not endeared themselves to their neighbors by creating "zones" which mark their area and they mark with putting stakes and wires up on private property.  The younger adherents are more militant than their elders, pushing and provoking their neighbors and flat out telling them to move away.

    There has been much said about Muslim Sharia Law and how it is a threat to other's ways of life.  Sharia Law firmly places women in a second class and devises all types of harassment (all based on the Koran, they say) to keep women in that place.  We are horrified at honor killings, and yet they persist.  Not too long ago, a woman was executed for adultery, but I'm pretty sure she did not commit adultery all by herself.  Where was the punishment for the man?  Sharia Law is intended to keep believers on a narrow path and women in a small place.

    What do you think will happen when that narrow path leads both groups to Jerusalem?  Both share some hallmarks but both believe only themselves to be the right way to live.

    Christian fundamentalists share some of those hallmarks as well.  Defining dress, limiting education, defining communities are all parts of this way of life. 

    In the USA, we believe in freedom of/from religion.  So far, the Constitution has held.  But I have to wonder....will it always?