What do you understand a FUNDAMENTALIST to be?

[Jordi Culé]

Jordi – in answer to your first question, no, I did not hold those qualities before I became a Christian. I was intolerant, judgemental and very lacking in compassion! I am ashamed to admit it but on occasions these traits can occasionally still creep into my mind when I observe what is going on in the world. My main negative reaction these days is anger, anger at all the injustices in the world. I can even get angry with God which is stupid really as the things I get angry about are man-made, but I guess he is big enough to take it.

Re your second question: I am very wary of far right American Christians, not that I know any personally but from what I observe on TV and also from some of the YouTube videos that are out there. One sickening image I remember was of Donald Trump waving a Bible about in front of a church in the USA somewhere. The verse that comes to mind is: By their deeds you will know them. Does a man gather grapes from thorns or figs from briars?” (Matthew 7:16).

The story in the link you provided is quite shocking. As I’ve said before, Jesus came with a new covenant which supercedes the OT covenant. It was quite common in OT days for folk to sacrifice animals as burnt offerings to God as atonement for their sins but Jesus himself was ultimately the supreme sacrifice so this practice is no longer necessary.

The OT takes sin very seriously, as a contamination that can disrupt the good order God places in creation and that can potentially cause chaos in the world. To cleanse sin from the community, life was required. I think Moses who gave the laws to the people was overzealous in his understanding of what God wanted. It was very important to keep order especially when the Jews were involved in the exodus. Of course, it’s very difficult for us 21st century folk to get our head around these ancient customs. Maybe this is where these American Christian Nationalists are getting their ideas from i.e. remove offenders from society (permanently) in order to maintain social order!

Cheers for your very personal contribution. Takes something to do that on an open forum but I guess you're happy answering any questions.

If religion/Christianity works for you then great. I've no problem with people's personal beliefs, it's a bit colloquial and probably simplistic but "whatever floats your boat..."

I obviously 'don't believe' but do recognise religion can make some people better personalities for whatever reasons that maybe.

I'm an atheist but there again so was Han Solo.

I live with a church goer and alhough we have had theological discussions it's never descended into argument and they've never felt the need to suggest my lifestyle or beliefs are wrong.

I do take issue with any religious groups/parties who try to set an agenda or pass down doctrines on others where my use of the term 'fundamentalist' was used, with a negative view. You've taken your time to clear that up and we've agreed the term can be construed and interpreted in different ways with a number of meanings.

[Gofer Blue]

Cheers for your very personal contribution. Takes something to do that on an open forum but I guess you're happy answering any questions.

If religion/Christianity works for you then great. I've no problem with people's personal beliefs, it's a bit colloquial and probably simplistic but "whatever floats your boat..."

I obviously 'don't believe' but do recognise religion can make some people better personalities for whatever reasons that maybe.

I'm an atheist but there again so was Han Solo.

I live with a church goer and alhough we have had theological discussions it's never descended into argument and they've never felt the need to suggest my lifestyle or beliefs are wrong.

I do take issue with any religious groups/parties who try to set an agenda or pass down doctrines on others where my use of the term 'fundamentalist' was used, with a negative view. You've taken your time to clear that up and we've agreed the term can be construed and interpreted in different ways with a number of meanings.

No problem, always happy to share my views with others and never afraid of having my faith challenged. However as I always say, judge me by my actions not my words - somewhat difficult on an Internet forum of course! There must now be many people on this forum who have been exposed to Christian thinking (1650 views of this thread to date but only 44 replies, mostly from the same dozen or so people). In a sense that's all I can do then, I have shared the gospel as Jesus requires of his followers but the rest is up to them.