Father Nick Blaha on Nostr: If "fundamentalism" just means "people who believe a religion is true" then it's not ...
If "fundamentalism" just means "people who believe a religion is true" then it's not a helpful term.
The term originated with a pushback against liberalizing tendencies in 20th century American Christianity, especially the Scopes trial, and was a term adopted by its adherents to describe their focus on the "fundamentals" of biblical teaching in their literal formulations as printed in the Bible. In other words, it's a variety of [Protestant American] Christianity and there are many Christians who aren't fundamentalists.
https://www.catholic.com/tract/fundamentalism
With regard to the porn/pot legalization question, I just asked because there are lots of reasons why someone could consider porn or pot dangerous besides "it's in my holy book, God said so".
Some examples of secular sources:
https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/research/
https://chasingthescream.com/2015/01/08/letters-with-peter-hitchens/
You don't need to agree with these positions to at least acknowledge they are not "fundamentalist" in any sense of the term.
Personally, I am a Catholic priest and I do not consider legal punishment the best way to solve most problems in society (especially in light of the fact that, in some places, Catholicism is considered a problem the state could "solve"). I do, however, believe that God's revealed teaching is always in harmony with reason, and it's not accurate to dismiss a moral position as "fundamentalist" when there could be any number of reasons why a position is held.
The term originated with a pushback against liberalizing tendencies in 20th century American Christianity, especially the Scopes trial, and was a term adopted by its adherents to describe their focus on the "fundamentals" of biblical teaching in their literal formulations as printed in the Bible. In other words, it's a variety of [Protestant American] Christianity and there are many Christians who aren't fundamentalists.
https://www.catholic.com/tract/fundamentalism
With regard to the porn/pot legalization question, I just asked because there are lots of reasons why someone could consider porn or pot dangerous besides "it's in my holy book, God said so".
Some examples of secular sources:
https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/research/
https://chasingthescream.com/2015/01/08/letters-with-peter-hitchens/
You don't need to agree with these positions to at least acknowledge they are not "fundamentalist" in any sense of the term.
Personally, I am a Catholic priest and I do not consider legal punishment the best way to solve most problems in society (especially in light of the fact that, in some places, Catholicism is considered a problem the state could "solve"). I do, however, believe that God's revealed teaching is always in harmony with reason, and it's not accurate to dismiss a moral position as "fundamentalist" when there could be any number of reasons why a position is held.