Fundamentalists Live In Fear

So, here's a revelation that I want to share:

Conservative and fundamentalist Christians live in fear. And here's why.

1. They believe that the actions of a few bring punishment on the whole.

2. They believe that the force of law must be used to purify and unify the population to avoid God's wrath.

3. They believe in using Christianity as a Criminal code, using the verse of Paul and Simon and Peter and even Jesus to write criminal statutes because of their fear.

4. They believe that religion is sufficient to explain the natural workings of the world, and that all other perspectives are invalid because Man's understanding of nature isn't perfect...yet some how their understanding of the divine will of God is perfect for some reason.

5. They believe in the ultimate supremacy of Christianity and that all other cultures, viewpoints, and religions are apostasies and must be trampled out to protect the "moral integrity" of society.

It's true that the Bible has stories in it, particularly in the Old Testament where actions of the one or the few has caused God to turn his back on his people. However, we do not live in the Old Testament under the law of the Old Testament God. He formed a new Covenant with us, that we listen to his teachings, walk in faith, and serve man as Christ served man during his ministry.

Christ never called for nor did he ever hint at Christianity being institutionalized. Christianity was to be a private walk between you and your savior, acting on the convictions of your heart, and displaying his love and glory in your every day life and your normal, regular interactions.

Christ never called for "eye for an eye" manner of thinking. He sought fair and equitable justice for people who did wrong, and he called for mercy, compassion, and mitigation. God being a just judge, I believe, will truly be the "one-on-one" judge taking every single thought, motive, and reason into account in the end just as an earthly judge would.

Christ's whole centerpiece of ministry was to serve. To go into the masses with your gifts and be a quiet, responsible, just, kind, giving servant to man. Such acts express Christ's love to everyone.

You more fundamentalist Christians out there, you live in fear, you walk in fear, and you work in fear because you fear that if you're not perfect, God will smite you, smite the nation, and smite the people. And I tell you that it is a lie. God is not an authoritarian, Christ is not his henchman here to club you for being you.

Your walk of fear has caused you to delude yourselves into subjugating millions of people across the world, making gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgendered persons live in fear for their lives, believing that your only desire in life is to persecute them, rob them of their civil liberties, and suppress who they are as people, who they were naturally crafted to be.

You seek to suppress women by some outdated notion that women are less than men, due to an obscure event in GENESIS which you believe God said women are subservient to men. Christ broke that norm when he told men to cherish, love, and protect their women just as Christ loves, and cherishes the Church. Women are not to serve you, you and women are to serve each other as equals, partners, companions in all ventures, journeys, pains, and hurts.

1st Peter 3:1-7

1 Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. 4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 5 For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, 6 like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

So, yes I write to criticize and oppose fundamentalism, because in of itself it is wrong in all ways. It takes 1/2 a passage, message, and purpose, and writes its own 2nd half. Tolerance, respect, love, compassion, empathy, and mercy are qualities that NO Christian should ever be without if they expect to truly serve the will of Christ, which is to serve.

1st Timothy 1:1-18

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

2 To Timothy, my dear son:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 8 So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 9 He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. 12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.