By Vexen Crabtree 2003 May 31
Fundamentalism is continuing its rise to power within otherwise moderate or liberal Christian communities. In case you're not aware that this is happening ... it is (and has been happening since the very beginnings of second century Christian literalism).
List all the pages on fundamentalism
List all the pages on religion in UK & England
Along with strong Catholic and Christian Fundamentalist pressure, European politics (take note of the issues surrounding 'god' and the European Constitution2 and recent issues on faith schools) is suffering slightly (but increasingly) from the growing numbers of Fundamentalist Muslim organisations. As a result of this pressure, Anti-gay, anti-secular and sectarian (in particular: faith schools) legislation has been successfully passed in recent years, notably the approved 2003 Dec law in the UK which will allow Christian managers to fire gay staff.
Many Christian groups do oppose this growing fundamentalism, but their resistance is too slow, too little and too polite... too liberal, too pacifist. If the Church of England, especially its upper management, was to oppose this fundamentalism, the Church would split and the liberals would be financially bankrupt3... Reform has the upper hand, and it knows it. It merely has to continue to exist in order to gain victory... the solution is, and has always been, the heavy promotion of strong secular education and the removal of faith schools, and strong and powerful governmental statements supporting separation of Church and State... so that when the fundamentalists do take over, they are powerless to harm society in general. As an added bonus, the Catholic Churches powerful dogmatic religious barbarian attitudes to sex and education could also be defanged.
Although I have known "normal" evangelicals, what's on the rise is definitely extreme evangelicalists within liberal and mainstream Christianity. This topic has been given more interest recently, and three respectable books that touch on this are (The voluminous book 'Social Trends in Britain since 1900' can be used to view the raw data that some of these books have also partially used)
Things are going to continue until the liberals either get organized, or the Churches of the world disintegrate further into smaller and smaller units, or fundamentalism overcomes its schismatic nature and does indeed reform the C of E into a Christian version of an Islamic Authoritarian Protectionate. Steve Bruce dedicates a chapter to look at possible explanation as to why religious fervour in the USA is akin to its level in third world countries rather than developed ones. Steve Bruce iterates through the statistics particular to Christianity more than the other two books cited.
1.2. Why are the evangelicals successful?6
The evangelicals are intensely organized, whereas the liberals and mainstream have had no need to be organized. "One embittered liberal rector of a London parish said yesterday: 'The trouble is that the evangelicals are so much better organised than we are. We need to get our act together'."7
Anglican Mainstream (despite the title, this is a fundamentalist group) and other evangelical groups are funded by rich American evangelical churches that are largely business orientated and middle-class populated. This organisation and more worldly outlook is opposed to normal (especially British, European and African) Christianity which does not pursue business interests, but actively shuns commercialism wherever possible. Of course this has, unfortunately for the Anglicans, resulted in a history of financial mismanagement.
"A large number of studies agree that the growth of conservative Protestantism owes little to the recruitment of people who were previously atheists or even liberal Christians. The real difference lies in the retention of children. [...] A survey [...] showed that 72 percent of those who joined in a four-year period were moving from other evangelical churches. Only 28 percent were 'converts' and almost three-quarters of these were the children of evangelists. This suggests that the explanation for the different fate of the denominational and sectarian versions of Protestantism has more to do with the ability to retain children rather than attractiveness to outsiders"
"Religion" by Steve Bruce [info/quotes]p88
The Catholic Church is not as hateful as the fundamentalists, and is perhaps (ironically, given that historically the Catholics and Protestants have tried to kill each other for more than a few hundred years) a saving grace against the strong Evangelical groups, dwarfing all of them, even the Southern Baptists. Although not exactly a fortitude of morality or positive social action, it is at least "medium", and not fundamentalist. European Christianity will not fall to Fundamentalism yet, but it is definitely an event this is in the pipeline, and maybe within this generation. Some countries such as Greece, of course, are basically as fundamentalist as some Islamic countries, similar to Turkey. Other countries like Poland seem to be fortified, by the Catholic Church, against extreme fundamentalism. The core of Europe, and old Europe, is distinctly non-Christian and has been for a century, but powerful Christian groups can only be slowly de-entangled from secular governments.
Sociologists and insiders on the C of E (e.g., Monica Furlong, Rowan Williams himself, etc) have commented that there is a possible fragmentation of the Church of England... a breaking up of the Anglican Church into Evangelical (and other) groups1. The remaining liberal core, what is traditionally considered to be the center of the C of E, will be bankrupt, it is only the evangelical branches that can financially hold their own. After a series of serious financial scandals3 ten years ago, after which it reformed its financial management and even lent some of this management to secular businessmen, the Church of England has not been financially comfortable. It is selling churches and property, reducing paraphernalia, and increasingly sharing its staff across multiple sites.
3.2. Evangelical & Fundamentalist groups within the Church of England include:
The Church of England is going to face some moral tests... it has a chance now to catch up with common moral society and accept gay marriage and gay relationships. If the series of events leading to this test (modern secular anti-discrimination, sexual and gender equality) and the recent Anglican gay marriage in Vancouver1 had occurred a few decades ago, the liberal Church of England would have led the world in its support of moral society. However, since then growing fundamentalism has disabled the C of Es useful role in the promotion of equal legal rights. Reform and other Evangelical Fundamentalist Christian groups such as the Christian Institute have gained enough power within the Church of England that the C of E is now seriously challenged. What could be a chance for it to remain at the moral forefront of Christianity is turning into a sign of the times: Fundamentalist Christianity is becoming the strongest element within Christianity.
This is bad news for gays, women, liberals and Europe if the Anglican Church cannot hold out, just for a few more decades, against the growing USA-inspired fundamentalism that is weeding its way up the C of E power ranks. This is leading to, effectively, the decline of classically liberal Christianity in Europe, and the rise of widespread fundamentalism as the last remaining Christian forces.
The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, told the Church of England Newspaper that "It is a convenient fiction that it is only evangelicals that are concerned, but it is certainly not the case"5.
The government and National Lottery (Lotto) are in the habit of directly funding, amongst other things, Church repair work; not only on Churches that are Listed Buildings, either, and the Government also helps funds fundamentalist and extreme Christian faith schools such as those ran by the Vardy Foundation, which is opening a new evangelical school in Middlesbrough4. Even France suffers from an increasing problem of faith schools. In Scotland an Islamic one was recently closed (taken over) for continually failing on education, fitness & other issues. Although it did excel in fundamentalism & Koran studies. This particular school was so extreme that the Muslim community itself had raised concerns about its fundamentalism. That this is possible shows that the government is too lax on its approach to faith schools.
Links:
Problems:
Growing fundamentalism within liberal Christianity & western religion
Secular society not being aware of this and not knowing enough to fear it
Solutions:
Opposition and closing of faith schools
Removal of religion-specific legal rights
Heavy promotion of scientific education
Raising awareness of the threat of fundamentalism growing from within the Anglican communion
Support of gay tolerance (to show up the immorality of fundamentalists)
Removal of religious pathways of power
As ever, this is a Satanic (or Godly, if you're a normal Christian or theist) call to arms against fundamentalism, and anything that promotes Stupidity, the cardinal sin of Satanism and my most hated enemy. Joining groups such as the National Secular Society allow you to take a more active and useful interest in secular politics, and so does bringing to our attention various local events.
Related pages:
Links:
By Vexen Crabtree 2003 May 31