I am not a fundamentalist. At least I don’t think that I am. In fact, I have prided myself on some occasions with my acerbic criticism of those who wear their fundi-wear a little too tight. But here recently, as I look in the mirror and watch some of my friends, I wonder if we are not the ‘new fundamentalists’.
See I am like many of my friends. I am 32 year old pastor. I am a Calvinist and I love the gospel of Christ. I have multiple tattoos and am sketching another right now. I am comfortable wearing my 14 gauge earrings, flat bill, suede Adidas, grunged out jeans. I drink almost exclusively English imported Beer (St. Peter’s and Boddingtons are favorites). I don’t listen to Christian radio and could not tell you the difference between the Newsboys or Casting Crowns (I actually had to google ‘top Christian bands’ to get that info). And on and on the list could go, but you get the idea. I’m one of these guys.
What comes with this is a subtle impatience and perhaps even a prejudice against someone who might not be down with my preferences or liberties, either explicitly or implicitely. I have even caught myself questioning other people’s motives for doing what they do (this is obviously out of bounds 1 Cor 4).
This is really dangerous. Our moral code (in this case liberties and preferences) becomes the test of our orthodoxy. This sounds a lot like some of the chatter we overhear in the KJV only, white dress shirt and tie wearing, no movie watching, liberty impugning fundamentalists who are just trying not to ‘be worldly’. These fundamentalists have their codes and so do we. Ours just look a little different then theirs. We just look a little more like the world around us. Maybe this is our preference or perhaps it is our craving.
The danger in this type of new fundamentalism is the same as with the old. The glory of Christ gets eclipsed by the glory of self. Our identity slow becomes wrapped up in who we are not rather than who Christ is. And if you think I am exaggerating just read some blogs that show the way Christians, specifically young Reformed Christians, defend their leaders (who reflect them) and attack their leaders’ foes (who do not reflect them).
This is really troubling to me. I see a lot of friends who are passionate about a lot of things, to include, theology, preferences, and who we are not. But are we chiefly passionate about Christ?
This is really tricky for people like me and my peers because we like to not look like the typical pastor. We enjoy when we meet an unbeliever and tell them that we are a pastor and they say, “I would have never guessed that!” We enjoy when we have something in common with the unbeliever as we aim to be missional. We have these built in affirmations that we are right as we may tick off fundamentalists…after all we are reaching unbelievers and we are biblical in our theology. Why question our motives?
I am just trying to be transparent here. I see the dangerous tendencies. I see my frustration with evangelicalism’s preoccupation with everything but the gospel fueling a pendulum swing the other way that looks different, talks different, and acts different but at the end of the day does the same thing: it promotes and preserves an identity other than Christ.
As a good sinner I see this to be far more prevalent in other guys’ lives than my own. But I know it is here. I know my heart is an idol factory that can take and corrupt good things. I know that I secretly crave affirmation from the world around me. I know that I want to indulge my flesh. I know that I want to evaluate people based on my standards. I know my pride swollen heart really does want to eclipse Christ’s glory even through the Trojan horse of ministry. I know that I need to spend much more time evaluating my own heart in light of the word of God rather than evaluating others’ in light of my own standards. Because at the end of the day, the last thing I want to become is a ‘cooler’ fundamentalist who is always bitter, angry, and, of course, right.
The answer is what we always say, “You need to preach the gospel to yourself and believe it!” The danger of the personality cults and identity crisises are an age old problem. The Apostle Paul dealt with it in Corinth (1 Cor. 3). And the answer is the same today:
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”v (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)
O’ that my boast would truly be in the one who has indeed become wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption!