The Fundie/Evangelical View of Church History

[Taverner]

I've noticed something from my days at a fundie school, as well as their general take on church history.

Basically after the end of Acts, they fast foward a thousand or so years to the Protestant Reformation. No mention is made of St Augustine, St Francis or any other Saint for that matter. It's as if there was no chuch until Luther, Calvin and Knox came along.

At mainline churches, there was always some talk about the Church pre-Luther, but in fundie churches, Acts ends, and the next morning is the 95-point thesis.

What gives?

[Critters2]

1. Why would you ask here? This isn't the fundie/evangelical forum. nt

[Taverner]

2. Why ask why?

I think it's better I ask here than in say, the gun forum...

[Critters2]

3. If there were specifially a Remington forum, would you go there and ask about Winchesters,

because they're both guns? The name of this group is fairly clear.

[Taverner]

5. Bad analogy

Christian Liberals and Progressive People of Faith have to defend their theology against Fundies and Evangelicals on a regular basis. Atheists like myself do not (part of that whole "hellbound heathen" thing I guess)

So...maybe, just maybe, when doing that you might ask a fundie this question...or whether Catholics from before the Reformation are hellbound....

[Critters2]

7. You seriously think they don't believe we're hellbound, too?

Honestly, you think fundies engage me in debate on a regular basis?!

[Taverner]

9. Oh I'm sure they do - but unlike Catholics and (gasp) the GODLESS...

You guys have a slight chance of being converted to their soulless existence

[Critters2]

12. Please don't bring stuff from Religion here. nt

[Taverner]

14. It's not like this is a thread about religion or anything...

Seriously, You and I, and all of our thoughts, have to live on this planet together.

I'm game for a truce if you are...

Let's be comrades...

[Critters2]

4. Let me clarify...how the hell would we know? nt

[Taverner]

6. See post 5

[Irishonly]

8. I gave up having meaningful discussions

They also justify that the world in only five thousand or so years old. Mostly I notice they shut you out and I swear you can see it in their faces. My fundie sil would tell you that NO catholic will get to heaven because they worship Mary and have a priest forgive their sins. They seem to reject it in principle, body heart and soul and I don't know why.

[Taverner]

10. Yep - when the going gets tough

They spout slogans...

"Hate the sin not the sinner"

"God loves you!"

"Jesus died for your SINS"

"You need to be WASHED in the blood of the LAMB!"

"I'll pray for you"


and so on and so on, ad nauseum

[Irishonly]

11. Yes, it happens

I don't like getting headaches. Like I have said I think my sil prays for me because I am disabled and she thinks I am on a fast track to hell. We can't talk religion anymore since I got very frustrated a couple of years ago and told her she was wrong. It was out of line for me to do that.

[Critters2]

13. yeah. I hate it when people tell me God loves me. nt

[Taverner]

15. Your mother loves you too. Do you want a reminder every five minutes?

[Critters2]

16. Every five minutes?! If you're talking to fundies every 5 minutes, why don't you ask them the

question that started this thread?

[onpatrol98]

17. Slogan spouting time!!!

"God loves you and so do we!"

"Jesus died for your SINS and you too can be saved!"

"You need to be WASHED in the blood of the LAMB!"

"We'll pray for you!"


"Let me know when I get to ad nauseam...I'll just be warming up at that point!"

Thank you for joining us and giving us an opportunity to share and work on all of our slogans. Let us know which ones work.

[northoftheborder]

18. I react negatively when someone tells me that...

....they are praying for me; I mean when they say it, out of context, - not for some specific reason, like illness, or other difficulty. And I believe in God and prayer, but for some reason it just puts me off. Do others react that way?

[Critters2]

19. When someone expresses any kindness toward me,

I thank them. It's not my place to judge their motive nor sincerity.

[Taverner]

21. Fundies praying for someone is code for "I disapprove of you"

[onpatrol98]

24. Or, that they love you...

You are loved...by Fundies. Which is better than being loved by undies. May God bless Taverner with a great day today.

Amen

[arely staircase]

26. yes, it can be classic passive agressive behavior nt

[Thats my opinion]

20. What is more

Most fundamentalist sermons are from the Old Testament, using texts that are out of context bloody and crude. What you write is a description of something I have called, "a cultivated sense of historic discontinuity."

[regnaD kciN]

22. Actually, it's not that long a jump...

Most fundies I know think Church history runs from the establishment of the early Church through the Roman persecution (lots of great descriptions of bravery in the face of lions in the Coliseum!) and the conversion of Constantine (great, because it made Christianity the official religion -- bad because it let to...gasp!...Catholicism!), then make a quick stop for Augustine, because a) his story of conversion seems right out of their style of "being turned from a life of sin to follow Jesus" rather than the more mainstream notion of growing up in the faith from the start, and b) because his meditations on his conversion led to the (anti-Christian, IMHO) notion of predestination so beloved of Calvin.

Then, from Augustine, it's pretty much a straight shot direct to Luther, although those who have read Halley's Bible Handbook can also produce lots of lurid, tabloid-style anecdotes of the evils of the Popes, as preparation to God "restoring his Church" via the reformers.

[Taverner]

23. True that - I remember in Fundie Jr High we did discuss Constantine, then FF to Luther/Calvin

A good 1000 years completely left out...

[arely staircase]

25. I think you answer your own question

fundamentalist/evangelicals have come along much later in the history of Christianity. In fact, your modern day charismatics date only to the past hundred years or so.

[sweetloukillbot]

27. I read somewhere that the rise in Fundamentalism really took off after World War II

There has always been Conservatism in the church, but the imminent "Christ is coming - look busy" "Left Behind" "Late Great Planet Earth" Rapture stuff really took hold as a reaction to the A-Bomb and the Cold War. With death on a scale unimaginable all of a sudden very real, the hallucinations in Revelation don't seem so surreal anymore I guess.

[arely staircase]

28. yeah, all that is fairly new - modern day fundamentalists can trace their

Christian heritage back to about the mid 1800s. there is a multi-generational meme among these people - that drinking any alchohol is a sin - yet this was not part of Christian debate until the mid 19th century, coinciding with the temperance movement in this country. same with most of the end-times stuff.