One of the frustrations of writing my poor, little blog is that sometimes I write something that I think could be really important to people and because of my tiny reach into the blogosphere, it passes by mostly unnoticed. A couple of weeks ago I wrote an essay on what I called New Fundamentalism which was one of those posts. See, over the years I have often been accused of not taking the bible seriously or treated as suspect by fundamentalist/conservative evangelical types. They disapprove of my rejection of literal creationism or of the subordination of women or some such sacred cow. But as anyone who has read the things I write here can tell, I take the bible very seriously. I have devoted a ridiculous amount of time to study, prayer and research in my quest to understand the bible better. The real problem, in my opinion, is that traditional fundamentalists take the wrong things literally. So, I pulled out a list of often quoted but usually ignored verses which I proposed be taken literally by all believers, regardless of denomination or doctrine. But, like a lot of what I write, it mostly disappeared into the vapor of cyberspace.
I think that this matter is too important to allow it to just disappear like that without a bit of a fight. So, I have created a page dedicated just to this list of fundamental bible verses. It is called A New Fundamentalism. All it consists of is the essay and list of scripture verses I posted earlier. I’m simply looking for people to “Like” the essay and if they choose, pass the link around. Perhaps in a few days, I will be able to put together a button for people to put on their own blog pages to link to the site. I have also created a facebook page for the site that you can like and share with your friends.
This isn’t an attempt to compete with or displace anything. I really do think that the verses I collected represent an excellent starting point for anyone who is serious about their faith – from a homeschooling, creationism, complementarian fundamentalist Christian to a liberal miracle doubting, gay marriage supporting believer. As for the rest, God holds truth. We will continue to disagree about many things, but as one of the verses listed says, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:35. At this point, the body of Christ is known for many things, but love is rarely at the top of the list. And if love is not at the top of the list, then the world is right to wonder whose disciples we’re supposed to be.
So, please head over to the New Fundamentalism site and check it out. If you can abide by what is said there, like it, tweet it, share it! But let’s try not to let these vital fundamentals of our faith disappear into cyberspace.
