“Fundamentalism is too simple and too easy to be true. Its cavalier spirit with God’s glory is the first indicator of its falsity. When all answers are simple, all of the rules clear and easily kept, when doubt and fear and bewilderment and mystery are disavowed and disallowed where certainty about all things is the only permissible path, and leaders exist not to point beyond themselves but to enforce unchallengeable conformity to themselves, there you have fundamentalism in all of its ferocious, shaming, soul-shriveling horror. It is exactly there where you may find many forms of religion, but also exactly there where you won’t find the authentic Christian Faith confessed, explored, & lived. It is one reason why contemporary Evangelicalism is in such disarray & those with questions flee its quarters. A recovery of the Evangelical spirit marked by a humble, thoughtful, & deep reception of Scripture combined with a respectful, humble deep reception of people – the single-hearted double listening that arises from the twin loves of the Great Commandments – must become a priority.”
Fundamentalism is typically the first stick that a liberal fundamentalist like Greg Johnson (he of sodomite but celibate PCA Minister fame) will reach for when he’s been turned to jelly in an argument by an orthodox Christian. I have found that Liberals are consistently the most Fundamentalist people I know. In what follows below I hope to expose Liberal fundamentalism by making them eat their own words.
1.) How much more simple and easy can Liberalism be if all it has to do to stake its superiority is to claim that its opposition is “too simple and easy to be true?” I mean … such a claim is hardly the stuff out of which profundity is made.
2,) Cassidy and Johnson assert but do not demonstrate that Fundamentalism has a cavalier spirit as it concerns God’s glory. I can make the same assertion. “Liberal fundamentalism has a cavalier spirit as it concerns God’s glory.” See, that was easy, and like Cassidy and Johnson, I’m dead serious about that.
3.) In Liberal fundamentalism all answers are simple. How do I know that? Because the answer is always characterized by the lack of certainty that says, “I’m not sure,” as if doubt is somehow an automatically superior position to take. Never mind that the Liberal Fundamentalist is absolutely certain about their uncertainty and if you challenge their certainty in uncertainty then you’re a fundamentalist prig who is always committing the sin of certainty.
4.) Look, you can’t get much more simple than someone telling you, “All the rules are unclear and so can’t be kept.” You can’t get much more simple than telling people, “It’s all bewilderment and mystery so do what thou wilt.” You can’t get much more simple when uncertainty about all things is the only permissible path. You can’t get much more simple than having leaders who point beyond themselves to a great realm of mystery, uncertainty, and bewilderment. In all this one finds Liberal fundamentalism with its demanded conformity to the leader’s insistence that nothing is knowable with certainty, and that doubt is good, fear is understandable, and uncertainty is to be treasured above all prizes.
5.) Liberal Fundamentalism is exactly where you find all forms of mystery religions but also exactly where you won’t find authentic Biblical Christianity confessed, explored, & lived.
All of this is one reason why Liberal Fundamentalism can never provide a satisfying resolution for those seeking answers by which to live. Liberal fundamentalism is in disarray and thinking people are forever fleeing its quarters. We must have a recovery of the Evangelical faith marked by a humble, thoughtful, and deep reception of the certainty that comes from being confident that the Scripture gives us a sure and certain “thus saith the Lord,” to which we can find a sure foundation and not the slippery forever changing base that Liberal fundamentalism offers.
Only with a sure and certain Word can we fulfill the twin commandment requirement to love God and our neighbor.
There is no hope in the dead and uncertain faith of Liberal fundamentalism which Cassidy and Greg Johnson champion.
Ignore their bloviating. It means nothing. Besides, they can’t be certain that they are right because that would be committing the sin of certainty.