Pensees: Fault Lines

Fault Lines

The most thrilling thing about this latest brouhaha is the blurring of stereotypes about “old” and “young” fundamentalists and the unmistakeable emergence of pre-existing fault lines within the fundamentalist orb that are trans-generational.

Dave Doran suggests that it is a “division” in today’s fundamentalism, and what he speaks of as a dividing distinctive is something that is trans-generational. I have always objected to the young/old categories because, in both cases, those phrases can be pejorative and misleading.

The most fascinating responses that I have received are from a generation that has been automatically lumped into an anti-young fundamentalists category by both friend and foe: pastors and missionaries and board members of various associations in their sixties.

Here’s a classic example of some of the letters I have received from men who have been encouraging me on a personal level.

I’ve been following most of the saga. I guess it has underscored that there has always been two fundamentalist camps. We were in the camp that looked on the other as really neo-evangelical, even though they would have seen themselves as fundamentalists. I was brought up in the Dan Sweatt camp, but think this a breath of fresh air, that I hope will be liberating for some guys in my generation who were bullied into passive submission of what standing for truth really is. To this day their consciences are still being held hostage to prevent them from deciding for themselves from the scriptures just what is true fundamentalism.

The die hards (leaders) in Sweatt’s camp won’t be affected by this battle. It will just be proof to them that they alone deserve the word “fundamentalism.” But the handwriting is on the wall and the fundamentalist camp that I knew has its days numbered. . Nothing will revive it, but I hope something better will replace it.