Fundamentalism vs. Pluralism: The Timeless Dilemma

It's no secret that living in these times is both difficult and challenging. For over five thousand years of recorded history we have seen the titanic struggle between the followers of Ishmael and Isaac. Both sides believing that theirs was the one true path to God. Despite the fact that God blessed both sons and said that both would be made into great nations, we have had to endure countless centuries of this nightmare. To this day fundamentalists on both sides continue the struggle. What we are witnessing in the Middle East is in fact an escalation of the never-ending battle.

But fundamentalism isn't merely confined to the Middle East, nor is it only found within conservative elements of Judaism and Islam. The Gentiles (i.e. Christians) are loaded with it. For over a thousand years the stain of blood has washed over the hands of prominent Christian leaders who believed with all their fiber that they were acting at the behest of God. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Missions to areas of the world not yet touched by the West (e.g. Japan, Hawaii) were all tragic examples of a gospel that had been perverted and twisted to suit a narrow and unChristlike worldview. Centuries later the Church is still reaping what it sowed, as now the furry of the descendants of Ishmael has been unleashed on our shores. Blood begetes blood.

But it is not just the bloodshed that defines this struggle, for here in America its manifestation is primarily words - polarizing words. The nation is undergoing its own sort of inquisition as conservative elements within Christian communities, fearful of what they perceive as a waning of moral values, have struck out against anything they view as a threat. Anything is fair game, from homosexuality, to abortion, to school prayer. They've even suggested that because the founding fathers were Christian that the country should in fact be Christian, and therefore no need for a separation of Church and State.

This fundamentalist element in America is not new; it dates back over a century ago with the emergence of science and technology. Debates about the origin of the universe spawned extreme viewpoints on both sides of the aisle between those scientists who adopted and accepted the notion that we were accidents in a random universe and Theologians who stubbornly insisted that chapter one of Genesis be taken literally. The fact that both sides were equally wrong is of little consequence. We have had to deal with the ramifications ever since.

Now the conservative Right has stepped up its assault. It has gone all out in an attempt to "win back" the nation, though from what we're not quite told. Thanks in large measure to the 9/11 terrorists attacks, an us against them mindset has all but blinded these people to the truth. Not content with having the Whitehouse and both houses of Congress under conservative control, it is now targeting the courts, specifically the Supreme Court. It matters not that six of the justices who sit on the bench have been appointed by Republican presidents and that five are considered conservative, the Right won't be satisfied until all of the court is conservative. The retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor and the recent death of William Rehnquist have caused the battle lines to be drawn. At stake is the future of the nation, and quite possibly the world. What happens over the next couple of months will decide the course of history. Who will win? Will it be the fundamentalists of America vs. the fundamentalists of the Middle East? Or will some sanity yet be attained.

Pluralism is often thought of as a four letter word among Christians, and yet if one looks closely enough there is much that is good about it. It has been the pluralism of free market capitalism that has allowed moderate Islamic groups to develop in the Middle East, and many Arab scholars now believe that, far more than the emergence of Christianity, it will be the global market place that will sound the death knell for Islamic extremism. As more and more people in the Arab world get a taste of "the good life," less and less of them will be willing to take their lives in senseless acts of violence.

Conversely, while the Arab world comes to grips with an emerging modern world, our own country seems to be retreating from it. As if somehow believing that putting the jeannie back in the bottle will somehow restore us to a golden era that never existed in the first place, the Right will stop at nothing until they achieve nothing less than total victory no matter the costs.
American pluralism has never been more under attack than it has over the last few years, and for those of us who know better these are indeed dark times in America.

What was remarkable about Jesus' ministry was how wide he cast his net. All were welcomed. He called out to tax collectors, defended prostitutes, and challenged the religious authorities of the day. We need more of that type of Christianity today. In a sense Jesus was the first liberal of his day. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of worrying about whether Rosie O'Donnel was a fit mother, we could make it easier for an unwed mother to raise her children; if instead of chaining ourselves to abortion clinics or trying to overturn Roe v. Wade, we could reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies that result in abortions in the first place; if instead of judging people who are different than us and retreating into our own private Idahos when they don't behave like we want them to do we could learn to love them as Jesus did, then maybe we wouldn't have to "take back" the nation. Like the Israelites' pursuit of the land of milk and honey, it would be ours to have and hold until the end of the age.