2. Christian Fundamentalism in America

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Christian fundamentalists vigorously opposed theological modernism, which, as the “higher criticism” of the Bible, involved the attempt to reconcile traditional Christian beliefs with modern science and historiography. Fundamentalists opposed the teaching of the theory of biological evolution in the public schools and supported the temperance movement against the sale and consumption of intoxicating liquor. Nevertheless, for much of the 20th century, Christian fundamentalism in the United States was not primarily a political movement. Indeed, from the late 1920s until the late 1970s, most Christian fundamentalists avoided the political arena, which they viewed as a sinful domain. A basic theme of Christian fundamentalism, especially in its early years, was the doctrine of separation: real Christians must remain separate from the impure and corrupt world of those who have not been born again (Catholic and Orthodox Christians).

The apolitical attitude of many Christian fundamentalists was linked to their premillennial eschatology, that is the belief that Jesus Christ will return to initiate the millennium, a thousand-year period of perfect peace. There is no point in trying to reform the world, according to the premillennialists, because it is doomed until Jesus returns and defeats the Antichrist. In contrast, postmillennialists believed that spiritual and moral reform would lead to the millennium, after which Christ would return. Thus, whereas premillennialism implied political passivity, postmillennialism implied political activism. Belief and practice, however, do not always coincide in both groups.

Despite the prominence of the Christian Right in American politics in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, millions of Christian fundamentalists continued to focus their attention on the religious and personal domains. They were not overtly political, and they certainly did not attempt to remake state and society according to biblical precepts. Even those who were politically active tended to be concerned with moral issues (abortion, school prayer, and homosexuality) rather than with the goal of transforming the United States into a Christian theocracy.

The negative connotations of the term “Fundamentalism”led some politically active Christian fundamentalists to search for other names for their movement. Thus, some preferred to call themselves “Christian conservatives.” Many members of the Christian Coalition, the most influential organization of the Christian Right in the 1990s identified themselves as “charismatic Evangelicals”. Charismatics stressed the ecstatic experience of the Holy Spirit as manifested by speaking in tongues and faith healing. Besides they were opposed by more-traditional fundamentalists, such as the televangelist Jerry Falwell, who proudly retained the older designation and condemned the charismatics’ ecstatic practices.

The Christian Right that emerged with the formation of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority in 1979 was a response to transformations in American society and culture that took place in the 1960s and ’70s. Fundamentalists were alarmed by civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the gay rights movement; the relatively permissive sexual morality prevalent among young people; the teaching of evolution; and rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court that banned institutionally initiated group prayer and reading of the Bible in public schools and that affirmed the legal right to abortion. All developments that could threaten country’s traditional moral values. However Christian Evangelicals, who represented roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population at the start of the 21st century, do not uniformly share all the views of fundamentalists or the Christian Right.

Intercultural and interdisciplinary information

Protestant Christian fundamentalists have generally viewed both Roman Catholicism and Mormonism as non-Christian “cults.” Conservative Catholics, Mormons, and Orthodox Jews, however, tend to agree with Protestant fundamentalists on issues like abortion, gay rights, and traditional moral values in general.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/religion/religion.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_sexuality