{"id":55834,"date":"2013-08-05T07:06:45","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T06:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/5-biblical-concepts-fundamentalists-just-dont-understand\/55834\/"},"modified":"2013-08-05T07:06:45","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T06:06:45","slug":"5-biblical-concepts-fundamentalists-just-dont-understand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/5-biblical-concepts-fundamentalists-just-dont-understand\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Biblical Concepts Fundamentalists Just Don\u2019t Understand"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com\/Vlue<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

July 30, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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Right-wing Evangelical Fundamentalism claims to \u201cgo back to roots of Christianity.\u201d In fact, the \u201cliteral\u201d (i.e. the earth was created in seven literal days) reading of the Bible was invented in the 19th century<\/a>. Few fundamentalists care about the early church, the Gospels, the Catholic traditions, Augustine, Arian heresies, encyclicals and councils. Rather, they blend Southern Conservatism, bastardized Protestantism, some Pauline doctrine, gross nationalism and a heavy dose of naive anti-intellectualism for a peculiar American strain of bullshit. As Reverend Cornel West has noted, \u201cthe fundamentalist Christians want to be fundamental about everything, except \u2018love thy neighbor.’\u201d <\/p>\n

Here are some verses we liberal Christians wish they would get \u201cfundamentalist\u201d about :<\/ins><\/p>\n

1. Immigration:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The verse:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. – Leviticus 19:33-34. <\/p>\n

Why Fundamentalists Hate This Verse:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because fundamentalists are xenophobic: religious fundamentalism is a reaction to the multiculturalism of liberal democracy. Rather than seek a \u201cbrotherhood of man,\u201d religious fundamentalism longs for a tribal community, without the necessary friction from those with foreign beliefs, cultures and customs. Here\u2019s an open letter<\/a> from the President of an organization called Christians for A Sustainable Economy<\/em> (Or as I call it: Christians for an unsustainable<\/em> environment): <\/p>\n

We are called to discern among,\u00a0\u201csojourners\u201d (like Ruth and Rahab who intend to assimilate and bless) and \u201cforeigners\u201d (who do not intend to assimilate and bless) and to welcome the former with hospitality. <\/p>\n

This is an odd spin, given that in Leviticus, the command is unambiguous, there is no aside about a distinction between those who intend to assimilate. The letter then addresses the immigration bill: <\/p>\n

Its passage would allow 11 million illegal immigrants to become citizens in the short-term, with likely an additional 20 million family members as new citizens within about a decade. … The net price tag of S. 744 will be in the trillions of dollars. … Such escalation of debt is one way to destroy a nation. \u00a0It is immoral. It is theft from American seniors and children. It is unbiblical. It is unkind. <\/p>\n

I could write a bunch of stuff about those numbers being crazily inaccurate, but let me allow the Lord to respond: <\/p>\n

I will be a swift witness against\u2026 those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against \u2026 those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:5. <\/p>\n

2. Poverty<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Verses:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most humorous aspects of modern-day, far-right Christianity is its reverence of capitalism. That\u2019s because Christ could be considered almost \u201canti-capitalist.\u201d Consider this verse: <\/p>\n

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. – Matthew 19:24. <\/p>\n

There is some version of the story of the rich man approaching Jesus that appears in every synoptic Gospel. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells the rich man, \u201cgo, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.\u201d <\/p>\n

The story of Lazarus should similarly terrify modern day fundamentalists: <\/p>\n

Lazarus is a beggar who waits outside of a rich man\u2019s house and begs for scraps. When both Lazarus and the rich man die, Lazarus ends up in heaven, while the rich man ends up in hell. When the rich man begs for water, Abraham says, \u201cChild, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.\u201d Luke 19:25. <\/p>\n

Republished from: AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com\/Vlue July 30, 2013 \u00a0| Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Right-wing Evangelical Fundamentalism claims to \u201cgo back to roots of Christianity.\u201d In fact, the \u201cliteral\u201d (i.e. the earth was created in seven literal days) reading of the Bible was invented in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}