Why are Fundamentalists Growing in Major Religions?

as far as Christian "fanatics" -- many of the things we currently label as "fanatic" ---- pro-life, praying in School, "creationism", a ruler openly dispalying his Christianity, high moral standards in dress and speech, banning nudity in movies etc... Were common held beliefs a few decades ago.

I believe the rise is in the Liberal mindset that has then put what was commonly accepted as "right" and labeled it as "fanatic"

 

The only "Fanatic" I can see in this thread is glynch.

 

Perhaps it has something to do with the way society is going.

 

i consider myself a christian fanatic. i wish i were more of one. but i think i have a different definition of it than others might.

 

I dont know about fanatics in other religions, but for Christianity, I agree with Cesar's post. There's a difference between twisting your religion to justify the killing of innocent people, and being outspoken about your religion.

 

I agree with Cesar that what it called fundamentalism now is not what it was then (at least for Christinity). (100 posts in three years )

 

So would killing doctors that perform abortions or blowing up/burning down abortion clinics not be considered fanatical?

 

fundamentalim/fanaticism can be beneficial. for an artist or an athlete, this kind of single-minded determination can result in "success" due to all facalties being focused upon a particular goal. the downside is that this can lead to a lack of attention paid to what lies outside of this immediate vision. this lack of balance applies equally to religion and can lead to intolerance. in the case of religion, the growing gap between the haves and have-nots often compels the latter, through desperation, to focus on religion, as they have little else. the born-agains with means use it to bludgeon their guilt with pseudo-piety.

 

You're grouping people together. Even those who are just againt abortion and don't kill, but protest are often called fundamentalist.

 

hmm didn't think about this one, was just going by the OP's examples. I am anti-abortion now, but my ex-gf had 2 abortions with my support. the abortion issue frankly has too many gray areas for me to have a properly set opinion on it. As for people who think they need to resort to killing and blowing up clinics, I think every single person out there who dies prematurely is a loss because they could have been evangelized to. I can't fully condemn the attacks as I am anti-abortion, but I can condemn the spilling of blood.

Would I put them on the same platform as Islamic terrorists though? Hard to say, ideology is the same, but obviously one is on a much larger scale than the other. One thing I will say in their defense, when the abortion clinic bombers start blowing up Churches for not condemning abortion, then we can put them on the same level as Islamic terrorists.

 

There have been non-religious fundamentalists too. Perhaps I can call secular society today fundamenalist.

 

I think you're grouping everyone together. Every Christian out there is supposed to be an Evangelical in the first place. It's our calling and duty to tell people about God (evangelizing). As for the innocents being killed in Iraq, I think thats really more due to the insurgents than the US soldiers. The recent elections have proven that some good is coming out of it.

Just a note, I dont support mixing religion with politics.

 

What I like about labels is 'meaning is in the eye of the beholder'

 

Of course that is "fanatical". But there have allways been "fanatics" and abortion clinics being bomb and abortion doctors being killed is still a rare occurence

 

Evil often hides behind a religious mask, but that doesn't make Christianity bad.

 

yeah...it makes conversation very difficult. i think i understand what glynch is saying....the problem is we define the words in this thread very differently.

 

agree

 

Thanks for the honesty hotballa

Isn't this sort of how a lot of the people in the muslin faith feel about "terrorist?" And what frustrates us so much?

Not condemning you or making a judgment, just an observation.

Ugh! I’ve got tons of work and I can’t be hanging around here all day!