An insight into the Fundamentalist mindset

[Wildewolfe]

An insight into the Fundamentalist mindset.

Recently my mom passed away. It should have been a relatively peaceful event. She was 84 years old, she had lived a rich and full life and the decent into terminal health was pretty sudden and not terribly long lasting as such things go. But it wasn’t peaceful, you see my entire family are fundamentalist, charismatic Christians and the end of one persons life was simple an opportunity to some of them.

A bit over 30 years ago my family were all Lutheran’s. We went to church on Sundays, we did the holiday festivals (I still remember getting the bag filled with nuts, a couple of candies and oranges every Christmas time), vacation bible school and were remarkably uninterested in force-feeding religion of any type to anyone. Then one of the uncles got saved and my Mom went to see what kind of cult he got himself into and fell into it herself. The rest is history as they say going as far as to get thrown out of the Lutheran church for heresy I guess it was (I was a bit young at the time). The family was slowly “born again” over the period of the next 5 years or so as it spread from one family household to another till basically all of them were virtual mirrors of the others in belief.

Now my immediate family has me as the youngest with a sister and brother both many years older than I am (15 and 17 respectively). So I pretty much grew up an only and was a rebellious one at that, never one to accept the answer to any question on faith alone. This eventually led me to leaving the Christian religion and becoming very much the black sheep of the family. Now my sister and brother knew the paths I followed (mostly Wicca becoming more and more atheistic over the years) but while I would argue points with my mother about Christianity I never elaborated on me leaving the faith because I felt it would unduly disturb her and cause her pain. (And cause me pain too cause I would never hear the end of it).

Now all that history brings us once again to just before my mother’s death. She was lying in bed in hospice, on massive doses of painkillers, unable to talk (though at the time I wasn’t totally sure of that), and my sister is at her bedside. I receive a call the night before she died from my sister telling me that mom had talked to the local pastor that afternoon and expressed that she was going to hold on until I “was saved” and how I should talk to mom and that my sister would take me to church etc. etc. etc. Now of course none of it sounded reasonable to me, but on the off-chance that it would ease my Mom’s mind I said some mindless crap about seeing her in heaven and how it was ok for her to go and how she would be seeing dad soon etc… all in all making my last talk with my Mom a total lie. I had kept pretty aware of my mother’s condition throughout the end decline so I called my uncle who is the one person I have ever met myself where hypocrisy and Charismatic Christianity didn’t belong in the same sentence. He’s a Vietnam vet, he knows the value of honor and the value of his word and we talked about all of it. Seems the local pastor didn’t even know who I was and just like I suspected, mom was completely unable to speak. In short, my sister made the entire thing up of whole cloth.

I had expected the answer of course… I didn’t understand why… I couldn’t understand how someone that is that close of family who had expressed and shown her love for me for 45 years could be that cold, ruthless and manipulative. How could she lie (a sin) to force me to lie (also a sin) to save my soul? Seems like a contradiction in terms doesn’t it? It took me several days to sort it all out. The answer was actually simple. In the pursuit of their religious goals fundamentalist can perform any act that will further those goals. Lying becomes ok, if it saves a soul. Stealing becomes ok if it means that Candidate A who supports their agenda is elected. Raping the earth becomes ok if it hurries the rapture. In short the ends always justify the means. Sin is no longer sin if the goals of the religion are maintained no matter how bad they are. The incredible part is they are by and large unaware they do this. It’s just how they are… as intrinsic at this point as a cross on a priest.

The person that comes to your house to share the bible with you may genuinely care for you and truly want to see you “saved”. But the tragedy of modern America is the lengths and depths that that person will go to trick you into their viewpoint, and that one aspect transforms a religion based on love, compassion and charity to a pure cult.

Just thought I would share that moment of clarity. Obviously not every professed Fundamentalist Christian is that way, my Uncle is one exception and a truly honorable man, but out of literally thousands I have met, he’s the only one.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

1. I have tried to follow the advice of St. Francis

"Preach the Gospel constantly. Use words if you must."

In other words, let others see the Gospel in your actions, rather than simply talking their ears off. I expect if you asked him, you uncle would say that was his philosophy too.

[China_cat]

2. My mother died at 40 from breast cancer.

Her final days were made hell by the fundie faction of our family. Mom was at home, being cared for by my grandmother when the assholes descended on her to 'save her' before she died. They even went so far as to barricade the door and prevent my grandmother from giving my mother her pain medication.

Her last lucid words were to them...not to the family because they kept us out too. They were 'shove it up your ass'. As a result, my sisters and I no longer exist according to that part of the family.

[damntexdem]

4. Good for your mother.

The fundie fascists just don't hear that nearly often enough.

[damntexdem]

3. I'm sorry for your loss. And for what you had to go through with your family.

Not all, but so much of religion is a scam to get "converts" to act in disgusting, unethical ways so as to build the power of a few. And that form of "religion" seems so pervasive today.

I'm glad that your uncle is a man of honor.

[Wildewolfe]

5. They don't recognize it as a scam

...though and that's what makes it and them so dangerous. They are doing for YOUR own good and they truly believe that. Hence they are basically capable of doing anything no matter how reprehenceable. I really think the devolotion of america in general ia half due to this the more that I think about it and it's why the neocons because so dangerous when they married the religious right.

[Cassandra]

7. That's why people forund it easy to burn "witches".

What's importance of the mortal body when they can save your soul.

[murielm99]

6. Your parents sound so much like mine

that it is chilling. We were raised Lutheran, too.

The difference is that none of us three kids has fallen for it. I have a very devout younger brother, but he wants nothing to do with their brand of Christianity. He goes to an ELCA church.

None of us argue with them any more. My dad is 81, and my mom is 78. Argument is worthless. We tell them that we will not discuss religion, that any conversation that leads to religion will result in our walking out of whatever gathering we are attending.

That has worked for about the last three years. My mother will probably find a new way to manipulate us soon. But so far, so good.