Bill Snedden

I agree that no small part of this question depends upon having a definition of "fundamentalist". I also agree that the definition appears *quite* subjective...

I really don't think regular viewing of the 700 club would qualify one, for the simple reason that plenty of non-believers and secularists force themselves to watch the program regularly in order to keep a watchful eye on Pat.

Any working definition would have to be somewhat "loose", however. Tackling the "who is a Christian?" question is like nailing Jello to a wall. "Who is a fundamentalist Christian?" can't possibly be any easier.

It seems to me that secularists often lump anyone who appears to hold a "conservative Christian" viewpoint into the "fundie" category. Thus moderate Roman Catholics who strenuously oppose abortion may be labeled "fundies" even though the content of their religious belief, apart from their beliefs on abortion, would not correlate with what most of us would consider "fundamentalist."

I would offer the following as a "working" definition. If someone:

1) affirms belief in the Bible as the (literally) inerrant Word of God
2) defers to Biblical precepts, morals, commandments, history, and science in all matters
3) orders their life according to Biblical standards and norms
4) affirms a belief that everyone *should* affirm 1-3, above (that they are "true.")

then they are "fundamentalist". Most likely there will be very few indeed who will *exactly* meet this defintion, but to the extent that one approaches it, one is more "fundamentalist" than not.

Using this definition, I would agree that "fundamentalists" are a minority, however there are many, many more who are "more fundamentalist than not" and as such have more in common with fundamentalists than non-fundamentalists. Together with true "fundamentalists", these people would seem to be a significantly large group, but still an overall minority.

However, they do seem to have very, very large mouths...

Regards,

Bill Snedden

BadBadBad

Good topic Rational Bac. I'll start out by agreeing with you. Someone here pointed out a very good study on religion: Survey Says

If I look through one of the first tables, it shows Catholics 24.5%, Baptists 16.3%, and the sum of Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and "christian" is about 23%. Of those, there's another table that shows only about 60-65% responded to household membership in a church.

They have another table where respondants were asked are you religious, somewhat religious, somewhat secular, secular, or don't know/refused. The results are listed by age group. My question on this is what is somewhat religious? Sounds to me like not too religious at all.

The survey shows that in age groups 18-34, 35-49, 50-64, and 64+, we have 27%, 38%, 42%, and 47% responding "religious" respectively. That's a very interesting set of stats. They have another table further down that shows age groups of church memberhsip. It shows that percentages of young people has gone done since 1990. Perhaps this shows an interesting trend that probably doesn't surprise anyone.

I any event, it looks to me Rational BAC that you've got a pretty safe assumption on your hands. Only 37% declared themselves as religious. I don't think a fundy would say somewhat religious. Only 31% of men said they were religious. That still leaves a lot of doubt as to how much of a minority they are.

bocajeff

They might. They don't think of it as a religion, but a "relationship." At least thats what a few of the fundie teens on the POD boards defined their religion as.

Rational BAC

Promise to get back to this. May be a while.

Found my book on "Me for Dummies" and studying the part on "cut and paste."

Will have to practice a little bit though.

Calzaer

I also want to see a definition of "minority". Are fundies a minority in the sense that atheists are a minority (total population), or are they a minority in the sense that they're a minority in the Christian Community (in which case they could still significantly outnumber atheists and still be called a "minority").

Rational BAC

Cal---

I don't think that has to be researched at all.

Fundies definitely outnumber atheists. That is a given.

Question is--------do Fundies outnumber mainstream Christianity?(===non literalists.)

Bumble Bee Tuna

my working definition of fundy would probably be something along the lines of:

Fundy: A Christian who literally believes at least some of the fantastic stories of the Bible (Flood, 6000y.o. earth, special creation, Adam+Eve...)
Basically someone who goes one step further from just having irrational, unprovable beliefs, all the way to having beliefs that are by definition delusional: contradicted by evidence.

I'm confused:

Is this the standard Radorth self-proclaimed victory post, before a discussion has even begun? Usually you at least wait until you've been trounced to proclaim victory...At least wait until RBAC has made a post to respond to before noting a lack of responses.

On topic:

I think fundies are almost certainly a minority on the national scale.
It becomes slightly less certain when just looking at christians, but it's probably safe to say that they are a minority there too.
But if you listen to RBAC, he makes it out as if fundies are only 10% of christians, or 5%, or 3%...This I no longer trust without seeing some actual evidence.

-B

Sabine Grant

I would think of that as a sure way to loose weight... my appetite would seriously diminish.

Sabine Grant

Bonjour Bumble Bee.... I too believe that fundies are a minority. One more notion I 'd like to add to your definition is that most fundies are legalistic. There is a tendency to place conditions to the covenant of grace offered by Christ. I think it has a lot to do with the concept of " rigtheousness". In the mainstream christian theology, rigtheousness cannot be attained soly by the human means to abide to biblical laws.
It has been my observation as engaged in conversations or socializing with fundamentalist christians, that most tend to be legalistic and rely on some degree of self rigtheousness to " please God". It may be what makes fundamentalist christianity so unpleasant because it leads people to evaluate the faith of others and dismiss its authenticity if the same people do not comply to laws.
The common reply a liberal christian will provide to a fundamentalist christian is " you are not God... you cannot judge the intent of my mind".

Derec

Well I sometimes listen to a fundy christian radio station here (quite fun at times though I can't stand to listen to it very long at a time) and one guy was blasting TBN for becomming too liberal (as in liberal Christianity) and neglecting the Word of God to attract more viewers.

UMoC