Why do the fundamentalists so furiously rage together?

Each morning I conduct a “web search” in an effort to keep up to date on the activities of TEC, the Anglican Communion and the fundamentalists. [1] The search is always an interesting adventure and it is truly amazing some of the things I stumble upon.

When I first joined Fr. Jake Stops the World, one of the first comments I read was from someone to said s/he was not going to visit the fundamentalist blogs because of the vitriolic nature of the posting there. I decided to stay away if things were that toxic.

As I am not having a good day, as a treatment did not go well Friday, I have done something that I have not done heretofore. But I did t by accident. One of the links I thought interesting proved to be for a fundamentalist site. The quote at the top of the page led me to believe it was not fundamentalist. “Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible. - Søren Kierkegaard” I thought that the quote was good. We do have to defend ourselves against being abused by the use of biblical texts. The site did not see it that way, and I discovered the quote was there to show how apostate everyone but the fundamentalists are.

That led me to read a few other fundamentalist blogs postings. What I found saddened me a great deal. I really was socked by the hatred expressed for anyone who doe not agree with the fundamentalists, and particularly the hate directed at the Presiding Bishop and The Archbishop of Canterbury. What I read was nothing short of hate-speech.

Okay, I (and we non-fundamentalists) have expressed our displeasure with what the fundamentalists are trying to do to our Anglican tradition, that’s true. However, I cannot remember a single post that was hate-speech. Jake was very careful about removing or editing such posts. And, yes, we have used a few choice terms for the leaders of the fundamentalist movement, but we have not disparaged their personhood.

One poster, a Jewish person said, “If I ever thought about becoming a Christian, reading your comments would cause me to change my mind. What are you all so filled with hate?” That is a paraphrase, I cannot recall he exact words. However, his/her comment was spot on. I have read statements by White Supremacists that were more genteel and Christ-like.

I was raised to believe the way of Jesus brought joy and an inner peace (which I have always had). Why, I wonder, are they so filled with hate? They must be terribly unhappy people. We must pray for them – I mean, we must really pray for them, not just say we will.

Speaking of prayers, please remember to keep Tim and Fran in your prayers.

Also, please pray for the repose of Millie Allen and Hariet Arant who died this week. With the death of Millie, my parish has only ten people who were members prior to 1970. Her death has hit us "old timers" hard.

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[1] Henceforth, I will not use the term “conservative” or any derivation thereof when referring to those in the Anglican Communion who are supporters of Puritanism and the many incarnations of Garcon or its sympathizers. We must “name the heresy” and it is fundamentalism.