Image via Wikipedia
In my post last night, I wondered…
if this guy is as he is being positioned in the European press, meaning that the police in Norway are right, do we then treat conservative Christians the way we do Islamic Fundamentalists (or all Muslims)?
Which I think created some confusion. My point was about the labels and the labeling of entire groups by the actions of a few people, or one, who pretends to be a part of that group.
I also noted that Breivik had evolved from a Christian to now a right-wing Christian fundamentalist, which is pulled directed from the CNN article:
While police have not officially named him, Norwegian television and newspaper reports have identified the suspect as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, of Norwegian origin.
A picture is emerging, gleaned from official sources and social media, of a right-wing Christian fundamentalist who may have had an issue with Norway’s multi-cultural society.
Norwegian and international news outlets have run photographs of a blond man with blue-green eyes and chiseled features, dressed in a preppy style.
There are a lot of profiles being tossed around on this guy, and one of them is ‘Christian.’ So, again, I turn to the point of allowing one self-proclaimed Christian fundamentalist to taint our view of all Christian fundamentalist (I mean, except for Westboro, the KJV-Only crowd, the militant -isms crowd, and the such) as we often have allowed a group of Islamic terrorists to influence our view of Islam? I think it behooves us conservative Christians (although admittedly, Breivik is now a ‘fundamentalist’) to be circumspect in understanding groupthink. and not be so anxious to allow an entire religion to be tainted by a small percentage of those claiming to hold to the ‘core beliefs.’
Further, it behooves us all, Christians – conservative and liberal – to draw a fast and sharp distinction between living a life of a Christian and just putting it on facebook.
Related articles
- Anders Behring Breivik: The face of Norway terror suspect emerges. Death toll at 84, and rising (economy4abc.blogspot.com)
- Norway attacks: profile of suspect Anders Behring Breivik (telegraph.co.uk)
- Right-wing Christian fundamentalist charged following Norway terror attack (freethinker.co.uk)
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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I once naively thought that the term “Fundamentalist” could be recovered.
No longer do I think so.
There needs to be a new term.
Evangelical does not fit, as they don’t even agree on what an Evangelical is.
The Fundamentals provide a good picture of what a Fundamentalist is, and it is nothing like the insanity which is attributed to them.
The big “F” and little “f” won’t do to distinguish.
Oh well…