Russell Moore: Why I’m a ‘Bible Thumping Fundamentalist’
“This context is one of the few in which I would use the word fundamentalist for myself. …someone who believes in the ‘fundamentals’ of the faith—the historicity of the biblical accounts, the Virgin Birth, the substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection, a visible and physical Second Coming” - CToday
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Here’s a bit more…
The student had asked me a series of questions and found that, yes, I believe the miracles and the Resurrection were literal truths in space and time, that the Bible is wholly inspired and inerrant, that heaven and hell are real, that explicit faith in Christ is the only way to find the one and escape the other, that marriage is a one-flesh covenant, and that sex outside of it is wrong.
The student stopped and said, “Wait, are those words offensive?”
“Are you kidding?” I said. “After years of being called a cultural Marxist for believing character matters and racial injustice is wrong, I have never felt more seen. A Bible-thumping fundamentalist—that’s exactly what I am.”
The country could benefit from a few more cultural Marxist Bible-thumping fundamentalists in leadership roles.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
I got some feedback via email on my comment above, so I’ll expand a bit on my intent there.
These days, if you believe character matters (in U.S. Presidents) and that we still have a lot of work to do on racial injustice, you get labeled a cultural Marxist. It’s a term a whole lot of people are using—like so many other terms—to reject anyone who is saying things they don’t like.
Moore is not a cultural Marxist, and in his article he is not claiming to be one. He isn’t really claiming to be a Bible thumping fundamentalist either. He’s basically saying, “If this is the price for my convictions, fine—I’ll wear it proudly.”
I don’t agree with everything Moore says and does, but I do think we need more leaders who believe in the fundamentals of faith, also believe character matters (a lot) in choosing leaders (at all levels), and also believe we are not where we need to be yet on matters of race.
So… we need more “cultural Marxist Bible thumping fundamentalists.” It might have helped if I’d put it in quotes the first time. Maybe. I’m talking about terms people use inaccurately and pejoratively. There aren’t really such things as cultural Marxists who are Bible-thumping fundamentalists.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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