We often associate fundamentalism with strict religious beliefs and practices. But David French says fundamentalism isn’t really about what someone believes, but how they believe it. He talks to Skye Jethani about the three traits that mark every form of fundamentalism—including the non-religious variety: certainty, ferocity, and solidarity. They unpack the legitimate desires that draw people into fundamentalism, and what’s happening in American culture that may be driving more people to embrace the extremes of fundamentalism on both the right and left. Plus, they share the antidotes that can protect us from this trend.
0:00 - Sponsor - World Relief - Visit https://worldrelief.org/holypost/ to download your family refugee guide and learn more about the Path Community
1:17 - Theme Song
1:34 - Characteristics of Fundamentalism
34:34 - Why Fundamentalism is Growing
48:34 - Free Speech and College Campuses
1:08:38- End Credits
Other resources:
David French: https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench
Why Fundamentalists Love Trump
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After my first two decades of life on the Canadian prairies, and then three decades in South America, I feel like I am still trying to find my footing in my wife's birth state of California. Fifteen years in journalism and 25 years in the pastoral world often leaves me with more questions than answers when it comes to life in the US-of-A. It didn't help to have been air-dropped into a place like LA County on the eve of Covid, along with extreme racial and political convulsions that followed soon after.
I am a learnaholic and a bookaholic, and I found this conversation as helpful and enlightening as anything I have heard—especially from a sociological and anthropological perspective.
Once again, David and Skye take a swing at what it means to be trans and miss by a mile. Kids aren't expected to choose or even think about what their gender is these days. That assumption comes from the mistaken idea that trans people decide not to be the gender assigned at birth anymore the same way they might decide not to grow up to be a fireman. The reality is that, for some kids, their physical characteristics and the socially constructed expectations of behavior, roles, and expression (including emotion and dress) related to those physical characteristics don't match their sense of identity. This has always been the reality, it's just that in the second decade of the 21st century,…
Given the three characteristics of fundamentalism discussed in this episode, would not the early church as described in the New testament be considered fundamentalist? For example, Paul had a certainty about the gospel which gave him a sense of purpose and caused him to become angry when it was challenged among the Galatian believers for example. And there was certainly a sense of community among the believers, especially those who are being persecuted. So could someone take this discussion, especially someone who is not a Christian, and apply it to the Christian faith as described in the New testament?