Debunked: Fundamentalism vs. Legalism

What many, many people consider "Fundamentalism" is actually something putrid known as "Legalism".

Egad!  What are these long words!  What do they mean?  That is a fair question, of course, and naturally I will explain myself.

I will start with the term most people are familiar with:

Fundamentalism:

I am a Christian Fundamentalist.  As a Fundamentalist, I am concerned with the essentials or the basic function of Christianity.  The basic function of Christianity is to live like Christ.  In fact, the very word "Christian" means "to live in Christ" in Greek.  By this, I am concerned with living like Christ.

So, how did Christ live?  He followed two rules: Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and love everyone.  In order to live like Christ, I should strive to live by these principles as well.

That is Christian Fundamentalism in a nutshell, but maybe that's too simplistic for your taste.  I shall summarize what the majority of Fundamentalists believe.  The following are the Five Fundamentals of Christianity as they were established by the Niagara Bible Conference and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church:

1. The Bible was inspired by God, and is inerrant as a result.
2. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin.
3. Christ's death was the an atonement for sin.
4. Christ was bodily resurrected.
5. Christ's miracles are historically real.

That's it.  That's Christian Fundamentalism.  The first point listed understandably generates the most controversy, for not everyone believes the Bible is divinely inspired, but take a look at something:

• Christian Fundamentalism says nothing about homosexuality.
• It says nothing about abortion.
• It says nothing about Evolution.
• It says nothing about politics or government.
• It says nothing about Catholicism vs. Protestantism.
• It says nothing about religion vs. irreligion.

What does it say?  Love God and love people.  If you can do those things, then, in theory, everything else will fall into place.  Your mission will become serving God and serving others, rather than dictating their morality or forcing beliefs down their throat.  This doesn't sound like the Fundamentalism people are used to hearing about.  Who are these people that keep getting called "fundies"?

Legalism:

Christian Legalism is the over-emphasis on discipline of conduct.  The symptoms of Legalism are as follows:

• Misguided rigor
• Religious pride
• Superficiality
• Hypocrisy
• Noted neglect of compassion or mercy
• Ignorance of the grace of God
• Emphasizing the letter of the law over the spirit of the law
• Asserting the view that obedience to the "laws" of the Bible, not faith in God's grace, is the pre-eminent principle of redemption

A colleague of mine presented an interesting point regarding obeying the "laws" of the Bible.  He pointed out that only ten of all the "rules" stated in the Bible were directly from God.  The rest were created by man.  Moses authored the Mosaic Laws which are found in the Old Testament and followed by many Jews to this day.  Trying to adhere to all of these laws poses a risk of missing the whole point of Christianity: having a personal relationship with God.

It also puts you at risk of becoming an unpopular Bible-Thumper.  Jesus Christ was very frustrated with the Legalists of His day: the Pharisees.  He constantly called them out on their distortion of God's commandments and their pride in their religion.  This does not make all Christian Legalists judgmental bigots, of course.  However, the risk of becoming a bigot, or a modern day Pharisee, is very high.

What can bigotry do?  It can give you and the platform on whose behalf you are speaking a bad name.  A loud minority is a minority that is heard, and a minority that is heard can affect the opinion of the majority in the eyes of the third party.  In reality, not all Christians are bigots; likewise, not all bigots are Christians.  The Christians who are bigots, though, are the ones who are more ready to condemn and judge other people.  People generally respond negatively to such attacks, and therefore the platform these bigots represent (Christianity in this example) is given a negative connotation.

In the same way, Fundamentals are given a bad name—"Fundie"—because Legalists operate underneath that title.  So when you say that someone is a "Fundamentalist", what are you really saying about them?