Were You Raised Fundamentalist?
Plus other updates
As a kid growing up, my family attended a Baptist and then a “nondenominational” church. I knew us to be Christian, and more specifically, evangelical. I was somewhat aware of denominational churches that often had numbers attached to them (e.g. “First Presbyterian”) that weren’t as much of Real Christians as we were.
Those were (in our characterization) churches for people who just showed up on Sundays, who didn’t know their Bibles like we did, who probably didn’t have a Personal Relationship with Jesus and hadn’t been Born Again like we were.
But really, my world was kept so small that I didn’t really think about other Christians who called themselves Christians but believed differently than we did. It was our way or… no way. Our way, or eternal torment in hell. Our way, or becoming lukewarm Christians that God spat out of his mouth to then probably burn in hell.
I would now call this having a sense of theological superiority, or more precisely, Christian supremacy. We had an unshakeable confidence that we owned the entire market of theological correctness and no doubts whatsoever that as long as we held firm to the beliefs we were taught were true, we’d be the ones who ended up in heaven.
This is background is why, upon taking a quiz measuring how much of a religious fundamentalist a person is (recommended in DL Mayfield’s Substack), I had quite a chuckle. To me, the questions simply described the beliefs I was supposed to adhere to growing up. To not believe what the questions asked would be to believe the wrong thing: letting in too much wishy-washy relativism and letting the devil get a foothold, ya know?
[I will include the link at the end and ask you to take the quiz – just hold on for now, then go take it!]
The idea of being raised fundamentalist is no surprise to me: when I was writing my spiritual memoir, I wrestled with what terminology most accurately described my experience. Evangelical, for sure. But there was another element about the ferocity and the insular nature of our beliefs that necessitated a more evocative word like fundamentalist. And even, I began to play around with, cult-like.
I didn’t know if others would be on board with this language as I described a relatively prolific version of evangelicalism, but as it turns out, more and more people are. Stuff that I used to feel wary about saying out loud (for example, that the God of American evangelical Christianity does NOT actually seem like a good dude, yo!) is now something I see articulated by many people online.
So what I’m curious about today is where you fall on the fundamentalism scale in relation to the way you grew up (or had formative faith experiences). One of the topics I write on is about religious trauma, so I’m figuring some number of my readers fell somewhere on the fundamentalist scale (back then – if you’re still reading my newsletter after finding out what you’re getting yourself into, I’m pretty positive you’re no longer fundamentalist!). And if you didn’t have your faith shaped in this way, I want to hear what that experience was like, too!
Okay, ready? Here’s the link to the quiz. It’s a one-pager – the font is kind of small so if your eyes just won’t work with it, jump straight to the comments and just describe your experiences. But otherwise, after you answer the questions, your result shows up right on that same page – super easy!
http://www.panojohnson.com/automatons/rf-scale.xhtml
For me, one of the highlights of doing this writing is hanging out in the comments and having interesting exchanges with people. Looking forward to meeting you there! I’ll be spending lots of time in a car on Friday and Saturday and would love some “in-flight entertainment.”
Oh, and for the other updates: I skipped last week’s newsletter because I was preparing for this trip my husband and I got to take (we’ve been in New Orleans!!) but also in an effort to achieve some sense of balance in my life. I decided to do this thing they call “relaxing” at the end of the day (lately my only time for writing has been after the kids go to bed because my work/client days are so packed), and it was quite nice. Still trying to figure out a rhythm of writing that works for myself and my family… it’s a work in progress.
But the past week has been lovely - thanks to the combined efforts of 3 grandparents (hallelujah!), my husband and I got to get away for a week to see friends, do a pastor’s retreat (for him), and explore New Orleans. I’m super grateful for the time of rejuvenation!
If you like my newsletter and know of someone else who would like it too, would you share it with them? And if you know of others making the climb out of fundamentalism, maybe they’d like to subscribe!
I'll start off! When I took this quiz, I scored almost as high as possible, because the questions really did feel like they were describing what we were supposed to believe growing up. The question regarding Satan is up for debate - is it Satan, or is it the inherent sin nature where even newborn babies are born sinful (because that was most definitely the doctrine I was taught to believe, BLECHHH!!)?
I'll go more into depth in a future post about why I consider my faith growing up to be fundamentalist (including the fact that the faith leaders said that: "getting back to the FUNDAMENTALS of faith!" And I grew up in a suburban, well-educated environment. We weren't Quiverfull homesteaders or anything - just pretty average folks. But our belief system allowed no room for error - you had to believe, you had to believe all of it, and you couldn't believe anything else, or your soul would be in mortal peril.
Here's a quote from Richard Rohr. "'Only we have the Spirit.' I was taught this in my church growing up; and then I found out that every religion says the same thing. Isn't that interesting? There's a phrase for this; it's called group narcissism. It has nothing to do with love for God; it isn't a search for truth or love. It's a grasping for control and every group at its less mature stages of development will try to put God in the pocket of its own members-only jacket."