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Fundamentalism: A monumental waste of time
Mike Yaconelli
07.30.2003

I recently gave a chapel talk at a conservative "Christian" college. I prefaced my remarks on the characteristics of a Christian in 1983 by mentioning what did not characterize Christians. I said that drinking, smoking, dancing, swearing and going to movies were not issues anymore. Many of the students interrupted with applause. Many of the administration and faculty did not applaud. In fact, I am now a persona non grata at that college. I have to admit I was surprised. I shouldn't have been because there is one thing that has always characterized fundamentalists - their obsession with drinking, smoking, dancing, swearing and movies. It is true of their churches and their schools. Card-carrying fundamentalists will not indulge in alcohol, the theater, smoking, dancing and using nasty words.

Of course, there are certain things that you can count on from non-fundamentalists as well. We always make fun of fundamentalists, especially their emphasis on the don'ts. And that is why I was surprised because I always make fun of them rather than take them seriously. I think it is time we non-fundies stopped laughing and started crying. I think it is time we take fundies seriously and call their bluff.

So here goes.

Not only are drinking, smoking, swearing, dancing and going to movies not issues…they simply do not matter. They matter to fundamentalists, of course, but to anyone else outside the church, they could care less whether we smoke or attend movies. Absolutely no one gives a tinker's damn whether I say "tinker's damn" or not. I can honestly say that after twenty-two years in the ministry, I have never met nor heard of anyone who said, "I was going to give my life to Christ until I saw you (pick one) a) dancing, b) smoking, c) drinking, d) coming out of a movie, e) swearing." I have had a number of fundamentalists suggest that my (pick one or all of the following) a) dancing, b) smoking, c) drinking, d) coming out of a movie, e) swearing was "causing them to stumble." That did bother me for awhile until I realized what they were saying was that my behavior bothered them. It made them upset. It wasn't, I discovered, causing them to question the validity of their faith...it was causing them to question the validity of mine.

The point of all this is to suggest that what the fundamentalists have been guilty of, more than anything else, is a monumental waste of time. Fundamentalists, because of their obsession with things that don't matter, have, in effect, made the Gospel irrelevant.....