on the world’s perception of fundamentalism

For the last few weeks (maybe a month already) I have had a daily download of links from Google News using the search terms “Christian fundamentalist”. (I have had two other alerts from Google for some years now, one for any article containing the words “Bob Jones University” and the other for “Gleevec”, my wife’s anti-leukemia drug.)

The words ‘Christian fundamentalist’ are applied quite loosely to a wide range of characters by the world’s media. Generally speaking, they seem to use them as a pejorative against various evangelical groups, most of whom would shun the term. To the world, however, anyone who believes in the literal interpretation of the Bible is a ‘Christian fundamentalist’. The misunderstanding of the term by the media is probably somewhat self-conscious (my opinion), but it does illustrate the overwhelming task real Christian fundamentalists have in making much of an impact in the world.

A recent piece on the Powerline blog illustrates the obtuseness of CNN and their star reporter Christiane Amanpour. The Powerline bloggers are a team of lawyers who I have followed for some time. They would not be Christian fundamentalists at all, but they are reasonable men who have a more objective view of the news than most of the media.

Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3