The irony of intolerance

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6, ESV).

I am a Christian fundamentalist, meaning, for one thing, I believe in the declaration by Jesus Christ in John 14:6. I believe His claim to be absolute truth.

Compared to other belief systems, this is an exclusionary statement. It divides people. Either you subscribe to it, or you don’t. There is no in-between. No gray area. The Scriptures contain many other similar quotes from Jesus. For example, in John 3:3, He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And in Luke 13:3, He says, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Christian fundamentalists like me take these words literally. Jesus wasn’t talking metaphorically. He wasn’t talking in parables as He often did when teaching. In these declarations, He meant what He said and said what He meant.

Over the years, there has been a plethora of books written proclaiming the “dangers” of Christian fundamentalism. Some have reached the bestseller list, e.g. American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips; Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg; American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America by Chris Hedges; and The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege by Damon Linker. The late Christopher Hitchens, a leading spokesman for atheism, had a bestseller titled God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

To give these folks their due, they are intelligent thinkers. They and many others like them represent the intellectual power of the secular Left, and they have significant influence in the world of academia, the mainstream national media, and the arts and entertainment industry. The common theme in these books and among the secular Left is that people like Tim Wildmon are a clear and present danger. Three words make up a pejorative phrase that is often used to describe such people: The Religious Right.

In the secular leftist view, people like me have a political agenda to take over the country and subject nonbelievers – through the power of government – to our particular religious dogma. Often, these people will say that we represent the Christian version of the Taliban. Obviously, the idea of a group of people gaining control of government and using it to force others to obey their particular religious beliefs scares many Americans. It would scare me, too, if I thought it were a real possibility. There may be people in this country who would like to do this, but trust me, none of the Christians I know have any desire to force their religious creeds on others.

Many fundamentalist Christians are engaged in championing biblical morality in the political process. Secular leftist thinkers are intellectually dishonest when they mislead people into believing that such activity equates to theocracy.

Consider abortion, perhaps one of the most divisive social issues of our time. Christian fundamentalists believe that human life begins at conception and should be protected by government. So we work through the legal and political systems to elect representatives who share this view. This is how the American process works. All we do is participate the same way other groups do. We have no desire to send an atheist to prison because he doesn’t confess John 14:6. If you argue that religious people should be excluded from public debate because their beliefs motivate their political activity, then you would have to say the American Civil Rights movement was illegitimate. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Christian minister, led the movement to persuade government to impose a particular belief on America that all men are equal in the eyes of God. It was a movement that found its deepest conviction in Christianity.

We Christian fundamentalists are becoming outcasts in America. Because we are unwilling to go along with the idea that all roads lead to God, we are labeled intolerant. We are unwilling to say that all lifestyles are morally equal; therefore, we are bigots. We believe each person must repent of personal sin and accept Jesus Christ as Savior to go to heaven, so we are labeled fascists. It’s unfair, but it is reality. The leftists who subscribe to secular humanism and moral relativism may freely push their agenda, but they will not tolerate Christian fundamentalism.

And we’re intolerant? Now, isn’t that an irony?

Editor’s note: This column first appeared in the April 2008 issue of AFA Journal.