December 22, 2004

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  The Fundamentalist Agenda

  
  

  By Davidson Loehr

  
  

  From 1988 to 1993, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences sponsored an interdisciplinary study known as The Fundamentalism Project. More than 100 scholars from all over the world took part, reporting on every imaginable kind of fundamentalism. And what they discovered was that the agenda of all fundamentalist movements in the world is virtually identical, regardless of religion or culture.

  
  

  They identified five characteristics shared by virtually all fundamentalisms:

  
  

  1) Their rules must be made to apply to all people, and to all areas of life. There can be no separation of church and state, or of public and private areas of life. The rigid rules of God—and they never doubt that they and only they have got these right—must become the law of the land.

  
  

  2) Men are on top. Men are bigger and stronger, and they rule not only through physical strength but also through their influence on the laws and rules of the land. Women are to be supportive wives, mothers, and homemakers.

  
  

  3) Since there is only one right picture of the world, one right set of beliefs, and one right set of roles for men, women, and children, it is imperative that this picture and these rules be communicated precisely to the next generation. Therefore, fundamentalists must control education. 

  
  

  4) Fundamentalists spurn the modern, and want to return to a nostalgic vision of a golden age that never really existed. Several of the scholars observed a strong and deep resemblance between fundamentalism and fascism. 

  
  

  5) Fundamentalists deny history in a radical and idiosyncratic way. What they don't want to see is the way culture colored the era when their scriptures were created.

  
  

  More at http://www.uuworld.org/2004/01/feature2.html

  
  

   

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