The Fundamentalist May Have Been On To Something

Often, when something becomes a target of acerbic human wrath, I step back and take another look. To do so may or may not result in a change of mind, but it frequently leads to a greater understanding. This has been true with regard to the vigorous and vicious attacks against the “abusiveness” of Fundamentalism.

Legalism and abuse easily cohabit; however, legalism and Fundamentalism are not synonymous. Frankly, I am indebted to Fundamentalism for solid teaching with regard to the matter of potentiality in the command to abstain from all “appearance” of evil. That potentiality has to do with non-absolute (contextual) self denial issues.

My wife and I have the privilege of serving a ministry to homeless people who seek to get back on track. These individuals come from paths of crisis which necessitate radical adjustments in what they can and cannot allow in their lives. Some of the changes involve matters which you or I might not need to consider, but they are matters which have become catalysts for serious wreckage in their lives.  

I have frequently used card playing as a template for this discussion. The non-legalistic Fundamentalist recognized that some individuals can indeed be lured into bad company and bad choices through an inordinate passion for such innocuous past times. They erred in thinking the problem could be solved by across-the-board prohibitions; but they were on to something notwithstanding. 

Great Fundamentalists such as A. W. Tozer had no intention of telling people that a list of taboos would make them spiritual or acceptable; but they had every intention of confronting individuals with the possibility that some things they allowed in their lives might prohibit them from being all they could be or from accomplishing all they could accomplish in serving the Savior whom they professed to love. This was not legalism. It was simple practicality.

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