What separates moderate Christians from fundamentalist Christians?
A fundamentalist will stick to a literal interpretation of the Bible even if it becomes rationally untenable. A moderate, if it is the right term, would be open to suggestions, say, that the Hebrew version of Creation may have been derived from much older sources. The Babylonian Enuma elish, reconstructed, fitted into 7 tablets corresponding the biblical 7 days. Preceding the Hebrew version by millennia, it couldn’t have been a copy of the later. Yet, as early as 1902, scholars have recognized that it indeed is a story of Creation. More recent scholars even believe it conforms with Evolution.
Fundamentalism is a “one size fits all” approach to religion be it Muslim, Christian, or whatever. Fundamentalists believe that their one answer must be God’s because they make themselves coextensive with God. Since they are absolutely certain of their divine appointment, they can brook no disagreement or deviation and feel compelled to eradicate any they find. Strange to say but, this seems to have been the mental set of the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Of course the whole Bible is truth, but it is a whole truth. It can easily be taken out of context and misused as fundamentalists focusing on personal agendas often do. The sisters used to tell us in grade school that nobody could quote scripture better than Lucifer. “Moderate” Christians are trying to imitate Christ by listening, thinking, helping, understanding, and most of all, by trying to live by the Word of the Gospels.
