Brothers, Fundamentally

[David Morris]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-091701balzar.column

September 17, 2001
John Balzar:
Brothers, Fundamentally

Christian fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists worship different 
deities but they both live in dread of the anything-goes, individualized and 
expanding culture of the United States. They believe that America brought 
upon itself the wrath from the heavens.

"The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not 
be mocked," said Falwell of the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11. "I really 
believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays 
and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative 
lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way—all of them who have tried 
to secularize America—I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped 
this happen.' "

Appearing on Christian television, Falwell also said, "God continues to lift 
the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we 
deserve."
[...]

What we deserve?

At the root, fundamentalism is a struggle against modernity—against 
individualism, against moral self-determination and, yes, against freedom. 
Behind fundamentalism is one theological doctrine or another, but Islamic 
and Christian fundamentalists are cultural and political zealots as well as 
religious crusaders. Robertson, remember, ran for president in 1988.

Fundamentalists share a belief that religious tenets, whether drawn from the 
Koran or the Bible, provide the supreme law. Thus fundamentalism is wholly 
authoritarian. Fundamentalism is radicalism. Look up radical in the 
dictionary: "the foundation source of something; fundamental; basic."




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