Saturday, June 21, 2014

For the third time: The Suspicious Mind of the Fundamentalist**

Beware; Vehement and convinced fundamentalist at work

In a post dated June 20 and entitled "Do not fret because of evil doers" Ken Ham quotes Ps 37:1-9. So which evil doers is Ken talking about now? Islamic terrorists? Selfish businessmen? Politicians and judges who accept bribes? Drug cartel leaders? Corrupt police? Cruel dictators?  No, its President Obama speaking at an LGBT event where he talked about plans for an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation.

Ken Ham isn't part of a cult I'm glad to say, but he has a sectarian mentality and all the cult-precursors are there in his mindset. Interestingly, Watchtower founder, Charles Taze Russell, started out in a similar way to Ham as supremo of an organisation that provided media and resources to Christians; Ham Russell just got more and more insistent that people should follow his ideas; either that or go to hell. 

I always attach a kind of mental heath warning when I'm talking about social relations with fundamentalists: Such relationships, because of the fundamentalist's self assumed position of spiritual superiority and authority, cannot be carried out in an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust. Unless one is eating out of their hand doctrinally speaking one is treated by fundies with deep suspicion, perhaps even thought of as a dupe of the world wide conspiracy against them. For the fundamentalist the "mystery of sin" is an imaginative construction that is thought to be lurking like a conspirator behind the scenes as the motivator of otherwise quite innocuous behaviour. For impressionable people this subtle social pressure can ease in an acquiescence.

Addendum 28/06/14: For some typical Full-on-Hell-and-Hamnation see a post by Ken Ham dated June 26 and entitled The Leaders of the Presbyterian Church USA need to Fear God. Fear is the name of the game as far as Ham in concerned. He quotes from Micah 3:1-5. This passage is a very strong condemnation of the social injustice found in Judah at the time; it is in fact a very "socialist" message*. The evangelical Inter Varsity Press Bible commentary says of Micah: "His concern and interest seem to be centred a little more upon the plight of the oppressed lower classes than was  the case  with his contemporary, Isaiah". But for Ham this strongly worded passage provides an ideal template for satisfying his urge to condemn. Wrenching it out of context he applies it to PCUSA in connection with their sanctioning gay weddings. In his quote Ham emphasizes "evil deeds" and the reference to a "Holy War" against God by putting them in bold. This is a classic case of the fundamentalist who goes in with maximum firepower against those who think differently, declaring how utterly depraved they are. As I've already implied "fear" is fundamentalism's nuclear button, a button it's always pressing: Fundamentalists will try to instill fear and they can only do this by condemning in the strongest possible terms with the implicit assumption that they speak as the mouth of God. To quote Ham:  But God always has the last say! Every one of these leaders will one day die and have to face the God against whom they have declared war.Bypassing all the Biblical words about social injustice Ham takes a passage out of context and uses it to give Divine authority to his opinions by attempting to instill fear.

Lots and lots of relevant links this time; mostly as "notes to self" though:
http://quantumnonlinearity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/conspiracy-and-apocalypse.html

Footnote:
* ...in the sense that a decentralized-looking-after-number-one-ethos is not sufficient to run a just society.
** ...suspicious of those beyond the sect's tribal barriers, that is.  Within the sect, however, gullibility towards it's gurus tends to be the norm.

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