This week I had an awesome discussion with a few friends. We talked a lot about fundamentalism in the church. That’s when someone or some group holds onto an idea or value with an extreme zeal allowing no room for discussion. When they’re interpretation is the only correct view. When no questions are welcome, only conformity. Then they could be called a fundamentalist.

First let’s clarify that it’s not wrong to adhere tightly to certain ideas, values… The problem lies in the singular interpretation and a refusal for any discussion on the subject that’s not patting each other on the back or putting down other views.

In Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25 we have the same narrative going on. Jesus has just had a discussion with a very affluent and wealthy man. The result is the man leaving Jesus presence mournfully. Jesus looks to his disciples all watching and says “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Now there are a few ways we can get fundamental from this tiny bit of scripture. The first and most obvious way would be to condemn the rich because well obviously none of us has ever heard, or seen of, or could even fathom a camel going through the eye of a needle. But JESUS said it. It must be true. No one who is rich can enter the kingdom of heaven! Which begs the question, what is rich?

Well in my perspective a pretty easy way to determine if you’re rich or not is if you’re wealthier than a lot of people. And hey there are a lot of people in the world. So let’s make it simple, and sweet. If, on the big make believe list of richest to poorest in the entire world, you rank higher than 50%, you’re rich! Which in turn means, well sorry but you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven.

That is the interpretation problem. How should those words be taken? Was there more context (who, what, where, why etc) that might show more light on the situation? Of course. We have two translations to get through. From Greek to English, and from an Jewish man speaking over two thousand years ago in a different culture and country to modern day Canada.

Interpretation leads right into the other problem I mentioned. Refusal for discussion. “I’m right, anything else is wrong”. This is so dangerous because whether you like it or not someone taught you what you know. That someone has views, and beliefs that affect how they Interpret they world. The other extremely dangerous part to this is dissent from critical thought. It’s easy. Too easy. It’s easy to not question life, to not have to search for hard answers, to cry out.

There I was talking with my friends about some of the more fundamental people, and churches we know of and one of my friends quoted a great line. “I believe the Bible… now I just have to figure out what it’s saying”.

We ended our conversation agreeing that something we’d pray for is that we would be confronted with our own areas of extreme fundamentalism. That God would break our proud hearts that think we know everything about God, eternity, salvation, right from wrong etc. You see we have to hold everything including our own knowledge firmly, but gently. So that God may continue to use US in His conversation with the world.

May you hold everything especially your knowledge in humility.
May you have questions.
May you be involved in God’s conversation with the world.

Rich