# Recovering Fundamentalists



## BassMan31 (May 21, 2021)

Who are they and from what are they recovering? I'm being serious as I'd probably fall into some category similar to RFs, though I don't prefer the wimpy name.


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## gemcgrew (May 21, 2021)

BassMan31 said:


> Who are they and from what are they recovering? I'm being serious as I'd probably fall into some category similar to RFs, though I don't prefer the wimpy name.


Having spent most of my early years in the free-will works religion camp of Independent Fundamental Baptist, I imagine that they are those that tired of pretending.


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## BassMan31 (May 22, 2021)

gemcgrew said:


> Having spent most of my early years in the free-will works religion camp of Independent Fundamental Baptist, I imagine that they are those that tired of pretending.


As have I.


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## Israel (May 23, 2021)

Is this a_ thing._..Recovering Fundamentalists?

I find a few references to "it" as a sort of thing, a Podcast by that name, a FB page, some articles including "15 Things Not to Say to a Recovering Fundamentalist"

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/recovering-christian_b_3931685

and some other references. They seem to run the gamut from abandoning or testimonies of abandonment "of all things christian" to a sort of progressive liberty to be found (yet in Christ) by a purging of some unwholesome leaven.


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## gemcgrew (May 23, 2021)

Israel said:


> Is this a_ thing._..Recovering Fundamentalists?
> 
> I find a few references to "it" as a sort of thing, a Podcast by that name, a FB page, some articles including "15 Things Not to Say to a Recovering Fundamentalist"
> 
> ...


It has been a thing for quite some time now. I believe it accounts, in a significant way, for the growth in the Reformed churches... not that they are much better.


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## gordon 2 (May 23, 2021)

Israel said:


> Is this a_ thing._..Recovering Fundamentalists?
> 
> I find a few references to "it" as a sort of thing, a Podcast by that name, a FB page, some articles including "15 Things Not to Say to a Recovering Fundamentalist"
> 
> ...



From simply gleaning YouTube  some folk are not happy with the "Control" exercised by some of the Fs... and are willing to talk about it. In turn they are being attacked for their views by the reactionary element of the Fs.  The criticism seems to be that the Fs has been  gaslighting their flock and are in a gaslighting cultural eco chamber instead of being biblical.  The fs are countering.  Or this is what it seems to be about to me.  It has a historical feel to it and might have its own page on Wikipedia in a yr or so and be noted in church history.

It would be a great topic for a sociology study... as a new seam to mine for some enterprising students.

Note that I use the word "seem" alot because I can't  check the minds in the the political forum against what I find in youtube anymore for strait shooting and hard pan thinking.


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## Israel (May 23, 2021)

Thanks bros...really didn't know.
I mean I've always been aware there was someone "out there" sharing their testimony of being either set free or escaping some severe form of religious branding or cult...but I didn't know it has more or less become a movement with a _real _name.


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## BassMan31 (May 28, 2021)

When the sermons focused on men's hair-dos, woman's clothing choice, music preference, worship practices, and certain dogmas and forsook as trivial and mundane the glorious gospel of Christ, I figured it was time to bow out. I just didn't know there was a name for it.


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## tell sackett (Jun 14, 2021)

I am a dyed in the wool fundamentalist. I am not a legalist. I have no desire to “recover”.


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## gemcgrew (Jun 19, 2021)

tell sackett said:


> I am a dyed in the wool fundamentalist. I am not a legalist. I have no desire to “recover”.


It's not something to be desired, only realized.


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## tell sackett (Jun 21, 2021)

I have no need or reason to realize the recovery from the fundamentals of my faith. 

Some through the years have bought into the idea that a fundamentalist and a legalist are one and the same. Not so.


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## NCHillbilly (Jun 22, 2021)

BassMan31 said:


> When the sermons focused on men's hair-dos, woman's clothing choice, music preference, worship practices, and certain dogmas and forsook as trivial and mundane the glorious gospel of Christ, I figured it was time to bow out. I just didn't know there was a name for it.


Yep. I grew up listening to thousand of hours of sermons where preachers literally screamed at me telling me why I was going to He!!. That was the main theme every week, why everybody is going to He!!. Men with long hair or beards. Women wearing britches. People listening to rock and roll. Dancing. Playing card games. Drinking beer. Fishing on Sunday. I figured if I was going to He!! anyway, I was gonna have some fun before I did, and never went back after I got old enough to make my own decisions. Half of them preachers who used to scream at me about how I was going to He!! have been arrested since then for soliciting prostitution or molesting teenage girls or embezzling money or some such stuff that I would never even consider doing as a vile sinner in their eyes. You can have your fundamentalism. I don't want any of it.


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## tell sackett (Jun 22, 2021)

NCHillbilly said:


> Yep. I grew up listening to thousand of hours of sermons where preachers literally screamed at me telling me why I was going to He!!. That was the main theme every week, why everybody is going to He!!. Men with long hair or beards. Women wearing britches. People listening to rock and roll. Dancing. Playing card games. Drinking beer. Fishing on Sunday. I figured if I was going to He!! anyway, I was gonna have some fun before I did, and never went back after I got old enough to make my own decisions. Half of them preachers who used to scream at me about how I was going to He!! have been arrested since then for soliciting prostitution or molesting teenage girls or embezzling money or some such stuff that I would never even consider doing as a vile sinner in their eyes. You can have your fundamentalism. I don't want any of it.



See post#11. I will grant you that there is a segment that has given fundamentalism a bad rap by taking the name of fundamentalist and making it something it never was meant to be. A fundamentalist is one who stands for and defends the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. 

As for he!!, yes I preach on a literal he!! that awaits not people who drink and smoke or any of those other things you listed, but people who leave this world without a relationship with Jesus Christ.


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## Madman (Jun 25, 2021)

tell sackett said:


> A fundamentalist is one who stands for and defends the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.



I have always wondered where that teaching came from, since it was always so different from group to group.


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## SemperFiDawg (Jun 29, 2021)

tell sackett said:


> I have no need or reason to realize the recovery from the fundamentals of my faith.
> 
> Some through the years have bought into the idea that a fundamentalist and a legalist are one and the same. Not so.



As are some who don't recognize the difference between free-will works and free-will grace.  People invariably try to take their experience in religion, define the entire scope of Christianity by their one little church experience, often misunderstood, and then condemn everything else based on what THEY got wrong,  or misunderstood, and what they understand as correct now, without ever acknowledging that maybe, just maybe they are misguided in their understanding again.  It's always the other guy that has it wrong, never me.  This, despite the overwhelming evidence that if I'm brutally honest, I have to admit that I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to being right and wrong.  That's the way pride works.


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## gemcgrew (Jun 29, 2021)

SemperFiDawg said:


> free-will grace


Can you elaborate on that?


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## StriperAddict (Jun 30, 2021)

Free ...

Christ's love is relational without manipulation, otherwise it cannot be love.
The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy,, 

and posses. That's not attributed to Father.

How are we possessed out of the invitation, "come to Me ..." ?


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## SemperFiDawg (Jun 30, 2021)

gemcgrew said:


> Can you elaborate on that?



pretty sure it speaks for itself as does free-will works, unless you care to elaborate on that.


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## gemcgrew (Jun 30, 2021)

SemperFiDawg said:


> pretty sure it speaks for itself as does free-will works, unless you care to elaborate on that.


That helps clarify. 
Thanks.


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## j_seph (Jun 30, 2021)

NCHillbilly said:


> Yep. I grew up listening to thousand of hours of sermons where preachers literally screamed at me telling me why I was going to He!!. That was the main theme every week, why everybody is going to He!!. Men with long hair or beards. Women wearing britches. People listening to rock and roll. Dancing. Playing card games. Drinking beer. Fishing on Sunday. I figured if I was going to He!! anyway, I was gonna have some fun before I did, and never went back after I got old enough to make my own decisions. Half of them preachers who used to scream at me about how I was going to He!! have been arrested since then for soliciting prostitution or molesting teenage girls or embezzling money or some such stuff that I would never even consider doing as a vile sinner in their eyes. You can have your fundamentalism. I don't want any of it.


Was that holiness?


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## NCHillbilly (Jun 30, 2021)

j_seph said:


> Was that holiness?


Baptist.


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## BassMan31 (Jul 1, 2021)

tell sackett said:


> See post#11. I will grant you that there is a segment that has given fundamentalism a bad rap by taking the name of fundamentalist and making it something it never was meant to be. A fundamentalist is one who stands for and defends the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
> 
> As for he!!, yes I preach on a literal he!! that awaits not people who drink and smoke or any of those other things you listed, but people who leave this world without a relationship with Jesus Christ.


Perhaps there exist more level headed fundamentalists. Most I've met and grew up hearing rant in the pulpit were more concerned about doctrines co-opted from letters written to formerly pagan churches in ancient societies who's cultural relevance has been long removed from any common or esoteric memory. The actual significant doctrine points (eternal salvation, pre-tribulation rapture, authority of KJV translation, et al) were never addressed beyond some verbal attack levelled to anyone who believed different. There was no study nor edification. 

I understand going to church to be with others that are called to the same cause but there came a point where the few points listed above (no by any means the full extent I've experienced) became so repulsive that I couldn't be present in communion or worship with those around me, nor was I going to pretend the profuse misquotings and misunderstandings were "fine."


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## BassMan31 (Jul 1, 2021)

tell sackett said:


> I have no need or reason to realize the recovery from the fundamentals of my faith.
> 
> Some through the years have bought into the idea that a fundamentalist and a legalist are one and the same. Not so.


Legalists operate within the space of fundamentalism. It enables their heresy. As a logical exercise, I agree: It is inappropriate to prescribe fault to the whole of fundamentalism per offenses of a "few." In practice, however, I've not found this fabled "few." It's "most" and until they can separate their spiritual weakness from doctrine I'll approach self-professed "fundamentalists" as being equally and also "legalists."


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## RegularJoe (Jul 1, 2021)

I have always taken the word Fundamentalist to mean someone who simply subscribes to the fundamental beliefs of Christianity.
Is my understanding in error?
Thanks.


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## gemcgrew (Jul 1, 2021)

RegularJoe said:


> I have always taken the word Fundamentalist to mean someone who simply subscribes to the fundamental beliefs of Christianity.
> Is my understanding in error?
> Thanks.


Not in the context of Christianity. You have fundamentalist's in every religion.


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## RegularJoe (Jul 1, 2021)

Thanks Gem.
Could you do me the favor of defining, then, what a Christian type fundamentalist is?


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## gemcgrew (Jul 1, 2021)

RegularJoe said:


> Thanks Gem.
> Could you do me the favor of defining, then, what a Christian type fundamentalist is?


In the simplest form, a Christian fundamentalist is one who is held to and by the doctrine of Christ, the only doctrine of Scripture.


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## RegularJoe (Jul 2, 2021)

gemcgrew said:


> In the simplest form, a Christian fundamentalist is one who is held to and by the doctrine of Christ, the only doctrine of Scripture.


Thanks.


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## tell sackett (Jul 2, 2021)

BassMan31 said:


> Legalists operate within the space of fundamentalism. It enables their heresy. As a logical exercise, I agree: It is inappropriate to prescribe fault to the whole of fundamentalism per offenses of a "few." In practice, however, I've not found this fabled "few." It's "most" and until they can separate their spiritual weakness from doctrine I'll approach self-professed "fundamentalists" as being equally and also "legalists."



Okay, since it's raining and I have my notes finished:

Yes, some, maybe even most legalists operate within the space of fundamentalism. I would hesitate to hang the label of heretic on all of them, that's a serious accusation. I'm sorry you've had that experience. My experience in an independent, fundamentalist church was quite different. Yes, they did hold to some standards that others (myself included now) might disagree with, but they were as a whole a loving joyful church dedicated to sharing the gospel. If we were to use your standard of prescribing fault to the whole for the (presumed) error of a few, then we would have no church. I regret that you have those feelings towards me as a self professed fundamentalist. 




BassMan31 said:


> Perhaps there exist more level headed fundamentalists. Most I've met and grew up hearing rant in the pulpit were more concerned about doctrines co-opted from letters written to formerly pagan churches in ancient societies who's cultural relevance has been long removed from any common or esoteric memory. The actual significant doctrine points (eternal salvation, pre-tribulation rapture, authority of KJV translation, et al) were never addressed beyond some verbal attack levelled to anyone who believed different. There was no study nor edification.
> 
> Yes, there certainly are more "level headed fundamentalists". The part in red I'm completely unfamiliar with, I've never heard it. Could you elaborate? As to eternal security and the pre-trib rapture, yes, I believe in and teach both.
> 
> I understand going to church to be with others that are called to the same cause but there came a point where the few points listed above (no by any means the full extent I've experienced) became so repulsive that I couldn't be present in communion or worship with those around me, nor was I going to pretend the profuse misquotings and misunderstandings were "fine."


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## gemcgrew (Jul 3, 2021)

StriperAddict said:


> Free ...
> 
> Christ's love is relational without manipulation, otherwise it cannot be love.


Or it is the purest form of love and not dependent upon the recipient in any way, shape or form.


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## Artfuldodger (Jul 3, 2021)

tell sackett said:


> Okay, since it's raining and I have my notes finished:
> 
> Yes, some, maybe even most legalists operate within the space of fundamentalism. I would hesitate to hang the label of heretic on all of them, that's a serious accusation. I'm sorry you've had that experience. My experience in an independent, fundamentalist church was quite different. Yes, they did hold to some standards that others (myself included now) might disagree with, but they were as a whole a loving joyful church dedicated to sharing the gospel. If we were to use your standard of prescribing fault to the whole for the (presumed) error of a few, then we would have no church. I regret that you have those feelings towards me as a self professed fundamentalist.


Sorta like lumping all Republicans as racist because some racist are Republicans. Some Primitive Baptist believe in Universal Salvation but that doesn't mean that all of them do.


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