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It would be nice to hear from those who characterize themselves as fundamentalists. Are there any of you out there?
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I am and I am not. I won't use the term as a descriptor, but I consider myself far more fundamentalist than most people I imagine posting here. In truth, I believe that because faith varies from individual from individual you can't adequately label people like this. Christianity is meant to be a term to describe those who follow Christ. I think this is possible regardless of whether we believe certain verses in the Bible are inerrant or not. For example, one's belief in the specifics of the book of Jonah, IMO, has no bearing on your salvation. However, start tampering with what is literal in regard to what Jesus said and did and your salvation may be in trouble.
I think Tecoyah's post was well thought out and insightful, though I do have one disagreement, and this concerns the correctness of all interpretations of text. If we accept that there is a God, and that the Bible is His word, then we must accept that there are wrong interpretations to the Bible because we believe the Bible is what God has to say. Otherwise we're putting words in God's mouth. This is not to mention that of two mutually exclusive interpretations of text, it is obvious that one must be wrong. If we only take part of the Bible to be God's word, we're left with the task of sorting out what is allegory and what is truth. If we get it wrong (and because there's a lot of text to work through, there's a good chance that we'll get at least one thing wrong), we're still putting words in God's mouth because we're altering what He did and did not say. Finding out what books constitute the Bible, their accuracy to the original texts, and their interpretation from the original languages - these are the reasons we have Biblical scholars, historians, and archaeologists. If you're not satisfied with their answers, then look at the evidence yourself. If we take none of the Bible to be true that's a different issue altogether.
Getting back to the start of the thread, I don't think it's possible or even encouragable to throw off fundamentalism or any other stance on the literal interpretation of text. I think that it's best to encourage everyone - regardless of where they are on the spectrum of literal interpretation - to discuss ideas and challenge people from all other points on the spectrum, because it is only by this that truth can be separated from fiction. I think one issue with "moderate" Christianity is that it can promote laziness and a lack of evaluation of belief which can stifle spiritual development - though I know that not all "moderate Christians" are this way.