My goodness. An “Episcopal Fundamentalist” from New Jersey<\/i>?! \ud83d\ude09 Wow!<\/p>\n
The Rev. Kenneth D. Aldrich’s op-ed is great reading. A loud Amen to his conclusion.<\/p>\n
Confessions of an Episcopal Fundamentalist
\n07\/15\/2007<\/p>\n
Fundamentalist: That abominable \u201cf word;\u201d\u009d so inimical to polite society in The Episcopal Church; the most offensive term of opprobrium the liberal religious establishment can use to demean its adversaries. It would seem that one may be almost anything in The Episcopal Church today except a fundamentalist.<\/p>\n
Even in centers of American Anglican conservatism, this appellation is taboo. Calling someone at Ambridge or Nashotah a \u201cfundamentalist\u201d\u009d quite likely could result in your being regarded as a persona non grata on campus.<\/p>\n
Over the course of my ministry, I began to notice that whenever my revisionist colleagues were not able to refute an orthodox argument, they could reduce their opponents to embarrassed stammerings of protested innocence, and thereby regain the upper hand, merely by declaring \u201cYou sound like a fundamentalist.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
After personally enduring this supercilious putdown on a number of occasions, I turned the tables on my antagonists by responding, \u201cYes, you\u2019re right. What\u2019s wrong with that?\u201d\u009d This retort reduced opponents to stunned silence and forced the debate back to a reasoned discussion of the issues at point. The other side could no longer carry the argument by dismissively stigmatizing the traditionalists with a pejorative label.<\/p>\n
As time went on, the more I owned up to being a \u201cfundamentalist,\u201d\u009d the more comfortable I felt with the appellation. What is so bad about affirming the fundamentals of the Christian faith set forth in the historic creeds of the Church?<\/p>\n