Edward Said

[kandrathe]

He has isolated one (barely) manageable group, whose beliefs, while not uniform, are generally held in common. Fundamentalism does that to people, which is, I think, his point.

Well. Our country has a broad history with religious fundamentalism and various splinter religious groups since they started landing at Plymouth rock.

My only experience with the bible belt has been from what I see when I visit my mother in Arkansas. She moved there to find a nice cheaper place to retire (The place where I live is a high tax, high service State and well frankly the elderly are frequently driven into the welfare roles and then have little choice as to what happens to them. I digress. ) She has become a deacon of her church in the short time she has been there.

From what I see the churches form one of the backbones of the community. There are various denominations, with mostly Baptist (multiple flavors), Methodist, and Catholic. People are very nice, and help one another out when there is a need. Some of the towns seem to be Rockwellesque and ripped right from pages of the Saturday Evening Post. She lives within a short drive to Subiaco, where there is a Benedictine Monastery which seems to be transplanted straight from Germany.

I guess I object labels like "Born Again" since they tend to describe all and none. It is used by people as a slur against Christians in general. Then again there are many charged labels like, "Religious Right", "Bleeding Heart Liberal", or "Pinko Commie" that people toss around to denigrate their political opponents.

So anyway, which kind of Fundamentalist Christian is he refering to? Quakers? Mormons? Shakers? Mennonites? Or, just any church that is strongly Bible based. I know I have met many Christians whose literal translation of the bible is maddening, and maybe that is the ludicrous example being used to whip them all with. Anyway, IMHO, myopia and narrow-mindedness are personal choices not championed by many creeds.