A Fundamentalist Revival?

This is a fine essay by David French, noting the ideological rather than just the religious underpinnings of fundamentalist social movements.

In the US, the Left has embarked on a secular fundamentalist movement that is now reaching a fever pitch. It is a bit ironic that its proponents have strongly condemned conservative religious fundamentalism along the way while adopting the same social behavioral tactics. Fascism was/is a form of fundamentalism too, as well as communism and environmentalism. So is the more virulent form of right-wing Trumpism.

Fundamentalism comes with the territory when we all are expected to march in lockstep toward some abstract common good. Coercion is its necessary tool. But freedom and civic responsibility have always accomplished this task far better.

America Is in the Grips of a Fundamentalist Revival

But it’s not Christian.

"...yes, secular religion is breaking out across the land. That’s old news. Here’s what’s new—it’s growing so very dark. We don’t need to repeat all the recent excesses of cancel culture to know that many anti-racist progressives are in the midst of a hunt for ideological heretics, and even the oldest sins can’t be forgiven. Consider that on Friday a Boeing executive resigned after an employee complained about an article he wrote 33 years ago opposing women in combat."

Another interesting passage that ties belief systems to the uncertainty that is the nature of the universe:

To understand the distinction between fundamentalism and, say, evangelicalism or other forms of devotion, I want to go back to Ecclesiastes 3:11 and quote the entire verse: “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end.”

Let me quote another verse, this one from the New Testament: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

Both of these passages speak to the existence of an immovable, irreducible amount of uncertainty in this world, including mysteries about God Himself.

Recall the end of the book of Job, when the righteous, suffering man demands an explanation for his plight from the God of the universe, and the God of the universe responds with an extended soliloquy that essentially declares, “I’m God, and you’re not.” And what is Job’s response? “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.”

As a consequence, while there are many, many things we can know about God—and many things we can learn—we must approach our faith and our world with a sense of existential humility.

Managing the uncertainties of our existence brings us back to social science, economics and the art of politics. It's a deep well.