(Towards Building a Post-Fundamentalist Evangelicalism)
by Lee Enochs
Princeton, New Jersey
"But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace" (Romans 11:6).
The recent dizzying and meteoric rise of Grammy Award winning R & B singer Sam Smith has inspired me to write this treatise. You see, for many years I have been hindered and held back from maximizing my potential and from expressing myself by self-appointed fundamentalist gatekeepers within American Evangelicalism and the Southern Baptist Convention dominated world I lived in.
That a talented artist like Sam Smith can rock the media establishment and rocket to success and fame without being ambiguous about his sexuality, gives me hope that I too can make a difference in society. For the record, for protest purposes, I do not choose to define my sexuality. If that bothers you, maybe you might want to stop reading this at this point.
For most of my life I have had a tremendous interest in Christian theology but was not able to do much with my interest because I did not conform to some sort of imaginary standards of acceptance within the conservative and fundamentalist Evangelical circles that I found myself trafficking in.
At one time I did not know that a world actually existed outside of my small fundamentalist Christian circles. For years I felt trapped and hemmed in by this religious tradition. I felt I was in sort of an existential and theological dungeon. That is, until the light of God’s revelation and a little help from the important 20th century theologian Karl Barth broke through.
While I often wanted to die or just slip away from it all, somehow God keep me from just disappearing from it all. While my Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian heritage saw Karl Barth as a heretic, I found him to be a prophet that spoke to my very soul. I learned a brand new weltanschauung or worldview from Barth that all of life is to be “Christocentric,” that is, all of human existence and reality is to be predicated upon Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross.
Like Karl Barth and Martin Luther, I believe salvation is entirely outside of ourselves (extra nos) and that we need the "alien righteousness" (alien iustitiam) of Christ to be imputed to us by God's grace alone.
Like Immanuel Kant upon reading David Hume or Karl Barth, who received a cataclysmic epiphany of grace while studying the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans, I have been awakened from the dogmatic slumbers of fundamentalist Evangelicalism to a new and better way.
You see, for most of my life, I was the “nerd” that sat in the corner or in the back of most pragmatism and consumer orientated Evangelical churches, camp meetings and classrooms. I was held back by everyone and treated like an animal by most. When I did try to speak or express some sort of sentient thought, I was immediately rebuffed and silenced by these self-appointed fundamentalist gatekeepers I mentioned before.
Although I went to many of the leading Evangelical and Southern Baptist schools, I was discouraged from expressing originality and creativity at every turn. I also saw this Evangelical and Fundamentalist world repress and discourage women and LGBT Christians from being part of the conversation, and this loveless dogmatism crushed my very spirit.
After decades of conformity to imaginary standards by self-righteous and spirit-squelching Evangelical fundamentalists, I have chosen to go another way. I have chosen to actually live. I have seen that there is more to life than going on petty little crusades against gays, lesbians and transgendered people. I have found that life in Christ does not consist of spending every weekend with a bullhorn in your hand, shouting down women in front of pregnancy centers. I wasted decades of my life being part of and trying to defend an indefensible form of Christianity that made little impact and contributed absolutely nothing of positive benefit to society.
I am looking to establish a post-fundamentalist Christianity that believes in the authority of the Bible and primacy of Jesus Christ above all things. I see a place for women, gays, lesbians and transgendered people in the church. I also see a place for the outcast and creative loner who believes in equal rights for all, social justice, economic equality and environmental concerns.
The “nerd” who very few people paid attention to is now speaking for full inclusion for people of all nationalities, genders and sexualities in the life of American Christianity. The person that everyone looked right through is now speaking out for a new form of Christianity. I am now arguing for something different than the fundamentalism (Contra Fundamentorum) I saw in my Southern Baptist and Evangelical world I was repressed in. I am now looking for a new and living way.
Like Bono crooned in one U2's famous songs, "I still haven't found what I am looking for," until then, it is me against the world (me contra mundi).
The recent dizzying and meteoric rise of Grammy Award winning R & B singer Sam Smith has inspired me to write this treatise. You see, for many years I have been hindered and held back from maximizing my potential and from expressing myself by self-appointed fundamentalist gatekeepers within American Evangelicalism and the Southern Baptist Convention dominated world I lived in.
That a talented artist like Sam Smith can rock the media establishment and rocket to success and fame without being ambiguous about his sexuality, gives me hope that I too can make a difference in society. For the record, for protest purposes, I do not choose to define my sexuality. If that bothers you, maybe you might want to stop reading this at this point.
For most of my life I have had a tremendous interest in Christian theology but was not able to do much with my interest because I did not conform to some sort of imaginary standards of acceptance within the conservative and fundamentalist Evangelical circles that I found myself trafficking in.
At one time I did not know that a world actually existed outside of my small fundamentalist Christian circles. For years I felt trapped and hemmed in by this religious tradition. I felt I was in sort of an existential and theological dungeon. That is, until the light of God’s revelation and a little help from the important 20th century theologian Karl Barth broke through.
While I often wanted to die or just slip away from it all, somehow God keep me from just disappearing from it all. While my Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian heritage saw Karl Barth as a heretic, I found him to be a prophet that spoke to my very soul. I learned a brand new weltanschauung or worldview from Barth that all of life is to be “Christocentric,” that is, all of human existence and reality is to be predicated upon Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross.
Like Karl Barth and Martin Luther, I believe salvation is entirely outside of ourselves (extra nos) and that we need the "alien righteousness" (alien iustitiam) of Christ to be imputed to us by God's grace alone.
Like Immanuel Kant upon reading David Hume or Karl Barth, who received a cataclysmic epiphany of grace while studying the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans, I have been awakened from the dogmatic slumbers of fundamentalist Evangelicalism to a new and better way.
You see, for most of my life, I was the “nerd” that sat in the corner or in the back of most pragmatism and consumer orientated Evangelical churches, camp meetings and classrooms. I was held back by everyone and treated like an animal by most. When I did try to speak or express some sort of sentient thought, I was immediately rebuffed and silenced by these self-appointed fundamentalist gatekeepers I mentioned before.
Although I went to many of the leading Evangelical and Southern Baptist schools, I was discouraged from expressing originality and creativity at every turn. I also saw this Evangelical and Fundamentalist world repress and discourage women and LGBT Christians from being part of the conversation, and this loveless dogmatism crushed my very spirit.
After decades of conformity to imaginary standards by self-righteous and spirit-squelching Evangelical fundamentalists, I have chosen to go another way. I have chosen to actually live. I have seen that there is more to life than going on petty little crusades against gays, lesbians and transgendered people. I have found that life in Christ does not consist of spending every weekend with a bullhorn in your hand, shouting down women in front of pregnancy centers. I wasted decades of my life being part of and trying to defend an indefensible form of Christianity that made little impact and contributed absolutely nothing of positive benefit to society.
I am looking to establish a post-fundamentalist Christianity that believes in the authority of the Bible and primacy of Jesus Christ above all things. I see a place for women, gays, lesbians and transgendered people in the church. I also see a place for the outcast and creative loner who believes in equal rights for all, social justice, economic equality and environmental concerns.
The “nerd” who very few people paid attention to is now speaking for full inclusion for people of all nationalities, genders and sexualities in the life of American Christianity. The person that everyone looked right through is now speaking out for a new form of Christianity. I am now arguing for something different than the fundamentalism (Contra Fundamentorum) I saw in my Southern Baptist and Evangelical world I was repressed in. I am now looking for a new and living way.
Like Bono crooned in one U2's famous songs, "I still haven't found what I am looking for," until then, it is me against the world (me contra mundi).
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