Thanks to Roger Olson's blog on Patheos, which is one of the best, if not the best, Christian blogs on the internet, I read articles on two documentaries regarding American Evangelicals (click here and there). Those articles two documentaries on American Evangelicals (click here for the first documentary) and the second documentary (click here for the documentary).
The first documentary gives a monolithic view of Evangelicalism and eventually covers a militia in Georgia made up of Evangelicals. It is when the documentary covers the militia group that the idea of fanatic comes into play. The second documentary gives a more balanced view of Evangelicalism even though it limits its coverage of Evangelicalism to the Nashville, Tennessee area. In that documentary, fanaticism is associated with conservative social and political views including Christian Nationalism.
Because some Evangelicals are being called 'Christian Fanatics' in Olson's article, I wanted to give my take on the subject. For not all Evangelicals are religious fanatics, but too many are.
Here it might help to define what is a fanatic. But there is a problem there. The word 'fanatic' is often used as a pejorative to show disapproval of what a group believes and/or its actions. With both documentaries, Christian Fanatics are not only offended by abortion, but also by the growing presence of unbelievers.
Also, what is considered to be fanatic or extreme is relative to the status quo and thus the criteria for determining what a fanatic is can be fluid over time. And so some who were considered to be fanatics in their own time period might no longer be called fanatics later on in time. In fact, the relationpship between what is fanatical and what is acceptable is comparable to the relationship between history revisionism and accepted history in that the value of either fanaticism or revisionism can be, in large part, determined by the perceived quality of what is acceptable or accepted history. So just as if the original historical accounts are bad, then history revisionism can be good. so if what is acceptable is bad, then fanaticism can possibly be good.
So unfortunately, Christian fanatics today are identified by what they believe. But as just previously mentioned, what is fanatical is fluid and thus could change over time so that it could eventually become what is accepted regardless of how wrong it is.
Thus, I thought it might be helpful if we look at whom we consider to be today's Christian fanatics and focus on their personal qualities that seem to be pushing them over the edge. And those personal qualities are shared by those Evangelicals from both documentaries.
The first personal quality or approach that is apparent in Christian fanatics is tribalism. The word 'tribalism' has several definitions and the definition I will be employing here describes tribalism has when a person has a strong degree of loyalty to a group regardless of what that group revolves around. Why tribalism is a problem here is because as one's group loyalty becomes too strong, one's sense of right and wrong changes from depending on more universal principles and values to that of who is doing what to whom. And so when group loyalty gets too strong, that sense of morality becomes relative and eventually prevents one from being critical of one's own group.
Here it might be helpful to look at some of the traits that come with tribalism. We can use an article that was previously posted on the this blog to help (click here for the article). Those traits consist of conformity, a sense of superiority to others, a hostility toward both those outside the group and those who are different, and defensiveness. This last trait can be seen in the anticipation of hostility many Evangelicals have because there is a growing percentage of atheists or those who no longer accept traditional Christian values. Thus, many Christian Evangelicals, including those who we would not think of as being fanatics, are anticipating or even perceiving hostility from merely being in the presence of a higher percentage of unbelievers than in the past.
What those traits in tribalism help produce is a group authoritarianism and so we should note that authoritarianism was studied by the Frankfurt School, which I am told follows a Neo-Marxist school of thought. The reason why authoritarianism was being studied was in response to the German population's reaction and almost undying loyalty to Hitler and the Nazis. And much of that loyalty survived the horrific consequences that the German people had to experience because of Nazism. So here we should note that traits that authoritarianism adds to tribalism are the belief in power, having a negative view of people in general, and having a black-white worldview.
Another trait exhibited by those with an authoritarian personality type is to show hostility toward challenges to conventional beliefs. Considering that conventional beliefs are relative to one's ideological world, what we are seeing when exploring tribalism and authoritarianism is the source of fanaticism for some people. And when one looks at the documentaries side by side with a listing of the traits of tribalism and authoritarianism, it should be obvious that tribalism and authoritarianism can come into play in the making of a fanatic.
The problem for us religiously conservative Christians here then is to how to live the Christian life without becoming authoritarian either as a follower or a leader. That can be difficult because the Scriptures and a lot of conservative Christian teaching puts us in so many hierarchical relationships where we must follow authority figures. And so we must ask ourselves this question: How can we submit to the various authorities that the Scriptures tell us to submit to without becoming authoritarian either as a follower or a leader?
In addition, we are encouraged to almost solely rely on Christian teachers to digest the world for us. That is because these Christian teachers are trying to see the world from a biblical viewpoint. But it is also because we are discouraged from relying on worldly sources for learning about the world because such sources lack a biblical worldview. And so not only do we religiously conservative Christians have a penchant for authoritarianism, we also have one for tribalism.
It shouldn't be too difficult to put the above together to explain what we see in religious fanatics. The tribalism keeps people secluded in their groups. The black-white worldview allows those people to demonize those outside their group and thus further secluding them in their groups. That sets people up for adhering to conspiracy theories depending on the ideological or other group those theories emerge from and rejecting legitimate news sources. The demonization of others also feeds hostility towards those who challenge one's own group. The demonizing of others along with feeling superior to others feeds the sense of entitlement to try to rule over others.
But there is still one missing piece of the puzzle in creating a Christian religious fanatic. That missing piece is a tribalism but not one that is spiritually based, it is a tribalism that is worldly based. Groups that us religiously conservative Christians develop a tribal loyalty include America, conservative political ideology, conservative economic ideology, and conservative social ideology, and Western Civilization. It is tribal loyalty to Western Civilization that we see the introduction of the belief in white supremacy.
Thus, if we religiously conservative Christians want to avoid becoming religious fanatics, we need to avoid tribalism and authoritarianism. That is we must avoid developing deep loyalties to any ideology, nation, a denomination's theology, or other-oriented group to avoid tribalism. That doesn't mean that we cannot have any loyalty to a group. But it does mean we can't afford to be so much loyal to any group that we become blind to its faults and sins. Once we are able to see the faults and weaknesses of each group to which we belong, we become less hesitant to learn from other groups and appreciate their strengths. To do that, we limit out much of the world we see in black-white terms.
American Christianity is facing a crisis. That crisis is that it feels pushed into thinking that and responding to a nation that is increasingly secular. Considering that many religiously conservative Christians believe that the US started as a Christian nation and that is understandable. But understandable or not, we cannot afford to respond to this growing secularity by circling the wagons and trying seize back control. Because we live in a democracy, we do have to learn how to exist and function as the Church while remain free of tribalism and authoritarianism.
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