Fundamentalism and Ford: Church v State

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/northernireland/ethics/ethics_20130428-1054a.mp3

According to Lord John Alderdice, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, religious fundamentalism is an attitude which can affect all religious beliefs. Alderdice sees fundamentalism as more than just strict, conservative religious views and more as a frightened way of thinking which creates boundaries around groups. This way of thinking affects Christians, Jews, Muslims and all other religions and it is based on the idea of the inerrability of the scriptures. Groups and communities feel threatened and attach themselves to what they believe is certain.

In the case of Northern Ireland politician David Ford, fundamentalism showed its ugly head when Mr. Ford felt compelled to step down as elder of his Presbyterian church, where he and his family have worshipped for over twenty years, after voting in support of same sex marriage eight months ago. His decision to step down was made in an effort to try and reduce any offense his views towards same sex marriage may have caused the congregation.

Opinion:

I agree with John Alderdice's view that religious fundamentalism is the result of group fear. The extent to which fundamentalism is expressed may have to do with the situation in which the particular group finds itself. Sometimes these fundamentalist ideas are expressed in the form of terrorism by oppressed groups, such as in the case of Muslim fundamentalism. Many other times fundamentalism is expressed in more insidious ways by bullies, or groups who try to keep their believes and ideologies intact, an example could be much of prejudices and discrimination that we find in the West. These bullies have in general more power, through either financial means, a powerful religious hierarchy and political power and usually those three things work together to create a strong belief system, which will be defended at all cost. In either case any kind of fundamentalism, whether religious, political, financial, Eastern or Western is an obstacle to individual and collective freedom. We have to constantly ask ourselves in which way are we allowing ourselves to be conditioned, and if it is possibly leading to some kind of fundamentalism?