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Define "fundamentalist."

I will take a crack at it.... Somebody who believes that all of the bible is true, but some parts are truer than others. While others believe that much of the bible is allegory, they believe that many of Jesus commandments aren't as important as Leviticus 20:13.

They believe that James 2:14 doesn't apply to them, yet get all excited about the part of Leviticus they agree with, but reject the rest. Then they use Paul as further justification for their beliefs while ignoring the fact that James, Peter, John, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and ya know Jesus did not share their emphasis. Not their concern mind you, but their emphasis. They twist the bible into pretzels.

They justify not following the sermon on the mount, and build shiny gold topped domes to justify Jesus, while they walk over his sheep the other 6 days of the week. They don't want to wait for God, so they try to ferment unrest in the mideast so God will hurry up, once the temple is rebuilt in Jerusulem.

If Jesus came back attired as he walked in life, they would shut the door on him if he knocked. They do not with love tell the prostitute, the tax collector, the sick, to follow them into the Lord, but call them vile sinners, to justify their self-righteousness. They are the pharisees, who sell video tapes in the temple, and convince others that they need to send $700 to Pat Robertson in order to find salvation. They do not get the point of the Good Samaritan, because they use the argument of the pharisees and lawyers instead of ministering to the unwashed. Condemning is much more satisfying then getting dirty. They do not act as if Jesus is watching them when they lie on their tax forms, ignore the less fortunate, rebuke others when there is still quite a mightly log in their own eye. They love Paul greater than Christ. They follow Paul's teachings must closer.

But... this is just my opinion.

There are, in effect, two Americas: the "red" nation that voted for Bush and the "blue" one that voted for Gore. The "reddest" of the "red" counties tend to be those with a high percentage of conservative evangelical Christians (except for the Mormon areas in Utah and adjacent states). The bluest of the "blue" counties tend to be areas where the proportion of the unchurched and advocates of alternate lifestyles are far larger than the national average (except for counties where blacks, Hispanics, or Indians are the majority). Muskogee, Oklahoma vs. Berkeley, California, if you will. Or Collin County, Texas (suburban Dallas) vs. Marin County, California (suburban San Francisco).

Consider that standards of public decency and decorum are far higher in the most conservative areas than in the more liberal areas. (In Hank Williams, Jr.'s words, we say please and we say ma'am. A far better attitude than "Whaddayawnt, Jack?") Taxes are lower, as are the fees charged for automobile registration and other items. The public school systems attempt to teach the students and not brainwash children in the latest PC and diversity fad. Generally speaking, local and state bureaucaracies are less intrusive. In Dallas, the city government recently banned panhandling on off-ramps and service roads of the local freeways. In San Francisco, the homeless regularly defecate and urinate in public and have turned public fountains into outdoor toilets.

Give me the "fundies" over the "godless Commies" any day!

I don't know how you came to this definition of fundamentalist. You're describing the people Paul discussed in I Cor 1 & 2. He labeled these camps as divisions and contentions in the church. (I am of Paul, I am of Cephus, I am of Jesus).

A fundamentalist is simply someone who goes back to scripture as the plumb-line against which truth is measured. Much like conservatives should go back to the Constitution and its supporting documents as the basis of law in this country.

I know Fundamentalists who spend time working with the poor, with prisoners, with street people, prostitutes and junkies. Some of my fundie friends came from the homosexual community, from the Hell's Angels, and one was an 'enforcer' for a Loan Shark. Several were hookers and junkies.

The anti-fundamentalist posts in the thread appear to imply that fundamentalist Christians focus on homosexuality and want to somehow do away with the people who ar homosexuals. I don't see that opinion in the Churches I've worked with. They see homosexuality as a sin that catches people in its grips and won't let go. Like alcoholism. Like drug addiction. Like uncontrolled anger. Like gluttony. Like stealing. What they do oppose is the attempts to legitimize this sin, and to try to expose children to it in schools and on television. And at Disney World.

We also recognize that this particular lifestyle very often relies on recruitment of young innocent children in order to enlarge it ranks and its population of potential partners.

And we see attempts to legalize it as means to achieve that recruitment for their own sensual pleasures.

Here's where we Fundamentalists find ourselves: we all have things in our lives that try to seduce us from the path we know God has called us to. Paul expressed this so well in Romans. He said he does the things he hates and often doesn't do the things he knows he should. "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! ..."

Those things that are tempting to me have little sway on others, and vice versa. But if I try to justify my prediliction to sin so I may hold onto it, I deny myself the grace that He provided.

You make a lot of judgments about fundamentalists that aren't true, mixing sneering hyperbole with willfull ignorance.
True Fundamentalists say that the whole Bible is true, no they wouldn't cheat on their income taxes, and would follow both JAMES and PAUL, but mostly the two greatest commandments uttered By Christ(Love God with your heart and soul and mind and Love your neighbor as your-self).
A true fundamentalist knows that faith with-out works is dead, but works themselves can not justify one-self to God.

A true fundamentalist knows that with out LOVE, all of his preachings and teachings are as crashing cymbals, just a bunch of harsh noise, that attacks the unbeliever rather than "woos him" with the love of God.

A true fundamentalist knows that out-side of God's grace, sinners are jubject to the the condemnation of the law(such as in Leviticus), and are horrified that men would choose eternal separation from God rather than Christ's peace-able kingdom.

A true fundamentalist seeks introspective honesty with himself and God. He or she will, using the bible as a mirror, subject his motives and thoughts to God's scrutiny, not that any-thing is hidden from God any-way...but this principle has to do with becoming believers "after God's own heart" While the result often leads to the realization that the more one grows with God, the more one discovers his total depravity, we discover how much more wonderful are God's grace and mercy are over our failures.

Finally, a true fundamentalist,has a peice of God inside him/her, his Holy Spirit, that for the rest of our lives, preserves and renews our inner man daily, even though our outer flesh perishes. A fundamentalist knows one cannot live God's way without the power to do so, and with-out the continuing grace to operate should one stumble out of the way.

To live as a fundamentalist, is to operate with the knowledge that God doesn't always take the bad attitudes and thoughts out of our hearts, we operate out of joy at our forgiveness, and saddness that God accepts and loves us despite the shadier sides of us that only the Spirit can contend with...those deeper impulses of our personalities, that only God alone can deal with!