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and missionizing. The promise of the rapture provides certainty of for the true believer, offers support for faith, gives an absolute standard of moral and spiritual judgment, extends comfort in suffering and The key rituals of fundamentalists are Bible study, preaching, testifying, persecution, salvation
and enables freedom from fear of death.true believer, however, one must win souls for Christ, according to the great commission in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus meets eleven disciples and instructs them to “go forth and make all^15 To show one’s worthiness as a 28:16–20. The resurrected
nations my disciples.” Fundamentalist Christians take this injunction seriously; their war is one to win souls for Jesus in the cosmic battle against Satan.Fundamentalists, in concert with evangelical Christians, are active in the
political domain for the sake of combating secularism.the late Jerry Falwell insist that the United States has a special role in God’s plan. The United States is to be a Christian nation and a leader in saving souls for Christ. To foster this goal, Falwell founded the “Moral Majority” to^16 True believers like
promote Republicans with fundamentalist leanings running for political office at all levels. Huge successes were realized with the election of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush as Presidents of the United States. Tom DeLay served as Speaker of the House under Republican congressional control and
went public with remarks like these: “Christianity offers the only viable, reasonable, definitive answer to the questions of ‘Where did I come from?’, ‘Why am I here?’, ‘Where am I going?’, ‘Does life have any meaningful purpose?’ Only Christianity offers a way to understand that physical and
that moral order.”highest levels of US movement, which abehalf. Sophisticated websites and television broadcasts help spread the^17 Christian exclusionism in its political form reaches the government with this militant evangelical-fundamentalist lso harnesses the most up-to-date technology on its
Christian exclusionist message throughout the country and the world. The same use of hi-tech resources is found among hypertheists in other religions.Fundamentalists and right-wing evangelicals picture themselves as living sep-The institutional structure of fundamentalism is marked by separatism.
arately from the corrupt world of secular humanism. They promote home schooling, associate as much as possible with fellow believers, and inculcate an “us” versus “them” mentality. Right-wing Christians carefully integrate life’s basic, natural, social, and reflective goods under the protection of Christian
exclusionism. United with others in the community by belief in the immi-nent rapture, led by a pastor who is a spokesman for God, and fortified in their faith by the ritual of personal witnessing, fundamentalist Christians attribute everything to God, the real agent in the world. Everything that