Shall the Fundamentalists Win ... Again?

This month marks the centennial of a landmark sermon in American Protestantism. On May 21, 1922, Baptist preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick delivered a famous sermon from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City, entitled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" You can read the text here.

It was a decisive moment in the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy of the time. This sermon cost him his position at the church, but it established his reputation as a champion of what he called “an intellectually hospitable, tolerant, liberty-loving church.”

In the sermon he addresses both the doctrines and the attitudes of fundamentalists. He is more concerned with how the fundamentalists behave than what they believe. He says:

“Fundamentalists are giving us one of the worst exhibitions of bitter intolerance that the churches of this country have ever seen. As one watches them and listens to them he remembers the remark of General Armstrong of Hampton Institute, “Cantankerousness is worse than heterodoxy.” There are many opinions in the field of modern controversy concerning which I am not sure whether they are right or wrong, but there is one thing I am sure of: courtesy and kindliness and tolerance and humility and fairness are right. Opinions may be mistaken; love never is.”

Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” If that is true, then then the 2020’s are rhyming with the 1920’s. American religion seems to be fighting the same battles it fought one hundred years ago. Furthermore they are the same battles as when I was in seminary in the 1970’s.

In one sense nothing has changed in the last one hundred years. There are still fundamentalist and modernist Christians, although now they are known as evangelicals and progressives. There is still a struggle for control of denominational structures, institutions, seminaries and churches. In one way the fundamentalist spirit is more powerful than ever. Today it has joined forces with politics to take over the government as well as the churches.

In another sense much has changed. We live in a post-denominational landscape where nondenominational megachurches are the big players. There is a growing vocal opposition to religion of any type. Atheism and agnosticism are on the rise. Churches of all types – including evangelical churches – are losing members at an alarming rate. The fury of fundamentalism today sounds more like a death rattle than the rumble of an advancing army.

Yet human nature has not changed. Fosdick ended his message with these words:

“The present world situation smells to heaven! And now, in the presence of colossal problems, which must be solved in Christ’s name and for Christ’s sake, the Fundamentalists propose to drive out from the Christian churches all the consecrated souls who do not agree with their theory of inspiration. What immeasurable folly!

“Well, they are not going to do it; certainly not in this vicinity! I do not even know in this congregation whether anybody has been tempted to be a Fundamentalist. Never in this church have I caught one accent of intolerance. God keep us always so and ever increasing areas of the Christian fellowship; intellectually hospitable, open-minded, liberty-loving, fair, tolerant, not with the tolerance of indifference, as though we did not care about the faith, but because always our major emphasis is upon the weightier matters of the law.”

The irony is that, unknown to him, there was intolerance in his church. Fundamentalists succeeded in driving Fosdick out of his positon as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. John D. Rockefeller Jr. came to his rescue and built him the Riverside Church, where he could preach freely without fear of retaliation.  His ministry eventually earned him the cover of Time magazine.

If there is any lesson to be learned from Fosdick’s historic sermon it is that intolerance is a persistent flaw of human nature. Furthermore religion is a permanent part of human culture. Our species is Homo religiosus – incurably religious.  Unfortunately religion often serves the purpose of tribalism, sexism, racism, nationalism and countless other –isms.

The good news is that we are also Homo mysticus. There is a part of us that sees beyond the sectarian madness. This inner intuition cannot be extinguished. It glimpses our essential union with the Divine and all humans. It is only imperfectly expressed by progressive preachers like Harry Emerson Fosdick. It finds full expression in the mystics of Christianity and all faiths. It is the antithesis of fundamentalism.

This means the fundamentalists shall not ultimately win. They may dominate nations or cultures for a season, but ultimately fundamentalism is a lost cause. If we survive as a species, someday spiritual inclusiveness, tolerance and love will reign. I see it already beginning, like spring shoots poking through winter’s dead leaves. 

Isaiah’s vision of the Peaceable Kingdom will become a reality. Jesus called it the Kingdom of God. May that Kingdom come, God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.