The
Nature of Fundamentalism, The
Fundamentals of Naturism: Parallels
and Divergences
...Naturists and American fundamentalists have much in
common. Both are
clinging to a simpler, purer way of life. Both emphasize
family values. Both feel under
threat of extinction in an increasingly crowded and commercialized world.
Both have recently felt a need to set aside their traditional aloofness
and reluctantly
enter the world of politics.
Yet with so much in common, harmless skinny-dippers since
1993 have suddenly
found themselves under severe attack from fundamentalists.
How has this
colossal misdirection of energies come about? By a series of
four misunderstandings
that can and should be corrected. We are dealing with people who
confuse fundamentalism with religion, who confuse religion with morality,
who confuse morality with sex, and who confuse sex with
nudity. It takes four
logic-defying leaps of faith to get there. This chain of
illogic can be broken at
any of those four points....
"The trouble with fundamentalism is
that people confuse it with religion." So
wrote His Holiness Charukerty Bhattarak Swamiji, Supreme Pontiff of the
Digambara
(or naked) Jains at Shravana Belgola in southern India. He
was referring to Hindu
fundamentalists, but was among the first to recognize the international
and non-
religious nature of these new forces. Americans are well
aware of Islamic
fundamentalists who have seized control of Iran and
Afghanistan—how they force
women to cover their entire bodies and stop getting an education, how
they persecute
anyone who disagrees with them, how they censor what their public are
allowed to
know, how they inflict barbaric punishments for violations of religious
law. Few doubt
that many Christian fundamentalists would do the very same things if
they could just
get their hands on power.
We are also aware of Jewish
fundamentalists who have long prevented any
agreement of peace in the Middle East. Yet few Americans
realize that mobs of Hindu
fundamentalists have also tried spreading a wave of intolerance across
India in the last
several years. With like mind but different purpose from
Christian Revisionists, Hindu
revisionist authors are trying to rewrite history the way they wish it
had happened.
Even the usually peaceful Buddhists have their fundamentalists who
seized power in
Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon), where they have inflicted a reign
of terror on the
Hindu minority....
For instance, part of the American
Revisionist mythology claims that this is a
Christian nation founded on Christian principles. Some
enthusiasts even go so far as
to claim that our laws are based on the Ten Commandments.
Actually, George
Washington's administration drafted the Treaty of Peace and Friendship
with the
Islamic government of Tripoli, stating clearly in Article XI that "The
Government of the
United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian
religion." The
full senate ratified this document, and the new president, John Adams,
signed it.
The founding fathers who drafted the
Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution had nearly all renounced Christianity in favor of Deism
(which was much
like modern Unitarianism.) In 1776, only 17% of Americans
belonged to any church.
By 1850, the number had risen to 34%. Only in the twentieth
century, did half of
Americans join churches. That number has continued to rise
slowly, but still has not
reached the two-thirds mark.
Look at our presidents:
Washington: Deist
Adams:
Deist
Jefferson: Deist
Madison:
no church
Monroe:
no church
J. Q.
Adams: Deist
Jackson:
Deist
Van
Buren: Dutch Reformed—4 years
W. H.
Harrison: Episcopal—l month
Tyler:
Deist
Polk: no
church
Taylor:
no church
Fillmore:
Unitarian
Pierce:
no church
Buchanan:
no church
Lincoln:
no church
Johnson:
no church
Grant: no
church
Hayes: no
church
Garfield:
Disciples of Christ—6 months
Arthur:
no church
Cleveland: no church
Christian apologists have tried to pad this list by claiming that some
presidents were
baptized as infants or joined their wife's church after retiring from
public office, but the
fact remains that during the first 112 years of this country, from 1776
to 1888, the
White House was occupied by a man claiming to be a Christian during
less than five of
those years. And we the people elected them. Not
exactly a Christian nation....
Just what is morality? To
many fundamentalists, one word comes to mind: sex.
It is an impoverished definition. Never mind that bedroom
patrol organizations like the
National Family Legal Foundation operate on money embezzled by big-time
crooks like
Charles Keating. Never mind that Pat Robertson urges members
of his Christian
Coalition to win elections by deceit. Never mind that
Canaveral National Seashore
Superintendent Wendel Simpson put up signs telling people they could
skinny-dip
anywhere, so he could claim that naturists were moving into the wrong
place—or that
proponents of anti-nudity laws claim they have been upheld by the
Supreme Court
when, in fact, the court refused to look at them.
Dirty minds, dirty money, dirty tactics,
dirty lies. Where is the morality?...