Man, I thought the battling Baptists knew how to do contempt and vitriol, but I'm seeing it in spades at GC06. It's a good thing Jesus told us that there are "many mansions" in Heaven. If some of these folks get there, they will demand "gated" neighborhoods, for sure. How far short we fall!

Some poor Baptist schlob took a wrong turn on his way to Greensboro and wound up on the Stand Firm blog. His take on our problems and their solutions sound so simplistic, even naive. Their convention just passed a 4/5 majority resolution against the use of alcohol. To think that 1/5 of those in attendance condone the use of wine is encouraging. They won't even discuss homosexuality. Oh, this guy did provide a link to Exodus International, a ministry for those wanting to leave the "bondage" of their deviant lifestyles.

I'm glad Episcopalians are willing to tackle the really tough issues. If not for their forward thinking and advancement throughout history, we would not be nearly as far along as we are with civil rights, women's rights, etc. As nostalgic as I get for old times, most of the old times I gladly leave behind. I hope my non-Episcopal siblings in Christ catch up to us someday. As long as Fundamentalists have as much power as they do, I'm afraid that day won't be anytime soon.

Almost invariably, fundamentalist movements are led by authoritarian males who consider themselves to be superior to others and, within religious groups, have an overwhelming commitment to subjugate women and to dominate their fellow believers.

Although fundamentalists usually believe that the past is better than the present, they retain certain self-benefcial aspects of both their historic religious beliefs and of the modern world.

Fundamentalists draw clear distinctions between themselves, as true believers, and others, convinced that they are right and that anyone who contradicts them is ignorant and possibly evil.

Fundamentalists are militant in fighting against any challenge to their beliefs. They are often angry and sometimes resort to verbal and even physical abuse against those who interfere with the implementation of their agenda.

Fundamentalists tend to make their self-definition increasingly narrow and restricted, to isolate themselves, to demagogue emotional issues, and to view change, cooperation, negotiation and other efforts to resolve differences as signs of weakness.

To summarize, there are three words that characterize this brand of fundamentalism: rigidity, domination and exclusion.

-- From former Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter, in Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 34-35.