Catholics Prefer Muslims Over Fundamentalists

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from USA Today, November 16, 2001 with a headline, “Catholics view Fundamentalists less favorably than Muslims.”American Catholics look more favorably on Muslims and Mormons than they do on fundamentalist Christians according to a new poll on political, cultural, and moral trends in Catholic life.A nationwide survey of 1508 Roman Catholic found 56% had a favorable impression of Islam.Similar majorities had a favorable view of Mormons 54%; Buddhists 57% and Hindus 54%. But only 46% of Catholics had a favorable view of fundamentalist Christians.The October 25^th – November 1^st survey had a margin of error of <±3%.The survey’s results may reflect in part, its timing. It was done after the September 11^th terrorist attacks and during the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan.In the poll 58% of Catholics agreed that fundamentalist Christians tend to be religious fanatics and 50% called them not tolerant of others; 44% found Muslims to be intolerant and 49% thought they were religious fanatics.“Everyone from the President of the United States to the Mayor of New York, made the case in a very public way that this is not a war against Islam and I think we actually have a heightened favorability toward Islam because of this,” pollster John Zogby said. “Perhaps the images they have of Christian fundamentalists are flame throwers and ideologues,” Zogby said. He noted that the survey was conducted shortly after the Reverend Jerry Falwell blamed unbelievers and others for leaving America vulnerable to terrorists.Richard Land, a deeply conservative Southern Baptist and President of his denomination’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said using the word “fundamentalist” skew the survey findings.“If they had asked about Catholic views of evangelical Christians, they would have gotten measurably different results,” he said.Land said many people associate fundamentalists with the anti-Catholic views of fundamentalist BobJonesUniversity in South Carolina, a source of controversy during the Republican presidential primary campaign last year and Catholic theologians have spoken specifically against fundamentalist’s literal view of the Bible, compared with the Catholic views of interpreting scripture.

Tom:

Dave this is a very interesting article.Where to begin here?Well, first of all you’re a fundamentalist, I’m a fundamentalist, but I wouldn’t consider you a flame-thrower.

Dave:

Well Tom, maybe we need to deal with that very quickly.There’s nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist.You said I’m a fundamentalist.As a CPA, which I haven’t practiced for years, but I’m a certified public accountant and I would adhere to the fundamentals of sound accounting principles and if I don’t I lose my license.When I get on an airplane I hope we have a fundamentalist pilot—a pilot who follows the rules and gets us to where we are going.There is nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist—in fact you ought to be a fundamentalist.Whatever you are, whatever you believe, you should follow its fundamentals.The problem is the fundamentals that a Muslim follows involve threatening people with death and killing them if they do not convert to Islam.Now we’re not going to go back over that again, but this is absolutely true, Muhammad himself did it; it’s taught in the Qur’an and the Hadith, and so forth.But the fundamentals of Christianity—you couldn’t support, say for example, the Crusaders.The Roman Catholic Crusaders, the first crusade founded by Pope Urban II.They killed Jews all across Europe, down through Turkey and Syria and into the Promised Land.You could not possibly support that from the fundamentals of the Bible!So they were not fundamentalists, they were not even Christians.They were disobeying what Jesus said.The Muslim is obeying what Allah says, what Muhammad says and so forth.So we have a misunderstanding about fundamentalism.It has been given a bad name, when it shouldn’t.That should not be the case.

Tom:

Dave, it says here that Catholic theologians have spoken specifically against the fundamentalist’s literal view of the Bible compared with the Catholic view of interpreting scripture.I’ve heard a number of times, “Well you fundamentalists, you take everything in the Bible literally.That’s ridiculous!We take the things—

Dave:

But Tom, the Catholic claims to take John 6 literally doesn’t he?Literal flesh and blood?

Tom:

Almost the opposite.But the point is I don’t take everything literally in the Bible.I take the things that were meant to be taken literally, those I take literally.Those things which are obviously figurative, that’s the way I take them.

Dave:

Yes, well you have a declaration by the Catholic bishops in America against the fundamentalist view of the Bible.For example, they do not take Genesis 1 literally that God created the universe in seven days.They believe in evolution and so forth.I am going to take the Bible for what it says.The Pope has spoken out against evangelical Christians.This man says well if they use the term evangelical—no he calls them a sect.Listen to what he says in Mexico or South America.It is different than what he says here.Tom, I’m not too impressed with the comparison between 54% for Buddhists, 54% for Mormons, 57% for Buddhists, 54% for Hindus and then only 46% of favor for fundamentalist Christians.This is a very small difference.The big thing is that if only 46% favor them, then you have a majority that doesn’t favor them.But the Catholics, many of them in fact, probably 70% of the Catholics disagree with the Pope and with the Catholic Church on many things like abortion.

Tom:

Celibacy of the priests, they disagree with them on they want nuns to be able to move into the priesthood, birth control—

Dave:

Right, so Tom, I don’t what this says to us except that there are some serious differences of opinion which could be straightened out, if we would all search the scriptures daily and let God speak to our hearts from his Word.

Tom:

Well again Dave, the title of this article, “Catholics view fundamentalists less favorably.”Fundamentalism gets a bad name and I think just as you pointed out, because of ignorance and because of also, the issues.Fundamentalism is pointing to the fundamentals of scripture and saying hey, this isn’t my view, this is what God says.And you don’t like what God says, well you’re not going to throw stones at God, you might as well deal with the fundamentalists.

Dave:

But the fundamental of Islam and of Catholic tradition diverge from the Bible, they contradict it.We have to make a choice.