Fundamentals vs. Fundamentalism

We are rooted deeply in gospel fundamentals given us by Jesus and the Apostles, but we are not to be fundamentalists. One responds to the problems of the world and the Church with great love, patience, and steady perseverance. The other reacts with a sort of short-circuiting of both thought and emotions through an almost compulsive and paranoid preoccupation with "orthodoxy." It "misses the forest for the trees" so to speak. Genuine orthodoxy is meant to guide us to and deeper in God, not to be a god. One is healthy and life giving, the other strangles the spiritual life out of even orthodox belief and practice. Such an approach becomes a sort of inverted idolatry, making a god out of the otherwise good things of God.

- Singer John Michael Talbot.