Christian fundamentalism

== By region ==
=== In North America ===
Fundamentalist movements existed in most North American Protestant denominations by 1919 following attacks on modernist theology in [[Presbyterian]] and [[Baptist]] denominations. Fundamentalism was especially controversial among Presbyterians.<ref>{{cite book| first=George M. |last=Marsden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uufvZyG-hjEC&pg=PA33 | title=Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism | pages=109–118 | publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1995|isbn=978-0-8028-0870-7 }}</ref>

==== In Canada ====
In Canada, fundamentalism was less prominent,<ref>John G. Stackhouse, ''Canadian Evangelicalism in the Twentieth Century'' (1993)</ref> but an early leader was English-born [[Thomas Todhunter Shields]] (1873–1955), who led 80 churches out of the Baptist federation in Ontario in 1927 and formed the Union of Regular Baptist Churches of Ontario and Quebec. He was affiliated with the Baptist Bible Union, based in the United States. His newspaper, ''The Gospel Witness,'' reached 30,000 subscribers in 16 countries, giving him an international reputation. He was one of the founders of the international Council of Christian Churches.<ref>C. Allyn Russell, "Thomas Todhunter Shields: Canadian Fundamentalist," ''Foundations'', 1981, Vol. 24 Issue 1, pp 15–31</ref>

[[Oswald J. Smith]] (1889–1986), reared in rural Ontario and educated at [[Moody Church]] in Chicago, set up The Peoples Church in Toronto in 1928. A dynamic preacher and leader in Canadian fundamentalism, Smith wrote 35 books and engaged in missionary work worldwide. [[Billy Graham]] called him "the greatest combination pastor, hymn writer, missionary statesman, an evangelist of our time."<ref>David R. Elliott, "Knowing No Borders: Canadian Contributions to American Fundamentalism," in George A. Rawlyk and Mark A. Noll, eds., ''Amazing Grace: Evangelicalism in Australia, Britain, Canada, and the United States'' (1993)</ref>

==== In the United States ====
{{Wikisource|The Doctrinal Statement of the World Conference on Christian Fundamentals 1919}}
A leading organizer of the fundamentalist campaign against [[modernism]] in the United States was [[William Bell Riley]], a [[Northern Baptist Convention|Northern Baptist]] based in Minneapolis, where his [[University of Northwestern – St. Paul|Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School]] (1902), Northwestern Evangelical Seminary (1935), and Northwestern College (1944) produced thousands of graduates. At a large conference in Philadelphia in 1919, Riley founded the [[World Christian Fundamentals Association]] (WCFA), which became the chief interdenominational fundamentalist organization in the 1920s. Some mark this conference as the public start of Christian fundamentalism.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Trollinger |first1=William |title=Fundamentalism turns 100, a landmark for the Christian Right |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-fundamentalism-turns-100-a-landmark-for-the-christian-right-123651-20191008-story.html |access-date=5 November 2019 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |date=8 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Sutton |first1=Matthew Avery |title=The Day Christian Fundamentalism Was Born |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/opinion/the-day-christian-fundamentalism-was-born.html |access-date=5 November 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=25 May 2019}}</ref> Although the fundamentalist drive to take control of the major Protestant denominations failed at the national level during the 1920s, the network of churches and missions fostered by Riley showed that the movement was growing in strength, especially in [[Southern United States|the U.S. South]]. Both rural and urban in character, the flourishing movement acted as a denominational surrogate and fostered a militant evangelical Christian orthodoxy. Riley was president of WCFA until 1929, after which the WCFA faded in importance.<ref>William Vance Trollinger, Jr. "Riley's Empire: Northwestern Bible School and Fundamentalism in the Upper Midwest". ''Church History'' 1988 57(2): 197–212. 0009–6407</ref> The [[Independent Fundamental Churches of America]] became a leading association of independent U.S. fundamentalist churches upon its founding in 1930. The [[American Council of Christian Churches]] was founded for fundamental Christian denominations as an alternative to the [[National Council of Churches]].

[[File:Machen Hall, Westminster Theological Seminary, Glenside PA 01.JPG|thumb|J. Gresham Machen Memorial Hall]]
Much of the enthusiasm for mobilizing fundamentalism came from Protestant seminaries and Protestant "Bible colleges" in the United States. Two leading fundamentalist seminaries were the dispensationalist [[Dallas Theological Seminary]], founded in 1924 by [[Lewis Sperry Chafer]], and the [[Reformed theology#Theology|Reformed]] [[Westminster Theological Seminary]], formed in 1929 under the leadership and funding of former [[Princeton Theological Seminary]] professor [[J. Gresham Machen]].<ref>{{cite book| first=George M. |last=Marsden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uufvZyG-hjEC&pg=PA33 | title=Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism | page=33 | publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|year=1995|isbn=978-0-8028-0870-7 }}</ref> Many Bible colleges were modeled after the [[Moody Bible Institute]] in Chicago. [[Dwight Moody]] was influential in preaching the imminence of the Kingdom of God that was so important to dispensationalism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kee|first=Howard Clark|title=Christianity: A Social and Cultural History|year=1998|publisher=Prentice Hall|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|pages=484|author2=Emily Albu|author2-link= Emily Albu |author3=Carter Lindberg |author4=J. William Frost |author5=Dana L. Robert }}</ref> Bible colleges prepared ministers who lacked college or seminary experience with intense study of the Bible, often using the ''[[Scofield Reference Bible]]'' of 1909, a [[King James Version]] of the [[Bible]] with detailed notes which interprets passages from a dispensational perspective.

Although U.S. fundamentalism began in the [[Northern United States|North]], the movement's largest base of popular support was in the South, especially among [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptists]], where individuals (and sometimes entire churches) left the convention and joined other Baptist denominations and movements which they believed were "more conservative" such as the [[Independent Baptist]] movement. By the late 1920s the national media had identified it with the South, largely ignoring manifestations elsewhere.<ref>Mary Beth Swetnam Mathews, ''Rethinking Zion: how the print media placed fundamentalism in the South'' (2006) page xi</ref> In the mid-twentieth century, several Methodists left the mainline [[Methodist Church (USA)|Methodist Church]] and established fundamental Methodist denominations, such as the [[Evangelical Methodist Church]] and the [[Fundamental Methodist Conference, Inc.|Fundamental Methodist Conference]] (cf. ''[[conservative holiness movement]]''); others preferred congregating in Independent Methodist churches, many of which are affiliated with the [[Association of Independent Methodists]], which is fundamentalist in its theological orientation.<ref name="Crespino2007">{{cite book|last=Crespino|first=Joseph|title=In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DdCApZN4xjwC&pg=PA169|year=2007|publisher=Princeton University Press|language=en|isbn=978-0-691-12209-0|page=169}}</ref> By the 1970s Protestant fundamentalism was deeply entrenched and concentrated in the U.S. South. In 1972–1980 [[General Social Survey]]s, 65 percent of respondents from the "East South Central" region (comprising [[Tennessee]], [[Kentucky]], [[Mississippi]], and [[Alabama]]) self-identified as fundamentalist. The share of fundamentalists was at or near 50 percent in "West South Central" ([[Texas]] to [[Arkansas]]) and "South Atlantic" (Florida to Maryland), and at 25 percent or below elsewhere in the country, with the low of nine percent in New England. The pattern persisted into the 21st century; in 2006–2010 surveys, the average share of fundamentalists in the East South Central Region stood at 58 percent, while, in [[New England]], it climbed slightly to 13 percent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss10nw|title=General Social Survey database}}</ref>

===== Evolution =====
In the 1920s, Christian fundamentalists "differed on how to understand the account of creation in Genesis" but they "agreed that God was the author of creation and that humans were distinct creatures, separate from animals, and made in the image of God."<ref name="Sutton2019" /> While some of them advocated the belief in [[Old Earth creationism]] and a few of them even advocated the belief in [[evolutionary creation]], other "strident fundamentalists" advocated [[Young Earth Creationism]] and "associated evolution with last-days atheism."<ref name="Sutton2019">{{cite news |last1=Sutton |first1=Matthew Avery |title=The Day Christian Fundamentalism Was Born |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/opinion/the-day-christian-fundamentalism-was-born.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=26 May 2019 |language=en |date=25 May 2019|quote=Although fundamentalists differed on how to understand the account of creation in Genesis, they agreed that God was the author of creation and that humans were distinct creatures, separate from animals, and made in the image of God. Some believed than an [[Old Earth creationism|old earth]] could be reconciled with the Bible, and others were comfortable teaching some forms of God-directed evolution. Riley and the more strident fundamentalists, however, associated evolution with last-days atheism, and they made it their mission to purge it from the schoolroom.}}</ref> These "strident fundamentalists" in the 1920s devoted themselves to fighting against the [[teaching of evolution]] in the nation's schools and colleges, especially by passing state laws that affected public schools. [[William Bell Riley]] took the initiative in the 1925 [[Scopes Trial]] by bringing in famed politician [[William Jennings Bryan]] and hiring him to serve as an assistant to the local prosecutor, who helped draw national media attention to the trial. In the half century after the Scopes Trial, fundamentalists had little success in shaping government policy, and they were generally defeated in their efforts to reshape the [[Mainline Protestant|mainline denominations]], which refused to join fundamentalist attacks on evolution.<ref name="Kee 1998 484" /> Particularly after the Scopes Trial, liberals saw a division between Christians in favor of the teaching of evolution, whom they viewed as educated and tolerant, and Christians against evolution, whom they viewed as narrow-minded, tribal, and obscurantist.<ref>David Goetz, "The Monkey Trial". ''[[Christian History]]'' 1997 16(3): 10–18. 0891–9666; Burton W. Folsom, Jr. "The Scopes Trial Reconsidered." ''Continuity'' 1988 (12): 103–127. 0277–1446, by a leading conservative scholar</ref>

Edwards (2000), however, challenges the consensus view among scholars that in the wake of the Scopes trial, fundamentalism retreated into the political and cultural background, a viewpoint which is evidenced in the movie [[Inherit the Wind (1960 film)|''Inherit the Wind'']] and the majority of contemporary historical accounts. Rather, he argues, the cause of fundamentalism's retreat was the death of its leader, Bryan. Most fundamentalists saw the trial as a victory rather than a defeat, but Bryan's death soon afterward created a leadership void that no other fundamentalist leader could fill. Unlike the other fundamentalist leaders, Bryan brought name recognition, respectability, and the ability to forge a broad-based coalition of fundamentalist religious groups to argue in favor of the anti-evolutionist position.<ref>Mark Edwards, "Rethinking the Failure of Fundamentalist Political Antievolutionism after 1925". ''[[Fides Et Historia]]'' 2000 32(2): 89–106. 0884–5379</ref>

Gatewood (1969) analyzes the transition from the anti-evolution crusade of the 1920s to the [[creation science]] movement of the 1960s. Despite some similarities between these two causes, the creation science movement represented a shift from religious to [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] objections to Darwin's theory. Creation science also differed in terms of popular leadership, rhetorical tone, and sectional focus. It lacked a prestigious leader like Bryan, utilized pseudoscientific argument rather than religious rhetoric, and was a product of California and Michigan rather than the South.<ref>Willard B. Gatewood, Jr., ed. ''Controversy in the Twenties: Fundamentalism, Modernism, & Evolution'' (1969)</ref>

Webb (1991) traces the political and legal struggles between strict creationists and Darwinists to influence the extent to which evolution would be taught as science in Arizona and California schools. After Scopes was convicted, creationists throughout the United States sought similar anti-evolution laws for their states. These included Reverends R. S. Beal and Aubrey L. Moore in Arizona and members of the Creation Research Society in California, all supported by distinguished laymen. They sought to ban evolution as a topic for study, or at least relegate it to the status of unproven theory perhaps taught alongside the biblical version of creation. Educators, scientists, and other distinguished laymen favored evolution. This struggle occurred later in the Southwest than in other US areas and persisted through the Sputnik era.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Webb | first1 = George E. | year = 1991 | title = The Evolution Controversy in Arizona and California: From the 1920s to the 1980s | journal = Journal of the Southwest | volume = 33 | issue = 2| pages = 133–150 }} See also {{cite journal | last1 = Curtis | first1 = Christopher K. | year = 1986 | title = Mississippi's Anti-Evolution Law of 1926 | journal = Journal of Mississippi History | volume = 48 | issue = 1| pages = 15–29 }}</ref>

In recent times, the courts have heard cases on whether or not the Book of Genesis's creation account should be taught in science classrooms alongside evolution, most notably in the 2005 federal court case ''[[Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District]]''.<ref name="ncse.com">{{cite web | title = Kitzmiller v. Dover: Intelligent Design on Trial | url = http://ncse.com/creationism/legal/intelligent-design-trial-kitzmiller-v-dover | publisher = [[National Center for Science Education]] | date =17 October 2008 | access-date = 21 June 2011 }}</ref> Creationism was presented under the banner of [[intelligent design]], with the book ''[[Of Pandas and People]]'' being its textbook. The trial ended with the judge deciding that teaching intelligent design in a science class was unconstitutional as it was a religious belief and not science.<ref>[[s:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District et al.]], [[s:Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District/6:Curriculum, Conclusion#H. Conclusion|H. Conclusion]]</ref>

The original fundamentalist movement divided along clearly defined lines within conservative evangelical Protestantism as issues progressed. Many groupings, large and small, were produced by this schism. [[Neo-evangelicalism]], the [[David Barton (author)|Heritage movement]], and [[Paleo-Orthodoxy]] have all developed distinct identities, but none of them acknowledge any more than an historical overlap with the fundamentalist movement, and the term is seldom used of them. The broader term "[[evangelical]]" includes fundamentalists as well as people with similar or identical religious beliefs who do not engage the outside challenge to the Bible as actively.<ref>Harris, Harriet A. ''Fundamentalism and Evangelicals'' (2008), pp. 39, 313.</ref>

Writing in 2023, conservative Christian journalist [[David French (political commentator)|David French]] quotes a former president of the [[Southern Baptist Convention]]'s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, [[Richard Land]], as identifying fundamentalism as "far more a psychology than a theology," with characteristics shared by competing competing Christian theologies and competing religions. According French, that psychology is one that shares "three key traits": certainty (of a mind unclouded by doubt), ferocity (against perceived enemies of their religion) and solidarity (of "comrades in the foxhole", a virtue surpassing even piety in importance).<ref name="French-love-7-12-2023">{{cite news |last1=French |first1=David |title=Why Fundamentalists Love Trump |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/opinion/donald-trump-fundamentalists-evangelical.html |access-date=14 December 2023 |work=New York Times |date=7 December 2023}}</ref>

===== Christian right =====
{{Main|Christian right}}
[[File:Jerry Falwell portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jerry Falwell]], whose founding of the [[Moral Majority]] was a key step in the formation of the "New Christian Right"]]
The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed a surge of interest in organized political activism by U.S. fundamentalists. Dispensational fundamentalists viewed the 1948 [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|establishment of the state of Israel]] as an important sign of the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, and support for Israel became the centerpiece of their approach to U.S. foreign policy.<ref>Aaron William Stone, ''Dispensationalism and United States foreign policy with Israel'' (2008) [https://books.google.com/books?id=d2q8oKwWRMsC&pg=PA6 excerpt]{{Dead link|date=December 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> United States Supreme Court decisions also ignited fundamentalists' interest in organized politics, particularly ''[[Engel v. Vitale]]'' in 1962, which prohibited state-sanctioned prayer in public schools, and ''[[Abington School District v. Schempp]]'' in 1963, which prohibited mandatory Bible reading in public schools.<ref>Bruce J. Dierenfield, ''The Battle over School Prayer'' (2007), page 236.</ref> By the time [[Ronald Reagan]] ran for the presidency in 1980, fundamentalist preachers, like the prohibitionist ministers of the early 20th century, were organizing their congregations to vote for supportive candidates.<ref>Oran Smith, ''The Rise of Baptist Republicanism'' (2000)</ref>

Leaders of the newly political fundamentalism included [[Robert Grant (Christian leader)|Rob Grant]] and [[Jerry Falwell]]. Beginning with Grant's American Christian Cause in 1974, [[Christian Voice (USA)|Christian Voice]] throughout the 1970s and Falwell's [[Moral Majority]] in the 1980s, the [[Christian Right]] began to have a major impact on American politics. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Christian Right was influencing elections and policy with groups such as the [[Family Research Council]] (founded 1981 by [[James Dobson]]) and the [[Christian Coalition of America|Christian Coalition]] (formed in 1989 by [[Pat Robertson]]) helping conservative politicians, especially [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]], to win state and national elections.<ref>Albert J. Menendez, ''Evangelicals at the Ballot Box'' (1996), pp. 128–74.</ref>

=== In Australia ===
A major organization of fundamentalist, [[pentecostal]] churches in Australia is the [[International Network of Churches]], formerly known as the "Christian Outreach Centre".<ref name="SMH2"/>

A former influential group was the [[Logos Foundation (Australia)|Logos Foundation]]. The Logos Foundation, led by [[Howard Carter (evangelist)|Howard Carter]], was a controversial Christian ministry in the 1970s and 1980s that promoted [[Christian Reconstructionism|Reconstructionist]], [[Restorationism|Restorationist]], and [[Dominion theology|Dominionist]] theology. They also actively campaigned for several candidates for [[Queensland, Australia]] public office that shared their values (e.g., anti-abortion).  The Logos Foundation disbanded shortly after an adulterous affair by Carter became public in 1990.<ref name="SMH1">[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/123509858/ Lyons, J., "God Remains an Issue in Queensland", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 18 November 1989.]</ref><ref name="SMH2">[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/121360791/ Gregg Roberts, "Sex Scandal Divides the Bible Belt", Sydney Morning Herald, 13 October 1990, p.74]</ref><ref name="Hey">{{Cite web |url=https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/handle/10072/365629 |title=God in the Suburbs and Beyond: The Emergence of and Australian Megachurch and Denomination|first=Sam|last= Hey|date = September 2010|publisher=Griffith University PhD thesis|doi=10.25904/1912/3059 |archive-date=12 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412074558/https://www120.secure.griffith.edu.au/rch/file/cb4cc218-5145-a604-f5ec-180d9177971d/1/Hey_2011_02Thesis.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Harrison">{{Cite book |last=Harrison |first=John |url=https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:8027 |title=The Logos Foundation: The rise and fall of Christian Reconstructionism in Australia |publisher=School of Journalism & Communication, The University of Queensland|date=2006}}</ref>