A fundamental problem

Photo: Day Donaldson / Flickr
The Islamic State is just one example of fundamentalist religion’s danger.

David Moe
Sun City, Calif.

Fundamentalism is a problem all over the world. Webster defines fundamentalism as “religious beliefs based on a literal interpretation of scripture, regarded as fundamental to their faith or morals.” There are fundamentalists in all religions. The ISIS group is a fundamentalist group of Islam, which is predicting the “end of the world.” There are Christian fundamentalist groups in America that also predict the “end of the world.” They take every word of their scripture as absolute truth and interpret it literally.

Negotiation is a dirty word in their vocabulary, because the solution to all problems is war and the elimination of the “enemy.” Of course, the enemy is anyone who does not interpret their scripture literally. For fundamentalist Christians, Islam is the enemy, but in reality fundamentalist Christians are similar to Islamic fundamentalists, since they both interpret their scriptures literally and both are waiting for the end of the world. In my opinion, they are both working to speed up the process to make the end of the world become a reality.

In order to have peace in the world or within a family, there must be mutual respect for persons and their beliefs; otherwise there is only fear and mistrust, which leads to conflict. In this election cycle, there is a great deal of fear and mistrust being created, where it is difficult to identify the “enemy.” The enemy is everyone from John McCain for being a POW to Barack Obama for being President. There must be other “bogeymen” out there who have not yet been identified.

If you are a fundamentalist, hang in there; everyone has to stand up for their principles. It is like the man who crosses the street on a green light and is run over by a dump truck. After all, he is right—he is “dead right.”

David Moe was born in Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota, Morris in 1964 and received his M.A. degree from San Francisco State University in 1975. He spent four years in the Navy and 32 years in the insurance business. He and his wife, Thordis, have two daughters and four grandchildren. They now live in Sun City, California.

This article originally appeared in the Sept. 4, 2015, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.