A Typology: Part Two

The Fundamentalists
I'm going to hold on to a kinder gentler definition of fundamentalist for this section, and I will deal with what I call extremists in another section.  Fundamentalists are those who believe that there are certain standards that must be upheld by people of faith, usually moral standards along with some doctrinal positions that they consider essential or "fundamental."
The reason why I separate out fundamentalists from extremists is because extremists are dangerous and fundamentalists are not, unless they become extreme fundamentalists, got that?  I hope so, because I don't think I can explain it any other way without just launching into what extremists are and I want to save that for a later entry.
Fundamentalism, in most of it's forms, is a reactionary position.  Usually when people are willing to say something along the lines of "we need to get back to the basic essential tenets of religion X," they imply that most, if not all, of their fellow religion X folk have simply lost their way.  Their evidence can be manifold: decline in numbers, moral turpitude, nasty disagreements and a host of other possible easily diagnosed (by them) failings.  The answer, for fundamentalists, is always simple, or old, and preferably both.  If we could just get religion X back to point Y in it's history, everything would be okay, God would cease flaring his nostrils at us in a threatening manner, and we can really start to be the church that Jesus obviously wanted us to be.
Purity is always a tempting salve to the religious conscience.  It was for the Pharisees and it is for Fundamentalists.  It is also the gateway to extremism.
But in the middle ground Fundamentalism can actually be helpful, after all, who among us couldn't stand to live a slightly purer, more righteous life?  Who among us couldn't stand to shake off a couple really persistent sins in our lives?  Who among us wouldn't be a little happier if our life was just a bit simpler and cleaner and morally upright?
More to the point, who among us wouldn't like a nice neat definition of our relationship with God?
Have you noticed how popular the 12 step programs are?  Well they're named because they have 12 FUNDAMENTAL steps, prescribed actions, clear and simple, not necessarily easy, but workable and concrete.  They are actually the really good kind of fundamentalism, because they are pretty much the only thing that can truly help people who are addicted to something live without that particular substance or behavior.  They have a better success rate than electro-shock therapy, let that sink in... 12 step programs are more successful at helping you kick an addiction than using electricity to basically hit your brain's reset button.
In many ways, I think the sort of fundamentalism of a 12 step program could greatly benefit the church.  Notice they don't judge people, they welcome anyone and everyone, even if you're not an addict you can go and they will accept you.  Their fundamentals do not prescribe who is in and who is out, they want everyone in, because "in" is life and out is death.  Isn't that what the church should be like?
Here's another cool thing about these fundamentalists: you don't need to understand how it works for it to work, you just need to work it.  You don't have to spend your time parsing all the cliches, you just work the program, one day at a time.  Don't know why God allows Tsunamis, AIDS and ISIS?  Doesn't matter just work the steps.  Don't get how God is One in Three, Three in One?  Doesn't matter just work the steps.  This is why fundamentalism is great, you have a freaking list, you have clear essential tenets, you don't have to argue or defend them, they're on the freaking list.
To be clear, I'm not being sarcastic here, I used 12 steps as an example of fundamentalism because I have the utmost respect for what they do, they illustrate why we really need to recover the wreckage of the word fundamentalism, because in many circumstances fundamentalism will save your butt.
Just beware because somewhere down that path there be dragons.