What do people mean by christian fundamentalist

Exactly, this kind of division, exclusion, ex-communication, ostracization- among Christians, is so recent, our parents generation, right up to the 60s and perhaps beyond. BTW, the tragedy of Apartheid was supported by several Churches, The Dutch REformed Church and also the French Protestants- that was very recent too.

The accounts of mixed Protestant/Catholic marriages aroused my interest and I can only conclude that different "rules" applied in different places as well as at different times. My Dutch Reform Church father and Roman Catholic mother were married in a Catholic church in London in 1937. He had to produce a baptismal certificate, which probably meant absolutely nothing to the priest because it would have been in Dutch, and they both had to promise to raise their children as Roman Catholics. I think there were also some sort of preliminary talks and that was that. Neither family was particularly concerned about the mixed marriage. Indeed, apparently my maternal grandfather's main issue was that my mother was wearing pale pink nail polish on her wedding day which he considered unsuitable for the House of God and he sent her back to her bedroom to remove it before they went off to the church.

Now I think of it, and remember our visit to the Huguenot Museum in Franschoek near Cape Town. This is where the French Huguenots emigrated (those who did not come to the Swiss Jura or to Canterbury (there is a Huguenot Church under the Cathedral - now a real sign of tolerance from the English Anglicans at the time) and London. So full circle with different groups of my own and OH's family- the persecuted becoming the persecutors. The leader of the dreadful Apartheid movement was a French Huguenot descendant, Eugène TerreBlanche (White Land!). Had never made the connection before.

The West of Scotland was just like Northern Ireland in that a 'mixed marriage' was not an inter-racial marriage but a Catholic/Protestant match. My mother would have had a fit if I'd married a Catholic but not if I'd married a man of a different race - as long as he wasn't Catholic.

I've heard that many times Anno. To what extent to you think 'social class' was part of the problem?

I don't believe class had anything to do with the prejudice between catholics and protestants. Bigotry of any kind is like sexual abuse, it crosses class, race, religious or any other kind of divide we can think of.

Class always has something to do with it!

Ahh yes you are of course right about that Lilygran, class is always a feature of anything - but prejudice crosses classes, that's the point I was making

How interesting this thread has suddenly become!

Can't comment on class/religious divides in the West of Scotland in my youth. It's too far in the past for me! What I do remember is that my history teacher used to send out the first XV to do over the kids from the nearby Catholic school at lunchtime.

Can't argue with that, Iam64 . The bigot will find any excuse to justify prejudice.

In NI, it does seem that there is a 'class' as well as a religious barrier too, between Catholics and Protestants. I thought maybe it was the same in Glasgow, perhaps.

One reason for a 'class divide' in NI was that Catholics were excluded from jobs in the docks by the 'Proddy' majority, thus creating an economic underclass.

I am a Christian Fundamentalist and explain it as meaning that I accept the entire Bible to be totally true and infallible.

Obviously Satan hates the Bible and takes every opportunity to use his human mouthpieces to claim that the Bible is full of inconsistencies, has been mistranslated, etc etc.

I am not going to be drawn into any discussion with you on the details of the Bible, and I hope that no-one else is. One christian fundamentalist is enough haranguing the forum. Is she a friend of yours?

There is room for many shades of dogma within the Christian faith, and believing that yours is the only valid one could be inspired as much by "satan's wiles" as you believe that other approaches are - or by simple human hubris and desire to be part of an exclusive club that feels itself superior to outsiders.

Excellent post Elegran. I believe the Christian faith is about building people up and not knocking them down by saying they are in the clutches of Satan. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, remember that the sheep did not know they were sheep and the goats did not know they were goats.

You can't argue with fundamentalists.

Well, you probably can but it won't get you anywhere.

You cannot argue/discuss with anyone who rejects logic.

No, but it is very tempting. However, some people wilfully ignore logic, out of pure stubbornness. They know their stance is unsupportable, but dig in anyway. I've never worked out why, but we have a creationist at our U3A and he just digs his heels in and refuses to listen to logic.