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In Reply to: Attn. Admin. : Regarding "Fundies" posted by goth88 on November 19, 2002 at 13:44:08:
Hello,
here's how I see it. I see no problem at all with the word fundamentalists - there are many around.
You will notice how the default or home page is set in the excog community by the way people put out disclaimers, :) or word themselves.
The thing is that the vast MAJORITY of exmembers are ppl who come from religious backgrounds, who joined for religious reasons a religious group (and we are talking largely Christian) and even AFTER the experience are still sorting out these issues and they talk about them and sort them out, you guess, according to their faith and beliefs.
Their faith and beliefs, for the most part, are of neo-Christian or I should say Judeo-Christian
background. If we were exers of...Hare Krishnas, instead, or Scientology, most people would be talking about Hindu scriptures and teachings, or dianetics etc etc.
So the issue is more about belonging to a minority (and a very small one) when it comes to discussions about faith or spirituality. Being a small minority is difficult in any group. For example, at times I find it difficult to be one of the very few single women, one of the few non Americans, one of the few...and I could go on, in the excog community. But I cannot expect to find whatever I need from excog sites or this community. Some things I have to find in other places. I am just telling you what I had to do.
You have to find your pack...I know...it is difficult. But it is helpful to be realistic about the "demographics" of a given board or site, because people are the ones who make the discussions and most excogs are still Christian in faith and it is impossible to 'legislate' personal issues such as faith and religious affiliation. Besides why do that? It becomes a sort of 'tokenism' - as we call it in sociology.
We just do not have enough representative "diversity," that is all. :)
You would not have this problem if you went on movingon.org for example. The default is set differently there. I would like to have something like that for myself, but I think we will never have it, because of the sheer reality of the demographics of most exmembers of American nationality. (There are people I know who think differently, for example, but they are in other countries and cultures and do not post on this site.)
I hope this helps somewhat. I sort of dislike American short ways of defining many things and issues...and as much as I am really not fond of fundamentalists I wouldn't use the word 'fundies' to quickly dismiss something without entering the merit of the issue. It would be like saying somebody is a "goat" (and maybe they are, hey...BUT...:) or something like that...been there, done that...you know the rest. :)
My 3 cents.
