WARNING: This is a disclaimer. The following is a personal statement of frustration. Please do not judge this church corporately nor individually based upon the following observations which are solely the opinions of the pastor. These opinions are subject to change. Stay tuned.

In our present state of evangelicalism in western society, we are inundated with emotionally charged demands for "Biblical Literalism" and "inerrancy." There has been a less than subtle transition over the past 150+ years from accepting the scriptures as our "rule of faith and conduct" to viewing the scriptures as our textbook for history and science, as well as religion.

Those involved in this transition of Biblical perspective from its historical church roots to its present state of western society contextualization tend to describe themselves as "fundamentalists." 

In making this transition of presentation and context, the scriptures have become fully absorbed in the dogmatism of  the western civilization social setting and values that were prevalent among revivalist Anglo-Saxons, both European and American during the mid-nineteenth century. This  has taken the form of a recodification of scripture as a mandated moral authority  rather than allowing it to be the written summation of oral narrative about the ongoing dealings between God and mankind. It should be permitted the flexibility that goes with eastern oral tradition and narrative, allowing it to provide an overarching umbrella of God's grace and dealings with humanity, regardless of eras, customs, governments or ethnicities. 

The flux of western society through the 19th century was very threatening to the Victorian mores which had provided a rigid cultural structure that was the exoskeleton backbone of the protestant church. The huge changes in the machinations of society because of industrialization, creation of a middle class, availability of education to those who in earlier generations would have been relegated to crafts/guilds, the rapid creation of wealth and transportation, the increase in levels of intellectualization due to great advancements in communication and general scientific knowledge created an environment of insecurity and uncertainty for those appointed as "keepers" of the faith.

The early church had internal, "faith" structures that caused it to survive regardless of the societal, governmental or ethnic setting. By the end of the third century the Roman Empire had become the external structure for the church and then began a systematic organization of the church both politically and physically. Cathedrals and professional clergy with very structured hierarchical positions. It developed an empiricism that took it all the way from Constantine to the Industrial Revolution. Actually, not much has changed structurally even in the establishment of present day "protestant" denominations.

The difficulties the church has had in each societal coming of age (whether the proclamation that the earth was round, or that the earth revolved around the sun) was accompanied by re-entrenchment of the church in traditionalism and mysticism. The hue and cry "Faith of our Fathers" was first raised by the Roman Catholic church in protest of the protest - ants. That is now, ironically, the banner of the protestant fundamentalists.

We are witnessing a strong call to a "simple" faith, rooted in an insistent use of the "King James" version of the Bible and a Biblical hermeneutic and exegesis based upon visions and preachings from 1800's Great Britain. The conflicts which had been faced by the large masses of immigrants back "home" before coming into the vast wilderness of America between the Ohio River and the deep south, created an antipathy toward the disenfranchisement they had experienced with social progress and with a European church that was rapidly moving toward a disavowment of the authenticity of scriptures. It was easy to import that fervor into the American wilderness. 

We are again witnessing a cry and longing from the hearts of similarly disenfranchised people wanting something concrete and codifiable.

I believe the answer can be found in the dynamic of faith in Jesus Christ that is worked out in a daily walk within the context of our society. I do not think it can be found in circling the wagons around a philosophical stand based on a social system of the past.