December 23, 2007

The Fundamental Truth About 'Fundamentalism'

By James Lewis
Fundamentalist Christians have become the new target for the Old Media. One big reason is that media scribblers are simply ignorant of Western and world civilization. That thought comes to mind on listening to Verdi's Requiem, one of the most gorgeous and moving works ever composed. It is simply filled with "Christian fundamentalism" --- including the fear of punishment before God. At a guess, half of the greatest works in Western civilization are directly inspired by religious fundamentalism of one kind or another. Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Mendelsohn, Faure, Britten, Handel, and all the rest are just incomprehensible without understanding that. Everything else --- Michelangelo's Pieta, Rembrandt's Jewish Bride, all the great devotional monuments and buildings from the Parthenon to the sacred buildings in Jerusalem --- point to the same powerful nexus of the human imagination. Our media trivializers are just showing their endless ignorance when...(Read Full Article)