In this age of unsureness and social turmoil, this time of questioning values, hardly anyone can escape the feelings of hopelessness that the world as we know it will end. Many people see it as an age of transition, and it certainly is, but to what? With the world in a state of unrest and fragmentation few people can agree on common goals. Has the long-feared Decline of the West finally arrived? Those who believe that this country is sinking into decadence think so. Or does it herald a new birth?

Some people think old solutions will still work, others believe only new and radical solutions can solve our current problems. A growing number do perceive that the current system is the problem. It is worn out, but what we have built cannot be handled by old methods, it must pass away. All across the spectrum of belief lies a deeply-seated feeling that time is running out. There is a need to do something immediately, thus there is a great conflict among the widely ranging beliefs which have coalesced into politically active groups, of which the Gay Movement is only one.

We who are gay have borne much prejudice and discrimination throughout history from many sectors of society, some of which are slowly being overcome now that we know that we are responsible, self-respecting human beings who have been able to organize a liberation movement. But there are still many powerful, organized movements opposed to our well-being, or being at all. Of such groups in direct opposition to us currently are the New Right, especially the PTL Club and Focus on the Family, which espouse reactionary Christian fundamentalist beliefs. These groups both actively fear and hate us. However, gays are not the only group who suffer the vitriolic attacks from the Right Wing. We are not alone, which means that we have allies on some issues. Most of the cherished liberal ideas are under attack, although we have beliefs all across the political spectrum, we gays generally support the liberal view of civil and privacy rights. So we must form coalitions with other groups who are our natural political allies. And we must work more at the local, grassroots levels. We have done this in the past and must increase our involvement now.

The fundamentalists and the Right hate and fear a broad spectrum of political and social beliefs represented by many pressure groups, and they have built their strength by playing on these fears. Here we must examine why they hate us. We must expose their falacious reasoning and deeply seated prejudices against us and prove them unfounded. We must learn to understand them so that we may defuse their opposition.

First, fundamentalism must be defined. It simply means getting back to the basics, just as radical means going back to the roots, to the core selfness of a thing. In that case, current Christian fundamentalism is a very mistakenly used term for the believers of a reactionary Christianity, because they are unwilling to explore the depths of the religious teachings to get to their roots. These believers choose to follow a hard-line, authoritarian approach to society, a throw-back to the ancient Judaic tradition of patriarchal leaders and militaristic organization. They are not comfortable with new ideas. Many of them believe anything that isn't of literal biblical interpretation is suspect as evil to be shunned and resisted. Of course, there can be thousands of interpretations of that data, even in an age which espouses a literal approach, and each denomination has its own interpretation. Fundamentalists choose a dogma and doctrine to direct their lives and give them a sense of motivation and salvation from the problems of life. It is in reality a position of denying individual and personal responsibility and not thinking for oneself. Thus they live in fear of a universe of uncertainty, one that is too large to encompass, and perhaps one that is malevolent.

Fundamentalists and many staunch conservatives fear self-knowledge. It may be viewed by them as narciscistic, selfish, indulgent, not focused on duty, society and one's proper role in it. But self-knowledge is necessary to lead the spiritual life. Thus they are anti-spiritual despite all their preaching to the contrary. They are, however, religious because that is defined as the cultural beliefs, rules, laws and ritualized behavior. Society = religion. It is the belief system that supports social and state control. Thus they wish to preserve the prevailing, traditional cultural view. Religion is non-spiritual because it becomes a fixed doctrine or blind faith to be obeyed authoritatively without questioning, which thwarts seeking self-knowledge, personal and cultural change. Religion supports the status quo.

Their doctrine and dogma are outworn and shallow, devoid of spiritual depth. They would not sacrifice their nuclear families, modern, technological conveniences and money or political power to step out into the unknown. In their fear driving them to turn back to a simpler life they are but herds of sheep following incompetent shepherds. Thus they are no real challenge to the established social order and cultural beliefs, as would a real spiritual movement.

The fundamentalist conception of God is of an authoritarian father figure, highly anthropomorphized and limited, yet at least personal, but only to be feared and obeyed. This God is a judgmental one who passes out retribution and vengeance as would a human tyrant. It is hardly a God of love and mercy, yet that is what they preach, but their words and actions do not coincide.

Furthermore, they preach that the saved one is under grace and thus forgiven of all sins; that one receives God's love and other gifts of the spirit, but doesn't deserve them. However, Christ preached that God gave to the deserving and undeserving alike. Undeserving is only a human judgement, not a godly one. This practice is like sticking a knife into the victim's gut and giving it a sharp twist (for his own good, of course), surely to incurr more guilt. Thus it is a form of control over their followers and those they wish to influence and recruit. This is a perversion of Christianity.

Actually what they teach is that one is not OK, is not good, but evil, therefore one has little, if any self-respect and cannot take personal responsibility for one's own actions. Certainly a safe and secure feeling is engendered if one accepts that what one is told to do will lead to salvation. It is easier not to think for oneself, but it is a cop-out and self-denial, not realizing that knowledge of God comes through the self. Thus they teach that there must be preachers, ministers, bishops, popes and other heavy-handed rulers between the individual and God. And there must be obedience to them to achieve salvation and the good graces of society. This learning propagates a need for an authoritarian power structure with its fascist tendencies, a powerful resentment against it and guilt over that resentment. It is in direct opposition to Christ's teachings, which require individual self-freedom. The lesson of the biblical parable: Therefore the sins of the father are visited upon the sons and daughters unto the seventh generation, is by learning and living the behavior of one's parents and religious teachers. This training has lead to emotionally repressive belief systems. These teachings should be called abusive.

In this uncertain and ultra-complex universe there can be confusion about how to live, and with the current stresses of our over-complex lives it is easier to follow a leader out of a deep emotional need, at least in part motivated by fear or lazyness. The fundamentalists are paranoids or neophobes; they cannot adapt to new experiences. They trust few people and fewer new solutions, only turning back to the tired and tried old concepts and methods not suited to modern problems. Free thought and new ideas bring up fear, anger and uncertainty which they wish not to face. Only the familiar is trustworthy, so they are not willing to accept change, which for them is equivalent to death and damnation.

Fundamentalists are enthralled by temptation and evil. To strengthen their position the fundamentalists must preach fear, hatred and pass judgement in opposition to Christ's teachings. They act like the anti-Christ. And they are forced by their beliefs to become cultish in a withdrawal from a world which they feel powerless to control. So, they must manipulate others' emotions, especially guilt, to gain acceptance, a feeling of power, and to rationalize their beliefs as the correct way to live. Therefore they are egocentric and defensive in extremis, and thus cut themselves off from love.

A case could be made to call fundamentalists Closet Christians because they live within such narrow confines of doctrine, repression and fears. They are their own worst enemies, their own jailers, who have thrown away the key to openness to other humans. Their defensiveness and feeling that anyone who does not agree with them will take from or hurt them makes them always capable of violence.

Fundamentalist's denial of the self and the accompanying fatalistic belief that we humans cannot make the world better, that we cannot be like God, contradicts the biblical teachings and those of every great spiritual leader or prophet who taught that not only can we become like God, but we must. That will ultimately happen in its due course to all of us. Contrary to this spiritual belief, fundamentalists want an instant perfection without work on it, but perfection is at least uninteresting, at most, deadly boring. Because the narrow fundamentalist belief that salvation is not of this world, they turn their works outward to the world, not inward to the self, and thus make this world a battleground. Believing that this world and concern for it is evil, their concern is not for the good of this world, only for the afterlife.

Now we should see why fundamentalists must rationalize anything to support their emotional belief structure, even lying, hypocrisy and war-mongering and attempts to manipulate the political system by any means available, moral or not. They believe that anyting supporting their goals is right and everyone else is wrong. Irrationally attached to their beliefs, they have no respect or responsibility toward the world, only the need to control to protect their fragile belief system. This aspect of seeing the world in terms of black and white, good and evil, is a very limited one which doesn't take into account the human condition. It is not realistic and does everyone great harm by producing an uncompromising smugness, intolerance and an unwillingness to help one's fellow humans. So little do they love and respect themselves, so little can they love and respect others. They have not forgiven themselves for their wrongs, thus they cannot forgive others. So out of this pent-up anger, their religion has become a system of persecution arising from their feelings of persecution. They wallow in guilt and must inculcate it in others. For them to see another person without guilt triggers their anger against themselves which they will then direct outwardly to that person. They fear the anger and other uncomfortable emotions within.

Unconsciously, fundamentalists project the cause of their personal problems outwardly to the world, never looking inside the self to discover the real causes, and so they must look for a scapegoat to blame, to justify their reactions. We have seen this process countless times. Witness the prejudice against blacks, the persecution of Jews in World War II Germany and the perennial problem we gays have. Always it is the fear within the self, of the self, which is projected onto an outside cause to avoid the responsibility of facing oneself, of knowing oneself. That, Christ asked us to do. It is their dark side that self-knowledge would reveal.

In reality, the fundamentalists are puritans of the worst sort, meddling in each other's business in an attempt to remake the world in their self-righteous image. Witness the attempt to legislate the Family Protection Act, the Oregon Citizen's Alliance to prohibit homosexuality or censorship in libraries to influence the youth of this country to their way of thought by limiting access to ideas about alternative lifestyles and thought. They cannot accept the pluralism and diversity of our society. Out of their fears they stand against pleasure, joy and life itself. This is why such believers have always opposed sexual freedom. Other than in marriage and only for procreation can they tolerate it, otherwise they are emotionally incapable of handling it. They must oppose it for others because to recognize it brings up unacceptable fear, anger and guilt. They don't recognize their feelings. In psychological terms they severly repress their emotions, but repressed emotions always have a way of being expressed in other forms of negative, anti-life behavior. Such is the essence of fascism.

Fascism arises from a feeling of personal inadequacy and fear of the self, in being unable to face the feelings of fear and anger and carry on life in freedom. Thus one acts out of unconscious emotional programming, always with a sense of being driven and unfree, always looking for salvation. Fundamentalists perceive anyone's freedom, differing from their interpretation, as a threat to their existence. They are only comfortable living in an authoritarian hierarchy, taking orders from superiors, giving orders to inferiors - the abuse is passed down the line. Life is reduced to a question of mere survival.

But fascism is not exclusively a right-wing phenomenon. It precedes ideology. It exists on the political left, as well, or manifests in any form of political correctness. Many communists were left-wing fascists in the old Soviet Union. Therefore, let us not make the mistake of calling only right-wingers fascists. Both ends of the spectrum are authoritarian, the only difference is how to organize the despotic state.

From their own religious viewpoint on apocalyptic doctrine, we can call the fundamentalists false prophets. They worship a book, the Bible, which they little understand, thus they are idolaters. They interpret it in a literal framework because it requires less soul-searching to do so. They are afraid of questioning God's word. They do not demonstrate love and forgiveness except for those who tow the ideological line to further their goals. Their obvious fears and hatreds are not those of God-filled beings.

The God-loving are unconditionally accepting of all humanity and revel in human differences. They have that childlike sense of wonder, awe and joy in perceiving the universe, learning, seeking the truth, accepting of change, taking delight in it, not by relying on fixed doctrines. These are lovers of life, pleasure - free human beings acting on the unlimited potential of God within. They travel a path of personal growth which is never completed, for to complete it would be endless death, just like the belief in the limited salvation of the fundamentalists. Herein lies the meaning of love - total and unconditional acceptance of life. That is true liberation.

We cannot tolerate a clear and present evil. That is anti-life. But we can still accept the person, the soul which commits the evil act, by realizing that it is a mistake and a waste of human potential. This, the fundamentalists cannot do. It's either their way or none. That is why they are a danger to humanity.

If there is any answer to the fundamentalist belief it is love. We gays have realized this ideal in our ability to freely give affection in many sexual encounters. Love offers freedom and encourages self-knowledge. With that power people are immune to authoritarian control and manipulation through guilt. We can also accept the fundamentalists as persons having a right to their beliefs, yet not accept their teachings and actions because those actions hurt people. We can oppose them with a loving spirit, but we must be careful how we attack them lest we force them further into their self-righteous beliefs.

To oppose them with ideas outside their chosen belief system or to argue theology with them is useless. For them, any opposing viewpoint is an evil to be rejected. We need to lead the as yet unconvinced away from this sick doctrine. We can point out the violations they make of their own doctrines. They are weak with fear and self-hatred, so they cannot love or accept others in that state. By a firmly loving opposition can they be led to realizing their mistakes and healed. Otherwise, we should reach out to the mainstream populace and teach them that bigotry is an emotional disorder that threatens society.

We must not use direct opposition against the fundamentalists. It would only escalate into a war of ideologies. Simply bringing out the truth is a better way. We gays need to be positive about our lifestyle. It is good, so let's live it and be good examples for ourselves and others. We need not justify ourselves to them, nor let emotionally negative fundamentalist rhetoric manipulate us to bring out the same, for that is our weakness, too. Recognize that the homophobe's fear is a weakness. Our strength lies in the quiet courage of the truth which liberates humans and calls us to a higher, more complex state of being. We can encourage a wider understanding that we are part of a living, spiritual system here and now, not living for a salvation in death and a sterile, static afterlife.

Already the New Right suffers a serious defect. It does not stand for anything, only against. It espouses no positive attitudes, new ways of thinking, no affirmations of life. No group which has held such negative beliefs has ever wielded power for long, but have caused much destruction and misery in the past. We must not allow it to happen again. The New Right offers nothing new, only the same stale and tired old formulas. We gays, however, offer a new hope to the world, one of oppenness, affection, creativity, understanding and pleasure - a redefining of humanity and what it is to be human, exploring our limitless possibilities for a richer life.

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