In many Christian traditions, the Eucharist is celebrated at least weekly. Fundamentalists, on the other hand, celebrate the Lord’s table with about the same frequency that they change their oil. The basic idea behind these long spaces of time is the notion that having the Lord’s Supper too often will remove the specialness of it [...]

Yes, there is a liturgy to even Fundamentalists services Thanks to Paul and Cindy Erlandson for this great piece.

Today around the nation, fundamentalist churches will participate in God & Country Sunday. The national anthem will be sung. The pledge to the flag will be said. The military will be honored. Jesus may or may not get an honorable mention. To be sure, the conflation of patriotism with Christianity extends far beyond the walls [...]

“Who would like to share a word of testimony this evening?” Testimony time in a fundamentalist church is an experience unlike anything one could hope to find in the outside world. It’s equal parts performance art, spiritual posturing, and the kind of long winded delivery that you might expect after mistakenly asking your hypochondriac great-aunt [...]

Want to reach the folks in the cities around you? Take one gospel tract designed by someone who is completely ignorant of contemporary culture. Add a dash of bad grammar. Throw in a thinly veiled dig at urban minority culture in general. Shake well.

Memo To: All Sunday School Leaders From: Horace J. Studebacher, Sunday School Superintendent. Dear Teachers, Please take extra care when filling out your Sunday School attendance books for the coming months. The pastor has informed me that his review of the attendance record has turned up several discrepancies which he thankfully caught before sending the [...]

Unspoken prayer requests are a staple of any fundamentalist prayer meeting. Far from being a simple acknowledgment of an private and personal need, “unspokens” have a variety of classifications. The All Inclusive This is the most common form of the unspoken request. This call for a show of hands often comes at the end of [...]

In fundy churches, the most common type of traveling musical family is the missionary family. The traveling family musical act is a mainstay of the fundamentalist missionary endeavor. If a missionary is to be a success on deputation and furlough he or his family must sing, play an instrument, and be able to quote John [...]

“Please bow your heads and close your eyes.” For all of their bluster, fundamentalists are a private bunch when it comes to something as dearly personal as raising ones hand to give a non-specific response at the end of a sermon on a generic topic. There have to be some boundaries of personal space after [...]