I recently read two guys pontificating on the future of fundamentalism, which they think is bleak. (And I am touched by their optimism.) One guy said that what fundamentalism needed was more culture, the other said that a fundamentalism “worth saving” needed to be more serious about meaning.

Ya think?!

Fundamentalism has a culture, and fundamentalists have been glibly sermonizing about meaning for quite some time. But now that that culture is not sufficiently enticing, and as the movement’s political force is waning, some are casting about for something more attractive. The bumpkin clergy is on the prowl for better threads. So let us remind ourselves of some basic truths.

You can dress a monkey in a well-fitting suit and put an invitation in his pocket, but you will not get a delightful dinner guest. He will invariably use the wrong fork and still won't add sparkle to the conversation. Culture is not something you put on and button up, it is something that shapes your life; it constrains your thinking, it furnishes your intellectual life, it forms your sensibilities, it orders your tastes. This is not something a Bible college student is going to pick up with a Sunday afternoon trip to hear a local community orchestra pops concert. One afternoon at the Met is not going to undo the damage done by years of the Grand Ole Opry.

As I say, fundamentalism has a culture. It is the culture of J. Frank Norris in sending a congratulatory telegram to Benito Mussolini on his rise to power, June 4, 1931:

“Liberty loving Americans one hundred percent with you in fight against ecclesiastical tyranny.”

Here is a culture worth saving: bizarre political alignments for the sake of expediency, and a nice bit of documentation for some high-brow anti-Catholicism. J. Frank's reputation is legendary, and not just for his overseas correspondence. This is the stuff of culture.

Fundamentalism has a culture. Visit the summer cottage of the great Billy Sunday, look at the walls covered with autographed publicity photos of the celebrities of the day. And when I say “covered walls” I am not being poetic, I mean walls, end to end, ceiling to chair rail.

Fundamentalism has a culture. Read through the doggerel in Majesty Hymns. Here was a segment of fundamentalism railing against pop culture in the church for years. They published a hymnbook (78 years after their founding, incidentally), and this is one of the contributions we get from the editor himself:

Jesus loves me, He’s my Friend;
Of His mercy there’s no end.
On His goodness I depend;
Jesus loves me, He’s my Friend.

Jesus keeps me, He’s my Friend;
Of His kindness there’s no end.
On His power I depend;
Jesus keeps me, He’s my Friend.

That is on page 519, in case you want the haunting melody he and his wife produced.

Fundamentalism has a culture. Watch Christian television, browse a Christian bookstore, listen to Christian radio preachers. Notice those Lawrence Welk Show stage smiles and the unctuous gestures of your gospel crooners. This is your culture. And you think by an act of the will you are going to produce a more likable culture? To say such a thing betrays an ignorance of what culture is. It is not decoration, it is not adornment, it is not ornamentation. It is not a sappy song with a trill at the end.

Culture is formative, it is determinative, it is conclusive, it is decisive.

You cannot put on a new culture ready made. You must wait for the grass to grow to feed the sheep to give the wool out of which your new coat will be made. You must pass through many centuries of barbarism. We should not live to see the new culture, nor would our great-great-great-grandchildren: and if we did, not one of us would be happy in it.
[T. S. Eliot, Notes toward the Definition of Culture]

And we shall never see a fundamentalism worth saving: fundamentalists were the philistines that destroyed what culture we had. We'd just as soon ask Goliath for tips on building the Temple.