Identify and explain two characteristics of religious Fundamentalism

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Polly Jackman, 12SAM

Identify and explain two characteristics of religious Fundamentalism

          Donald Taylor defines Fundamentalism as involving a group of people who perceive a challenge an ultimate authority, usually God, in which they believe, they decide the challenge cannot be tolerated and reaffirm their belief in the authority and oppose the challengers, often using political means o further their cause.

          One characteristic of religious Fundamentalism is that most Fundamentalist groups have a charismatic, authoritarian leader. This person is usually male, who may claim to be divinely informed. An example of this was the Christian Fundamentalist People’s Temple religious cult led by Reverend Jim Jones. He had such control over his followers that when he asked them to take their own lives in a mass suicide, they did so willingly, with mothers even feeding cyanide mixed in Kool-Aid to their children.

          Another characteristic of Fundamentalist religion is that Fundamentalists are the supporters of a minority viewpoint. They see themselves as the righteous remainders of ‘traditional’ religious understanding. Even when they are numerically a majority, they perceive themselves as a minority. This means the can allow themselves to ‘stand up’ for ‘traditional’ values and can, in doing this, oppress others. For example in some cases Islamic Fundamentalists have taken over Eastern countries (thus growing to become the majority suppressing the minority of non-Fundamentalists). They have insisted upon ‘traditional’ values being upheld; they had little contact with the Western world and women were made to cover their entire bodies and dismissed from work outside the home.

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Outline and discuss the view that religion, in general, has negative consequences for women

          Feminist Simone de Beauvoir believes that religion can be used by the oppressors (men) to control the oppressed group (women) and serves as a way of compensating women for their second-class status. To de Beauvoir religion acts for women in similar ways that it acts for the Proletariat to Marxists.  De Beauvoir writes ‘Man enjoys the great advantage of having a God endorse the code he writes’; she believes men have exercised control over religious beliefs.

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