Fundamentalism, extremism, and the role of the Church

Dr. Michel E. Abs

Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches

Fundamentalism is an ideology that submits individuals and groups to the whole system of belief and rituals of a thought without any flexibility or any acceptance of difference with the other.

The fundamentalists deal with their beliefs with a rigid logic that does not accept dialogue. It is the hardening of the letter against the soul and the mind. The fundamentalists consider their cause as a universal and eternal dimension, as they consider themselves responsible for the fate of humanity through their faith. In addition, fundamentalists view extroverted and dialogue people from within their community or their surroundings as the main enemies of this society.

Researchers in this field believe that fundamentalists of all kinds have the same mental structure and the same values. It has been shown that the more modernity progresses in society, the more fundamentalists are rooted in their isolation. In addition to that, they have a defensive stance from everything that is happening around them, as they consider it a threat to them just as they consider themselves a chosen elite whose mission is to save humanity.

Moreover, fundamentalist groups are able to promote leaderships with high charisma to lead their affiliated groups.

As for extremism, it is the set of ideas and actions considered out of the ordinary and incompatible with the real world. Extremism is a mentality that approximates the radical in thinking and the closed mind.

For their part, sociologists consider that extremism constitutes a deviation from social norms and rules and takes a violent turn against society or against the rest of the group itself, and therefore extremism poses a threat to social stability and civil peace.

Extremism of all kinds grows in closed societies that are not subject to the interaction of ideas. It also grows in societies in crisis that are looking for solutions to their basic problems, or in societies with rigid systems that are not subject to progress. In addition, extremism finds fertile ground for itself in young societies afflicted with deprivation, illiteracy, poverty, misery, backwardness, unemployment and the like. In such societies, modernists do not dare express their ideas for fear of fundamentalism, extremism, and "miserable fate."

In light of the decline that many societies are experiencing in our modern era, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, the economic, social and moral degeneration produces a fertile environment for the growth of fundamentalist and extremist tendencies. This reality is a challenge that requires the intervention of the Church, with all its institutions, in order to deal with it.

Through its educational, rehabilitative and developmental tasks and its preventive work in the social sphere in its various dimensions, the Church, through its teachings, pioneering role, and life model as the ideal it proposes, is a direct, preventive and remedial response to situations of misery, ignorance, obscurantism and extremism, as well as the fundamentalism tendencies that result from them.

The Church is called to carry-on what it is doing, as it has been proven to be the best possible social safety net and the most effective at this stage in human history. We have seen, in many cases of general social collapse, how the church filled the void spaces created by crises despite its limited capabilities.

Love has proven that it can feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and cure the sick, despite the limited resources!

Didn't the Lord do the same?