When reading essay 10 by Charles Strozier, I found that it was aggressively against the idea of fundamentalism. At first, it summarizes The Book of Revelation and makes the statement that it is more quoted than actually read, suggesting that the belief systems that fundamentalists cite from the bible are more selectively chosen rather than taken as a whole. Nevertheless at the end of his summary, he speaks about the fundamentalist mindset in seven different aspects starting with time and ending with redemption. Each of them strikes a blow at fundamentalists. This is probably preparation for the movie Jesus Camp, as it has to do with children who are brainwashed into being religious zealots. Throughout the seven aspects of the fundamentalists, common themes such as violence, death, and personal belief are touched upon.

Violence and death are touched upon when the idea of God as a genocidal being becomes very real in The Book of Revelation. As each seal is opened, more and more destruction is created. The author presents each seal in Revelation as another step in the genocide of humans on earth and connects it to the love of death by the fundamentalists. In fact, time is also a factor here, as fundamentalists wish to kill time in order to reach heaven, especially in respect to kariotic time. In respect to revenge, Strozier quotes from Revelation that important things come in two. In other words, one must be born again in order to ascend into heaven and one must die again in order to feel the fiery pits of hell. It seems as if fundamentalists view the world in a sense that’s related to their personal belief that in which later Strozier finds disturbing.

In terms of common theme, the last portion of Strozier’s essay helped shed some light on the hypocrisy in fundamentalism. He uses a Marxist theory that the great evil will suffer a horrible date and the poor and under privileged class will be brought to a classless utopia. This mirrors the apocalypse, where the believers will be in New Jerusalem and the sinners will suffer a second death as they are sent to hell. It makes sense and it can be an easy justification system for individuals across the world to believe that revelation will become true and that there will be some sense of divine karma in the world. Yet, Strozier makes the point that individuals who share the fundamentalist belief are usually wealthy and live in gated communities. Therefore, a wealthy and potentially powerful class who believes only for the wellbeing of themselves can be a very dangerous thing. In the conclusion, Strozier ties the mindset of fundamentalists to prejudices, which destroys the equality that we have in our world. In essence, a fundamentalist mindset that embraces violence will only escalate the violence.

I personally think that his points are very valid because it’s a little extreme to let a document over two thousand years old affect our everyday lives in such a different way. Though at times, I feel sorry for them because believing in fundamentalism can be a double-edged sword. To the individuals within that belief system, they view themselves as righteous and bound for heaven despite what others think of them. To the others, they would be viewed as crazies. Nevertheless, it’s quite hard to wonder why newer generations of fundamentalist don’t question Revelation. In this day and age, many people are being more aware of different beliefs and it is more common for individuals to move to other places. It’s shocking to see how fundamentalists aren’t shrinking in size.