Watanabe, Akira. Translated by Jim Peterson. "9/11 and the American Evangelical Church: An Observation and Analysis" (9・11 当時のアメリカの福音派の状況と分析). Japan Evangelical Association Theological Commission Pamphlet 6 (May 2006): 75-88.
Akira Watanabe is a professor at Tokyo Baptist Theological Seminary and a lecturer at Aoyama Gakuin University. He is a pastor in the Japan Baptist Convention.
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9/11 AND THE AMERICAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH: AN OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS 1
SUMMARY
It is important to learn and criticize the doctrine of fundamentalism which has been easily misled to support war. However it is more important to understand the social milieu in which it has emerged lest we too be swept up into the rising tide of fundamentalism.
Fundamentalism rears its head in the midst of crumbling social order, in an age when people sense the loss of a foundation in their daily lives. There are no easy shortcuts in the defense against fundamentalism. Rather what is needed is concrete efforts to provide people with a solid foundation.
INTRODUCTION
In the wake of 9/11 it would appear that many U.S. Christians spanning across denominational boundaries have fallen into a very stereotypical fundamentalist mindset. I was living in Louisville, Kentucky from the time of 9/11 until the beginning of the war in Iraq. Based on field notes and interviews from that period and a number of reports submitted to the Christian Shinbun I will attempt to give a picture of how American Christians came to be in support of the war. This paper is based on what is known as qualitative research, and thus is not designed to provide a bird's-eye view of the trend in the whole American church. Rather I seek to provide a glimpse of the process by which the average Christian living in the Southern U.S. was attracted to the voice of fundamentalism in the midst of the struggle with uncertainty. Furthermore I want to look again at how the anti-war movement was effectively silenced by the voice of conservative Christians during that period and thereby reflect on the stance required of Japanese Christians in confronting the rightward trend in our own society.
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1 In this report all names of persons and churches have been changed except the names of scholars and national Christian leaders.
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