I remember when I was in seminary in the early 90s, I met a woman who was from Union Theological Seminary. When she asked me what seminary I was attending, I told her I was at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She asked almost derisively, “Isn’t that a fundamentalist school?” I retorted, “No, we’re not fundamentalist. We’re Evangelical.” That was then, this is now.

Now, it seems that anyone who holds to the doctrine of inerrancy is a fundamentalist. Today, there are so many “evangelicals” that no longer hold to the inerrancy of the Bible that the label ‘evangelical’ has been obscured. Back then, I took be labeled as a fundamentalist as an insult. Fundamentalists were ‘stick-their-head-in-the-sand’, theological and cultural isolationists. Today, many evangelicals of yesterday are now the Fundamentalists of today.

John Piper just wrote a blog article entitled, “20 Reasons I Don’t Take Potshots at Fundamentalists.” His last reason is, “Everybody to my left thinks I am one. And there are a lot of people to my left.” Denny Burke, in commenting on that last reason, writes:

With this last point, Piper is merely pointing out that he is sometimes accused of being a fundamentalist. Just a brief comment about this.

Would anyone agree with the observation that the term “fundamentalist” is used too frequently these days? The word in fact has historical meaning as it has been associated with conservative Protestants in North America. The fundamentalists were conservative theologically, they withdrew from culture, they tended to believe in second-degree separation, and some of them were anti-intellectual/educational.

Unfortunately, the term fundamentalist is now commonly applied to anyone who is a theological or cultural conservative. On that definition, John Piper, Carl Henry, J. I. Packer, D. A. Carson, and a host of other evangelicals (like myself) would be considered fundamentalists.

I have noticed that critics often use the term not in its historical sense, but as a way to banish theological or cultural conservatives to the margins. It’s a clever, effective strategy. But it’s also dishonest and ultimately unhelpful.

Boy, if being classified with John Piper, Carl Henry, J. I. Packer, and D. A. Carson is being a fundie, then I am a fundie and proud of it.