Fundamentalism & Freemasonry

by Gary H. Leazer

What is fundamentalist Christianity? How did fundamentalists become the religious right? Why is this religious group so politically powerful? Why have they targeted Masons for special attack when so many fundamentalists are themselves Masons? A popular definition of a fundamentalist is an evangelical who is mad about something or someone. They have also been described as militant evangelicals who insist on doctrinal uniformity and lead or support attacks against what they define as liberal theology, liberal social issues and certain elements of modern science. In fact, fundamentalism as a mindset can be traced to 1860-1890 Princeton Theological Seminary conservatives concerned about preserving the fundamental concerns of the Christian faith in the face of the religious, scientific, technical, social, and intellectual trends of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was not until 1920 that Curtis Lee Laws, Baptist editor of the Watchman-Examiner, used the term fundamentalism for the