Christian fundamentalism is a 'malignant form of Christianity' more dangerous than Islamic terrorism, scholar says

A humanist scholar has declared Christian fundamentalism more dangerous than Islamic terrorism, the Chicago Maroon reported.

Catherine M. Wallace, an author and faculty member at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, told an audience last week near the University of Chicago that a Christian fundamentalist "in control of nuclear codes was a much, much greater threat" than Islamic terrorists who "need to put bombs on their own children and send young men in to kill themselves" in order to "blow up a concert," the paper said.

Catherine M. Wallace (Image source: YouTube)

Wallace — a historian and "Christian humanist," the Maroon said — noted that Christian fundamentalism has roots in the American South: “The religious right in its most contemporary form has an origin in Southern opposition to desegregation and to the Civil Rights Movement ... a transparently racist appeal."

She added that radicalism comes from a literal interpretation of the Bible. “Nobody in the ancient world would have read the Bible literally,” she said, the Maroon reported, adding that a literal reading of scripture is a modern construct.

“Christian fundamentalism is a malignant form of Christianity,” Wallace said, according to the paper, noting that such a point of view stirs hatred and conflict with the rest of humanity.

Wallace added that she wants her writing to be "absolutely welcoming and accessible to anybody whether they have any religious background or interest. We’re gonna meet on open, shared, common historical grounds,” the Maroon said.

And how would Jesus react to the present political climate?

“Jesus was first a Jewish prophet reciting the Jewish rant in its standard edition, which is social justice, socioeconomic justice," she said, according to the paper. "Care for widows and orphans, which is to say the unemployable. People who can’t earn their own living. And the just sharing of the world’s resources.”

(H/T: The College Fix)