My Profile

Biography

Charles S. Oaxpatu is the owner, editor-in-chief, and principal writer at the Flee from Christian Fundamentalism blog. He is a Mainline Christian who was born and raised in the American South—the region where he has always lived and worked. During the 1950s and 1960s, he grew up in The Methodist Church and The United Methodist Church in a small, highly conservative town in Tennessee. He was also a member of a highly conservative Southern Baptist Convention megachurch in another small southern town.

He has made all of the traditional and appropriate conservative evangelical professions of faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior by grace—and they were all knowledgeably, earnestly, honestly, and sincerely made—with a clear understanding that he had tried to keep the Old Testament law in his own power and found it impossible to do no matter how hard he tried. This was followed by a full-immersion baptism in deep water. Today he is still a sincere and committed follower of our Divine Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and he is a long-time member of The United Methodist Church. His definitely known gift of the Holy Spirit is the power of spiritual discernment.

Our blog owner recognizes that he is neither a good man nor a righteous man because only God is thoroughly good and righteous. He stands within the circle of sin on this Earth, as do all Christian and nonChristian men and women—including the fundies—whether they want to admit it or not (1 john 1:8).

Education

Mr. Oaxpatu earned undergraduate and graduate university degrees with high grades and highest academic honors (summa cum laude) from a large, well-known university in the United States. He is, by God-given nature and formal university training, a gifted scholar in the realm of the social sciences, which includes the realms of religion and faith. He has written a combined total of more than 1,074 reports, journal articles, formal plans, and blog articles on various scientific topics and issues involving the Christian faith.

Public Activism On-Line

For the past 25 years, Mr. Oaxpatu has spent a substantial amount of his spare time studying Christian fundamentalism, conservative evangelicalism, and the so-called Religious Right in the United States. He has been a committed Christian Internet activist working hard against Christian fundamentalism, conservative evangelicalism, and the Religious Right. In particular, he has been actively opposed to Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical takeovers of state/local public school boards. Why school boards?

Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical school board members love to censor or ban books. They relish introducing pseudoscience and revisionist social studies (a.k.a. bold-faced lies) into our public school classrooms. They would love nothing more than to turn our public schools, their administrators, and their teachers into marionette puppets of Christian fundamentalism, conservative evangelicalism, and right wing extremist politics.

Our blog owner’s on-line activism began with the famous Kansas State Board of Education Controversy (2004); moved on to the more famous Kitzmiller et al. vs. Dover Area School District trial in Dover, Pennsylvania (2005); and then progressed on to the Texas State Board of Education controversies (2006-2019). The fundie efforts were soundly defeated in Kansas and Pennsylvania. The battle still goes on in Texas, where it has produced mixed results.

Mr. Oaxpatu is in agreement with numerous Christian scholars and ministers of the gospel who, through their own God-given gifts of spiritual discernment, have become highly critical and rightly critical of Christian fundamentalism and conservative evangelicalism. These individuals include, but are not limited to, Dr. James Barr; Dr. Keith Ward; Dr. John Dominic Crosson; Dr. Randall Balmer; Dr. Douglas W. Frank; and Reverend Sam Charles Norton. After his many years of study, he has come to the current conclusion best expressed by Anglican Priest S.C. Norton as follows:

More personally, though, I think what drives me is an anger, for it is the doctrines associated with [Christian] fundamentalism, which I rejected as a teenager, that prevented me from understanding Christ, and from coming into that fullness of life which was God’s eternal intention for me. Knowing what I know now, and knowing “from the inside” how liberating Christianity is, I am enraged at the spiritual havoc and cost of fundamentalist ideology. I now see [Christian] fundamentalism as a satanic ideology, a demonic possession: a cancer against which the Body [of Jesus Christ] must be eternally vigilant. Each instance must be excised and brought out into the light, thence to be cast out into the place where there is great wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Let us give St. Paul the last word, as he sums up what I am trying to say: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Politics

Our blog owner is not a representative or member of any extant political party in the United States and does not speak for any political party. He considers himself to be an Independent voter, and he agrees with a good Christian friend in Texas who believes all Christians should be Independent voters, rather than being formally tied to a political party. Formal membership in a political party runs the risk of having spiritual matters dictated to a believer by their political party rather than the Holy Spirit, one’s personal conscience, and a close personal analysis of issues and positions. Our blog owner tends to be conservative on matters of foreign policy and progressive on matters of domestic social policy. The latter concern is driven by the Holy Bible‘s clear and unequivocal call for all Christians to minister to the needs of “the least of these” and other outcast people who live among us in this life.

The Flee from Christian Fundamentalism blog is not primarily a political blog. It is primarily a Christian faith blog that sometimes touches on political matters—but only to the extent that the Christian faith and politics intersect—or crash into each other. Unfortunately, they crash into each other often in the United States.

“The Least of These”

The Biblically required ministry of love and tangible material assistance to those Jesus called “the least of these” consists of far more than just:

…sharing the gospel message of repentance and salvation by grace through Jesus Christ.

Our blog owner affirms that this part (Part I) of the so-called Great Commission (not a Bible term) is important.

Sad to say, many Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals seem to believe that they have few, if any, obligations of Christian love and assistance beyond just that and that alone. The “least of these” (and the legitimate needs of many other wounded and outcast men, women, and children in this life) often fall by the wayside. The fundies so easily forget that Jesus was a poor person and a social outcast in his own time on the Earth.

The fundies try to justify their cherry-picked abandonment of Holy scripture and their slacker mentality toward “the least of these” with various versions of the following:

Why sharing the gospel message of salvation alone is love. Who cares if people shiver in the cold or starve in this short 80 years of life here on Earth? A life of suffering here is so tiny and inconsequential when you consider that burning with pitiless pain in the fires of Hell is forever. Therefore, we should set aside caring for the needs of people in this life and focus only on saving their souls from the certain fires of Hell after they die. After all, these are the few last remaining days of the end times, and Jesus will return any second to rapture all of us “true” Christians out of here—and then rain down well-deserved tribulation and agony upon all the sinners who are left behind. Yes, the end of time is so very, very, very close now. Therefore, let us all forget about those other things Jesus said, did, and commanded in the New Testament with regard to helping “the least of these” and other needy people in this life. We no longer have time for much of that in these few last days. We have a far more important emergency rescue operation underway to save souls, and we are operating under severe time constraints!!!

In other words, the Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals of today often behave as if Part I of the so-called Great Commission was the only thing Jesus ever thought was important in scripture.  Just minimize or give passing lip-service to Part II of the Great Commission—that being nearly everything else Jesus ever commanded, ever said, or ever did in the New Testament. Jesus said it best in his own words—and it applies to American Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals today:

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me (Matthew 15:8).

Moreover, when some fundie churches and missionary organizations do extend minimalist physical aid to “the least of these,” the soup, bread, and medicine are often viewed as little more than animal bait to lure in starving, hurting, and diseased sinful worms for a fire and brimstone sermon.

The fundie feeling seems to be that poverty, sickness, homelessness, or any other needy condition a person might have in this world is a direct result of their sins, and their neediness is God’s earthly punishment visited upon them for these sins. Therefore, more than anything else, they need the salvation of Jesus alone to release them from God’s punishment. Then this release will move them to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps (even if their boots have no straps); found their own high-technology firm; assume sole financial responsibility for their own lives (so the greedy fundies will not have to help them); and vote a straight Republican ticket in every election for the rest of their lives. Indeed, the latter has become so bad that one often wonders which is most important to a Christian fundamentalist or conservative evangelical today——following the commands of Jesus Christ or following the evil dictates of the Republican Party.

The fundies seem to easily forget that many of the needy people Jesus would call “the least of these” in our country today are already devout Christians. Knowing Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, and living in communion with him each day, do not necessarily chase away a low IQ, poverty, physical sickness, mental illness, loneliness, homelessness, economic ineptness, or any other needy condition in this world. Our blog owner grew up as the son of hard-working (but still poverty-stricken) Christian parents, and he knows from firsthand experience that this common fundie view of American poverty is both false and just plain evil.

Contrary to fundie thinking (or lack of it), the Holy Bible contains more than 2,000 verses of scripture where God stands with the poor and oppressed who live among us here at home and around the world—and Jesus is not talking about standing beside them. Jesus makes it crystal clear in the Bible (Matthew 25: 31-46) that He stands as “one of the poor,” so much so that if you fail to feed a hungry person, you are simultaneously failing to feed the hungry Jesus. If you fail to help a sick person, you are simultaneously failing to help the sick Jesus. Jesus is one in personal identity and solidarity with “the least of these” at all times. Take a good, long look at this—————-if you dare:

Those 2,000+ Bible verses command the Jewish people and Christians to lovingly meet the needs of “the least of these” and stand up for them with strong public voices and strong public actions——and the Bible never specifies that government programs are the wrong way to serve their needs. Never!!!! Why is that? Religion and government were one and the same among the Jews of ancient Israel in Old Testament and New Testament times. Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical hatred of U.S. government and state government entitlement programs for the “least of these” is a clear sign that they have abandoned the Kingdom of God in favor of their own personal selfishness and greed. This image illustrates it well:

Jesus Healing Sick People Free of Charge in the New Testament

Fundie: There is no such thing as free healthcare for the poor. Someone has to pay for it—and that wrongfully comes out of my paycheck. It’s theft I tell you!!!  Theft!!!

FFCF Blog: That’s right—it does come out of your paycheck, and you fundies gladly spit in the eye of Jesus; resent having to pay for any of it with your own tax dollars, and regularly vote for the evil men and women who seek to take away what little help the sick people, poor people, and old people already have. Shame on you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:27-28)!!!!  Shame on you!!!!

Uneasy Feelings from Many Years of Fundie Watching

(1) Because he has lived in the American South all of his life, the owner of this blog knows from personal experience what many of the Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals in the Bible Belt (and elsewhere in the United States) are really like. He knows how angry many of them are. He knows how ignorant and uneducated many of them are. He knows how racist many of them are.  He knows how proud, arrogant, and self-righteous many of them are. He knows how hateful many of them are—especially toward nonChristians and nonfundie Christians. Some among them love sending out hate mail and death threats to people who publicly disagree with their religious beliefs. Large numbers of them write mean-spirited and hate-filled comments at the ends of on-line newspaper articles, on-line magazine articles, and blog articles. Here is one of our blog owner’s favorite real life examples of fundie hate mail, which contains the usual spelling, capitalization, and syntax problems:

Mr. M Weinstein I am a spirit-filled ordained pastor of The Gospel from the great state of Nebraska. Stop your attack on God Almighty and His only Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  Stop your attack on His holy Christian wariors in our armed military forces! My congregation includes many military from the nearby air force base. We pray as one for you to die tonight in your sleep leaving a bloody mess for your family to find at daybreak.

You can just feel the New Testament love of Jesus Christ oozing from that one. Right?  You may read that one and numerous other examples of Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical hate mail by clicking on the following safe link:

Examples of Actual Fundie Hate Mail and Hate Comments

(2) Many Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals evidently think they now sit on God’s throne in his place. They know who is definitely going to burn in Hell forever—and if it is you—they are more than happy to throw that conclusion at you, harangue you with it, demean you with it, and harrass you with it. If a person disagrees with their beliefs, a very few of them are even crazy enough to commit murder. Despite laws against religious discrimination in the workplace, if your religious beliefs are different from those of a Christian fundamentalist or conservative evangelical personnel recruiter, hiring manager, or business owner, and you are publicly critical of fundie beliefs, then look out!  Some may search for sneaky ways to avoid hiring you or clever ways to fire you from your job as punishment for daring to hold and voice religious beliefs different from theirs.

(3) Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals in the Bible Belt and elsewhere in the United States love nothing more than judging and punishing ordinary citizens they choose to define as sinners or the apostate enemies of God. Who is an enemy of God? An enemy of God in their eyes is an unsaved sinner or any person who dares to publicly disagree with their narrow-minded fundie religious beliefs, no matter how untruthful, unloving, hurtful, harmful, or unGodly those beliefs might be. Any person who refuses to adhere to the fundie hardline on controversial scriptural, religious, social, political, or behavioral issues is automatically defined as an enemy of God in fundie eyes. If you study western civilization and its history (particularly in the realm of Christian fanaticism), you will quickly find a knee-jerk sentiment that the enemies of God must be converted……or be destroyed.

If Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals cannot find a legal way to physically destroy a person they hate, they will try to destroy that person mentally, emotionally, psychologically, or reputationally. Our blog owner knows this from first-hand experience on the receiving end of their pummeling. The Religious Right, the political bastard child of the fundies, is famous for trying to destroy the lives and reputations of the people they hate by applying the famous Republican Party method entitled The Politics of Personal Destruction.

(4) Simply disagreeing with the fundies on religious matters angers many of them so much that they often utter the five most infamous code language words in all of Fundieland:

I will pray for you!!!

These five words are often stated with great agitation and rage. What do they mean when translated from fundie code language into modern English?  They mean:

Here’s a figurative middle finger——and F-bomb you!!!

Moving to and Living in the American South in the Age of Trump

As noted earlier, our blog owner grew up in the American South and has lived there all of his life. The few people (mostly Mainline Christians and Roman Catholics) in the American South who take seriously all the words, deeds, and commands of Jesus in the New Testament are some of the kindest, friendliest, and most hospitable people on planet Earth. Unfortunately though, the American South is quite literally saturated with Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals—mostly various stripes and tribes of baptists. Many of these fundies look just as friendly on the surface as the local Mainline Christians and Roman Catholics——that is until they discover you believe in the Bible and Jesus differently from how they believe in the Bible and Jesus, or they discover that you do not share their right wing extremist politics and all of their so-called “family values.” God help you if they find out you are an agnostic, atheist, or follower of a locally unpopular foreign religion.

The worst portions of the American South for encountering right wing extremist fundies are the small towns and rural areas. The very large cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Nashville, Austin, New Orleans, and Miami tend to be diverse, tolerant, and highly cosmopolitan places with numerous well-educated citizens. When it comes to the very worst of Christian fundamentalism and conservative evangelicalism, some states in the American South are far worse than others—again primarily in their small towns and rural areas. Which ones are the worst in our honest opinion? Try Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Up-State South Carolina, North Carolina, and Northern Florida. We would like to include Kansas and Missouri on this short list, but they are not really part of the American South.

If you are a Mainline Christian (United Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian USA, Evangelical Lutheran, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Eastern Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc.), a Roman Catholic, or a member of a nonChristian religion such as Hinduism, Islam, or Buddhism—-and you are planning a corporate or personal family relocation to a small town or rural area in the American South—-three of the first things you may encounter after you arrive are as follows:

(1) Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals may swarm all over you and your family to save you from Hell (the unique fundie way) and insist that you absolutely must convert to Christian fundamentalism or conservative evangelicalism—and attend their fundie church—and their fundie church only:

(Warning: Many southern fundies do not handle rejection well. Be prepared for that. In addition, if your family is Roman Catholic, they tend to despise the Roman Catholic Church and highly devout Roman Catholics. Why? As far back as anyone can remember, fundie preachers have preached that the Roman Catholic Church is an evil, nonChristian, anti-Christ organization that operates under the direct power and control of Satan—-through the Pope).

Even though it violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, numerous public school administrators and teachers in the American South will try to indoctrinate your children with Christian fundamentalism and conservative evangelicalism on the sly in their public school classrooms—desperately hoping nonfundie parents will never complain about it:

[Good Advice: Get the telephone number of your local American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) office when you first arrive at your new home in the American South; be prepared to call that number; and sue the pants off any public school system, school administrator, or teacher who tries to mess with your nonfundie child’s religious beliefs. American public schools are designed to teach academic subject matter—not dabble in the personal religious affairs of your family. Legally, your family’s religious beliefs are none of their business. Hold their feet to the fire on that in U.S. District Court—something the local public school systems live in shivering fear of each day.]

(2) In our honest opinion, Christian fundamentalists, conservative evangelicals, and the redneck population of the American South despise Islam and Muslims with an almost perfect hatred. All you have to do is visit assorted websites and comment sections on the Internet; read the comments at the ends of southern newspaper stories; or have breakfast in a small town restaurant and strike up a conversation with the diners about Islam. The fundie locals will be happy to tell you that Allah is actually Satan. They will tell you that Mohammed was just a stupid Arab man Satan Allah duped into following him, while Satan Allah was falsely masquerading as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They will tell you that the Quran is a book of pervasive evil and violence from cover to cover. Therefore, all of this makes Mohammed the Prophet and Messenger of Satan—and it just naturally follows that all Muslim men, women, and children are the worldly spiritual offspring of Satan.

Two words should never be mentioned in the presence of any southern small town or rural fundie. Those two words are: Sharia Law. Southern fundies fear Muslims will one day take over the United States and use brute force to impose it on them against their wills. They are enormously hostile to the very idea of Sharia Law. Southern fundies get especially outraged and highly militant when small groups of peace-loving and law-abiding Muslim men, women, and children try to build mosques or Muslim worship centers in their small southern towns and rural areas. Check out this famous case in the small town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee (Click here.)

In truth, within the pages of the Holy Bible, God commands Christians to love all other people in this world—including Muslim peoples—not hate them. Here at the Flee from Christian Fundamentalism blog, we think Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical hatred and mistreatment of peaceful Muslim men, women, and children are unChristian, evil, and just plain low-life in nature.

(3)  Southern fundies are really big on social conformity, and they despise anything that smacks of rebellion against their local religious, social, subcultural, and behavioral norms. After getting settled into your new home in the American South, you may encounter social pressure in your everyday life to conform with the Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical cultural, social, religious, moral, and political agenda (and sentiments) that are predominant in your new region of the American South.

Moreover, you may find that the gatekeepers and protectors of the local sociocultural system are wealthy and powerful attorneys; medical doctors; politicians; businessmen; socialites, and Boss Hogg-types (see Dukes of Hazard) who are informally charged with “keeping all the local people in line.” This local, informal social influence is a subcultural holdover from the somewhat more formal authority of the local White Citizen Councils of the Jim Crow Era (1882-1967). In that era (only 52 years ago), similar members of local Southern communities were in charge of squashing or lynching uppity negroes, managing the behavior of white trash, and keeping Yankee civil rights meddlers out of local affairs. It is not nearly as bad now as it was when we were children in the 1950s and 1960s. Today many southern white people are no longer particularly interested in local white trash, Yankee civil rights meddlers, and African-American people (except for those white Republicans who are hellbent on suppressing their ability to vote in elections).

What is white trash? It is an old, antebellum (before 1861) term the wealthy, white, Harvard/Yale-educated aristocracy of the American South used to describe poor white people who engaged in nefarious behaviors. Sadly, after the American Civil War, it evolved into a term upper class and middle class southern whites used to describe all southern white people who just happened to be poor—even poor white Christians. If you were white and poor, you were automatically labeled as white trash—and you were treated like trash. How does our blog owner know about the foregoing local gatekeepers, protectors, white trash, etc.? He grew up as Christian poor white trash in the American South, observed the discrimination against his poor white neighbors, experienced this discrimination himself, and learned more about it as he grew up. 

A Kind Invitation to All Nonfundie Americans

Despite all of that, our blog owner encourages all of you nonfundie folks who live up north and out west to move to the American South and settle here in vast numbers—the more millions—the better. He especially invites Mainline Protestant Christians, Jewish folks, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Greek Orthodox Christians, Russian Orthodox Christians, and members of other religions to move to the American South and settle all over its landscape, especially in its small towns and rural areas. Why?

There is a very good reason. Over the past 50 years, the Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical wasteland that is the American South has been gradually changing as a direct result of such people emigrating to the American South and influencing it with their religious beliefs, education, wealth, and public activism. The so-called New South is to a large degree the creation of just such people, but it has been primarily an urban phenomenon seated in our largest cities such as Atlanta and Nashville.

If millions and millions and millions more of you nonfundie people will just come on down here to the American South; buy a house with some land in a small town or rural area; and set up a small or large business, your collective presence alone will break the fundie stranglehold on the American South. It will eventually turn our fundie wastelands into gardens of true Christ-like love, compassion, and peace.

You and your family have the power to finish changing the American South by gradually wiping away forever the sinful filth of fundie:

• Religious militancy
• Love of ignorance
• Rejection of facts and truth
• Authoritarianism
• Church politicism
• Racism
• White supremacy
• Ethnic prejudice
• Sexism
• Misogyny
• Money-grubbing
• Materialism
• Bible idolatry
• Bold-faced lie-telling
• Firearms worship
• Love of violence
• Despising of “the least of these”
• Science denial
• Hatred of fellowman
• Rejection of reality in favor of delusions
• Self-centeredness and selfishishness
• Spiritual pride and arrogance

All of these evil things (and many more that are not listed) are rooted so very deeply in the Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical subculture and traditions of the American South.

Please dear folks……..please. Our blog owner is begging you. Come on down here in overwhelming numbers and help us finish changing the traditional American South into a hospitable place of love, grace, peace, and tranquility that truly does reflect the New Testament mind and heart of Jesus Christ.

Fundie Religion and Political Tyranny

After many years of studying Christian fundamentalism, conservative evangelicalism, and the Religious Right, our blog owner has concluded that a strong central thread of authoritarianism and tyranny runs through all three. He strongly believes that this dictatorial thread poses a grave threat to the traditional American liberty and freedom the people of the United States have cherished for the past 243 years.

Right now, at this very minute, a number of Christian fundamentalist and conservative evangelical extremists are working hard behind the scenes to turn the government of the United States into a dictatorial theocracy run by future fundie leaders. They are called Christian Reconstructionists, Dominionists, and Theonomists. These modern-day heretics have a great deal of subliminal and direct influence on a number of Christian fundamentalist; conservative evangelical; and Religious Right leaders—and on ordinary fundie Christians. For example, the so-called 7-Mountains Movement in American fundie Christianity is a watered down form of Dominionism.

Dr. Rousas J. Rushdoony (now deceased) was the evil, racist, Jewish-holocaust-denying creator of Christian Reconstructionism. He was also the founder of the Christian homeschooling movement in the United States. Some of the educational tools (textbooks, workbooks, etc.) used by Christian homeschooling parents today (unbeknownst to the parents) are designed to subliminally indoctrinate their children into this heresy. The hope is that this subtle brainwashing will one day turn these innocent kids into adult Christian Reconstructionists, Dominionists, and Theonomists. If you would like to know more, just Google the following four search terms:

• Dr. Rousas J. Rushdoony
• Christian Reconstructionism
• Christian Dominionism
• Theonomy

Our blog owner was a postage stamp collector in his childhood. One of his favorite sets of United States stamps was the American Credo Series, which was issued by the Office of the U.S. Postmaster General in 1960 and 1961. Each stamp in the series was printed with a small portion of a famous quotation from an American founding father. One quotation in particular caught his attention and made a lasting impression on his young mind and heart. It reflects how he feels today about the dangers posed by Christian fundamentalism, conservative evangelicalism, the Religious Right, and all of the evil extremism contained within them. This is the full quotation from American founding father Thomas Jefferson:

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Christian fundamentalism, conservative evangelicalism, the Religious Right, and rabid Trumpism contain within them the virulent seeds of a future American tyranny. The evil within them must be actively—but peacefully—opposed at all costs if Americans are to remain a free people under the U.S. Constitution, its Bill of Rights, and a respect for Universal Human Rights on planet Earth.