Christian Humanist Compares Fundamental Christianity to Radical Islamic Terrorism

Christian humanist Catherine M. Wallace compared fundamental Christianity to radical Islamic terrorism at a seminary co-op. 

“In the last 70 years, Christianity has been hijacked and weaponized by an alliance between religious fundamentalists and political reactionaries,” according to a summary of the event held at the University of Chicago.  

“This dangerous alliance can only be stopped if Christians speak up in defense of their authentic tradition and its history. In a series of nimble, tightly focused arguments, Catherine M. Wallace names the moral and intellectual failures of Christian fundamentalism. She sketches the cultural backstory of these mistakes. And then, issue by issue, she lays out relevant aspects of an alternative valued by Christian humanists and secular humanists alike: the moral imagination. These are engaging little books that anyone can read in a couple of evenings,” the summary concludes.  

Wallace, also a cultural historian and literary critic at Northwestern University, penned many books, including a series about confronting religion.  

In the seminar, Wallace addressed fundamentalism head on, comparing it to the devastating terrorist attacks devastating cities around the world.  

“If [anything Islamic] wanted to attack an American city, they had to hijack an airliner. If they want to blow up a concert, they need to put bombs on their own children and send young men in to kill themselves … that kind of radicalism [Christian fundamentalism] in control of nuclear codes was a much, much greater threat,” Wallace said.  

Yet radical Islamic terrorism through the Islamic State slayed more than 1,200 people so far in 2016, according to the New York Times. Radical group Boko Haram is considered even deadlier, with more than 6,000 deaths.