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Was going to ask if some people mean "legalism" when they say fundamentalism. It really kills.
Then I read ahead in a book I am reading---just the appendix.
It refers to outward-ism and making idols.
Too good to miss.
BTW, Powlison is a clinical psychologist and then a biblical counselor. The training and background is there.
APPENDIX:
RELIGIOUS ADDICTION
Religious addiction is one of the most pernicious addictions of all. David Powlison makes the surprising claim that religion and addiction have much in common, and to make the point he offers this definition: To addict to bind, devote, or attach yourself as a servant, disciple or adherent of something.1 Both religion and addiction have to do with what you "wrap your life around" and to whom or what you surrender as your master. Religion in the good sense implies genuine devotion to God and love of neighbor (see James 1:26 27). But the practice of religion can be so distorted and counterfeited that it becomes religious addiction, which Powlison calls "religiosity."2
Religiosity is about the show, the "impression management," and the trappings of religion, but not its faith and certainly not its God. Like any other addiction, religiosity serves as an escape from reality. Are you devas¬tated by the loss of a loved one? "God is sovereign," blurts the stoic religious addict, like a knee reflex, and by this he means, "Don't feel it; don't think about it; just detach yourself from it. Since God is sovereign, why should you bother?"
The religious addict escapes the reality of his own sin too. If he doesn't deny his sin altogether, he finds some way to justify himself, often by noticing how he's not as bad as the next guy. He's not like those heathen. He also justifies himself by the doing of and associating with religious stuff serv¬ing, reading, teaching, praying, and church going, along with adopting the lingo, aesthetic tastes, and moral lifestyle typical of other religious people. These are his "sacrifices” to gain his gods favor and retain his righteous standing. But he is as deceived and rebellious as the Israelites imitating orthodoxy through idolatry.3 He is as much trapped in a fantasy world as Philip (name changed) was with pornography. (Refers to a chapter in the rest of the book.)
According to Powlison, religious addictions are harder to break than addictions to cocaine or heroin because they are the hardest to see, and this blindness seen is to be strongly reinforced by the authorities of church culture, certain Bible passages, personal experience, and even God himself.
In his Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards lists many traits that are "no certain sign" of true faith, including:
• intense affections
• fluency, fervency, or abundance of religious speech
• spontaneous spiritual experiences
• a tendency for the words of Scripture to come to mind at just the right time
• showing love
• conviction and confession followed by comfort and joy
• great confidence as to the genuineness of the affections experienced. 4
Edwards goes on and on, tearing away just about every sign you ever thought would be sure fire evidence of genuine faith. His point isn't that any of these signs are bad. In fact, he's saying that when true faith is pres¬ent, these signs will be also. The problem is that they can be counterfeited, and they often are. And because all idolatry is essentially deceptive, those who counterfeit them often don't realize it; they themselves, the religious addicts, are deceived. By Mike Wilkerson, Mars Hill Church, Seattle
REDEMPTION Freed By Jesus From The Idols We Worship And The Wounds We Carry. Mike Wilkerson, Crossway, Wheaton, Illinois 2011, page 175
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