More on Fundamentalism

From Andrew Sullivan, an insightful comment from a reader:

The main feature of fundamentalism, I'd suggest, is exclusion - both in the realm of doctrinal logic and in human relations. The main feature of Jesus’ message is inclusion, both in doctrine and in human relations. Love, in other words. I don’t think reduction of a message to a few essential precepts is, in itself, fundamentalism. Obviously Jesus himself reduced the entire message of the Judaic tradition to a few precepts, such as “God is love”. The question is whether these precepts are treated as exclusive and hostile to the rest of the tradition, and intolerant of other traditions,, or inclusive and openly disposed towards the rest of the tradition, and tolerantly disposed towards other traditions.

It's an exaggeration of the human (anthropoid, actually, or even simian) tendency to categorize the world as "us" and "other." It's something that's common to the Abrahamic faiths -- note the historical insularity of the Jews -- and among fundamentalists it becomes a syndrome.

That is, I'm sure, one reason they find it so easy to demonize their "enemies" -- gays, immigrants, feminists, anyone who challenges "God's plan": the other is, by definition, not quite human. (Another reason to call BS on the "love the sinner" cant.)