Folks, there are so many misconceptions about us fundamentalists out there. And you folk who are criticizing us for separation need to understand something.
It was in 1957 when the big break came between fundamentalism and the rest of evangelicalism. (I know I will now be excoriated for bringing this up.) Why? It was all based on the fact that in his New York Crusade that year, Billy Graham deliberately rejected sponsorship by fundamentalists (led by Jack Wyrtzen), and accepted sponsorship by a group which had noted liberals in it. (And I don't mean people who didn't think women should wear slacks.)
Because of the fact that fundamentalists stood up against cooperation with liberals, we were viciously attacked by the rest of evangelicalism. Billy Graham resigned from the board of my grandfather's paper (he was not fired as some have said) because he could no longer agree with the masthead, "opposes modernism." If you want to know how we were attacked, here is one of my very first threads on the Baptist Board, where I was attacked simply for giving the facts of history:
http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=4309
(Oh, and by the way, let's
not go back and resurrect that thread. Okay?)
Note the facts I gave in that thread (post #81) about one liberal Billy Graham preferred to fundamentalists:
John Sutherland Bonnell, a Presbyterian, was on the executive committee of the 1957 New York Crusade. He had resigned from Graham's first NY Crusade (1951) since he could not sign the statement of faith of the campaign. Bonnell wrote an article for the Look Magazine of March 23, 1954, in which he showed that he did not believe in the doctrines of the Trinity, virgin birth of Christ, bodily resurrection, literal Heaven or Hell, or verbal inspiration of the Bible.
From that split in 1957 has come the animosity that exists toward us "narrow minded" fundamentalists. It has been passed down to some of you here on the BB, who would rather attack us for believing in standing up for the truth of God's Word, rather than understand why we do it. (And I don't deny animosity on the side of fundamentalists.)