Posted under Christianity & Political Correctness
One of the first things I saw pop up on Facebook that the press was saying about ABB is that he is a fundamentalist Christian. This struck me as highly unlikely when I first read it. Besides the obvious fact that a Christian wouldn’t randomly kill innocents, there are very few “fundamentalists” Christians in Norway. (This also indicates that the press doesn’t understand the terminology it uses.) Belief in Norway is low to begin with, and what belief there is is mostly found within the traditional denominations of Norway. While there are, I’m sure, orthodox (small o) Christians in Norway, they wouldn’t generally be described as “fundamentalist” unless someone is using that word to mean any orthodox (meaning something like creedal) Christian. But if they mean fundamentalist in the sense that word has come to mean (for better or for worse) in America, then I suspect most fundamentalist in Norway probably go to mission churches founded by fundamentalist mission organizations from America.
But it turns out ABB is not a Christian. At the most he is what you might call a cultural Christian. He is not a believing Christian himself, but he respects Europe’s Christian heritage. (This is a position you see commonly on the nationalist right, because there is a lot of unbelief on the nationalist right.)
Woden on 26 Jul 2011 at 11:10 am #
He called himself a Christian, but sought the Christianity of medieval warriors and kings — Charles Martel, Richard the Lionheart, etc. — crusaders taking up the sword to defend the cross.
That Christianity is of course is long dead, and what he found instead today was, in his words, “Priests in jeans marching for Palestine and churches looking like minimalist shopping centres.”
ABB was indeed at best a cultural Christian. He may have been inspired by some Christian history and symbolism, but it was not the primary motivation of his politics or massacre.
M on 26 Jul 2011 at 2:54 pm #
In his manifesto, ABB says he’s “not very religious.” As you say, he was a cultural Christian — wanting Europe to maintain its Christian heritage vis-a-vis Islam. For instance, some churches in Europe have been converted to mosques, which upsets even the non-religious.
Sean Scallon on 27 Jul 2011 at 2:04 am #
So what’s the deal, he wants the religion around but wishes not to partake in it? Or he wishes to partake in it only when he wishes to or it is useful to him. It’s just another consumer choice? Then one has to ask what is it all for really?
Gerry T. Neal on 27 Jul 2011 at 2:56 pm #
I suspect he conceives of Christianity not in positive terms as a particular set of beliefs, but in negative terms as “that which is not Islam”.