I would like to encourage all fundamentalists and former fundamentalists to feel a good breeze from the fevered landscape of controversy. It’s from an article by Kevin Bauder, the president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, across town from us here in Minneapolis.

If you are a younger fundamentalist and hope to stay one and be a good one, read this.

If you think you are not a fundamentalist and wonder what the best ones are like, read this.

If you read John Piper and think you have to stop being a fundamentalist, read this.

If you are wondering if you can be a Calvinist without an attitude and a fundamentalist, read this.

Here’s a waft of the breeze:

I am grateful to have been reared in a version of fundamentalism that was led by men who refused to become “giants.” You have probably never heard their names, because they were not trying to create or control empires. They were willing to stand up to bullies, however, and in some cases they were savaged by the very “giants” whom Pastor Sweatt identifies.

They were men of faith and strength, but also men of kindness and gentleness. They were genuinely and biblically meek. They fought the battles of their day, but they did it for the most part without losing the sweetness of their spirits or the freshness of their walk with Christ. They were honest and fair and charitable, but they had backbone when they needed it.

They revered the Word of God, and when they preached, they delighted to expound the Scriptures. As a young man I wanted to be like those leaders, and I still do. I chose their fundamentalism because it was a fundamentalism worth saving.

(via Andy Naselli)