What, you've never heard of fundagelical? Or fundagelism? It's the latest word, oh my droogies: all the cool bloggers are using it. You can't click a link without seeing all the hipsters attacking or defending the concept: why, it's bigger than trackbacking!
(pause)
At least, that'd be the impression that you'd get from this Guardian article. I suppose that I shouldn't mock so - that's why a generous God gave us Tim Blair, after all - but, Jeebus, was this one an embarrassment for the secularists. I say 'secularists' because - imagine my surprise! - apparently to this guy I think that I'd be a fundagelist. It's hard to say; to quote Harlan Ellison, John Sutherland can't write for sour owl poop. I went through that article never quite sure if any given sneer was intended or accidential. Say what you like about the 'interestingly paranoid' political debaters of the blogosphere, but at least they're capable of bringing off a successful insult. This was just mostly sad.
Still, if fundagelical is going to be the next big word of the blogosphere I want to get in on the ground floor. Fundagelical! Fundagelism! Fundagelical! Fundagelism! Fundagelical! Fundagelism!
There. That should help with the Google ratings.
UPDATE: HAH! Beat Instapundit to this one by a good 18 minutes. Not that it'll make any difference to either his or my hitcount.
I feel dumber for having read that article.
Posted by: asdf | May 03, 2004 at 09:26 PM
moe, check out this totally fundagelical website hosted by none other than Kirk Cameron!
Unfortunately, the quiz told me that I will soon be facing the eternal fires of hell. Which may be why I seem a little grumpy right now.
Posted by: asdf | May 03, 2004 at 09:54 PM
Fundagelism, huh?
I'm kind of surprised the writer used "Islamic extremists" when "Islemists" is so much more accessible. And why is Kerry Catholic when he could be Romolic? Or Boston Irish when he could be Borish?
Hell, go to the extreme. Instead of a "decorated Vietnam war hero", let's all start calling John Kerry a "decetnaro".
Really.
Posted by: EDG | May 03, 2004 at 09:58 PM
Funny, I've always considered myself a fudge-amendalist. Nothing triggers a jihad like someone taking my Double Dutch chocolate.
Posted by: carpeicthus | May 03, 2004 at 10:09 PM
"Unfortunately, the quiz told me that I will soon be facing the eternal fires of hell."
I sympathize. Then again, I'm a Catholic, so I didn't even bother looking for the quiz. We get our Infernal passports prestamped, as it were.
Posted by: Moe Lane | May 03, 2004 at 10:14 PM
Kerry isn't Borish, he's Boustrian. Which is not nearly as cool as our Crawfmethodist (formerly Kennebunkscopalian)President.
Fundagelical sounds like a made up adjective used to describe one of the cats in "CATS". Or perhaps a part of a really poorly thought out new Jello product--sort of like Gogurt, or Danimals.
On the other hand, don't get me started on Kirk Cameron's infomercials, either. I remember how he explained that the fact that human beings all have parents, leads inexorably and logically to the conclusion that Genesis is literally true. I forget what the intervening steps were.
Fun fact: if Joe Funamentalist married Linda Evangelical in New York State, they could change their married name to Fundagelical when they applied for their marriage license. Or Evangelicalfundamentalist, or any other combination so long as they didn't scramble the letters, but not Luxuryyacht.
Posted by: Katherine | May 03, 2004 at 10:18 PM
Hmmm... didn't Andrew Lloyd Webber write a song about this?
When you hear about gays, do you break out in a rash?
Are you tense when you sense Janet Jackson's left breast?
Are you waiting for Rapture to take out the "trash"?
Are the Left Behind books the ones that you love the best?
'Cause fundagelicals are, and fundagelicals do,
(funda)gelicals do and (funda)gelicals can,...
Sorry about that.
Posted by: kenB | May 03, 2004 at 10:36 PM
Tim seems to be wrong about the lack of "Kerry Kohn" though - his googling skills are either low or he was being a bit partisan. Anyway, it's pretty weird to come across the (thankfully few) people concerned about the possibility of our first Jewish president.
Posted by: rilkefan | May 03, 2004 at 10:37 PM
Oh, hell. I spent 20 minutes coming up with those lyrics (sad, isn't it?) only to find that Katherine came up with the same idea and made my effort look derivative.
See if I ever post song parodies around here again.
Posted by: kenB | May 03, 2004 at 10:38 PM
Yup. Hell. One way. Help me, Kirk!
Anyway, I do get one point from reading the Guardian article. Whatever the reasons, this is the way we (and our chief executive) are increasingly perceived. It doesn't help our credibility one bit in the middle east and elsewhere. Ugh.
Posted by: nagoya ryan | May 03, 2004 at 11:16 PM
"The word "fundagelism" has never appeared in the columns of this newspaper. The term is, however, current in the blogosphere - that cyberforum which nowadays carries the most interestingly paranoid political debate."
Meanwhile, Google says this:
"Results 1 - 7 of about 26 English pages for fundagelism"
Paging Jayson Blair. This guy has had too much to drink, is an example of why it's called the Grauniad, and should be fired tomorrow.
It's one thing to make shit up, it's another to be paid for it in an internationally read newspaper.
Posted by: Gary Farber | May 04, 2004 at 05:52 AM
I have to admit, I saw the Guardian article yesterday and thought about posting on it, but couldn't remember having seen the term used once. That said, in England new words are made up daily, so having seen a word a week earlier does give one the impression that it's been around a while and in the general vocabulary somewhat.
Having been raised a "Fundagelical" (does sound rather pudding pop-ish Katherine...and I loved the CATS parody, KenB) I've seen the church's influence grow and having lived in London, I understand how it appears really out there to the Brits. But Fundagelicals put their pants on one leg at a time and love their children and believe in America and really love to laugh, so all the fretting is a bit over the top. It's a difference of opinion on certain social issues that separates them from me, nothing else. And let's face it, if they really believed all that stuff about hell, not so many of them would run away with someone else's wife or, for that matter, get divorced (a shameful statistic among the Funda's)...oh, forget it, I could criticize for days...let them vote for God's sake (no pun intended).
Posted by: Edward | May 04, 2004 at 09:33 AM