How interesting that you find the label fundamentalism insulting. "Fundie" is short for fundamentalism. You know exactly what I mean by those kinds of churches.... a pastor with his own vision, strict adherence to his interpretation of "the Word" -- which generally means the women are to be silent in service, consult their husbands if they have questions and be submissive to them, dress in long skirts (NO PANTS EVER), wear their hair long, no makeup, no job outside the home, their children are usually home-schooled, they attend services 2-3x/week, evangelize everyone they meet, and are extremely intolerant of other faiths, even other Xtian sects. How do I know this about them? 1) I attended one of their churches for a couple of years, 2) I lived among them for 11 more years, 3) we were frequently approached -- and then consigned to hell -- for not accepting their belief system.
I know quite a lot actually, probably more than the average American. My parents were staunch Lutherans (LCA because Missouri Synod and ALC were unacceptable), who founded an LCA church when we moved from Ohio to Missouri in 1961 and there was no LCA church in the area. We spent several hours every Sunday at the church, plus confirmation classes on Saturday when we hit our early teens. I've read the Bible in its entirety several times, and can still quote verbatim many passages, plus all the creeds (Apostles, Nicene) and other liturgical phrases and chants. According to Wikipedia, the Lutherans alone have 40+ different flavors. Our pastor was an open-minded sort of guy who was friends with ministers of various faiths around the area. We were able to visit a synagogue one time and talk with and ask questions of the Rabbi. We attended services at other Protestant churches as well as a Catholic mass. Disappointingly we were not able to visit the local mosque because the Iman had scheduling problems. I thought that this exposure to other faiths showed considerable faith on the part of our pastor, that we would see the value in being a Lutheran as opposed to those others. This is quite a refreshing difference from what the typical fundie Xtian child is exposed to growing up, eh?