Let me revise what I just posted above. Strictly speaking the Millennialists—those who are actively trying to accelerate the coming of the "Rapture"—are not, technically speaking, fundamentalists. What defines a fundamentalist is the taking of what is in the Bible as the literal truth—as history, not as metaphor or allegory, as most of the world's religions regard their mythology.

[Note:    When I say "mythology," I don't mean "false." What is meant by "mythology" is "a story which is not literally, factually true, but contains a truth which is difficult to express in other ways." In short, parables on a somewhat grander scale. As you know, Jesus used parables a lot as a teaching technique. There was no real "good Samaritan" or "prodigal son," these were "for example, suppose there was a. . . ." stories that Jesus told to put his points across graphically.]   

Millennialists, rather than eschewing interpretation of the Bible as true fundamentalism demands, picked and chose the isolated verses that they wanted, and constructed their own mythology. That, whether they like it or not, is interpreting the Bible to make it fit what they want it to fit. They are not true fundamentalist Christians, no matter what they try to claim.

The spectacular success of the Left Behind series of books (fiction—fantasy) gives a pretty good, not to mention scary, idea of how many Americans believe this stuff.

And many of these folks are now running the government.

Don Firth