Ridicule from mainstream culture strengthened fundamentalist embattlement and unity

Evidence

By asserting this militant masculinity in the postwar era, however, fundamentalists found themselves increasingly out of step with mainstream American Christianity, and with American culture more broadly. Authors like Sinclair Lewis and H. L. Mencken made a sport of ridiculing the retrograde muscular Christianity of fundamentalists as further evidence that they were hopeless relics of a time gone by. Such cultural disdain only served to enhance fundamentalists’ perception of themselves as an embattled, faithful remnant. Having failed in their bid to gain control of existing denominational structures, fundamentalists struck off on their own, creating a vibrant array of Bible schools, churches, mission organizations, publishing houses, and other religious associations. But they chafed at their marginal status, and by the 1940s they decided it was time to reengage on a national scale. Rather than blundering about in isolated “squads or platoons,” they resolved to unite as “a mighty army.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 49

Categorization

• XREF: The embattled-remnant dynamic echoes in current evangelical politics; connects to the reader’s own claim that marginalization reinforced cohesion.
• SEED: Essay angle: the circular logic where mainstream ridicule validates the embattled identity that then produces more militancy — how contempt from the center feeds the fringe.