Mainstream Christians tend to follow the teachings of Christ in a much more "take the bits I like" approach. They use birth control, have sex before marriage, eat meat on Fridays and in general have a much more lackadaisical approach to their faith than most other religions. Fundamental Christians, to my mind, try to follow the spirit and letter of the law.
Wow. That's not how I interpret the two at all...at least, not for me. I don't think I have a "lackadaisacal" approach to my faith! I
do try to follow the spirit and letter of Christ's teachings, as I said in my earlier post. As far as I know, He said
nothing about birth control, eating meat on Fridays or even sex before marriage.
Not eating meat on Fridays is a peculiarly Catholic habit (it's to commemorate Good Friday...a kind of mini-Lent) as well as not using birth control. So maybe you
are thinking of the differences between Catholics and Protestants after all.
In my mind, a Fundamentalist (in any faith!) is someone who basically believes that anyone who doesn't subscribe to his/her particular set of beliefs is going to Hell and should be either converted or persecuted or both. Fundamentalists also tend to take their Scripture literally, without any thought to interpretation or context.
Although Cathlics and Protestants are obstensibly the same faith, there are
many differences in how the faith is practiced.
Roman Catholicism split into two after the Reformation and Martin Luther's 95 Thesis in the 1500's. Thus Protestantism (as in "to protest") was born, with the Lutheran Church. Since then, there have been further spilts into at least 12 main denominations and innumerable off-shoots of those.
Not being an expert theologian, the best I can say is that Catholicism seems to be based on guilt and fear of what might happen to you if you sin. Protestantism is less about sin and more about redemption. Hence, the differences in the cross, the most common symbol: Catholics have a Crucifix with a dying Jesus on it to remind you of His suffering for your sin; Protestants have an empty cross to remind you of His power of redemption.
If this turns into an over-all religious discussion, I'll be back.
If not, maybe I'll start one. That old saying about never discussing religion or politics is for wusses.