George Marsden, describing the conflicting impulses within modern fundamentalism (i.e., the religious New Right), which is partly a result of it being one of the heirs to that collection of diverse traditions known as American evangelicalism:

Fundamentalism…is fraught with paradoxes. It is torn between uncivil controversialism and the accepting attitudes necessary for being influential and evangelizing effectively. Often it is otherworldly and privatistic; yet it retains intense patriotism and interest in the moral-political welfare of the nation. It is individualistic, yet produces strong communities. It is in some ways anti-intellectual, but stresses right thinking and true education. It accentuates the revivalists' appeal to the subjective, yet often it is rationalistic-inductivist in its epistemology. It is Christianity derived from an ancient book, yet shaped also by the technological age. It is anti modernist, but in some respects strikingly modern. Perhaps most ironically, it offers simple answers phrased as clear polarities; yet it is such a complex combination of traditions and beliefs that it is filled with more ambiguity and paradox than most of its proponents or its opponents realize.