Am I a radical fundamentalist?

Yesterday I was having coffee with one of my friends who is an atheist playwright. He says that he is always willing to discuss the big issues about God and life, but all he generally hears from the church is the side issues: homosexuality, ordination of women and the list goes on and on... He stated that he can't get to the basic truths of the faith without working his way through centuries of overlaid tradition.

I cannot say that I have sorted out all of the side issues in my mind, but then again I thankfully have not been in the situations where I have needed to. Yet one things stands out far and above over all others. If fundamental is seen as being that which is at the very basis of something and radical is taking something to its logical extreme, I probably have to plead guilty. For me, the basis of Christianity comes back to something quite simple. If you were able to travel back approximately 2000 years and witness the crucifixion of Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth and convicted blasphemer, what would you see? Do you see the death of a criminal whose claims were treasonous and could be interpreted as being delusional? Or do you see the Son of God dying for humanity on the cross, and interpret the resurrection as the validation of those claims? If your answer is "yes" to the second question, how does this inform your view of God and of humanity, how does it affect the way in which you live your life?

I am aware that this could be seen by some as a diminishment of the role of scripture to merely carrying one little section. Scripture is important for me as it carries that we know about Christ that I may hold most certain and the reflections of a community over centuries about what it means to be in relationship with God. As such, scripture stands at the centre of my meditative, contemplative and proclamatory life. However, I am not willing to stake my faith in Christ on a line-by-line street battle against the tools of modernity. Perhaps I'm making my faith a small target, but this is the rock on which I may stand.