Have fundamentalist Christians appropriated the meaning of the word "Christian" for themselves?

I have seen the phenomenon you're describing, but I don't think it's using the term "Christian" in a different way so much as having an incorrect notion of who is and is not a Christian.

In any religion you are going to find a small subset of people who believe they and they alone possess the truth and anyone slightly outside their group is completely wrong. Some fundamentalist Christians fall into this trap and believe that anyone disagreeing with any part of their beliefs is not a Christian.

I consider myself a fundamentalist Christian. When I was young I believed silly things like Catholics weren't real Christians. As I grew in my relationship with God I realized that was dead wrong.

As a Catholic, you can't help but notice it and find it distressing. There is much to admire about evangelical Christians - Martin Luther King was one, for example. And much of the great gospel music was born in baptist churches.

But I find it distressing that our older churches (Anglicans, Catholic, Orthodox, Lutherans) bequeathed Christianity to these newer churches. We deeded them the Bible, and concepts such as the trinity, commemoration of the Last Supper, even the very idea that a church could be a building and a community gathering place.

I don't think we, as their elder brothers and sisters, ever expected to hear them tell us that we're not even in the family! it is particularly galling when we were called Christian thousands of years before any of them were even born!

ok, i'm not EXACTLY sure what your question is... but, i call myself a christian because i have asked Christ to enter my heart. or, in non-"curch lingo" i allowed Christ to take my place and die for me. i have asked him to save me from hell and to prepare a place for me in heaven.

the reason i don't call Catholics and some other denominations "christians" is because a lot of them believe that if you were baptized as an infant you are already saved from hell, and that Christ lives in their hearts because their parents do. i don't say that ALL catholics arn't christians (or other denominations for that matter) i know some Christian Catholics. they go to a catholic church and were baptized as infants, but they had to make the choice to make the RELATIONSHIP with Christ their own. that's what makes us "Christian" it's not just, i follow christ's words and do good works. you can do all the good works you want and you won't go to heaven. but if you ACCEPT the sacrofice that Christ made for you. if you openly proclame that you are lost without him and you know that through him is the only way you can get to heaven, that's how you become "christian" in the terms that I use. i wish we didn't have the Clessay term "christian" because someone can have a "christian attitude" or be raised in a "christian home" and never be a christian themselves.

Christianity is a Relationship, not a Religion. it's a Personal Relationship with the only Person who can save us from our sins. his hands hold out this gift to us. the only thing we have to do is accept that gift. and the only person who knows your heart is Jesus.

sorry for preaching. i get excited when i talk theology.

No, that was Emperor Constantine who co-opted the term "Christianity" when he decreed that everyone in the Roman Empire must desecrate the Sabbath... & he added some Christian aspects into his paganism. He & the Popes called it "Christianity," and people have believed their heresies ever since. It is the most successful cult (by worldly standards).

No, they have not, and due to the traditional meaning of the word no group will be able to hijack the term or it's meaning.

AS A APOSTOLIC PENTACOSTAL BELIEVER. WE BELIEVE ALL THE WORD CHRISTIAN MEANS (WHICH IS WHAT WE CALL OURSELVES ALSO) TO BE CHRIST LIKE. WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS. AND BE AS MUCH LIKE HIM AS WE CAN.