Now that significant numbers of Hindu people live in the US, is it on the fundie radar? Do they object to their children visiting a friend’s house that has a shrine to Ganesh for example?
I don’t believe they care about other religions worshiping idols. They are worried about Christian idolatry. Or at least Jack Chick is.
I was raised in a conservative Christian - but not fundamentalist - setting. Two things to know about the typical views on idolatry:
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It’s not simply worshipping statues. Holding a greater place in your heart for anything other than God (like money, other people, political parties, etc) is idolatry. Our Sunday School teacher used to say that if we would rather sleep late on Sunday than go to church, we were making sleep our idol. If we withheld our tithe, we were idolizing money. Etc.
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That said, what non-Christians did in terms of idolatry was off their radar. Heck, if they weren’t Christian, then it goes without saying that they idolized something else. It wasn’t given much thought. It wouldn’t have been much different to us than seeing a shrine for the Blessed Virgin in a Catholic home.*
To address your example, the reaction would certainly vary by family. In the environment of my youth, my parents would have used it as a teaching experience (“Here’s what Hindus believe… here’s why we don’t believe that and what the Bible says about idolatry.”)
*note my attitude toward Catholic veneration is significantly different now than what I was taught as a child.
As one would expect of any arbitrary group — whether Christian fundies, Muslim fundies, or atheist fundies — there are a variety of opinions and viewpoints. That said, no Christian denomination would advocate idolatry.
What **Skammer ** said. It varies by family and by individual. My immediate family in the US is evangelical fundamentalist because other folks of the same ethnicity attend the same church. A little bit like the joke where the little kid says, “My parents were <denomination>. Then we moved.”
The Christmas service I attended last year at my parents’ church included a 4 hour churching on idolatry and coming to Christ. Apparently Santa, wanting lots of presents, and football are all idolatrous. (these folks are definitely not from God’s own football country ;D )
Before that, it was a SBC Southern Baptist congregation that had a lot of fundamentalist beliefs, but didn’t spend a lot of time banging on about idolatry.
Your churching mileage will vary. Personally, I’m agnostic.
Since other religions were mentioned, although I did have a brief Buddhist phase as a teenager, I didn’t get any stick from my parents about that. Possibly because my grandfather was Buddhist himself before conversion to Catholicism.
Many of the fundies I’ve heard about and talked to were more concerned regarding Christian idolatry. One fellow I talked to (never caught his denomination, sadly) pretty much refused to attend a church with any of the following things:
Stained glass with anyone in the Bible (including Jesus), or any saint or “great leader.”
Statues of the above mentioned.
Would only reluctantly tolerate a cross or crucifix, but would prefer them not being there.
It was really tempting to point out churches and bibles, by the wording he was using, were pretty much idols as well but I felt it best not to taunt him, lest he call down the same Divine Bear Attack™ Elijah did.
Any Buddhist, Hindu, Shintoist etc they didn’t care about, presumably because they were damned to Hell anyway, or for the more generous ones, they haven’t seen the light yet and therefore don’t know it’s wrong because of their misguidance.
It is worth noting that there are many Christians who regard other religions not as harmless musings of misguided people, but active instruments of Satan to lead people astray. There are those who won’t eat Halaal food as they believe it to have been dedicated to Allah, won’t tolerate Buddah or other religious statues as they believe their prescence acts as some kind of “portal” to evil, will “purify” a hall they’re using if they find out that yoga classes have been/are held there, and so on. And not all of the raving loony “fundamentalist” wing either, solid evangelical Christians that I know…
Probably only the lunatic fringe would make a fuss if they found the house they were visiting had a statue of Ganesh, but I’m sure that many would find excuses not to visit if it became a fixture.
Grim
Heck, there are Catholics who view the presence of statues in churches as idolatry (promise, I’ve met them, one of those used to be my parish priest)… those folks get foaming at the mouth every time TV shows Corcovado Mountain 
“Fundamental Christianity” covers a lot of variations. Some aren’t bothered much by others’ statuary. As you’ve seen already there are many places to draw the line on idolatry.
Some fundies believe Catholics aren’t Christian, because “they pray to statues.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to pledge allegiance to the US flag, which they call a graven image.
Roy Moore was a State Supreme Court Justice in a southern state. He created a storm of controversy by having a huge graven monument to the Ten Commandments installed inside the court lobby. Right there on the monument was the rule against graven images. It’s a fine illustration of the confusion about idolatry.
This is a hijack, but the other side of the irony in that case is that the first thing you see when you walk into that courhouse is a list of laws most of which are not enforced by that very court.