(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for Pop Religion, originally shared on September 28, 2020. It was the fifty-first video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
How do you tell the real thing from a
counterfeit? Today we’re going share some tips on telling Christianity from one
of its most popular challengers, one that has found its way even into the
Church.
A father was watching his very young son
playing with his whiffle ball and bat in the back yard one Saturday morning The
boy threw the ball into the air and took a mighty swing. Missed. He picked up
the ball and threw it up in the air, took swing and, missed. He picked up the
ball a third time, threw it into the air, took a swing and, missed. He threw
the bat down to the ground and threw his hands in the air and yelled, “I am the
greatest pitcher, in the world!”
We all pass the tests we devise for
ourselves.
We see some who are being careful, following
the recommendations of experts in the relevant fields, while those who refuse
to take these precautions seem to listen only to their own voices and those who
agree with them.
We see widespread indifference toward doing
the simple things that will lower the upward curve of cases, hospitalizations
and deaths from COVID-19.
Is there some meaning in the meanness? Is
there a path forward from our polarization. Is there integrity in our
institutions? Where do we turn for meaning, integrity and a path forward?
These days, the Church is not necessarily
the first place spiritually dry and searching people look for these things.
We will look anywhere and, as our society
seems to be becoming more and more secular, or less religious, in character,
where is sacredness to be found?
G.K. Chesterton once said, “When (people)
choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they
then become capable of believing in anything.”
And we do. We adapt to what is popular.
Sometimes, we don’t even notice that we have
adapted.
For example, one of the most, if not the
most, popular forms or religion in the United States is a belief system that very few of its
followers could identify. It seems close to Christianity, but it is not
Christianity.
It was actually identified in a study of the
beliefs of teenagers in a 2005 book called Soul Searching: The Religions and
Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, reported in its Wikipedia article.
(I know, but it’s a good summary article, and it seems to be written from
primary sources.)
The authors of the study found a list of
moral and spiritual beliefs that were not identified as a new religion and were
not identified as held by any one world religion.
They called these beliefs Moralistic,
Therapeutic Deism. Or, MTD, as in Month to Date. MTD. Moralistic, because the emphasis is on being
a good person, Therapeutic because it emphasizes things, particularly feelings,
that help me be me, and Deism because it projects the belief that God exists but
is not particularly involved in our lives, especially when we don’t want God to
be involved.
The authors identify five principle beliefs:
1.
A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over
human life on earth.
2.
God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as
taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about
oneself.
4.
God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life
except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5.
Good people go to heaven when they die.
Do they sound familiar?
The authors claim that
this belief system is now not limited to teenagers but has become one of, if
not the most popular belief system in the country. They say, (quote) “a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously
connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather
substantially morphed into (sic. Christianity's misbegotten stepcousin,)
Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”
Are they right? Are we more interested in what the original
study calls being “about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherent”
instead of things like repentance from sin, living as servants of God, prayer
at all times, the authority of Scripture, the blessings of the sacraments, the
centrality and life model of the cross, or salvation by faith through God’s
grace?
G.K. Chesterton said, “Christianity has not been
tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult
and not tried.”
Christianity is only difficult, because
people who still prefer living in their sin, that is, in separation from God,
think it is difficult and therefore don’t want God involved in their lives. They
are looking at Christianity from the outside.
Jesus said, conversely, “Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30
That’s the inside view.
What
do you think? Why aren’t more people active in the life of a local Christian
church? Put your thoughts in the comment section below.
Would a church that that intentionally
teaches Moralistic, Therapeutic, Deism values therefore attract young people.
The authors say no.
What is attractive and needed is a genuine
expression of historic Christianity, a transcendent experience of worship, an
alternative worldview, a true sense of Christian identity, a living
relationship with the one true living God, mentors who model the way, and
servanthood that is rooted in Jesus Christ.
*John 1:10-13
Is that what people will find when this
pandemic is over and we return to a “normal” church life?
Will we have something substantial to give to
those who are returning to the Church or to those who are on the edge and are
looking for community?
Or, will we be a counterfeit, a useful
social service agency that uses Christian language, a homogeneous group of
people who like to socialize with one another around good works that makes them
feel not embarrassing to their non-Christian friends and family, or an
entertainment complex designed to make people feel good about themselves,
something that only looks like the real thing? Will we only really want to be
popular?
MacDonalds sells a lot of hamburgers, but a steady diet is not good for
you. Is that what we want to offer, Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism? Spiritual
junk food? Are we being fed in order to feed others, or are have we grown
spiritually obese through a combination of empty calories and an inactive
Christian life?
The Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, wrote an excellent
article for Living Lutheran magazine last February in which she wrote:
“In this
philosophy, there is no awe in the presence of the Transcendent, no turning
outward from self, no horror of the reality and the effects of sin—and not in
the narrow sense of individual moral failings—no wonder at the intimate love of
God shown in the incarnation and the crucifixion, no deep gratitude for the
liberation of the resurrection.”
Like the little boy and the whiffle ball, we
all pass the tests we devise for ourselves. The Gospel, however, does not put us
at the center of our lives.
*2 Timothy
4:3-4
What basis do we have for telling the
difference between the fake and the real, the counterfeit and the genuine? That
is the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen to it, the Streams of Living Water that
makes the Church and defines it in the living presence of Jesus Christ.
Be anchored in the Bible, prayer, acts of
service to others, and regular worship in a Christian community.
In other words, look to the incarnation, God
become human flesh in Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, to suffer and die
on the cross in order to pay the penalty for your sins and return to all who
receive it the living relationship with the living God for which we were created.
*Ephesians
2:19-22
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