I read an article today called
The Christian Paradox. How a Faithful Nation Gets Jesus Wrong. This article can be found
here.
This article articulates in a relatively short format the nature of American Christianity today. I found it very interesting, as it verbalizes many of the sentiments I have towards (against?) the type of Christianity proclaimed by our southern neighbours.* While some of these sentiments are probably justified, I do acknowledge that some of them are sinful. I need to examine my soul, discern where the sin lies, repent, and accept God's refreshing grace.
Still, the article exposes what I believe to be some very serious problems that contemporary American Christianity poses to the church, and for that matter, the world. Here are some thought-provoking quotes from the article:
"Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that 'God helps those who help themselves.' That is, three out of four Americans believe that this über-American idea, a notion at the core of our current infividualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture."
"America is simultaneously the most professedly Chrsitian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behaviour."
"Despite the Sixth commandment, we are, of course, the most violent rich nation on earth, with a murder rate four or five times that of our European peers. We have prison populations greater by a factor of six or seven than other rich nations (which would give us plenty of opportunity for visiting the prisoners). Having been told to turn the other cheek, we're the only Western democracy left that executes its citizens, mostly in those states where Christianity is theoretically strongest. Despite Jesus' strong declarations against divorce, our marriages break up at a rate - just over half - that compares poorly with the European Union's average of about four in ten. . . Teenage pregnancy? We're at the top of the charts. Personal self-discipline - like, say, keeping your weight under control? Buying on credit? Running government deficits? Do you need to ask?"
In many American churches, ".. pastors focus relentlessly on you and your individual needs. Their goal is to service consumers - not communities but individuals . . . who aren't tightly bound to any particular denomination or school of thought. The result is often a kind of soft-focus, comfortable, suburban faith".
"A New York Times reporter visiting one booming megachurch outside Phoenix recently found the typical scene: a drive-through latte stand, Krispy Kreme doughnuts at every service, and sermons about 'how to discipline your children, how to reach your professoinal goals, how to invest your money, how to reduce your debt.' On Sundays children played with church-distributed Xboxes, and many congregants had signed up for a twice-weekly aerobics class called Firm Believers."
"Love your neighbour as yourself: although its rhetorical power has been dimmed by repetition, that is a radical notion, perhaps the most radical notion possible. Especially since Jesus, in all his teachings, made it very clear who the neighbour you were supposed to love was: the poor person, the sick person, the naked person, the hungry person. The last shall be made first; turn the other cheek; a rich person aiming for heaven is like a camel trying to walk through the eye of a needle. On and on and on - a call for nothing less than a radical, voluntary, and effective reordering of power relationships, based on the prinicple of love."
"A rich man came to Jesus one day and asked what he should do to get into heaven. Jesus did not say he should invest, spend, and let the benefits trickle down; he said sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and follow me. Few plainer words have been spoken. And yet, for some reason, the Christian Coalition of America - founded in 1989 in order to 'preserve, protect and defend the Judeo-Christian values that made this the greatest country in history' proclaimed last year that its top legislative priority would be 'making permanent President Bush's 2001 federal tax cuts.'
"It's hard to imagine a con much more audacious than making Christ the front man for a program of tax cuts for the rich or war in Iraq. If some modest part of the 85 percent of us who are Christians woke up to that fact, then the world might change.'
He concludes, "..money changers and power brokers will remain ascendant in our 'spiritual' life. Since the days of Constantine, emperors and rich men have sought to co-opt the teachings of Jesus. As in so many areas of our increasingly market-tested lives, the co-opters - the TV men, the politicians, the Christian 'interest groups' - have found a way to make each of us complicit in that travesty, too. They have invited us to subvert the church of Jesus even as we celebrate it. With their help we have made golden calves of oureslves - become a nation of terrified, self-obsessed idols. It works, and it may well keep working for a long time to come. When Americans hunger for selfless love and are fed only love of self, they will remain hungry, and too often hungry people just come back for more of the same."
That concludes my 'highly selective, completely biased', choice of quotations. I looked for some potential quotes that communicated a sense of hope on the author's part, but there just were none. Sorry.
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* For the record, Canadian Christianity is (arguably) even worse off, but no one notices that because Canada is a small fish in the pond of Christianity. America, however, is a big fish, and big fish make big waves. In other words, the influence America has on the world's perception of Christianity is much much larger than the influence the great white north has.
