The Disease That Masks Itself as Christianity…

Posted by bgosden on May 25, 2012 in Discipleship, Faith, God, Kingdom of God, Life, The Church, United Methodist Church | 4 comments

“Could it be the case that learning a Christian perspective doesn’t actually touch my desire, and that while I might be able to think about the world from a Christian perspective, at the end of the day I love not the kingdom of God but rather the kingdom of the market?” — James K.A. Smith

(quoted in Almost Christian p. 5)

What Kind of Christianity Are We Modeling?

Kenda Creasy Dean notes:

“Teenagers tend to approach religious participation, like music and sports, as an extracurricular activity: a good, well-rounded thing to do, but unnecessary for an integrated life.” (p. 6)

I would argue that for a long time now we in the Church have treated Christianity as more of a belief system than a life of trusting and following. One can believe the right way with very little demand on how they live their life. Sure, we say our beliefs have a great deal to do with how we live, but do we really mean it? You hear clichés around the church about “putting your trust in God” or “living for Jesus.” But what does that mean? Where’s the sacrifice? Frankly, we’d probably be fine with sacrifice as long as it doesn’t impede on the American Dream. In the end, I fear that we’re much too comfortable with a version of the Christian faith that prefers right believing over right living. 

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD Syndrome)

Dean argues that American Christianity is more akin to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism than to the heart of the Christian faith modeled by our Christian ancestors. So let’s begin by breaking down the phrase in order to fully understand what we’re dealing with. Dean offers Guiding Beliefs of MTD:

1. A god exists who created and orders the world and watches over 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 is not involved in my life except when I need God to resolve a problem
5. Good people go to heaven when they die

“Exposing adolescents to faith, as it turns out, is no substitute for teaching it to them” (p. 16)

1) Most American teenagers have a positive view of religion but otherwise don’t give it much thought

Read: Teenagers need to know that faith matters both inside and outside the walls of the church. Adults should know that young people don’t argue over issues of faith. We live in more of a “live and let live” world when it comes to matters of faith. But we also, by and large, do not regard religion as a source of identity. Churches must find grace-filled ways to lead young people to see their faith as an identity marker shaped by practices that inform unique ways of living in the world.

2) Most U.S. teens mirror their parents’ religious faith

Read: Contrary to popular opinion, teenagers conform to the religious beliefs and practices of their parents to a very high degree. Some will experience a time of “breaking away” later on in adolescence (think early college) and even largely come back to being more inclined to model their parents’ faith as young adults. The key here is that parents matter most when it comes to shaping the faith of youth. And parents need the church to help them be the very best models for their kids. So yes, it really does take a village.

3) Teens lack a theological language with which to express their faith or interpret their experience of the world

Read: If you want to see church people really squirm, ask them to give their testimony. The fact is young people have a hard time articulating their faith with any depth because the rest of us have a hard time doing so. When Christianity is restricted to just a belief system, you lose the sense of language comprehension necessary for identity. Much of who I am requires a language to understand fully appreciate the depth of my identity. When Christian faith is left to surface-level beliefs we never learn the language necessary to see our faith with much depth. If teens are to learn how to talk about their faith in meaningful ways, then the rest of us need to learn to do so as well. This comes only through practice and allowing oneself to be vulnerable to think of their life in new ways.

4) A minority of American teens say religious faith is important, and that it makes a difference in their lives. These teens are doing better in life on a number of scales, compared to their less religious peers.

Read: The NYSR data showed that 8% of youth consider their faith as very important and big part of their lives. Dean notes that while religious youth don’t avoid the problem behaviors and relationships, they are more likely to do well in school, have positive relationships with their families, etc. But there are 2 important caveats to mention: 1) Participating in any identity-bearing community, religious or not, improves young people’s likeliness to thrive; and 2) Our ideas of “doing better” usually require conforming to social norms that sometimes contravene religious teachings. In teaching our kids to “do better” in life we have to remember the prophetic aspects of the Gospel that might lead us to take risks for the sake love, justice, and faithfulness. Our standard for doing well must always be held in tension with the standard of living a life that daily seeks to take up the cross of Christ.

5) Many teens enact and espouse a religious outlook that is distinct from traditional teachings of most world religions — an outlook called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

Read: The goal of this alternative, though seemingly noble, version of Christianity is to helps people be nice, feel good, and leave God in the background to be called upon as needed. This is not the faith of Jesus Christ — God in the flesh, crucified and risen, who calls us to live as the people of God for the sake of God’s creation. Learning the difference between these two versions of faith requires tools for translation (formative ways of teaching and living), testimony (learning how to interpret and use the language of faith in the presence of those outside of the faith), and detachment (becoming counter-cultural through practices that define the Christian faith as different from the rest of society yet always for the sake of all of Creation).