{"id":144,"date":"2014-04-12T06:25:46","date_gmt":"2014-04-12T06:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=144"},"modified":"2014-10-28T16:50:04","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T16:50:04","slug":"are-we-becoming-pc-no-it-doesnt-stand-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/are-we-becoming-pc-no-it-doesnt-stand-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Are We Becoming PC? (No\u2026it doesn\u2019t stand for \u201cpolitically correct\u201d)"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s problem isn\u2019t too much religion, or too little of it. It\u2019s bad<\/em> religion: the slow-motion collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of a variety of destructive pseudo-Christianities (PC) in its place. [1]<\/a> This is Douthat\u2019s argument throughout his book, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Herectics.<\/em><\/p>\n

Douthat believes that America has been invaded with \u201cheretical\u201d versions of Christianity and that this has weakened America\u2019s cultural heritage. According to Douthat, there are two popular explanations for America\u2019s current predicament \u2013 one offered by the Christian right<\/em>, and the other by the secular left<\/em>.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe right <\/em>holds that Americans have lost their way because they have fallen away from faith of their fathers\u2026their prescription from the 1970s to the present day, has been a religious counterrevolution, aimed at restoring faith to its rightful place at the center of American culture, politics, and law.\u00a0 The left<\/em> insists that the United States is in decline because it\u2019s excessively religious\u2026a once-great nation brought low by piety and zeal. Yet both sides have embraced a wildly simplified vision of our culture\u2026children of light contend with children of darkness\u2026every inch of ground is claimed by absolute truth or deplorable error. This is the real story of religion in America. For all its piety and fervor, today\u2019s United Sates needs to be recognized for what it really is: not a Christian country, but a nation of heretics.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

So who are the heretics and what are the heresies that Douthat mentions in his book? According to Douthat, orthodox belief is most threaten by the bad<\/em> religion fostered by the pseudo-Christianities found in our society. The danger that we face is not from the shortage of religious thought and feelings in America but from an excess of lite Christianity which adjusts itself to the ultimate self and every fad in society. \u00a0In the second part of his book Douthat devotes three chapters to three pseudo-Christianities that have taken over our cultural landscape. He identifies them as the \u201cprosperity gospel,\u201d the \u201cGod within\u201d and the \u201cGod bless the USA\u201d nationalism.<\/p>\n

These pseudo-Christianities offer a cafeteria or buffet style Jesus.\u00a0 Douthat states that a choose-your-own Jesus mentality encourages spiritual seekers to screen out discomforting part of the New Testament and focus only on whatever Christ they find most congenial.[4]<\/a> Our culture is dominated by these pseudo-Christianities that encourage a choose-your-own-Jesus.<\/p>\n

The choose-your-own-Jesus mentality offers quick fixes and band-aids. The prosperity gospel offers a plate of quick fixes. Douthat mentions that Joel Osteen\u2019s book, \u201cYour Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living your full potential<\/em>\u201d tells us that it\u2019s all about you\u2026if you have faith in yourself\u2026in your strength\u2026if you work harder\u2026if you think positive\u2026you will succeed.\u00a0 The \u201cGod-within\u201d selection offers a \u201cdo it yourself religion.\u201d \u201cYou have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace with God.\u201d[5]<\/a> \u00a0It provides an excuse for making religious faith more comfortable, more dilettantish, more self-absorbed\u2014for doing what you feel like doing anyway, and calling it obedience to a Higher Power or Supreme Self.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Basically, the God-within encourages you to do what pleases you and to do what feels good to you.<\/p>\n

To this Douthat writes that the prosperity gospel is a theology of striving and reaching and demanding. The gospel of the \u201cGod within\u201d is a theology of letting go. The prosperity gospel makes the divine sound like a broker; the theology of the \u201cGod within\u201d makes him sound like your shrink.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

This buffet style Christianity is also served \u201cover easy\u201d in politics with a \u201cside order\u201d of patriotism. Douthat stresses that the heresy of nationalism\u2019s co-option of Christian faith has left the faith too weak to play the kind of positive role it has often played in our public life. He argues that the Christian body has less moral authority today than it did generations ago, and patriotism in its various forms burns far brighter than most religious Americans\u2019 affections for their churches and denominations.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

On the 4th<\/sup> of July, Americans in the United States celebrate Independence Day. Our churches are decorated in red, white, and blue. Flags, small and large, decorate the sanctuaries and altars. Anthems of \u201cGod Bless America,\u201d and \u201cMy Country \u2018Tis of Thee\u201d are sung. One can say that there is a spirit of profound freedom and dedication. Yet this freedom does not free believers from the obligation to strive in political affairs as they strive in all things, to do what God would have them do.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Douthat the future of American religion depends on believers who can demonstrate, in word and deed alike that the possibilities of the Christian life are not exhausted by TV preachers, and self-help gurus, and demagogues.[10]<\/a> It is about living a holy life and living in the image of God. It is about turning to God first. It is about taking God\u2019s character for our pattern in life. Matthew 6:33 reminds us to \u201cseek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Kingdom of God offers no quick fixes, no band-aids, and no choose-your-own Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0 When Jesus spoke about the kingdom he was not offering a piecemeal, fix-it-up remedy for the wrongs suffered in this world. The Kingdom of God is something new. Something different. Something that replaced one reality \u2014 that of a sinful, broken world \u2014 with a new reality, a world made whole and living in covenant with God\u2019s design for shalom and love. May God help us from becoming \u201cPC.\u201d<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Ross Douthat, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics<\/em>, (New York, NY: Free Press, 2012) p. 3.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a> Ibid., p. 2<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a> Ibid., pgs. 2-5.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4]<\/a> Ibid., p. 175<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[5]<\/a> Ibid., p. 214.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6]<\/a> Ibid., p. 230.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[7]<\/a> Ibid., p. 217.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[8]<\/a> Ibid., p. 274.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[9]<\/a> Ibid., p. 276.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[10]<\/a> Ibid., p. 292.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s problem isn\u2019t too much religion, or too little of it. It\u2019s bad religion: the slow-motion collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of a variety of destructive pseudo-Christianities (PC) in its place. [1] This is Douthat\u2019s argument throughout his book, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Herectics. Douthat believes that America has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,7],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-douthat","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1462,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/1462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}