{"id":17268,"date":"2018-03-24T14:54:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T21:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=17268"},"modified":"2018-03-24T14:54:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-24T21:54:59","slug":"of-heretics-and-hypocrites-what-is-a-pastor-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/of-heretics-and-hypocrites-what-is-a-pastor-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Heretics and Hypocrites\u2026 What is a pastor to do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Bad Religion<\/em>, Ross Douthat has written a fascinating version of what\u2019s gone wrong in American religion over the last seventy years. He reveals through an historic account, the drift of the Christian church from the doctrinal pillars it once knew to pop versions of spirituality primarily outside the walls of church buildings. Of course Douthat understands Christianity has always had heresy as part of the tempering of orthodoxy. Yet he highlights that today there is a migration toward anti-intellectual self-help non-conformist spirituality in place of religious dogma.<\/p>\n

As a committed Catholic with his own history in various Christian traditions (Episcopalian, Evangelical Charismatic-Pentecostal), Douthat is invested in the future of the church. As a journalist for the New York Times he has a platform and access to resources to form an in-depth reflective look at Christianity in America. Douthat owns that Bad Religion<\/em> is his take on the state of American religion and religious culture and how we arrived at the place we are at today.<\/p>\n

From the outset of Bad Religion, Douthat states the value of Christianity for all of American culture today and is worth noting. \u201cBelievers and non-believers have benefited from the role that institutional Christianity has traditionally played in our national life\u2014its communal role, as a driver of assimilation and a guarantor of social peace, and its prophetic role, as a curb against our national excesses and a constant reminder of our national ideals. Both doubters and believers stand to lose if religion in the age of heresy turns out to be complicit in our fragmented communities, our collapsing families, our political polarization, and our weakened social ties. Both doubters and believers will inevitably suffer from a religious culture that supplies more moral license than moral correction, more self-satisfaction than self-examination, more comfort than chastisement.\u201d[1]<\/a> His statements are powerful, not just as an argument, but because of the ripple effect of Christianity on society as a whole when the principles of Christianity are truly lived. He speaks to the need of Christianity to be lived and taught for the good of the world and not just believers.<\/p>\n

Bad Religion<\/em> presses in on some of the underlying reasons for the problem in my own doctoral research. My work is concentrated on studying the largely missing element of discipleship in the American church today and how this affects the future of the church. I\u2019ve begun with reading on the topic of discipleship and disciple-making as well as continuing to interview pastors on their perspective and methods of discipleship. My research is giving an inside look to the argument of Douthat\u2019s text, revealing that indeed, many people have not had a well-rooted faith without the relationship of a seasoned pastor or mature disciple intentionally walking alongside them. Dallas Willard identifies this trend in The Great Omission<\/em>, \u201cwe omit the making of disciples and enrolling people as Christ\u2019s students, when we should let all else wait for that. Then we also omit, of necessity, the step of taking our converts through training that will bring them ever-increasingly to do what Jesus directed.\u201d[2]<\/a> \u201cChurches are filled with \u201cundiscipled disciples,\u201d as Jess Moody has called them. Of course there is in reality no such thing. Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have never decided to follow Christ.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

While the church has shrunk over that past decades as the population has grown, Douthat explains there are fewer and fewer ministers available and my own research exposes most pastors as primarily focused on keeping up vision, buildings, and programming to continue with a steady number of members. Many pastors don\u2019t have the time (and some don\u2019t have interest) to disciple people. In addition, many do not personally mentor their future leaders. This makes it challenging for people to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, as Douthat appeals for believers to do, when they do not even have a sense of what that kingdom is or what it means to be righteous. Conversion is needed but so is discipleship. Once a week church gatherings and programs do little to break down the influences outside Christianity.<\/p>\n

Two key terms are emphasized in Douthat\u2019s text as the problem and solution to Christianity in American culture today, heretic and sanctity. A heretic as defined by Mirriam-Webster is a person who differs in opinion from established religious dogma[4]<\/a> while sanctity is described as holiness of life and character or godliness.[5]<\/a> I would add to heretic, hypocrite: \u201ca person who puts on a false appearance of virtue or religion.\u201d[6]<\/a> If American Christianity, and thus culture is to change, both the belief and the action (as Hunter notes in his To Change the World<\/em>) need to change and become more pious. \u201cTo make any difference in our common life, Christianity must be lived-not as a means to social cohesion or national renewal, but as an end unto itself.\u201d[7]<\/a> This is the responsibility of disciple-makers, pastors and lay people alike, that we as the church would live holy lives by the standards of the Bible, and disciple others into the same.<\/p>\n

Each pastor I have spoken with about their discipleship methods has said that they meet with people directly whether in small groups or one on one to be relationally present and walk with them toward Jesus. Their methods are different, some more formal than others. They all noted the slowness, intentionality and imperfections, yet found it as their most effective and important work. This long work of discipleship is the first and most important growth for any of the hopeful futures Douthat suggests in America.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Douthat, Ross. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics. <\/em>Free Press: New York. 2012, 16.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Willard, Dallas. The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus\u2019s Essential Teachings on Discipleship.<\/em> Harper Collins ebooks. 2006, 5-6.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Willard, 4.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Merriam-Webster<\/em>, s.v.<\/em> \u201cHeretic,\u201d accessed March 22, 2018, https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/heretic.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Merriam-Webster<\/em>, s.v.<\/em> \u201cSanctity,\u201d accessed March 22, 2018, https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/sanctity.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Merriam-Webster<\/em>, s.v.<\/em> \u201cHypocrite,\u201d accessed March 22, 2018, https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/hypocrite<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Douthat, 293<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a>\u201cDouthat suggests four reasons for hope: the rootlessness of our postmodern age will finally motivate a return to Christian orthodoxy’s satisfying account of human origins and destiny; our culture’s corruption will accelerate the growth of communities of virtue; the flame of faith will fan out from the increasingly Christian global South; and the new millennium’s various crises may well revive faith, as the ravages of war did before.\u201d Anderson, Ryan. \u201cDouthat, Ross. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics.\u201d Claremont Review of Books (2012), 87-89.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Bad Religion, Ross Douthat has written a fascinating version of what\u2019s gone wrong in American religion over the last seventy years. He reveals through an historic account, the drift of the Christian church from the doctrinal pillars it once knew to pop versions of spirituality primarily outside the walls of church buildings. Of course […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"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":[7],"class_list":["post-17268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-douthat","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17268","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\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17269,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17268\/revisions\/17269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}