Unfortunately, the Church's failure to live the radical, and mostly untried message of Christ has led to an emptying out of the pews, a lukewarmness for those who remain, and emptiness in a broken society desperately in need of forgiveness, acceptance, and love.
The Western world has drawn the line in the sand with itself, and its options are both unpalatable: Secularism or Fundamentalism. There is no long-term sustainability in either of these options, because they are fully and utterly devoid of meaning, and are the bastardization of Reason and Faith, respectively. Secularism requires an explanation of everything, where Fundamentalism requires an explanation of nothing. In the midst of this, the mainline Christian Church in the West is twiddling its thumbs, and wishing (not even praying) that things were different.
"Perception is reality" is a basic truth of human interaction, and in the age of the Internet, "Perception is based on your website" is a new basic truth. I make this remark only slightly in jest, but if I were some wandering agnostic in my neighborhood of Uptown Dallas (and believe me, the neighborhood is full of wandering agnostics), and I decided that my life were a bit too empty and devoid of meaning, and I thought that perhaps God/Church could fill that void, the first thing I would do is get on the Internet and start googling around to find a place to go. To have a broader appeal, I picked out several churches from the area here as well as some famous churches elsewhere in the country, to see the kinds of hope and meaning churches are offering these days:
From the main website of Saddleback Church, pastored by the famous Rick Warren:
"Over 50 million Americans have discovered the meaning and purpose of their lives through “40 Days of Purpose” - a six session discussion group program based on Dr. Rick Warren’s international bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life.
Beginning the week of October 21/22, more than 4,000 discussion groups will meet weekly throughout Southern California in neighborhoods and workplaces to watch the acclaimed video series on the purpose of your life, and discuss what it means for you. There is no cost to participate.
With its life-changing message, The Purpose Driven Life is “the bestselling hardback in American history, and the bestselling book in the world for 2 years.” (Publisher’s Weekly) It is the most translated book on earth, after the Bible. You’ll get a free copy when you attend a discussion group."
From the main website of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas:
Do You Know Christ?
Have you had the experience of knowing Christ in a personal way? Find out how »
Considering Prestonwood?
Get a glimpse of what to expect when you visit and the many opportunities available for your family. Read on »
Bible Fellowship
Develop meaningful friendships and study biblical principles in a small group setting. More info »
Ministry Opportunities
Participate in the various ministries and find out how you can serve. More details »
Reaching Others
Share the love of Christ with others in the community and worldwide. Get involved today »
Beyond All Limits
Take part in this incredible journey as we boldly move forward to proclaim Christ to our neighbors and to the nations. Learn more »
Now, I continued my search, but unfortunately, I could not find any other church websites that had much text, so I'll paste the links to others so you can see for yourself (it is difficult to paste flash into a blog, so Joel Olsteen's church website was completely out of the question, though you might be interested in signing up for his "Inspiration in Your Inbox"):
http://www.lakewood.cc (The Largest Church in the country, pastored by Joel Olsteen)
http://www.willowcreek.org/ (Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago)
http://www.fbcbentonville.org (The Southern Baptist Church I grew up in, in Bentonville, Arkansas)
Now, let's go back to my wandering agnostic...what is he to think when he sees these websites? Well, most of the wandering agnostics in Uptown Dallas are professionals with at least a bachelor's degree; they generally make between $75,000 and $150,000 per year, are single (or live with their girlfriends), drive a BMW 3 Series, drink a few beers Saturday night, and wish they had more time for the gym. All of these even neglects the reality that these Uptown Agnostics grew up in a post-modern society with all of the trappings of skepticism, and simply cannot be bothered with any hocus-pocus nonsense. That being said, "Be a Better You" is not exactly going to strike his fancy.
I have spent the last 2 years of my life working in high technology, and in some of my normal reading, I happened upon an IBM study that concluded that for a person to adopt a new technology, the user must perceive that the new technology be at least 9 times better than the one it is replacing. I tend to think the same holds true of life philosophies and lifestyles. For most of the Church's 2,000 year history, it had a silver bullet to address this problem: Hell. In a very Machiavellian, "ends justify means" sort of way, the Church believed it was doing a lot of good by scaring people into the pews with the threat of Hell. Bertrand Russell describes it this way: "The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell."
However, in the age of skepticism, disbelief, and agnosticism, people are hardly even convinced enough of God's existence, much less of Hell's. Consequently, "be saved or go to hell" is no longer a credible threat in American society, and it seems that for the first time in 2,000 years, the Church is going to have to work at actually preaching (and more importantly: LIVING) the Good News of the New Testament if it doesn't want to be rendered moot, and shoved onto the shelves of obscurity by the post-modern mind.
No, the moralism worshiped by the Fundamentalists simply does not have broad appeal, particularly in cities, among the college-educated, and the affluent. Yet people invariably still want to believe in something, and even in Christianity, as 80% of the U.S. population reports themselves to be Christian. Talk to any member of the clergy, though, and they will almost laugh at those statistics, because Church attendance and religious identification are two different matters. In a 2006 Gallup poll, asking Americans what institutions they trust, only 28% responded that they trust the Church or Organized Religion "a Great Deal," with an additional 24% saying they trusted it "Somewhat." When half of the population (150 Million people) do not have any trust in an institution, I would call that a crisis for the institution.
The problem is that the Fundamentalist Church isn't 9 times better than regular American life; it's hardly even 2 times better. Church life essentially consists of this: Do everything you normally would do except the 2 or 3 things we tell you not to do. This of course varies from Church to Church, but it usually is some combination of alcohol, drugs, various forms of sex, and maybe lying (only maybe). In return, you don't have to go to hell. That's more or less the trade-off. People who don't believe in hell are not exactly motivated by this...
So what is the response of the mainline denominations? I'm not really sure. I'm not sure they even know. It is generally a bunch of liberal, feel-good nonsense. (This isn't to bash liberalism or feeling good, to be sure, but I'm merely saying this doesn't qualify as the radical message of Christ either). Episcopals, Presbyterians, and Methodists do a little more charity work, the host soup kitchens and give some stuff to the poor, and they make themselves feel better. It's not a lot different than the Fundamentalists in function, only in form. The nice thing about the mainliners is that they are a lot less judgmental and a lot more pleasant to be around.
Jesus's message, on the other hand, was radical, difficult, and life-changing. The Gospels describe Chesterton's understanding of Christianity of being "difficult and left untried." Jesus said that "small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." This isn't the "eternal life in heaven" conceived of by the Fundamentalists, but the "Life and Life more abundantly" Christ promised he was bringing to earth.
In The People of the Lie, M. Scott Peck defines evil as "that force, residing either inside or outside of human beings, that seeks to kill life or liveliness. And goodness is its opposite. Goodness is that which promotes life and liveliness." Leading up to this definition, he argues the following:
To proceed we need at least a working definition. It is a reflection of the enormous mystery of the subject that we do not have a generally accepted definition of evil. Yet in our hearts I think we all have some understanding of its nature...Evil is in opposition to life. It is that which opposes the life force. It has, in short, to do with killing. Specifically, it has to do with murder--namely, unnecessary killing, killing that is not necessary for biological survival. When I say that evil has to do with killing, I do not mean to restrict myself to corporeal murder. Evil is also that which kills spirit. There are various essential attributes of life--particularly human life--such as sentience, mobility, awareness, growth, autonomy, and will. It is possible to kill or attempt to kill one of these attributes without actually destroying the body. Thus we may "break" a horse or even a child without harming a hair on its head. Erich Fromm was acutely sensitive to this fact when he broadened the definition of necrophilia to include the desire of certain people to control others--to make them controllable, to foster their dependency, to discourage their capacity to think for themselves, to diminish their unpredictability and originality, to keep them in line. Distinguishing it from a "biophilic" person, one who appreciates and fosters the variety of life forms and the uniqueness of the individual, he demonstrated a "necrophilic character type," whose aim it is to avoid the inconvenience of life by transforming others into obedient automatons, robbing them of their humanity.
Given this conception and background, I would argue that Christ stands at the apex of Life-givingness, and Satan (whether Satan is a being or a metaphor is irrelevant for the purpose of this statement) at its abyss.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, Blessed are those who mourn, Blessed are the meek, Blessed are those who are hungry, Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the pure in heart, Blessed are the peacemakers, Blessed are those who are persecuted."
These are not easy sayings. But the promises of reward are overwhelming "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven, They will be comforted, They will inherit the earth, They will be filled, They will be shown mercy, They will see God, They will be called Sons of God, Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
The Kingdom of Heaven is not above us, it is within us. Francis Thompson asked rhetorically, in one of his poems "Does the fish soar to find the ocean, the eagle plunge to find the air?" We too, goaded by the Church, look for Christ's promised rewards out around us, beyond us, above us, rather than within us. When Christ says "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life," I do not believe he is talking about "going to heaven," nor of receiving material blessings here on earth, but rather something far more radical and transformative than that, eternal life, or to borrow from Peck's terminology, eternal liveliness.
After the Resurrection, Peter was speaking to Jesus, and Jesus asked him, three times, "Peter do you love me?" Peter's response was unequivocal, "Yes, Lord, of course I love you." To which Christ commanded, three times "Then feed my sheep." Not preach to my sheep, not teach my sheep, not keep my sheep in line, but feed them. Two thousand years later, the Church should take up Jesus's call.
The Church must accept the radical message of the Gospel and begin living it. The Church must become a foil for contemporary culture, not merely a critic of it. Only then can the Church pull itself out of irrelevance, and rescue itself from imminent obscurity.
1 comment:
Skinner,
These are some excellent observations about churches searching for relevance to the masses. As someone who has been in both the fundamentalist camp and now the mainline, I can see faults with both. One thing I find interesting is the growing number of former fundamentalists who have gotten involved in my Episcopal church. It seems that for many of us, the simplistic messages are satisfying for a time, but eventually we search for something deeper, especially when we realize that many issues are not as black and white as we once believed.
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