(This excerpt is from the opening commentary on The White Horse Inn January 6, 2008)
Most Americans believe in God, affirm that Jesus Christ is in some sense divine and the Bible is the Word of God. 86% of American adults describe their religious orientation as Christian while only 6% describe themselves as atheists or agnostic. Judging by its commercial, political, and media success, the Evangelical movement seems to be booming. But is it still Christian? I am not asking that question glibly or simply to provoke a reaction, my concern is that we are getting dangerously close to the place in every-day American church life where the Bible is mined for quotes, but largely irrelevant; God is used as a personal resource rather than known, worshipped, and trusted; Jesus Christ is a coach with a good game-plan for our victory rather than a Savior who already achieved it for us; Salvation is more a matter of having our best life now than being saved from God's judgment by God himself; and the Holy Spirit is an electrical outlet we can plug into for the power we need to be all we can be. As this new "gospel" becomes more obviously American than Christian, we all have to take a step back and ask ourselves whether increasingly Evangelicalism is a cultural and political movement with a sentimental attachment to the image or trademark or experience of Jesus more than a witness to Christ and him crucified. We have shown in recent decades that we really don't have much stomach for this message of the Apostle Paul called a "rock of offense, foolishness to Greeks, and a stone that causes stumbling." Far from clashing with the culture of consumerism, American religion seems not only at peace with our narcissism but gives it a spiritual cast.
Now before we launch this protest, I want to be clear about what we are not saying; first, we are not going to be saying that "Christless Christianity" characterizes all churches in the United States today. There are a lot of marvelous exceptions, and I hope you are a member of one of them. Second, we are not going to be standing on a denominational high-horse hurling critiques at other denominations and traditions below. One thing I think will become increasingly clear as this series unfolds is that all four of us are painfully aware of the fact that the creeping fog of Christless Christianity is as discernable in our own circles as anywhere else today. So much of what we are calling "Christless Christianity" isn't really profound enough to constitute heresy. Like the easy listening music that plays ubiquitously in the background of popular culture: in elevators, in malls and at the airport, the message of American Christianity has simply become trivial, sentimental, and irrelevant. Driven more by distraction than outright denial, Christless Christianity is killing us softly. Our charge is not necessarily that Evangelicalism is becoming theologically liberal, but that it is becoming theologically vacuous. Far from engendering a smug complacency, core Evangelical convictions centering on Christ and him crucified drove three centuries of Evangelical missions. The ministry of John Stott, a key leader of this post-war consensus, has embodied this integration of Christ-centered proclamation with a passion for mission. And yet when asked in a recent issue of Christianity Today how he evaluates this world-wide evangelical movement Stott could only reply, "The answer is growth without depth." There certainly are signs that the movement's theological boundaries are widening, and we will touch on some worrying examples as we go along. Furthermore vacuity and liberalism have typically gone hand-in-hand when it comes to the church's faith and practice.
Nevertheless it is not heresy as much as silliness that is killing us softly. God isn't denied, but trivialized, used for our life programs rather than worshipped and enjoyed. Christ is a source of empowerment, but is he widely regarded among us today as the source of redemption for the powerless? He helps the morally sensitive to become better, but does he save the ungodly, even Christians? He heals broken lives, but does he raise those who were dead in trespasses and sins? Does Christ come merely to improve our existence in Adam, or to end it sweeping us into his new creation? Is Christianity all about spiritual and moral makeovers? Or about death and resurrection? Radical judgment and radical grace? Is the word of God a resource for what we have already decided what we want and need, or is it God's living and active criticism of our religion, morality, and pious experience? In other words is the Bible God's story centering on Christ's redeeming work that changes our stories or is it something we use to make our stories a little more exciting and interesting? Christ's person and work are largely taken for granted in the interest of other more supposedly practical and relevant concerns of our day. When it comes to what happens on an average Sunday and in the ordinary diet of Christian ministry, I just don't think there is a remarkable difference between liberal mainliners and conservative Evangelicals. Some may take their cues from the New York Times and the others from Fox News but the real question is to what extent churches in America are really convinced that the proclamation of Christ from his Word is the power of God unto salvation. When the diet becomes "What Would Jesus Do" instead of "What Has Jesus Done" the labels just don't matter anymore.
Amazingly, Protestant Liberalism survived despite its abandonment of the gospel, just as the health and wealth gospel promoted by Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and T.D. Jakes, attracts a wide following even though it's exchanged the central Christian claims for the American Dream. Religion, spirituality, and moral earnestness, what Paul called a form of godliness that nevertheless denies its power, can continue to thrive in our environment precisely because they avoid the scandal of Christ. Folks whatever we say our practice does not support the contention that the Evangelical movement today is Christ-centered. Christ may be used for personal and public purposes, his trademark might be spread all across America, he may be even in some sense followed as a prophet or a king, but as our high priest, Christ and him crucified, he seems more peripheral to our own agendas.
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