Hollow Faith 2 - Moralism

As I prepare to launch into an in-depth study of Hollow Faith by Stephen Ingram I remind the reader that what follows in the next few posts will be less of a review of the book and more the thoughts and impressions I had while reading it.  When I do cite Ingram's work, I shall endeavor to denote such with quotation marks.

A strange thing happened in America following World War II, or, more precisely, several strange things happened simultaneously to drastically alter our culture's trajectory.  First, the boys came home from the war and immediately started making babies.  Lots of babies.  Second, for the first time in a generation's memory, the economy began to stabilize.  Third, we developed a sense of national pride based on the concept that we and we alone had defeated the Nazis and their allies (after all, the European powers had ten years to fight Nazis before we showed up, and we got the job done in under three).  Fourth - and perhaps most importantly - we all went out and bought television sets.

The Mayberry Myth 

And what was on those television sets?  Burns and Allen.  I Love Lucy.  Leave it to Beaver.  Father Knows Best.  The Andy Griffith Show. Ingram uses the latter to illustrate a growing belief in America and the American Church following the war.  To wit, that, in America (certainly in Mayberry), "there is an order and reason why everything happens.  If you work hard and are honest, you will be successful, well-liked and stable.  Those who do bad things will reap the reward of their dishonesty and deception.  The Mayberry myth holds kindness, honesty and manners as signature virtues.  In Mayberry, we look alike, we talk alike, we smile and wave as we walk by, and everyone has a place.  All problems are realized, solved and reconciled in a 30-minute time frame and usually with an agreed-upon moral lesson to cap it all off.  In Mayberry, there is order, happiness, values, and a sense that everything is going to be OK; even Otis, the town drunk, puts himself in the tank to sober up after one too many swigs from the bottle."

Isn't that nice?  And that's fine; nice is, well, nice.  Wouldn't it be great if all of America - or at least our churches - could be more like Mayberry?

"Mayberry is nice.  Walking into a place 'where everybody knows your name' is nice. Nice makes us feel good.  Yea for nice!"  And, somehow, the Western church has diluted the gospel into a message of Mayberry-esque niceness.  We find ourselves perpetrating the same moralistic dogmas as Mayberry.  We somehow believe that the Kingdom of God looks and feels a lot like Mayberry, with God serving as the town's Sheriff Andy, keeping everyone on a path of moralistic niceness, even if one or the other takes a bit more wrangling than most.  "The message and mission of Jesus has been transformed into a set of rules that are supposed to make his followers into 'good people' by the contextual standards of class, country and political ideology.  Our churches...have become 'safe' in the worst way possible.  We have created a bland, homogeneous culture which values 'not rocking the boat' more than 'stepping out of the boat and walking on water.' "

But, we are not called "to have simple solutions to simple problems.  We are not called to live clean, neat, and tidy lives.  We are not called to be nice.  We are called to be something so much more."  The church's failure to move beyond the Myth of Mayberry largely explains why so many people today have moved out of the church and have no intention of ever moving back. ("Millennials Leaving the Church in Droves, Study Finds," by Daniel Burke (2015); Pew Forum Study: "Religion Among the Millennials," Pond, Smith and Clement (2010) )  This is not an indictment against manners and niceness, it is simply an acknowledgement that following Jesus means so much more than this, much more than what our Western church presents to our skeptical public.

The Problem of Moralism: It's Just Not Christian

So, where are we?  Let's look at some of the words used by today's young people to describe their understanding of Christianity (and quite likely that of the adults that teach them): "Nice.  Kind.  Pleasant.  Respectful.  Self-Improving.  Taking care of one's health.  Doing one's best to be successful."

"This is the problem of moralism, the first member of the unholy trinity of the American...cultural religion.  This religion has no challenges, no depth, no soul.  This religion does not reflect the teaching of Jesus.  You cannot practice this religion and stand against injustice, sacrifice oneself, and lose everything in the name of Christ.  The tenets of this religion call one to avoid conflict, not be a peacemaker within it.

"We are not wired to practice this religion  We...are wired to strive toward active holiness, not the sedentary faith of moralism.

"I'm not a fan of drawing dichotomies.  The technique, however, can be useful when two ideas stemming from different sources have merged into one.  When this happens, we usually lose the ability to distinguish between the two.  This is what happened in the case of moralism.  Two ideas, American moralistic values and the identity of the believer propagated by Jesus, have been melded together in an almost indistinguishable form.  It's time to pull them apart."

Often in advertising, political campaigns and, yes, even from our pulpits, we hear qualities distinctly American in nature (capitalism, patriotism, American etiquette) being discussed under the banner of the Christian ethos.  Let us be perfectly clear on this - "Christianity is not American!  America is not Christian!"  They are not interchangeable ideologies!  Not long ago, I quietly moved the American flag from its traditional place next to our sanctuary pulpit and placed it in a corner of our Fellowship Hall.  No one noticed. 

On that note, the Bible is not political.  "Every time we allow a political party, movement, or leader to co-opt the name Christian, we lose a piece of our identity and credibility in the minds of [outsiders].  The divisive religio-political climate of the past quarter century has not only caused youth to lose confidence in our political system, it has also caused many to reject religion on the basis that it is nothing more than a tool in the political agenda, or as Marx quoted, 'Religion is the opiate of the masses.' "

The Problem of Being Nice

The gospel of Jesus teaches us quite emphatically that simply being nice, having good manners, getting along, acting patriotically, or joining the right political movement just doesn't cut it.  These things are all considered normal in Mayberry, but we're called to so much more.  Jesus says in the Beatitudes that lies and persecutions are our blessings for following Him.  He tells us to pray for our enemies and, when hit in the face, let our enemy hit us again on the other side.When we are forced to carry another's load for a mile, we should volunteer a second mile.  We are called to a self-sacrificing, unconditional love for all, not just those who might return it.  This gospel is anything but "normal."

Just as individual Christians are expected to "go the extra mile," so is the church as a collective body.  The church is to be the propagator of change culturally, socially and personally.  Done correctly, it will cause rifts among communities, friends, and families.  The church is called to transform the world, not play nice and get along with the world.

In reducing the gospel to Mayberry-like Moralism, we not only give the outsider no motivation to join us (one can easily be moralistic without attending church), we make matters worse by driving away those who might be interested by failing to practice what little we're willing to preach.  There are an estimated 370 organized Christian denominations in the U.S., not counting the thousands of churches that consider themselves "non-denominational."  And we all hate each others guts.  The Progressives accuse the Evangelicals of being too intolerant, the Evangelicals fuss about the Progressives being too gullible, and the Pentecostals find both Progressives and Evangelicals just plain dull.  And, ironically, they're all right!  But what is more condemning for all of the above is not so much their differences, but their commonality; to wit, that they have all converted the beautiful tapestry of Jesus' teachings into a rather narrow view that fits neatly into their varying preconceived ideas of religion.  We've traded in our call to radical change for emotional stability and comfort.  We all look for, and find, verses that support our own opinions and ignore not only the contexts surrounding our chosen verses, but the rest of the gospel teachings as a whole.  Further, the only thing we find more delightful than our own picking-and-choosing among favorite verses is pointing out the flaw when others do the same thing.  And, of course, despite all of this, we all think that our attendance is down because of the evil on the part of those irrational heathens!

Not very nice, is it?

 

Pax