Striving

In our small group discussion on Bad Religion, it was brought up that the author points out many ways that the Christian faith deviated from Orthodoxy, but it didn't offer many solutions to how to become better Christians. It is a good question, worth pondering. I think that the author may have intended to point these things out and not merely offer a solution.

There are two reasons for this: first off, we are all creatures of habits. In fact, around 40% of what we do each day is simply habit. I would say that most of the ways we demonstrate (or not) our faith through actions are also habits. Moreover, the first step in changing a bad habit is the knowledge that it exists and monitoring it. So in pointing out habits that Christianity developed is part of the answer.

The other other key is contained in Philipians 3:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

The word that is written here as "press on to take hold of" here is also translated strive.

The verb strive (diwkw) is used 24 times in the New Testament. It is used thirteen times in Matthew-Acts, always with the sense of to persecute or hunt down, as, for example, in the case of Israel who always persecuted the prophets sent to her (Matt 23:34; Acts 7:52). Paul uses the term ten times (Romans 9:30; 12:13, 14; 14:19; 1 Cor. 4:12; 14:1; 2 Cor 4:9; Gal 6:12; 1 Thess 5:15; 2 Tim 3:12), both in the sense of “to persecute” (Rom 12:14; 1 Cor 4:12; Gal 6:12; 2 Tim 3:12) and “to ardently pursue” something, i.e., righteousness (Rom 9:30); love (1 Cor 14:1); doing good to others (1 Thess 5:15). Whether Paul is thinking here of the athletic metaphor of running a foot race, as Hendriksen suggests, the point is clear: it is strenuous and requires great effort and focus. 

I think that this is a great word for us. Especially since, as we have seen in this book our tendency towards heresy can be out of wanting to make things easier. Or even to just decide that God wants us to be happy just the way we are. This is human nature. The challenge then is when we receive a word from God that is challenging to the place our hearts are in, either individually or collectively, we need to strive to move from that place. It will take effort and focus, intentionality and vulnerability, it may hurt or be embarrassing; but changing a heart is not easy business. And as Paul says, this is a continual striving. We will consistently be able to move more from our old selves towards Christ.

Bad Religion - Ch 5&6

Section 2 of the book talks about the main ways the American Church has wandered from Orthodoxy. First, Douthat points out that all heresies attempt to remove paradoxes from the gospel by focusing on a few main tenets while minimizing the other details. This results in a "more consistent, streamlined, and non contradictory Jesus." The crux being the following: “Every argument about Christianity is at bottom an argument about the character of Christ himself, and every interpretation of Christian faith begins with an answer to the question Jesus posed to his disciples: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ From Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson to Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy, America’s famous heretics have always offered their own answers to that question, drawing on a mix of scholarship and supposition to craft alternatives to the Christ of orthodoxy.” Additionally, scholors have suggested that the current iterations of Christianity have won out from older editions of Christianity, and that tomorrows Christianity will be yet another iteration. 


Meanwhile, if we review the texts, there has not been this wild variation. In general, orthodoxy has, in the past help establish tradition within a very narrow road with core ethics and beliefs consistent with the oldest accounts of Christ available (the letters of the Apostle Paul). 

Chapter 5 also introduces three mainstream deviations that are popular today: The prosperity gospel, which associates faith with material blessing; the God within movement, which suggests that God is inside all of us and that our own deepest longings are actually those of God; and Nationalism, which claims America is the second Israel, God's favored land.

Chapter 6 covers the Prosperity Gospel. The face of modern prosperity theology being Joel Osteen. "By linking the spread of the gospel to the habits and mores of entrepreneurial capitalism, and by explicitly baptizing the pursuit of worldly gain, prosperity theology has helped millions of believers reconcile their religious faith with their nation's seemingly unbiblical wealth and un-Christian consumer culture" 


The problem of this is this:

"But like many forms of liberal Christianity, the marriage of God and Mammon half-expects somehow to undo the Fall, through the beneficence of Providence and the magic of the free market. In its emphasis on the virtues of prosperity, it risks losing something essential to Christianity - skipping on to Easter, you might say, without lingering at the foot of the cross.

It's there that you find the pieces of Christian tradition that a gospel of prosperity leaves by the wayside. An understanding that there can be strength in weakness and defeat; an appreciation for the idea that there might be greater virtue in poverty and renunciation, suffering and purgation, than there is in abundance and "delight"; a hard-earned wisdom about the seductions and corruptions associated with worldliness, power, and wealth." (p.205)

Bad Religion - Ch 3&4

Chapters 3 and 4 describe the two ways in which mainstream Christianity responded to finding itself in decline.

The first was to attempt to accommodate culture. In the view of these Christians, the reason Christianity was losing it's appeal was that it was too dogmatic and judgmental, and that by becoming more accepting of people as they were and letting the standards become more lax.

This ended up being a very slippery slope, as some accommodationalists continued to push away from the dogmas of traditional Christianity to the point of denying that Jesus ever claimed to be God.

Interestingly, the net result of becoming accommodating was not to win the culture, but rather to continue to shed membership. The author implies that for most people, if Christianity didn't hold on to at least most of its orthodox standards than there wasn't much point in being a part of the club.

The resistance movement was led mainly by the Evangelical Church and traditional Catholicism. This shared cause actually led the two to work together to emphasis similarities and fight back against the accommodation movements. It was effective in the sense that the Evangelicals became the largest segment of Christianity.

Recent events that have weakened the resistance movement were the Catholic Priest sexual abuse scandal and the Bush administration, which was widely supported by Evangelicals despite its faults.