Almost Christian - the Post-modern Church

What follows is a very disturbing interview with the author of "Almost Christian". Using data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, Kenda Creasy Dean describes what most 'Christian' teens in America believe. Furthermore, she does not blame their apathetic beliefs on poor listening skills or bad communication skills from the pulpit, but she states flat out that they believe what they believe because that is exactly what they are being taught. And if that is what they are being taught, then it must mean that we, the older generation, believe that same thing, in general.

Dean's book should be required reading for everyone in ministry.

Kenda Dean is an ordained United Methodist pastor in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference and Professor of Youth, Church, and Culture at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she works closely with the Institute for Youth Ministry. In this interview, Kenda discusses her book Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church.

The term "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" is used quite a bit in your book. What does that mean, and what are the implications of it?

MTD is the term coined by Christian Smith, the lead researcher in the National Study of Youth and Religion, describing what he saw as the "default" religious position of American teenagers. You could summarize it this way: Religion helps you to be nice (it's moralistic) and feel good (it's therapeutic), but otherwise God stays out of the way except in emergencies (it's Deist). That's what most teenagers think. The ways they described God in the study were revealing; God was either the cosmic butler (staying out of the way until called upon to meet my needs) or the divine therapist (God's main goal is to help me feel good about myself).

But the study went further. Since the NSYR also found that teenagers mirror their parents' religiosity to an astonishing degree, Smith and his colleagues believe that MTD is not just the default position of American teenagers; it's the default religion of American adults, too. They conclude that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has "colonized" American churches and is now the "dominant religion" in the United States, having "supplanted Christianity." That's one heck of a claim. In other words, young people don't subscribe to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism because they've misunderstood what we've taught them in church. They subscribe to it because this is what we've taught them in church.

At the very least, MTD is a very self-serving spirituality. It is what Christianity looks like once you jettison Jesus and a conviction that love involves sacrifice and not just warm, fuzzy feelings. It's what you get when churches forget that God has not called us to exist for our own well-being. And it's a short step away from thinking that God's primary goal is to help me feel good "at the expense of everybody else." MTD comes close to a divinely sanctioned sense of entitlement. I think teenagers are absolutely right not to take this form of so-called "Christianity" very seriously. I don't think it represents the gospel well at all.

Your book title Almost Christian comes from a sermon John Wesley preached in the 1700s about people going through the motions of religion without a commitment to Christ. It seems there might have been the same findings had this (NSYR) research been conducted then. How do you think things differ today?

Great question—because of course, every generation of Christians struggles with acculturated Christianity. So on the one hand, the NSYR is this generation's reminder that Christianity is being co-opted by the reigning cultural ethos—and for us, that means absorbing the values of therapeutic individualism, consumer capitalism, and pluralistic relativism, so our primary goals include feeling good about ourselves and being nice to people so we don't step on toes.

Of course, Christians should get along with others—and then some. Jesus never actually mentions being nice, but he says a lot about compassion and justice (which are a lot harder than being nice). And Christ calls us to love people who are different from us, even our enemies—and we do this because we follow Jesus, not in spite of it.

But churches over the centuries adopted some very nasty habits, even to the point of doing violence "in Jesus' name" (which is heresy, flat out). So one thing that is distinct about 21st century Christianity is our need to follow Jesus in a way that does not simultaneously place Christians at the center of the universe. Our solution has been to throw the baby out with the bathwater: be religious, but not "too" religious. Be good, but don't be passionate. Be "almost" Christian, as John Wesley put it, but not "altogether" Christian. Don't love God with your whole heart and soul and mind; it's too dangerous.

This interpretation misunderstands the problem completely. I was visiting a Methodist-affiliated college recently with my daughter, where the admissions counselor spent much of his presentation emphasizing that students should not be put off by the university's Christian affiliation—that in spite of it, "we welcome everyone." I wanted to jump out of my chair! Who is training these admissions counselors on Christian theology? It's because of our Christian identity that we welcome everyone! People who follow Jesus practice radical welcoming, but this is not the way Christianity is generally viewed.

Jesus asks not for our membership in a club or our attendance on Sunday mornings, but for our very lives. Following Christ to the point that it shapes our identity is an "altogether" thing. The more intentionally we pattern our lives after Christ, the more we genuinely extend ourselves for people who are different from us. That is what the New Testament church was all about, which I take to be the prototype for churches even today.

You spend a significant portion of your book encouraging the church to reclaim its central identity as a missional community. Where do you think the church has gone wrong here?

I wish we didn't need the word "missional" to describe the church. It seems redundant to me. Mission is the business the church is in; if the church isn't missional, it isn't the church.

Of course, the fact that we need to make mission into an adjective tells us that we don't view churches this way. As Christendom began to crumble and churches began to feel threatened—you know, fewer people, fewer dollars, less social capital and power in society—churches did what all anxious people do. We circled the wagons and began protecting our own instead of looking for ways to follow Jesus into the world. That's actually a sign of a paradigm shift. When the tectonic plates of our reality start to change, we hold on more tightly to what we have. It's the perfect petri dish for cultivating self-serving spiritualities like Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

Being Loved by God

On Feb26th, 2012, Pope Benedict tweeted: "If only everyone could experience the joy of being Christian, being loved by God who gave his Son for us!"

Yet even this simple, lovely prayer resulted in no-end of criticism, such as: " God loves everybody!"

Does God love everybody? Can that generality be applied to every single individual? God hated Esau and refused to forgive him though he sought it with tears.

But the big issue here is not whether God loves all of us, but whether we experience that love. If love is only a feeling then we can never know God's love. But with God's love - love is an action verb. He commands us to love our neighbours by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, visiting the shut-ins, and clothing the naked.

When we 'experience' the joy of being loved by God, it is like being looked after by a loving neighbour. He takes care of our needs. He blesses us and you can feel His blessings and, at times, His very presence.

When you 'know' the Son of God for Who He really is, then you can 'experience' the love of God. Until then it is just a concept.

The Apocalypse - Will it Come Soon?

A lot of Christians are talking in apocalyptic terms these days. This is not that unusual at the turn of a century or after a major catastrophe like 911. But the Mayan calendar is behind us and yet the number of Christians thinking apocalyptically has been only increasing. Why?

There are ‘prophets’ in the church, some of whom are predicting events on a biblical scale happening soon. Now, prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit and I have no doubt that they exist in today’s church. But just as in biblical times there are an abundance of false prophets these days. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard prophecies of world-wide revival starting in the little church in which I was standing. So far, they haven’t happened yet. So I’m reluctant to believe most prophecies that I hear or come across on the internet.

The situation with Iran and Israel as documented in “2013 The Scariest Year Yet” lends some considerable weight to the fear of ‘The Great Tribulation’ beginning sooner rather than later. The Great Tribulation (see my post be the same name) is described in the Bible as 7 years of hell on earth as the Antichrist rules much of the earth and many, if not most Christians have their faith tried and tested and will probably be martyred. Sound like fun so far?

Many Christians believe that God will ‘beam them up’ like Scotty before things get rough. It is called ‘The Rapture’ and it is based on rather flimsy evidence from the Bible. If it occurs, I believe, it will be very limited, including only those whose faith need not be tested. Most of us Christians will enter the Great Tribulation but will not survive it.

Most recently, two things have occurred to spark interest in the Apocalypse. One – Pope Benedict resigned. The Catholic Church has prophecies by an Irish Archbishop – St Malachy, who lived in the northern part of Ireland in the 12^th century. He wrote prophecies describing every Pope that would ever reign over the church beginning with Celestine II. What is scary is that the last Pope prophesied would become the False Prophet of Revelation, and would pave the way for the Antichrist.

What’s scarier is that the next Pope, the one they will be selecting in the next few weeks, is almost certainly, that last Pope. St Malachy called him Peter Romanus. Some believe that he will assume the name Pius XIII. There are also prophecies coming from other religions that coincide somewhat with St Malachy’s.

The second recent event is the spectacular crashing of a meteorite in Russia followed hours later by an asteroid sliding past the earth 1/10 the distance between here and the moon, and inside the orbit of several of our satellites. Large meteorites are predicted to strike the earth during the Great Tribulation causing great damage to a third of the earth. A scientist on the news just today called these events ‘warnings’ of possible future calamities. That was a scientist, not a theologian.

In Acts 2, the Apostle Peter quotes the Prophet Joel from the Old Testament saying, “I will pour my Spirit out in those days; and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath; blood and fire and vapor of smoke.”

And it gets worse before it gets better, “The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

2013 – The Scariest Year yet?

There can be little question that 2013 is the most frightening year since 1962. In ’62 the threat of nuclear war hung over the entire world as President Kennedy stared down Nikita Khrushchev for weeks before the Russian president blinked. Our high school teachers were telling us to hide under our desks in the event of a nuclear attack; or, if we were at home, to hide under a sheet to protect us from the fall-out. Even as children we knew how absurd this was.

The 911 attack in 2001 was a complete surprise and while shocking as can be, the only fear came afterward and quickly dissipated as it became apparent that Al Qaeda had no more major surprises in it’s arsenal of murder and mayhem.

What is happening in 2013 that is so riveting to those of us who pay attention to world events? 2013 is the year Iran gets a nuclear bomb. Iran is run by Muslim fanatics (read lunatics) who believe they were sent by Allah to pave the way for the 12^th Imam who will bring peace and Muslim rule to the entire earth. However, the road to be paved is one of complete chaos – it is in the midst of this that 12^th Imam, or Mahdi, will come.

Muhammad said:

Our Mahdi will have a broad forehead and a pointed (prominent) nose. He will fill the earth with justice as it is filled with injustice and tyranny. He will rule for seven years
—Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, [17]
If this sounds a lot like the Biblical Antichrist, it is not a coincidence.

                         

Both the Ayatollah, the spiritual head of the country, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are on board with this belief. Ahmadinejad has promised publicly many times that he will destroy Israel. Destroying Israel and the Jewish people seems to be a common theme among most inherently evil dictators. Although Iran calls itself a democracy it’s most recent elections were condemned as fraudulent. In fact, I doubt that any Muslim country is truly democratic. (For that matter, I have doubts about a lot of ‘Christian’ countries.)

Both American and Israeli intelligence believe that Iran will have nuclear capability by this summer unless something is done to stop or delay them. Just today, the US increased sanctions against Iran - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21361798 but diplomacy has failed to slow them down one little bit. The only good news is that they don’t have an elegant delivery system to launch such a bomb on Israel. They don’t have the long range ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear payload. That, however, may not be an insurmountable problem as Iran has many maniacal friends in many Muslim countries.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, has promised that Iran will not reach nuclear capability. In 2007, Israel attacked and destroyed a Syrian nuclear facility before it could produce a bomb. That might surprise you for it made remarkably little news in the western world. This means that Israel does not make idle threats. It will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, and it will do so in the next few months. It must!

However, Iran, unlike Syria, has taken extreme cautions to protect their nuclear research stations. They have several all over the country and some are buried under mountains where most conventional weapons cannot touch them. How Israel plans to overcome this obstacle is beyond me, but I have little doubt that they will.

What the consequences of an Israeli strike or strikes on Iran will be is where the fear comes in. Will Iran unleash an all-out war on Israel? How many allies will join her? Russia is an ally of Iran; will the great bear also come against Israel? Will the US defend her? Some believe the answers to these questions are in Ezekiel 38 and 39 which describe a war where all of Islam plus, probably, Russia, attack Israel. But it is not the US that comes to Israel’s defense, it is Christ Who destroys the attacking forces and preserves His chosen people.

I am not convinced that Ezekiel 38 and 39 are for this time period, but if it is, all hell is going to break loose in the middle east and the world will be a very different place afterward. If the 12th Imam (Antichrist) does emerge, then we will enter that 7 year period called the Great Tribulation when the world becomes a more horrible place than it ever was or than we could ever imagine it.

I am not saying that this is all going to happen in 2013, but the wheels will be set in motion. When Iran and/or other Islamic countries attack Israel may still be some years away, or maybe not.

Now having read this, we can all go back to watching the mindless myriad of television shows. We can get the spit scared out of us with horror movies, as if there isn't enough real horror in the world. We can play video games where we run around killing people and things when there are real people with real guns doing more than enough of that. We can focus our lives on entertaining ourselves and miss the entire reason for our existence.

But we will all stand before God one day and give an accounting for what we did with our time and talents. Are you ready for that?

Murder and Anxiety in the Elevator

When you have an anxiety disorder, nearly murdering your dogs is not a good thing. Not that it would be a good thing to murder your dogs even if you don't have an anxiety disorder.

This afternoon I decided to take a bunch of garbage and recycling out the the bins while also taking the dogs for a walk. Between the garbage, the recycling, the umbrella, and the dogs leashes, I was a little overloaded. Nevertheless, the dogs entered (albeit reluctantly) the elevator to go from our 2nd floor apartment to the main floor.

However, just as the door was closing, Bailey decided to get out and Bell followed her. The door closed and the elevator began to descend. My hands still full, I began to panic. I let go of the leashes so they would float up to the top of the door, and dropped the garbage and recycling and finally pushed STOP. It was too late, the elevator stopped at the 1st floor.

Quickly I pushed 2nd floor button and the door closed but the elevator didn't go up, it went down. Horrified, I realized that I was at the basement and again pushed the 2nd floor button. This time it went to the 2nd floor.

You can't imagine what horror I expected to see when the door opened, but the dogs were standing there waiting for me like nothing ever happened. One leash was broken, the other just came off the collar but the dogs were none the worse for wear.

I, on the other hand, was a complete waste.

My wife, Patricia with Bell (left) and Bailey (right)
Bailey has only one front leg; Bell has only one marble in her head

Rape and Murder on a Delhi Bus

I can't decide whether this story, covered well by BBC, borders on madness or outright evil incarnate. The furor it has caused in India and elsewhere is certainly fitting and the sub-continent needs to deal dramatically with those involved in order to make a statement that such incredible cruelty is not acceptable in Indian society. The 6 men involved include the bus driver and his assistant - the very people you would expect to come to your rescue. 

Here is the story.

"Police said she was raped for nearly an hour, and both she and her companion were beaten with iron bars, then thrown out of the moving bus into the street." 

The poor young woman died of her many severe injuries. Some of the things they did to her are too gruesome and disgusting to repeat here. Perhaps it is merciful that she died for how could she live with such horror haunting her the rest of her life? 


My prayer is that regardless of her religion, she is being comforted in the arms of He Who also suffered and died. God have mercy on this young woman and all women and children who are victims of madness and evil.

Bus in which 23 year old was gang-raped and murdered

Changing Climate

Norwegian scientists have documented a rapid melting of Arctic sea ice http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19508906. If it continues, it is liable to affect global weather patterns, and may already have. What might it mean for western Canada?

Researchers have determined that more and more sea ice is melting in the Arctic every summer, and some of the ice that is not melting is thinner than in decades past. Thinner ice – once the snow has melted – allows sunlight to get through to the water below where some of the energy is absorbed resulting in warming. That warming results in more thinning of the ice, which results in more warming, which results in… well, you get it.

Between the thinner ice and the ever increasing amount of open water, the Arctic waters are warming and are likely to continue warming at an accelerating pace. The consequence of this is that the temperature differential between the Arctic and the equatorial region is decreasing, at least during late summer and fall before the Arctic sea ice reforms.

Why is that important? Well, that difference in temperature is what produces the major jet streams of the northern hemisphere. Jet streams determine where weather systems travel and how fast, and they affect the development of storm systems. They also affect where a ridge of high pressure may form, how intense it may become, and how long it may last.

So what about western Canada’s climate? I’m very reluctant to hazard a guess as to the effects on high pressure ridges over western Canada although I suspect that we will see more ridges meaning warmer and drier weather in late summer and fall. Also, the decreasing temperature differential from the Arctic to the equator will mean weakening jet streams. Weakening jet streams should result in fewer and weaker storm hitting the coast of BC in the fall months.

While it is not unusual for storms to hit the BC coast every 24-36 hours in the fall (often with little or no break between), this frequency should slow down, as should the intensities, meaning less rain and longer breaks between storm systems.

For Alberta and the prairies it may mean a reduction in precipitation in the fall months. Since not a lot of precipitation falls on the prairies during the fall, it should not have a major effect.

These effects, however, are only for the months when the sea ice has melted or is thin. Consequently, by late fall or early winter conditions should return to normal.

In my observances of the climatology of BC, it appears that this effect has already been felt for some time. September and October have become warmer and drier than in decades past, and while November used to be the wettest month in southwest BC, in recent decades that has moved to December. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it move to January in the next few decades.