Mar
12

faith in a post religious world

So in response to the recent USA today article about people turning away from religion I have had several conversations mostly in cyberspace with Christians who give me way to understand why our culture is moving into being post-religious.

First, there is the knee jerk reaction and immediate assumption by some of us Christians that if people are not religious they are anti-Christian. (Oh and by the way if you are anti-Christian you are also anti-American). In fact the article suggested that all religions and religious tribes are losing ground.  Instead of looking at the context and seeing that though these folks are not interested in religious institutions (and remembering that Jesus was not either)  they are spiritual ; there is the immediate defensive posture that they are hostile to religion and so hostile to us and so hostile to God. There is no consideration of the idea behind Dan Kimball’s book that they might like Jesus but not the church (i.e institutional religion) .

Secondly there is what seems to me to be a weak confidence in God’s word and Jesus message that feeds the fixation on personal salvation as all that matters. I need to get heaven and the rest be damned. Religion is the ticket to heaven. Not faith mind you religion. So if we are losing our religion then we are shaking the very foundations of the faith. Never mind that Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the the church. I believe that God in control and will ways be in control and though the church or religion may be shaken, the faith of Abraham, Jesus and Paul will not no matter what craziness we mixed up messed up human beings get into.

So I don’t blame the average pew sitter in this. it is some of our religious leaders that truly worry and scare. Watch the video that was sent to me to rebut my thoughts about living faithfully in a post-religious world.

[youtube OH1yOmij7Q4 nolink]

john mcarthur’s religious views on the emergent church

First problem is this is doesn’t square with scripture. We can’t just cherry pick scripture to suit our views. Jesus did say he came for those who are poor Luke 4:18,19Luke 4:18,19
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
18 .

WP-Bible plugin. Jesus did say he came so we could have a abundant life.  John 10:10John 10:10
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
10 A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.

WP-Bible plugin. So can we just dismiss those parts of scripture in favor of one that suit our point of view. If we do we  are setting up a false choice that doesn’t show the whole picture. It is not either Jesus came to bring salvation or Jesus came to bring us life and good news to the poor. It is Jesus came to bring salvation and life; both, and also good news to the poor.  Jesus came to initiate the reordering all of creation (the kingdom or reign of God) and not just grant personal salvation so the blessed few can get to heaven. I think scripture bears that out.

Then we must deal with the fact that ripping other followers of Jesus and setting ourselves up as an individual arbiter of genuine faith is something that diminishes the witness of the church. Saying eeither you are with me or your are wrong and bad is so not the way Jesus dealt with people, with the exception of the religious leaders. Some of us religious leaders are doing the same thing that the religious leaders of Jesus day did. The same things that Jesus criticized them for. They are setting themselves up as the be all and end of the Christian faith. There is no humility, no recognizing that there is only one authority when it comes to this Christian faith and that is Jesus.
We can’t pick and chose only the parts of Jesus teaching we like to prove our points. We need to always look at the patterns of faith and life that Jesus gave us instead of just making up dogma to fit our social and political sensibilities, whatever they may be. This has the effect of people seeing them as bigoted and hypocrites as David Kinneman points out in the book Unchristian (which every follower of Jesus who want to share the Christian faith in post-religious world should read).

I don’t question speaker’s faith or belief. But this is a good example of how religion (which sets up the eeither or) can turn people away from the Christian faith which is so much more powerful, holistic and transforming that just eeither or propositions.

But there is blame to go around on all sides there are some folks with new perspectives on the faith that seem intent on disconnecting from the historical biblical Christian faith.  It gives dogmatic people fodder for their views and lets them paint anyone not agreeing their dogmatic views with the same brush and leads to responses like the one below to my above thoughts.

Either or propositions? What? Are we all Hindus now too? Truth is ALWAYS an “either or proposition.” You yourself cannot follow your own line when you refer to truth as being Scripture. (No relativist ever can live his own propositions.) I do agree that salvation is “holistic” (I really hate all these goopy trendy words) – spirit, soul, body. But the great, overwhelming emphasis in Scripture was on the spiritual, the eternal, the Kingdom that flesh and blood cannot inherit.

Years ago church consultant Bill Easum suggested to a group of church leaders that one of the biggest challenges for Jesus followers moving into the future was going to be the question how can I follow Jesus without being a bigot. I think he was asking us to consider how can we stand for Jesus without blowing off the very people Jesus calls us to reach.

So I wonder what will faith look like in post-religious world? Will there be a church for the post-religious or will we all be heading to hell in an hand basket?

I wonder if defenders of the truth will descend on this blog to prove their point and share their view, we will see.

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Posted by Andre Daley conversations, emerging church, missional church Subscribe to RSS feed

One Response to “faith in a post religious world”

  1. Steve says:
    March 12, 2009 at 11:27 am

    1. Your blog is not displaying properly. The top of the page goes black. Check it out.

    2. Good post. Is this a start to the book? When I said to get on that, I didn’t mean to not sleep.

    3. That comment makes me angry. Some of that anger is at myself for not doing a better job at sharing the complete gospel.