Is America a genuinely Christian nation? Is American culture uniquely Christian in its attitudes, values, principles, practices, and beliefs? What does a “Christian nation” look like? What would a uniquely Christian culture look like? Is American Christianity dissimilar from Christianity in other parts of the world? If so, how it is different? Perhaps a better question is why is it different? Furthermore, is American Christianity really Christianity at all or is it something else altogether? These are good questions for any Christian living in present-day America.
Americans are no different from
people groups anywhere else in the world in terms of loyalty to their country.
We are Americans and very proud of that, and I do not mean in a bad sense. As
in any other culture, Americans have a core set of values that drive how they
look at the world. We will call that the American worldview.
In American culture, the one value
the culture esteems more than any other is the “right” of the individual. Think
about how often we hear about the “self.” We have been inundated with
self-esteem lectures, books, and it has even become part of our public
education philosophy. Children are told they are very special. We have
eliminated losing in competitions because it reveals that we may not be the
best at that activity and this knowledge may hurt our self-esteem. Think about
how often we hear about individual “rights.” I recently heard a woman, whose
son was on death row for murder talk about justice for her son because his
sentence had just been commuted to life because he was black and there wasn’t
enough black jurors on the jury when he was convicted. She made no mention of
the person he murdered or of the family of the person he had murdered. All the
woman seemed to be concerned with were her own interests in the situation, and
that, to the complete disregard of others. However, this is the American way.
America is the land of opportunity.
But it is the land of “individual” opportunity. We see ourselves as individuals
in the most radical way. As individuals, we have rights. We have all sorts of
rights. We have a right to individual freedom. We have a right to happiness. We
have a right to believe whatever we want. Employees have a right to sick days
and to be paid for them as well. We have a right to marry and to divorce. We
have a right to engage in whatever pleases us sexually. We have a right to
success, as we define success. In America, the individual is empowered above
all else, and has all the rights necessary to be, well, happy and prosperous.
American culture is about the individual almost to the complete disregard of
all else. The Christian of American culture must ask if this “individual”
emphasis is in accord with the cultural context in which Scripture initially
came to us. Moreover, he/she must also ask what implications this individual
emphasis could have on gospel proclamation. In addition, the Christian American
must ask how this extreme individual consciousness of Western culture may
affect the Christian worldview. In other words, are American Christians purging
the American worldview from their thinking or are they Americanizing the
Christian worldview so that they view everything spiritual through a distinctly
American grid?
In contradistinction to this
radical individualism, Mediterranean culture strongly emphasizes the group. The
individual does not disappear entirely as Scripture clearly reveals, contrary
to some social science critics. However, the individual does not view
themselves as entirely separate entities apart from the group to which they
belong. The individual is who he/she is within the context of that group. Take
away the group and a large part of the person as an individual disappears. It
is in this social context that the church and the nation of Israel existed. A Jew
sees themself not merely as “me” or “I” in individual terms. He sees himself as
the “Jewish me or I that exists.” This mindset was surely behind much of the
writings of the NT when we read about all the “one anothers,” and certain the “body”
of Christ. This mindset is foundational to Christian community. Sadly, it has
been entirely lost in American culture, having been erased, and whited-out by
the American individual. What does this mean for Christian community? More
importantly, what does it mean for gospel proclamation, not only from a methodological
standpoint, but most significantly, from the perspective of content?
The gospel has been hi-jacked,
eclipsed, taken captive by the American worldview and this is due in no small
part to the number of imposters within the Christian community who came in,
claiming to know and love Jesus all the while clinging firmly to the American worldview.
Subsequently, these attractive personality types, the sales type, the business
manager type, have been pushed to the echelon of Christian leadership because
of their considerable skills elsewhere in life. Since discipleship has fallen
on hard times and liberalism has gripped the seminaries, very little scrubbing
of the ungodly thinking process took place before they were put into place.
Couple this with a staunchly semi-pelagian
theology and you have the perfect recipe for taking the true Christian gospel
captive to the American worldview.
Since people are not actually dead
in their trespasses and sins, they don’t need a miracle from God to restore
them to a right relationship. All they need is some guidance and “spiritual”
life coaching. They can do it themselves with just the right information
communicated in the right, non-threatening, non-offensive, non-exclusivist kind
of way. Without realizing it, most evangelicals have adopted a form of
soteriological deism. God did all the work necessary for salvation and
literally left the rest up to us. The preacher has to find an attractive and
compelling way to communicate the message and all the individual has to do is
take the time to analyze what he/she hears and make a decision.
The American gospel is a gospel of
hyper-freedom. The core message is that God has done everything that is
necessary for you to have your best life now and all you need to do is appropriate
these things to yourself, make a decision to have a private, personal
relationship with Jesus Christ and you can see your dreams begin to come true.
American Christianity is not about the “body” nor is it about the “church.” It
is about “me” and God. In fact, there is a country song with that very title.
American Christians do not seem to realize that the idea of “individual” Christian
is oxy-moronic. To be a Christian is to be in, to be part of the Christian
group. Moreover, this is not something a person does. You do not join the
Christian group. You are placed there by God’s eternal decree.
In terms of truth, the American
worldview is radically relativistic. There is no such thing as objective,
transcendent truth. There is “my” truth. Christianity is Americanized when we
eliminate sound exegetical process in exchange for “my” interpretive process
for finding meaning in Scripture. It is Americanized when Christians behave as
if they have a “right” to handle the text in whatever way they see fit. We
Americanize Christianity when the individual knows better than the collective
group.
In terms of morality, the American
worldview is radically experiential. If it feels right to you, then it must be
right. The most egregious thing one American can do to another is judge their
lifestyle. The culture seems powerless to recognize the inherent contradiction
with which this thinking is carried out in real life. We Americanize
Christianity when Christians think that God understands their unhappiness to
the point that He is okay with illicit divorce, or extra-marital affairs, or
even homosexual behavior. I heard a woman once say that Christians have no
business feeling guilty when they sin because guilt is so unhealthy and that
God loves them no matter what they do. Apparently, she was not acquainted with
James and I John or much of the rest of Scripture.
In terms of authority, the American
worldview seeks individual autonomy above all else. Americans cannot tolerate
the idea that there are some things that they simply cannot fix. They rely
entirely on their own ability to fix whatever problem comes along and will not
submit to any authority they deem unworthy. Americans are about the freedom of
the individual, not about tradition or the transcendent. God is not one to whom
they are held accountable. Rather, he is the self-help guru in the sky. He is
called on only when needed and He is needed rarely. For most Americans, God is
a daddy figure who wants us to be happy, healthy, and successful. He only wants
what is best for us and we get to decide what is best for us.
The hyper-individualism of the
American worldview has privatized religion. Michael Horton points out that
talking about one’s Christian testimony means “…one’s inner experience and
moral transformation. Once privatized, religion becomes relativized. No longer
truth, it is your truth. Since religious beliefs are no longer claims about
public events, they can only be justified now in terms of what each individual
finds meaningful, useful, and transformative.”[1]
Christianity has been taken captive
by American culture. J. Graham Machen wrote, “A solid building cannot be
constructed when all the materials are faulty; a blessed society cannot be
formed out of men who are still under the curse of sin. Human institutions are
really to be molded, not by Christian principles accepted by the unsaved, but
by Christian men; the true transformation of society will come by the influence
of those who have themselves been redeemed.”[2]
Sadly, Christians in America are
Americans first, and then Christian. American Christians have turned the gospel
into a proclamation of self-help for individual success in areas of personal
worth, finance, family, profession, and too many other areas to mention. The
pop-psychology that passes itself off as a sermon on Sunday mornings in
thousands of American churches doesn’t even remotely resemble the traditional
message of Christ preached in the history of the Christian community. In
America, the gospel is about “me.” God is there for me. He cares for me. I have
a personal relationship with Jesus because I have decided to follow Jesus. It
does not matter that Scripture knows nothing of this private understanding of
the God-man relationship. It matters not that Scripture nowhere speaks of a
personal relationship with Jesus. Scripture presents the gospel in terms that
are glaringly antithetical to the American gospel. Man is dead, helpless,
unholy, unrighteous and radically depraved from birth. God, for reasons known
only to Him, determined to rescue man from his wretched and miserable condition
by sending Christ to stand in as punishment for sin. God, for His own glory,
redeemed man to Himself, calling man out of his state of blindness, deafness,
dumbness and death, into a state of life, joy, and peace.
We must do a better job of recognizing the fundamental differences that exist between the Christian and the American worldview. They are not the same, contrary to what many Christians might believe. There are fundamental beliefs within the American worldview that are clearly contrary to sound Christian thought and praxis. New converts must be educated in this areas. The earlier we engage this in the discipleship process, the better off we will be.
[1] Michael Horton, Christless Christianity
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008), 50.
[2] J. Graham Machen, Christianity and
Liberalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1923), 158.
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