Linked below is an article that really captured my attention. I believe it helps us understand what is happening in America University of North Carolina
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. "A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth." 2. "God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions." 3. "The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself." 4. "God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem." 5. "Good people go to heaven when they die."
Wow! That’s it. That describes much of what people believe Christianity is all about today. The study found that today’s teenagers do not want to get beyond the above beliefs and respond to the specifics of Christianity with their mantra of relativity, “. . . . .whatever.”
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism "is about inculcating a moralistic approach to life. It teaches that central to living a good and happy life is being a good, moral person. That means being nice, kind, pleasant, respectful, responsible, at work on self-improvement, taking care of one's health, and doing one's best to be successful." In a very real sense, that appears to be true of the faith commitment, insofar as this can be described as a faith commitment, held by a large percentage of Americans. These individuals, whatever their age, believe that religion should be centered in being "nice"--a posture that many believe is directly violated by assertions of strong theological conviction.
In other words, those who still have strong theological convictions in our society today will be marginalized by the new religion of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This also dovetails nicely with the rush towards socialism and radical environmentalism in our political realm. The highest order in life is to be nice and share with your fellow man while leaving no carbon footprint.
So what is wrong with this? The study found that there is no real theological understanding among these people. As a matter of fact, when they interviewed thousands of young people who claimed to be Christian, they found that this was the first time these teenagers had actually had a specific theological discussion with an adult.
I like this author. And his article in The Christian Post is very illuminating.
2 comments:
Sounds like the "Word of Faith Movement" has infected.......
deist, n. One who believes in the existence of a God or supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the light of nature and reason; one who believes in a God who created the universe but takes no part in its operations.
humanism, n. Any system or mode of thought or action in which human and secular interests predominate.
Mankind, at best, will always settle for a deist/humanist mind set, and today's teenagers are simply reflecting it. I think you could take those same 5 tenets and insert them into any Western civilization in the last two centuries.
Deism and humanism simply put God and man in 'their place' with man in the center and God out there somewhere, like the moon orbiting the earth.
Each generation, down to the individual has to become acquainted with this God-who-is-out-there-somewhere until He is the God-who-is-with-me, lover of my soul who died for me, and will never leave me, nor forsake me.
That relationship comes thru life changing experiences (also called 'the fight of your life' because we are in a battle) and a commitment to pursue this God who loves us, and will not give up on us.
Anonymous Sister
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